Affiliate stores and warranty exchanges

[Mooncatt]

My mother in law upgraded at an affiliate store and has had ongoing issues with making or receiving calls. The store she bought it from claims there's no Verizon towers where she lives, but we've always had Verizon signal there and no other phones phones have this issue. She's already gone the nuclear route and reset the phone multiple times with no luck.

Warranty exchange time, right? Because the affiliate store thinks there's no towers, they are unwilling to do anything and wondering why she was allowed to get service in the first place (which was years ago). Their only option is to nullify the contract, turn in the phone, and send her on her way. We tried our local corporate store, but they refuse to offer any customer service to phones sold by affiliate stores (which we already knew).

She claims to have been on the phone with tech support almost daily whenever this happens, but no luck and I'm surprised they haven't offered to exchange the phone yet. I have no idea if this is the same tech support corporately purchased phones get.

Is there another route she should be taking? I've never dealt with affiliate stores.

 

[Mike Dee]

My mother in law upgraded at an affiliate store and has had ongoing issues with making or receiving calls. The store she bought it from claims there's no Verizon towers where she lives, but we've always had Verizon signal there and no other phones phones have this issue. She's already gone the nuclear route and reset the phone multiple times with no luck.

Warranty exchange time, right? Because the affiliate store thinks there's no towers, they are unwilling to do anything and wondering why she was allowed to get service in the first place (which was years ago). Their only option is to nullify the contract, turn in the phone, and send her on her way. We tried our local corporate store, but they refuse to offer any customer service to phones sold by affiliate stores (which we already knew).

She claims to have been on the phone with tech support almost daily whenever this happens, but no luck and I'm surprised they haven't offered to exchange the phone yet. I have no idea if this is the same tech support corporately purchased phones get.

Is there another route she should be taking? I've never dealt with affiliate stores.

Will Verizon Customer service help?
If not I would return it and get out of the contract until you figure it out.

 

[Mooncatt]

Will Verizon Customer service help?

My wife is trying now via Facebook messenger, which is usually decent.

 

[Mike Dee]

I would call them

 

[Mooncatt]

I would call them

That isn't much of an option right now or she would. Plus it's good to have the chat for reference if needed.

 

[Rukbat]

Call (when you get to the point that you can - if your wife is talking to someone on Facebook, let that finish up) customer support. When they can't help you, ask that the trouble be elevated to level 2. If they won't help, ask for a supervisor. If s/he can't help, ask for it to be elevated to retention - as a trouble, not as discontent with Verizon service. (As discontent with their customer service, but don't tell them that.) If retention won't replace the phone - it was their affiliate that sold the phone, take the "nullify" route and try to get her on another carrier that covers the area she needs covered. (AT&T seems to be about the best, as far as carrier tech support goes. Google seems to be the best as far as manufacturer tech support goes.) But make sure that any carrier she moves to covers the places she needs covered (like all the way in the back in a large Walmart).

Verizon is good, there's no argument with that. It's also about the most expensive carrier in the US. You'd think they'd give you good support for that money. (If TMobile covers where she needs, and she doesn't need much data, take a look at Mint Mobile. 3GB/month for $15, 8GB for $20, 12GB for $25. No unlimited plan, if that;s what she needs, though.)

 

[Mike Dee]

Call (when you get to the point that you can - if your wife is talking to someone on Facebook, let that finish up) customer support. When they can't help you, ask that the trouble be elevated to level 2. If they won't help, ask for a supervisor. If s/he can't help, ask for it to be elevated to retention - as a trouble, not as discontent with Verizon service. (As discontent with their customer service, but don't tell them that.) If retention won't replace the phone - it was their affiliate that sold the phone, take the "nullify" route and try to get her on another carrier that covers the area she needs covered. (AT&T seems to be about the best, as far as carrier tech support goes. Google seems to be the best as far as manufacturer tech support goes.) But make sure that any carrier she moves to covers the places she needs covered (like all the way in the back in a large Walmart).

Verizon is good, there's no argument with that. It's also about the most expensive carrier in the US. You'd think they'd give you good support for that money. (If TMobile covers where she needs, and she doesn't need much data, take a look at Mint Mobile. 3GB/month for $15, 8GB for $20, 12GB for $25. No unlimited plan, if that;s what she needs, though.)

Verizon does provide good support. I've dealt with them timr and time again always had them do the right thing by me. They have actually gone above and beyond at times.

 

[Rukbat]

But they're not supporting their affiliate stores. (They used to, back when.)

 

[Mike Dee]

But they're not supporting their affiliate stores. (They used to, back when.)

Don't know that for sure....they've only dealt with a Corporate store. I deal direct with Verizon customer service.

 

[Mooncatt]

Well they got her set up for an exchange.

This rep was much better too. She said coverage in the MIL's town is "marginal", but didn't question her having service. I later checked on their website and even it wouldn't allow me to try making a new account there.

Long story short, the affiliate store saw she lives in an area not officially covered, so wouldn't look into it any further. Corporate actually took into consideration that it hasn't been an issue in the past and is now happening in multiple places (a fact I didn't know until after it was said and done). So thankfully it didn't take any escalations.

 

[Mike Dee]

Well they got her set up for an exchange.

This rep was much better too. She said coverage in the MIL's town is "marginal", but didn't question her having service. I later checked on their website and even it wouldn't allow me to try making a new account there.

Long story short, the affiliate store saw she lives in an area not officially covered, so wouldn't look into it any further. Corporate actually took into consideration that it hasn't been an issue in the past and is now happening in multiple places (a fact I didn't know until after it was said and done). So thankfully it didn't take any escalations.

So we don't know if it's the phone or the service or are you banking on that it worked in the past?

 

[Mooncatt]

So we don't know if it's the phone or the service or are you banking on that it worked in the past?

Right now we're thinking it's the phone, and banking on that's it's worked in the past and still works on our phones, that it wasn't a problem until she got this specific phone and it started almost from day one, AND that it has apparently happened in other locations that Verizon does have a lot of coverage. So it's not just that one thread we're holding on to.

 

[Mike Dee]

Right now we're thinking it's the phone, and banking on that's it's worked in the past and still works on our phones, that it wasn't a problem until she got this specific phone and it started almost from day one, AND that it has apparently happened in other locations that Verizon does have a lot of coverage. So it's not just that one thread we're holding on to.

I hope it's not a common radio deficiency to that particular model

 

[Mooncatt]

I hope it's not a common radio deficiency to that particular model

We'll find out. It's the Samsung J7 I think. I know I've seen similar complaints about calls on Samsung's around the forums, but I don't remember if any were that specific model.

 

[Rukbat]

And there's another thing I've been seeing around the boards. The storms last week have damaged some antennas, causing ... not dead spots, more like "Swiss cheese coverage". Not just for Verizon either. Sprint lost some service, AT&T lost some. Even though cell base antennas are made like Superman is a weakling, tornadoes twist them up a bit. Even if all they do is bend a couple of brackets and the sector (each antenna covers a 120° sector) antenna points to the moon, that sector is getting weak, spotty coverage from reflections from the other antennas coming off cars, buildings, etc.

She'll get the new phone, she'll see. (If she had just gotten Verizon service, I'd tend to agree with the store. We had an entire village not covered by Nextel. And we knew it. And we refused to sell Nextel service there. [So did the area management, so did corporate.] But if she had service, she had service - having service is proof that she can have service. The store should just have referred her to CS. [And don't think they'll learn anything from this - they don't sound like the learning type.])