Charged for Service I couldnt use - Store manager completely unresponsive

[JDFI]

Letter I sent to Bozeman, MT Store manager on 3/13, and the Solutions Manager - I went into hospital with burst appendix later that afternoon. No phone call response. No Text. No response to this email. I'm fed up with how this company treats its customers.

Dear James (Donnie)

I received your contact information on request from Britanie. Yes this is a bit of a book. Please read in full to understand.

My issues started when on 2/26 I went online to move 3 lines from Cricket to Verizon. I texted with an online representative and asked some questions which included when my billing period would start. I was told when I activated my lines the billing period would start. This is important to me. I get paid once per month, on the first of the month. Because of that information, I went ahead and placed my order for a family prepaid plan. At that time the order indicated I would get free 2 day shipping on my sim cards (I already owned new unlocked Motorola phones I had purchased in December.) Those cards shipped on 2/27 and I did not receive them until 3/1.

In the meantime on 2/27 I received two emails. The first was an order confirmation; the second was a “plan ready to use.” The confirmation showed a line I wanted to move was one digit [removed] was supposed to be [removed] The “ready to use” email indicated that my billing date would be 2/26. It’s important to note I purchased the plan around 8:30 pm on the 26th. I was super concerned over the number because I gave my Cricket account and pin numbers so I did not want anything holding up the port because the line belongs to my 70 y/o mother who is disabled with MS.

I visited your store on the 27th. I explained my predicament with a gentleman who was pleasant (I did not get his name.) We worked on these issues for around an hour and 15 minutes. He contacted someone in porting and supposedly the number issue was going to be fixed within a couple of hours. We talked to customer care about the billing issue. I was on speaker phone with this gentleman from the store and a female on the other end. She said she could fix all the problems including porting. She requested that I return to the store on Saturday March 2nd and to explicitly tell whoever I spoke with to call the customer care line directly, and whomever answered would be able to reset my account according to her notes she left in the system.

On March 2nd, I returned to the store as requested. My first contact was with a young lady with glasses [removed]. She was very nice. I explained the basic issues and told her what the customer care person from 2/27 said, that she was supposed to call customer care according to the notes. She said ok, to give her a few moments. She then consulted a gentleman (Layton) whom was there leaning over onto a kiosk reading a tablet. He took her tablet, looked at it, then started into a long explanation about what she should do. As I was standing there with my daughter, I politely said excuse me. Neither of them acknowledged me. A second time I said it a little louder. The young lady looked up but Clayton went right on talking. The third time I spoke quite louder, which could have been taken as rude, and the young lady turned towards me while Layton stayed where he was. He looked up at me like he was looking over the top of glasses, [removed] It was clear he was irritated. In response to my statement about just calling customer care and that they had notes to know what to do, he stated in a cruddy tone, “I’m working on it.” I got very irritated at his look and tone and stated “maybe I should just walk out of here and cancel the whole thing.” “Well that’s your right” He stated and went back to looking at his tablet.

I was asked by the young lady to have a seat somewhere and she would go to work on my issue. I was still pretty angry and my daughter was taken aback by his attitude. We sat down on a bench and was discussing customer service as I have been in customer service most of my working career [removed]

In any case we waited quite some time. Around 45 minutes in, as I was chatting with my daughter about the amount of time we had just been left alone and not acknowledged, the young lady quickly returned to state they were still working on it and apologized.

Another 45 minutes later, Kaylin, solutions manager, [removed] arrived to tell me that she had resolved the number port issue and there should be a text on the phone to be ported, advising it was ok to activate the new phone. She also stated that I should be receiving an email shortly regarding my billing change. I apologized to her for getting irritated and explained the treatment I had received by Layton. She apologized and stated she would speak with him. At that point it was easy to tell she just wanted the conversation to end and began to get me walking towards the door and even held it open as I left. All told I was there for an hour and 40 minutes.

When I got home I spoke with my mother who stated no text messages had come through about the number. So I turned on the new phone for her and the phone activated to[removed] I also had no emails regarding the account billing date. I immediately returned to the store to speak with Kaylin. I saw her, and she ducked into the doors to the left in your hallway. In the meantime the gentleman, Nick, went to talk to her. Nick came back and stated to me that Kaylin had been trying to leave for an hour so she was now not available. Inside I was boiling. Is that the way a manager in your store treats people? This is customer service 101. No one should be treated that way.

I told Nick the situation and we went to a workstation where he started calling the porting line. He was on hold for about 5-10 minutes when he asked me to call in on my personal phone that maybe I would get through faster. (That phone call was to [removed] at 5:23pm) After I was on the phone 1 minute and 13 seconds, someone came onto the line with Nick. He stated the issue and was told to call another number. Nick was getting visibly frustrated and it was clear he didn’t want to deal with this. Whomever he was on the line with on the second phone call supposedly fixed the issue by “reaching out to Cricket.” I asked how that could be as he never asked for my account number or pin to Cricket. He tried to tell me I gave it to him and I said no, I gave you the pin to my Verizon account. I asked how long it would be before I could activate the new number. “Who knows. I’ve seen Cricket be minutes, hours, 21 days”

Because of his attitude, and the refusal of Kaylin to work with me, I just left, without the issue of the account billing date being resolved.

On Monday the 4th, I returned to the store. This time I wound up with Brittanie. Brittanie was extremely professional, attentive and listened to the issue well. I’ve developed a lot of people over the years and of all the people I have dealt with in your store, she took ownership of the problem. You have someone there who has great potential to go forward.

That said, she worked the issue again, addressing the number port problem and the billing date issue. After an hour, she came to resolutions. Said the porting issue was fixed, and it was. Sort of. And she stated she needed more time to work on the billing issue. She asked for my number to get back in touch with me. In the meantime, later that day, I discovered that the phone I gave Brittanie, and my mothers current phone, both worked under the same number, AND STILL DO. Also, Cricket has never cancelled the account with the [removed]. See attached PDF. My other lines went dead when I activated with Verizon.

In three days this account will be cancelled at 12:01am on the 17th as I will not pay it. So riddle me this: If [removed]works on both services, and technically still belongs to Cricket at this point because the account is active, what happens if I don’t pay. Will her phone die?

She received her phone on Monday 3/11 and yesterday she went to the Verizon store in Decatur, IL to get help moving her information from her old phone to her new phone. She also asked about the number issue. The person she spoke to at first refused to help her because he “had nothing to connect her phone to.” Seriously? It’s Android to Android. After a few minutes of her demanding help he finally looked at her phone and said, oh I can help with that. He took the phone and after a bit of waiting he came back to her and stated he couldn’t fix the phone because it wouldn’t connect to their wifi supposedly, but he gave her instructions on how she could do it at home. He also stated to her the number issue was Crickets fault and to have the account owner resolve it. Based on the amount of time its taken me in your store, there is no way he talked to anyone. She was there for a grand total of 20 minutes with most of it being an explanation how she could transfer her own stuff.

As of today, It has been 9 days since Britanie sent me a text stating that a form had been submitted to take care of my billing date and that it would take a few business days to get a response. She stated “they” would be texting or emailing me stating the change had been made. I have received no communications from Verizon, or Britanie regarding the billing change. And as of today, my account still reads 3/26 as the due date. (AND AS OF THIS POSTING THAT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 3/25 - WHAT.THE.heck?)

I am quite certain you can understand my current level of frustration. All told I have spent about 6 hours of my life attempting to resolve these issues. I need them resolved.

I was a Verizon customer for 14 years before I left 4 years ago February due to a series of issues that got out of control including all the lines on my account being shut off at random, out of the blue. For 4 years I operated frustration and issue free on Cricket. But now, I need Verizon’s network because as a Wildlife Biologists, me and my daughter with a crew of technicians will be doing research in very rural areas of the Dakotas and Iowa. Places that Verizon reaches and AT&T doesn’t.

This experience has made me feel like I never left this company. We just picked right back up where I left off 4 years ago. Crazy, unresolved issues, poor customer service and attitudes both here and in Decatur, with no solution in site and hours of my life wasted. To make things worse James, please explain to me how a company has the right to charge a customer for service they cant even use. Remember I signed up on 2/26 in the evening, and didn’t even have sim cards until the first, of which I couldn’t install until the 2nd based on explicit instructions from customer care on 2/27. (Not to mention I got charged for a full 24 hours use on the 26th)

I will be visiting the store first thing in the morning. I want these issues taken care of tomorrow, especially ensuring my mother's phone won't be shut off due to the number working under both carriers. I also feel it's warranted and deserved to receive some kind of compensation for the poor service I received in the store and that it's now 15 days later with no resolution. I also intend to file a complaint with the consumer affairs office of the Montana Attorney General regarding charging me when I couldn’t even use the service. That is a practice that is unfair to a customer and should be illegal in my opinion. Feel free to call me if you have questions ahead of my arrival tomorrow morning.

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Verizon, why cant you just service people properly? Why cant you resolve their problems? Why can't your managers and store associates be responsive and proactive towards customers? Does your company even think about the number of customers you miss opportunities on from the beginning, or from problems like this when people leave? Seriously. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the rural area issue. And most likely, since I have been treated like garbage, once again, I will leave in the fall and go back to the company where I never had issues. 

--JD [removed]

Content modified as required by Verizon Wireless Terms of Service.

[bearone21]

after the sale is not important, no commission to be made.

[Annoyed2021]

I totally agree with you on their customer service.  It terrible!!

I am being charged for a tablet that I have never received.  This has been going on since Jan. 3 of 2021.  I get sent from 1 chat line to another.  Each person vowing to take care of the issue.  Every month, I am still getting charged for this tablet!!  

I have gone to the Store and talked to Manager #1 who promised to take ownership of this...went back in a week to see what was going on.... surprise!!  He is no longer at the store!  But, Manager#2 Matthew promised me it would be taken care of by end of the week, and he would personally check in with me to keep me up on progress.  I have called twice now and left message for him to return my call.  Still no call!!!  Really, what does it take!   How hard could it be to take a charge off my account that never should have been put on there in the 1st place. I am soooo totally fed up! 

On Monday, I will be calling 6 on Your Side and the BBB.  I cannot ever get ahold of a live person to talk to, only their stupid chat.  The have yet to take care of the issue and I have talked (chatted) with at lease 6-7.  

Customer service for this company is horrible.  I have been loyal customer with Verizon for well over 35 yrs.  So upset right now!  

What other recourses has anyone else taken? 

[KH-OrnEsh]

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