Who I have the same questioned this topic

This was at the Glendale Galleria location from 6/2 - 6/4/14. The 2 salesman I met with were Chris and Nasir.

I went in to upgrade my phone for a newer model and along with that I got offered a "free" Verizon tablet as a promotion. I didn't want it but Chris the salesman kept pushing it, telling me its free, I could try it out and if I don't like it return it within 14 days, full refund.

Now here is where my complaints starts. This tablet is advertised as "free" but actually you pay an activation fee and tax which for me ended up around $60. Also to keep the tablet you have to pay $10 a month, for as long as you keep it, and this is not even for the data plan, its just for the device. So you're actually just renting it for life from Verizon. To me this is a very shady business practice of false advertising, and thats not the end of it.

Two days later I went back to return the tablet. The salesman Nasir immediately went into salesman mode and tried hard to sell me on the tablet I was telling him I did not want. I could see it must be company policy to aggressively move as many of these tablets as possible.

When he gave up trying to convince me he told me it would be a $70 restocking fee. I told him I never heard that part from Chris the previous salesman. Nasir told me I should've been verbally informed about the restocking fee, which I for sure was not. He pointed to my receipt showing a copy of my signature and return policy underneath, trying to make this the proof that I did see the return policy. I tried to get him to talk with his manager about waiving the restocking fee since I felt I was deliberately uninformed about it. But after a lot of back and forth they would not budge.

My options were to just keep the tablet and over pay for it in the long run, or just pay the restocking fee. I agreed to their terms seeing there was nothing I could do. In the end I did get a credit from the tax and activation fee I initially payed, so the total out of pocket was $15, a little vaseline for the shaft. That might not seem like a big deal, but when you think about all the customers across the country going through the same ordeal, that adds up big time.

So maybe this just another case of not reading the fine print, but this really is a deceptive trap to pinch more money out of customers. I would advise all to really, really pay attention when dealing with Verizon salesmen and be aware they're trying to get as much out of you as they can. They can only get away with this kinda thing if we let them. Please don't be a mindless consumer. Verizon is not on your side.