On March 18th I visited the local Verizon store to use my "New every 2" agreement. I picked out a phone, and ordered it through the counter because I can not bring a cell phone with a camera to work. The address was verified, phone paid for, and 2 day delivery set.
After waiting one week, I called the local store in which I had purchased the phone and found out they had mailed it to a previous address that I moved from nearly 1 and a half years ago. The customer service rep then directed me to a manager who expected ME to call previous address to find the phone.
I said it was not my responsibility to find the phone. They apparently didn't see the point in they screwed up, not I, and thusly it is not my responsibility to return the phone to it's rightful owner.
They expected me to drive to the previous address and get the phone. And then had the audacity to ask why I wouldn't because it was an apartment complex and very blatantly assumed that it was because I had an issue with the landlord.
I was shocked into silence. Didn't even know what to say to that one. And still he claimed that I had to call to verify the location had the phone, and then call him back.
I said no, that it was not MY responsibility. He said that they could send me another phone, but that they would charge it to my account again. I asked how they could claim that I received the phone when it didn't arrive at the correct address and no one listed on the account actually signed for the phone.
After about 25 minutes of "persuasion" he finally agreed that he should call and not I. A few minutes later he called back and said that the place does indeed have the package. And? Well he stated that I needed to call them and confirm that fedex can pick the phone up and return it. I wasn't going to lay any claim to that. My agreement would only mean that I would have to PAY for their mistake
I once again said no. They mailed it there, it's verizon's responsibility to say hey, we need it back and send fedex out there.
I called corporate because I couldn't believe what this guy was telling me to do. I have worked in retail and never in my life would I dare to tell a customer that we sent a package to the wrong address and that they needed to find it themselves. It's not their fault it was at the wrong address, it's the company. And the best part was that they verified the correct address when i ordered the phone!
The corporate customer assistance was much more receptive to my situation. The woman looked into the situation promptly and called back with in 45 minutes. She too stated that because the phone was floating in space they needed to verify that it still existed before they sent one out. Which i had no problem with. Because THEY needed to do it. I can wait a week for the phone. Having the phone was never the issue. If it was, I would have called on the day it should have been delivered.
The issue is customer service. You can not expect your customers to simply say oh, you screwed up? Mailed it to the wrong address? Let ME drive 30miles with MY gas in MY vehicle to pick up YOUR mistake.
The manager should have stated that he would look into the matter, locate the phone and give me the options.
His final option was for me to ok his people picking up the phone and bringing it to their office today.By this point I didn't really care about the phone. I was peeved at the horrible assistance they gave.
I could have been nicer on the phone, but they also could have done their job.
It took 3 minutes on the phone with corporate customer service to say it will take a week to clear everything up and a new phone will be there by next Wednesday at the latest.instead, I was inconvenienced by a lackluster attitude towards management and corporate expectations by a local shop.
I have had nothing but good service from verizon wireless for many years and it is unfortunate that one managers error in judgment about the responsibility of a situation resulted in this escalated case. I will still use verizon as I find their phones and plans reasonable for my needs, but I will definitely NOT be using the same local branch for any service or billing issues.
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