Hanging on the telephone

Here's the long and stressful story of how I lost my phone and the terrible experience of trying to get a new one!

I mean how hard can it be right?

On the way back from UK before Christmas we were between flights at Atlanta and I decided to charge my phone in the waiting area. Somewhere between there and getting off the plane in Phoenix the phone vanished.

I called the airport and the airline but they hadn't had it handed in. We had one of Barbara's old phones so we re-activated that with a new SIMM and my number. Of course it didn't have all the apps I wanted and I spent some time reinstalling them.

That phone is several years old and used to be a T Mobile phone that we brought over to ATT. The T Mobile software caused a few hiccups and makes it slow but it can't be removed apparently.

After 3 weeks the airlines and airports stop looking for things and if its found after that it goes into the lost property auction. Time for a new phone.

We've had both Verizon and ATT in the past. Both have given us such poor customer service that we've switched back and forward and been to T Mobile too. Lately ATT have been pretty good with fair customer service as opposed to Verizon whose customer "Service" left us with no internet for over a month last time we were with them (A whole different story).

As we were currently with ATT I went to the store. A lady who claimed to be the manager came to help. I explained that I'd lost my phone and the one I had was slow, so I wanted a new one. I'd paid off what I still owed on the lost one the night before, so I could start fresh.

She looked at my phone and started giving me a lecture about how it was a T Mobile phone and the were numerous apps open and no wonder it was slow. I was a little taken aback because all I wanted was a new phone. She started telling me I could get a better contract and more data, but if I got a jetpack I would only have 10 gigs and I couldn't do this that and the other. On top of that I hadn't paid off the phone, just put money into the account. I still had to pay off the phone.

All I went for was a new phone on my existing plan! Finally I walked out and went home to call Customer Retention. They are the ultimate people to call and we have had quite impressive service from them in the past. You have to ask specifically for them and they have lots of power to make customers happy and keep them as ATT customers.

This time I got a guy who apologized profusely for the store managers attitude and proceeded to tell us he could give us a great deal with 2 brand new phones, a jetpack for internet connections and unlimited data. If I would wait on hold for a few minutes he'd get all the information.

While I was on hold the call got cut off. I waited 20 minutes hoping he'd call me back but he didn't, so I called in again. 

Understand here that every time you call you have to wait between 30 and 40 minutes before you get to talk to somebody. After another 40 minutes I got back to Customer Retention and to a gentleman who described himself as the supervisor of the section.

I had to go over the whole thing again and described the deal the previous gentleman was setting up with unlimited data and a jetpack. 

That whole thing was impossible, there was no such plan, we could only get 10 gig of data on a jetpack. We could get a new plan with 2 phones.

I called a halt to everything, we already have a plan with 40 gig and a tablet for a hotspot, All I want is a new phone to replace the old one I lost.

He launched into another rant about phones with 100 gig, and what did I want all the data for anyway?

I explained we live full time in an RV and use the service for internet as well as phone service. If we had more data we would stream some TV too. He went into another rant telling us we couldn't share to other devices on this plan, it would not be covered under the data with the phone, we'd have to pay extra for that on another plan.

All I wanted was another phone. I told him I'd go to Verizon as I wasn't happy with the treatment I was getting. He said threateningly "So you want me to cut off your service RIGHT NOW?" 

Of course if I let him do that we would lose our phone numbers! I said I'd take care of that myself and hung up.

We drove down to the local Verizon store, but only after a friend with a Verizon plan checked if we could get a signal at our campsite. Verizon is notorious in our park for having complete dead zones. You can't even get a signal to dial 911 in some places. Luckily we were seeing 3 bars on her phone.

At the store we got an enthusiastic young man who told us that we could get 2 new phones for $1 a month, A jetpack for our internet needs, a tablet we could also use for internet and unlimited data. I mentioned the park we were in and the poor signal, he said we could try it and if it was bad we could get a free signal booster which would fix things. They transferred our apps to the new phones but the old T Mobile phone I had couldn't transfer anything.

The jetpack would be $50 and we'd then own it outright. We signed up for all that and asked for a receipt. Everything got packed up. On our way out I remembered he didn't give us a receipt, so we went back in and he gave us a one sheet receipt. We left with the 2 phones, a jetpack and a tablet.

Back in the park we were getting 3 bars on the phones but trying to put apps on mine was taking for ever. I started up the jetpack but it was only getting 1 bar. I called customer service and got to wait 40 minutes to talk to somebody. Apparently I needed to talk to a technician and went back on hold, I got cut off before I talked to him! Another 40 minutes on hold than they had me open the jetpack, remove and reinstall the SIMM then remove and reinstall the battery, reset the device and some other stuff.

Finally they said "Sorry the signal isn't strong enough where you are, nothing we can do". I asked about the signal booster (We've had a booster before, so I know what they are). Then they told me that their device isn't actually a signal booster but actually picks up another wifi signal and redirects it thru their jetpack to provide service. I asked if they would be paying for the other wifi service? "No".

The rep then said I could take everything back and we'd get our money back as we'd had everything less than 14 days.

Back at the store the original guy wasn't there but the manager and another rep (who kept floating in and out of the conversation) announced that we'd have to pay $35 per device as a restocking fee. I pointed to my receipt which only listed a restocking fee on the jetpack. He told me it was a 2 sheet receipt and sheet 2 listed the other devices as having the restocking fee. As we only got ONE sheet I asked how we were supposed to know that? He printed the second sheet but I made him sign it as received separately from the original sheet and had Barbara witness it. I didn't like the way things were headed. Then the other guy floated back in and said we'd have to pay $175 early cancellation fee on the 2 separate contracts that were taken out on the jetpack and the tablet!

I was furious by this time. There was nothing on the receipt about 2 year separate contracts and we didn't even want the tablet. We thought we had bought the jetpack and the tablet was free! Verizon customer service had told us we'd get our money back and not that there would be early cancellation fees. We'd had the phones for 5 days (Over Christmas) and hadn't made a single call on them!

He said he'd call customer service. To my delight they have no direct connection and we all sat round on speaker for 40 minutes before we got thru! Then they had to put us on hold and we got cut off again!! Another 40 minutes and we finally got thru, but he took the phone off speaker so I couldn't hear the other half of the conversation. He hung up and said they had waived the early cancellation fees but not the restocking fee. I had him write that on our original receipt and sign it with Barbara as a witness.

The other guy came floating back and started looking at the phones and tablet and muttering about "Stains on the equipment". I blew my top again. We'd had the things 5 days, never made a call and been charged $35 each as a restocking fee, How in the heck did he have cause to claim stains on the equipment? The first guy hurriedly told him to be quiet, but he immediately said he was going to cut off the service and we'd lose our phone numbers.

I grabbed all the stuff and left the store. We went to T Mobile and a very pleasant young lady soon had our numbers ported from the Verizon phones to 2 identical phones on T Mobile that were free! We didn't get a jetpack but each phone was good for 20 gig and we'd get free Netflixs which wouldn't use up any data and we could stream TV or YouTube free too. We could share the data with our Roku on the TV. Better yet this would all cost $90 a month as opposed to $180 from ATT or Verizon.

We went back to Verizon and gave them all the stuff back and told them to stop our service. The "Floating guy" came back and told us we'd lose our phone numbers. He looked quite downfallen when we said we'd already ported them over to T Mobile!

The T Mobile phones got 5 bars of 4G signal and really fast internet. After all the hassle with the other 2 companies it was finally over!

Except 2 days later I got an e-mail from Verizon saying my bill was ready and I owed them $650!!

Another 40 minutes on hold, I was told I owed $41 for the previous months service and $600 for the 2 phones we'd retained!! I pointed out that they'd charged me $35 each to restock the phones so how could I have retained them??  Plus we only had the phones 5 days and hadn't made a single call so how could we have a previous months bill? I was to be put on hold again, but only after I got the persons name and gave them my phone number with a promise they would call me back if we got cut off. 

Finally they came back on again and acknowledged there was no previous months bill. They would put a hold on the $600 so a debt collection agency wouldn't come after us for the money (!!!!!) but until the phones got checked into their warehouse they wouldn't show up as returned, Once they did get checked in the $600 would go away.

Talk about a nightmare. All I set out to do was get a new phone on my existing plan, We ended up going thru 3 different companies in 5 days, 8 different devices, hours on hold, cut off 3 or 4 times, irate to the point of speechlessness. I just can't comprehend how these companies can call what they have "Customer Service".

Hopefully Verizon will actually finally get the phones to their warehouse and leave us alone. They were bad when we had service with them many years ago and from my experience they are even worse now. ATT are a close 2nd for bad service in my experience.

Update 1/24/20

I had hoped this was all settled and done but 2 weeks later I got TWO bills from Verizon. One for over $400 and one for over $600!!

I called their collections department as they were marked "PAST DUE".

The operator looked up the account and said she didn't understand why we had received those bills as their records showed we only owed 20 CENTS and the account was closed.

After a brief hold she came back and said they were waiving the 20 cents. I asked for that in writing but they couldn't do that, Instead they sent we a vaguely worded e-mail to the effect that the account was now closed.

Update 5/25/20

Bet you thought this was over and everything was going better right?

HA!

We continued receiving bills and threats of debt collection agencies every month after the last update. Every month I'd call the customer service number and be on hold for 40 minutes. Once thru I'd have to go thru all the security stuff and then explain the problem all over again. Then I'd be transferred to accounts and be on hold another 20 plus minutes. First time I was told that although the agent had sent the correction up the chain the next level supervisor had denied it. They all talked again and said they'd correct it.

Next month same thing but this time they said that until I returned the phones I couldn't be credited for the mistake. I asked them how they had charged me a restocking fee if I still had the phones? More apologies and "Fix it by next month"

Next month it was beyond them how the account had not been corrected! The operator called his manager who apologized and swore he would call me personally the following day to tell me it was corrected. There was of course no call!

Next month yes they saw that conversation on the record but as far as they were aware the problem had been corrected. I asked why then they had sent me another bill marked "Past Due" and with the threat of the collection agency? I was told to ignore the bill but I asked again for a written statement to show I didn't owe them anything. I again got an e-mail which vaguely stated that my balance was zero.

So now 6 months after the start of this I didn't get a bill!

On Facebook I saw a Verizon advertising post about how good their service was, When I looked at the comments 90% of them were about just how bad the customer service was. I added details of my nightmare. The following day I went back to the post. Mine and all the other bad comments has been deleted!! Well done Verizon!!