Can Hear Me Now @VerizonWireless? How One Bad Customer Service Experience Can Kill 15 Years of Customer Loyalty!

I’ve been with Verizon Wireless for about 15 years. I’m a loyal customer. I’m a fan. I’ve converted others to Verizon; tired of listening to their poor coverage complaints with you-know-who. Some might say I’m trying to create a Verizon cult similar to the iCult crowd. I also live in the real world; knowing that to Verizon I am just a telephone number. For 15 years I have been given great customer service. They have been helpful with plan choices, equipment choices, and support.

But then there was last week; the week that 15 years went to the crapper.

I switched from a Blackberry to a Samsung Fascinate Droid at the very end of December; December 30^th to be exact.

• First phone crapped out within 30 days; Verizon replaces with new phone.
• Second phone craps out in about 33 days. After an in-store Tech looks at it she puts in an order for 3^rd phone. Verizon replaces it with a “Like New” reconditioned phone.
• That phone (3^rd) arrives malfunctioning. Yep, out of the box there are troubles.
• Phone #4 (another “Like New”) arrives within 96 hours of phone #3. Surprise….out of the box it is also not working.

I call Verizon. Tech support is no help. The woman on other end says she will send me a new phone. A new “Like New” phone I ask? Yep. I tell her I want a new phone. She puts me on hold. Comes back 5 minutes later and asks me to go to a store to verify I am not crazy (okay, my words); but I need to go get a Verizon employee to document in the file that this is equipment malfunction and not user stupidity.

Now I totally get this. I might be asking myself too if the user was just clueless. But all of the above was documented in my file and verified by Verizon employees. So it wasn’t the user; it was the manufacturer – in every case. (Samsung, you out there?)

Back home.,,,,I call Verizon……and here’s where customer service killed 15 years of customer loyalty.

• Chris offered me another “Like New” I said NO!
• Chris again offered me another “Like New” I said NO!
• Chris offered me a new phone at a reduced price? I said I am not paying anything for phone #5. And I want a new one. He said he couldn’t help. I told him to transfer me to someone who could.
• I was transferred to Ewumika, who was great at saying she was sorry about my frustrations but could only offer me a new “Like New” phone. I told her to stop with the customer service platitude apologies and gave her a firm NO!
• After going back and forth for a bit she told me I was looking through a prism. I told her I work with companies seeking to create a great customer experience and asked her if she really wanted to go head-to-head with me about prisms. I also asked her my favorite question. “Ewumika, what would you do if you were me?”
• Gets em every time. She conceded that she would want the same thing; a NEW, not “like new”, out of the box phone. I asked to speak to her supervisor.
• Supervisor would not take my call. Ewumika told me she was in a meeting but was willing to offer me a new phone at $25. My response to Ewumika, who had me on hold for several minutes, was that your supervisor had the time to talk to you; but not to a loyal frustrated customer. That’s crap! Are you customer service supervisors reading this! Put your “meeting” on hold and help a customer – loyal or new!
• “What part of I want a new out of the box phone do you not get? I commented that I would eat the $175 cancellation fee and leave if this is how you treat loyal customers.” Her response to me was that the cancellation fee policies have changed and mine is $350 prorated each month during the 2-year contract.
• Beyond pissed off at that response…..“Get your supervisor on the phone. And if yours isn’t available get hers.”
• She doesn’t get supervisor but says….“I see you’ve been a customer since the 1990’s and you’ve never had a Manager’s Exception; would you be willing to extend your contract by 2 months for a new phone?” she then asked me. (which is how long this phone call seemed to be going on; but represented the amount of time that had elapsed since I switched to the Fascinate.

My new phone arrives today

But seriously……Verizon, you gotta be kidding me! I get 4 defective products. You make me hop in my car to go to a mall to have some techy say “yep, the phone is broken.” You keep me in a 40 minute debate where this customer is nothing but even more frustrated and it comes down to 2 additional months of service – which as we all know, there will be some crazy promotion you offer to get me into a new phone that will extend my contract anyway.  That’s just stupid business! It’s also how out of touch big corporations are with their customers and their policies; and why I have chosen to work with small and medium size organizations who want to be great; and allow people at all levels to be great. I’ve been with you 15 years; what is 2-months to me? Isn’t it clear I like you guys and am not going anywhere?

So I get my new phone today. Hopefully it is from a better production run. But this whole experience just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I can tell you I won’t be singing the praises of Verizon Wireless in the very near future.

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