There’s a pretty astonishing Verizon Wireless anecdote over at Peter Kim’s in which Verizon flat out refused to take his money.

Kim was interested in trading in his old Treo and going for a swank new phone. Generally happy with Verizon’s level of service, he decided that he would both spend $300 bucks for a new handset from Verizon and sign up for another two year’s service. Cash in hand, Kim happily called Verizon, sure they’d be absolutely thrilled to swallow his cash.

Not so.

After being bounced around to half a dozen Verizon representatives, it became clear that Verizon had absolutely no procedure in place to actually take the money of a pleased customer. Apparently, you can only upgrade your phone at specific times… even if it’s less a case of an upgrade and more a case of buying the phone directly from Verizon for undiscounted market price.

Here’s our favorite bit from Kim’s account:

me: “don’t you see I’m trying to buy something from you and you will not let me? how is that good for your business?”

VZW rep: “yes, I can see that but we cannot help you at this time. I recommend you buy the handset you want from eBay and call us back to activate it.”

“Sorry, sir, we can’t help you. Why not give your money to a shady man in a tracksuit selling phones that fell of the back of the truck on eBay?”

Verizon wireless – why don’t you want my money? [Being Peter Kim]

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