Peter thought he was doing something pretty sweet thing for Verizon Wireless. After fours years with AT&T, not only was he switching over, but he was bringing a total of four phones with her. So forgive him for assuming that maybe Verizon wouldn’t make the entire experience a completely miserable one.

When we say miserable, we mean it — reading through Peter’s sage brought to mind climbing up Mt. Everest in a blizzard wearing only flip-flops.

Here’s how it all started: Peter had been a longtime AT&T Wireless customer, but made the switch with his four phones (two iPhones and two flip phones) to Verizon in December 2011 for their network. Shortly after, he noticed the flip phones were clipping the calls on the way in and the way out.

After figuring out that it was probably the phones causing the problem, he gets in touch with Verizon. They say he’s outside of the 14-day return period so he’s out of luck. Let the mountain-climbing fun begin!

– Late January 2011 — call Verizon because the phones are unusable for phone calls. The missing syllables make calls too disjointed. Appeal to the customer service rep, who runs me through a series of updates, and hears the clipping on her end. Sends me to tech support, they inform me that they can only replace the phones for the same model.

– February 2011 — Receive the new (same model phones). During the course of activating the replacements, the customer service rep hears the same clipping and escalates. Tech support says there is nothing they can do, I ask for a supervisor. The tech support agent places me on hold, then returns and says that the supervisor has approved replacements that are different models because I have 4 lines and 2 lines are working properly. Hurrah! I select a different basic flip
phone. The rep says he is sending 2 phones and 2 chargers and batteries.

– Mid February — 1 new phone comes. A few days later, 2 chargers and batteries come. The new phone is activated and sounds much better than the last one. The next day another box arrives… with the same original phone.

– Call support and ask for a supervisor. Explain the situation, that
the wrong replacement phone was sent out on the 2nd line. He says he
is ordering a new one and it will ship out the next day.

– Wait 5 days. No phone.

– Call Verizon. No record of order. The rep will order a replacement. Guarantees that it will ship out today.

– 5 p.m. call Verizon. Order hasn’t shipped, but it will definitely ship today.

– 10:30 pm call Verizon. Order won’t ship unless I renew for 2 more years. Escalate to supervisor Lance and explain the situation. Lance says he’s going to place me on “hold” but really just hangs up on me.

Peter says he’s not sure what to do at this point — he’s got batteries and chargers for phones he doesn’t have, that were promised to him. Why send someone accessories for phones you have no intention of giving them?

He adds that his customer service experience has been so terrible, he says he’d love to switch back to AT&T. Ouch!

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