Verizon Store & New Phone Saga

So my son thought he would pick up a cheap phone at Walmart and take it to a Verizon store near us in Maine and have his old Texas number transferred to it.

When he got there, they told him that the phone he bought was a special kind of phone that he could not do that with. That he would have to wait 30 days and then pay a $30-40 fee and then they would get his old number on it.

 

I wasn't there with him as he went in with his dad.

 

He waited his 30 days without using either phone and then saved his money up and went back in there only for them to tell him that he no longer has that old Texas line and he had given it up. So he was stuck with the new Maine number that he didn't even get to pick out.

 

None of this sounded right to me and I questioned it with my son and his dad and they assured me that was what they were told. I was irritated at this cause it just made no sense as my daughter had purchased an older model phone from Amazon and we were able to just call Verizon on the phone and they were able to get her old Texas number put on it.

 

Meanwhile, after paying the fee they told him he had to pay, he was still getting wrong calls on his old Texas line and phone.

 

I get the Verizon bill in and instead of it being the typical amount as it was last month, I see it is $40 more! and I am paying for both of his lines AND for some reason they upped the data package without any permission to do so!

 

DOH!

 

So I took the chance to not get a "Sheila" (For those of you who know of the commercial reference of "Sheila" is) and called afterhours.

 

I am sure I have stated in old blog posts that whenever you need anything accomplished or fixed with a phone company, you never call afterhours or on the weekends as chances are, you will get a "Sheila" who won't know what they are doing and/or won't help you cause it deviates from their script and they are not used to dealing with problems that are outside the box.

 

I got lucky however and got an incredibly awesome guy who patiently listened to the story as to what had happened as best to my knowledge as I explained it all and then he looked into it and was like oohhhh yeaaa! Ummmm no...

 

So He ended up removing $20 off the bat for a line we should not be charged for and deleted the old line. We chose to keep the Maine number and then he gave us another $20 off as well for a whole month of us not having used it and whatnot. Plus, he also lowered the data plan as we were up to 32 G and we only use like .7

 

Yes...point seven. Not even a whole gig. The reason why is because my daughter has an older phone with no data which she prefers and my son and I live out in the boonies and in a white out area so our signal is very bad and we rarely use the cell phones as it is unless we go off the property. So yea, it was so ridiculous and why the Verizon people at that store did that, is beyond me.

 

Needless to say, that particular store, in Waterville is on my bad list and my son can't go in there or any other store without me at this point. I have a feeling they were shafting him and taking advantage of him. Either they lied, or the person who was helping him didn't know what they were doing, although he went in twice and saw two different people each time. Sadly, he paid a $30 activation fee that we know he won't get back as he should not have had to pay that as he was just moving his old line to the new phone and not adding a new line to the account. It's a hard lesson for him. But yea, I am not happy with that whole mess to say the least.

 

Thankfully the guy in customer service on the phone with me tonight was awesome and got it all sorted out for us. But it goes to show you that you have to really watch your bills like a hawk. When you see a change in the price, make sure you investigate as to why and if you can't find it, don't hesitate to call. So long as you don't get a "Sheila", you should be fine and they will walk you thru the bill and what is going on.
I have done this too when my TDS cable/landline phone bill had gone up for some reason and it did not explain it well on the bill. So I called and got it straightened out and in fact got a better deal.

 

It also goes to show that you can't always believe the sales people in the stores either. They are not always right or know what they are doing or saying. You have to be up on this type of information and how to do it, otherwise, you'll get taken advantage of or shafted. Sadly enough.