Saturday, September 12, 2009

Saturday Sounds 13 or Mama Yelling

Okay, I didn't really yell, just spoke loudly enough for everyone in the Verizon Wireless store to hear me complaining. I was without Internet service since Wednesday. For the second time in 9 months, my Verizon Wireless device broke. The last time it broke I got a replacement in the mail but had to pay my $50 copay for it. This time I didn't want to pay another $50 for the same piece of crap device.

I mean what the hell? I'm paying a monthly fee with a two year contract for my Internet service. I shouldn't' have to replace my device so frequently.

Well, I told the employee that very same thing while holding up said piece of crap and shaking it to demonstrate the broken pieces inside rattling around. She told me there really wasn't anything she could do and that they didn't even carry that model in the store. She told me I also couldn't upgrade my device unless I paid the full retail price or I had my service for another year!

So I threatened to just pay the penalty fee and cancel my remaining contract with Verizon. Even though it would cost me about the same as two months of service, Verizon would be losing 15 months of my money.

So, guess what? I was referred to the manager who, while turning red and grinding his teeth, because he probably wanted to tell me to go to hell, gave me a replacement device exactly like mine for FREE! It turned out they did have it in stock. Dumb salesperson.

So I asked "What should I do when it breaks again in a couple months?" Gotta look that gift horse in the mouth. Then I said thank you and left.
So I'm off to catch up on emails and blog visits. Thank you to everyone for wishing T well. He is feeling better but is unusually moody probably because of the steroids.
Poor Verizon sales people.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go on with your bad self! :)

Suzy said...

Way ta go!!

Ziggy Stardust said...

I am glad you stuck with it. I hate being ripped off. I hope all is well with you.

Anne

Hit 40 said...

What BS!! Who cares if you can get a new phone if you have to pay a freaking $50 co pay. Just ridiculous.

This reminds me of a friend who paid for a car warranty that also had a high freaking co pay. The dealer never really fixed the car all the way leaving her to pay a co pay over and over again!!

Lainey-Paney said...

You go, girl!

Anonymous said...

I hate stuff like that. I don't back down either. Good for you. And I will go to a competitor if I honestly feel they are screwing me, even if it costs me money. At least they aren't getting it.

I once switched all my personal banking/CDs/IRAs and all assets as well as all of my business banking to Smith Barney, my current financial institution because my bank, Nations Bank wanted to charge me $29 because they raised their minimum balance from $2500 to $5000 without telling me and I dropped below $5000. I hope they enjoyed that $29, because I've been with Smith Barney for about 16 years now. SO much better than a bank could ever dream of being.

Negative advertising can be expensive. I rave about excellent service and I certainly rave about bad service!

Ah... The power of the blogger!

Mike said...

The whole cellphone thing is a scam! You get screwed no matter what!

Kathy B! said...

Glad T is doing better!

And good for you for standing your ground and getting your problem resolved. I get so frustrated with the lack of customer service these days.

Anonymous said...

Service is terrible these days and they always want to screw the consumer no matter what, it makes me crazy. At least you got something out of it, way to go for being persistent!!

Glad T is feeling better, poor little man.

alison said...

I've been having issues with my ISP too, over replacing the modem that was ruined in the flood. Took me a month and a half to get back online.

Glad you stood up for yourself!

alison said...

I've been having issues with my ISP too, over replacing the modem that was ruined in the flood. Took me a month and a half to get back online.

Glad you stood up for yourself!

Mother Ship + inFINcible said...

Good for you! As a consumer you have the right to working products.

Janell said...

Way to go. I really hate the way so many things are made NOT to last. For exactly the reason that people will have to replace them a little while down the road and fork over more money. That kind of stuff really makes me mad!