Verizon Bait-and-Wait
Update: I received my phone in early June, before the second estimated arrival date, but after the first. I am very happy with the phone, satisfied with the service.
To start: I have a Verizon account. I inherited it from my previous job. And I want a Google phone (that is, an Android phone.)
Originally, I wanted the Nexus One, Google's own phone. So I waited weeks while rumors came and went of an imminent release of the phone through Verizon. Finally, after many false reports, Verizon announced not the Nexus One, but the HTC Incredible. On the website where Google had been promoting the forthcoming release, Google called the Incredible a close cousin to the Nexus One and encouraged everyone to go out and buy that.
I wasn't thrilled about the change in plans. But after reading some reviews of the Incredible, which generally compared it favorably to the Nexus One, I started to reconsider. A couple weeks ago I dropped by a Verizon store to check it out in person and price out the plans. The store rep who helped me was very enthusiastic about it. And playing with it, I was sold. The salesman also mentioned the 2-for-1 deal with the Droid. Buy a Motorola Droid, also a very nice phone, get an Incredible virtually for free (with a second account.) I decided to think this over.
After a week, I decided I didn't really have need for a second account, so I returned to a Verizon store, ready to sign two years of my life away on a new contract. It was only then that I discovered that the Incredible was not in stock in any stores in North America. It had not been in stock since the day it was released. (I wondered why the salesman I had talked to the week didn't put up more resistance when I told him I wanted to think it over.) The store rep, seeing I was serious about it, now recommended I put one on order. Since he couldn't provide any timetable for its delivery, I declined.
In the course of reviewing my current phone plan, I realized I was paying for more minutes than I really needed. So I decided I would call Verizon's customer support, downgrade my plan until I moved over to a smart phone, and perhaps order the phone then, depending on the wait. If the backorder was too long, I'd look into the Nexus One on T-Mobile or perhaps the new 4G phone coming out from Sprint in a couple weeks about which a friend at work waxes poetical.
I called last Sunday. I explained to the Verizon representative who took my call why I was calling: downgrade, maybe order. Before she downgraded my plan, she offered to check their available stock of Incredibles in her system and discovered that they had them in stock, ready to ship. I could have one by Wednesday! I was thrilled. So I put off plans to downgrade my plan and instead plunked down $350 and upgraded my plan to include free texting. I got a little nervous when, in reviewing my order, she referred to my phone as the Droid Eris instead of the Incredible. But I double and then triple-checked the phone model and the delivery date and started counting down the hours until my phone arrived.
Which was supposed to be yesterday. But, given my whole experience thus far, I had an uneasy feeling about this. So I phoned Verizon in the morning from work to check on the status of my order. When the woman who took my call said she couldn't find a tracking number, I knew that this was not good. When she told me the phone in fact wouldn't be shipped until June 9th, I was pissed.
Pissed for a number of reasons:
1. While I wouldn't say the first woman I talked to lied to me, either she misinterpreted the information listed in her system or the system lied to her. Either way, it's a fail.
2. The misrepresentation of the delivery date puts me in a conspiratorial frame of mind because that's right around the time the Sprint phone is released. If I had known I was waiting that long, I would have through more seriously about getting that. At the very least, I would have taken a few more days to mull over my options with the Droid Buy-1-Get-1 free offer.
3. The support rep who took my call was apologetic and did everything she could to confirm what she told me was accurate, but Verizon offered no concession. A freebie pack of accessories would have gone a long way in demonstrating real contrition and helped ease the ever-present sense that Verizon is just out to gouge me for every dime it can.
So that's where it stands at present. I downgraded my plan and readjusted my anticipation. Like an idiot, I had to tell everyone who asking about my phone (all those smug iPhone owners) that, yes, as I had feared, the promise was too good to be true. I'd be getting my phone some time after June 9th. If then.
I told the rep I'd check back before June 9 and if delivery was pushed back again, I was cancelling my order and dropping my account, even though by that time it would surely mean more waiting and more headaches as I switched to another provider, where I'm sure a whole new world of pain awaits me. Ma Bell is dead. But it's still hard not to hate the phone company.
To start: I have a Verizon account. I inherited it from my previous job. And I want a Google phone (that is, an Android phone.)
Originally, I wanted the Nexus One, Google's own phone. So I waited weeks while rumors came and went of an imminent release of the phone through Verizon. Finally, after many false reports, Verizon announced not the Nexus One, but the HTC Incredible. On the website where Google had been promoting the forthcoming release, Google called the Incredible a close cousin to the Nexus One and encouraged everyone to go out and buy that.
I wasn't thrilled about the change in plans. But after reading some reviews of the Incredible, which generally compared it favorably to the Nexus One, I started to reconsider. A couple weeks ago I dropped by a Verizon store to check it out in person and price out the plans. The store rep who helped me was very enthusiastic about it. And playing with it, I was sold. The salesman also mentioned the 2-for-1 deal with the Droid. Buy a Motorola Droid, also a very nice phone, get an Incredible virtually for free (with a second account.) I decided to think this over.
After a week, I decided I didn't really have need for a second account, so I returned to a Verizon store, ready to sign two years of my life away on a new contract. It was only then that I discovered that the Incredible was not in stock in any stores in North America. It had not been in stock since the day it was released. (I wondered why the salesman I had talked to the week didn't put up more resistance when I told him I wanted to think it over.) The store rep, seeing I was serious about it, now recommended I put one on order. Since he couldn't provide any timetable for its delivery, I declined.
In the course of reviewing my current phone plan, I realized I was paying for more minutes than I really needed. So I decided I would call Verizon's customer support, downgrade my plan until I moved over to a smart phone, and perhaps order the phone then, depending on the wait. If the backorder was too long, I'd look into the Nexus One on T-Mobile or perhaps the new 4G phone coming out from Sprint in a couple weeks about which a friend at work waxes poetical.
I called last Sunday. I explained to the Verizon representative who took my call why I was calling: downgrade, maybe order. Before she downgraded my plan, she offered to check their available stock of Incredibles in her system and discovered that they had them in stock, ready to ship. I could have one by Wednesday! I was thrilled. So I put off plans to downgrade my plan and instead plunked down $350 and upgraded my plan to include free texting. I got a little nervous when, in reviewing my order, she referred to my phone as the Droid Eris instead of the Incredible. But I double and then triple-checked the phone model and the delivery date and started counting down the hours until my phone arrived.
Which was supposed to be yesterday. But, given my whole experience thus far, I had an uneasy feeling about this. So I phoned Verizon in the morning from work to check on the status of my order. When the woman who took my call said she couldn't find a tracking number, I knew that this was not good. When she told me the phone in fact wouldn't be shipped until June 9th, I was pissed.
Pissed for a number of reasons:
1. While I wouldn't say the first woman I talked to lied to me, either she misinterpreted the information listed in her system or the system lied to her. Either way, it's a fail.
2. The misrepresentation of the delivery date puts me in a conspiratorial frame of mind because that's right around the time the Sprint phone is released. If I had known I was waiting that long, I would have through more seriously about getting that. At the very least, I would have taken a few more days to mull over my options with the Droid Buy-1-Get-1 free offer.
3. The support rep who took my call was apologetic and did everything she could to confirm what she told me was accurate, but Verizon offered no concession. A freebie pack of accessories would have gone a long way in demonstrating real contrition and helped ease the ever-present sense that Verizon is just out to gouge me for every dime it can.
So that's where it stands at present. I downgraded my plan and readjusted my anticipation. Like an idiot, I had to tell everyone who asking about my phone (all those smug iPhone owners) that, yes, as I had feared, the promise was too good to be true. I'd be getting my phone some time after June 9th. If then.
I told the rep I'd check back before June 9 and if delivery was pushed back again, I was cancelling my order and dropping my account, even though by that time it would surely mean more waiting and more headaches as I switched to another provider, where I'm sure a whole new world of pain awaits me. Ma Bell is dead. But it's still hard not to hate the phone company.
Labels: gripe
posted by Tom at
8:52 PM
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