As Hell Week continues here on Extreme John it’s time for me to take a page out of my boy The Constant Complainer’s book and have a little Guest Rant action, just in time for Hell Week I have a guest rant from Michele and her experience with Verizon and her Blackberry cell phone issue.
My pink Blackberry’s keyboard quit working on me this morning. After taking the battery off several times, I convinced myself..give it up and go to Verizon. Get to the store and its completely empty…great go up to “Kevin” who looks at the phone…tells me it’s still covered under the factory warranty, which definitely put a smile on my face, and not only that..I would be able to get it replaced today (since he noticed it was a business account) instead of receiving a mailed blackberry in 2 days.
I honestly thought, wow, how often do I..me personally, go to ANY Verizon store, with a “not working” phone and not have to pay any money.
The ONLY thing..I needed to go to a Verizon mega store, where they carry replacement phones. Which was not a big deal to me..I was heading that way anyway.
No lie I get to the Verizon location and there’s……7 sales associates behind one counter with only 4 computers to work on. All associates had customers, so I started my own line, and people watched until David gave me a nod to come forward.
Great..I explain to him whats going on and he looks at the phone and says…that’s weird..blah,blah,blah..OK, we can replace it! 2 days you’ll receive a brand new #ff00ff;">pink Blackberry. I said that’s not going to work..i need the phone today. No problem, I can do that..he says, but Verizon only carries the silver version in stock, for replacements.
So basically he’s saying that i cant have my freaking pink phone? I have to have a silver one? That freaking blows..I LOVE my pink one. Why? b/c they don’t sell pink Blackberry’s..nope they do, but NOT for replacements..just the silver. I said..ok, no problem..can I have the silver one… order me the pink one and ill bring the silver one back once i receive the new one… Nope cant do that either. wtf? …I think its ridiculous that I cant have the EXACT pink phone that was originally purchased..right then and there..AND if i chose to have the phone immediately replaced, i had to have the silver one..period? “Pretty much”, is what David told me. I had no choice but to take the silver one and get over it. Which i was almost ready to do until David walked around the corner…
I could see the freaking light bulb above his head-i couldn’t wait to hear his idea. “I know you’re pretty stuck on the pink, we have pink covers…ill grab one..hang on”..at this point it has been at least 30 minutes and I just really needed and wanted to get out of there. He comes over..shows me the case..im like, “whatever lets just move on”.
He comes back… grabs my broken phone..tells me he’s going to upload my contact list and he’ll be right back….”to ring me up for the case” hahahaha, ring me up for the case????..try to sell me a freaking $24.99 case and you’re NOT going to replace my PINK BLACKBERRY with another PINK Blackberry? screw that and screw him! He attempts to close a sale on the pink case, i tell him that i thought he was offering the case to me..”i cant just give it to you” whatever…lets finish this up so i can get the heck out of there. just at that moment..his phone rings..he answers it..chats for a few seconds and hangs up the phone….but NOT before he says.. “Peace-im outtie” That completely almost sent me over the edge..”peace-im outtie”? who the heck says that anymore..NOBODY!! Oh yeah Verizon charges more for the pink blackberry than they charge for the silver blackberry.
Take a quick second and leave a comment about your feelings about Verizon and how they handled or failed to handle Michele’s issue. If you have a rant about some crappy service or product or some moron you encountered one day please feel free to email me, I might include it in a future post. 
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
How to handle it? No idea.. unfortunately if you gota deal with Verizon you gotta deal with their crappy service… Though I would make a long and bitchy call to head office, and make the big boss feel like an absolute prick.. shit travels downward and it’d reach your “david” very quickly.. That probably even offer some sort of compensation
@Hard Rocking South African, I have had a lot of interaction with Verizon over the years, I find that I either get an amazing rep or one that I want to jam a cell phone down the throat of.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Progress Energy Price and Service FAIL
I can see how you can be a little pissed off with this… but it could have been a LOT worse. I thought when you were going to get to the Mega store they were going to tell you that either you had to pay for the phone or you wouldn’t be able to get any phone for two days. At least you got something. Now the guy trying to sell you a pink cover was ridiculous. He should have just thrown that in to make you happy… especially because you were saving the company money by taking the cheaper silver phone.
@Doug Dillard, I can still see how it would be annoying to pay more money for something than be forced to take a lessor product as a replacement.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Progress Energy Price and Service FAIL
Honestly I’ll be happy I can get my replacement phone within half an hour. But if I really wanted a pink phone then I think it’s not Verizon’s fault not to have a pink one ready all the time just in case another pink Blackberry needs a replacement.
Let’s face it, a pink phone isn’t as common as a silver one so it’s pretty much normal to have less pink phones available.
MichaelR@VoIP tips and tricks´s last blog ..How to Improve VoIP Call Quality
@MichaelR@VoIP tips and tricks, in the event you spent let’s say an additional $125 for the pink Blackberry would you still feel that way?
Not that I have a clue how much more a Pink one vs a Silver one is.
I do know that my space bar is all jacked up which means I need to go and exchange my Blackberry as well, wonder if I will be forced to take a pink one instead. haha
Any time Verizon can be embarassed is fine with me. Hehe…
The Constant Complainer´s last blog ..Ranting and Raving #2
@The Constant Complainer, that’s a pretty funny comment. Haha
Verizon consistently finds ways to annoy customers. Your comment that they also have many within Verizon that are very good is also true. The problem companies fail to realize is the damage done by a small number of bad policies and tolerating bad customer service. Verizon continues to allow many customers to suffer and even if they do well for 95% of customers that 5% can be very vocal.
John @ Curious Cat Management Blog´s last blog ..2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 1