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UPDATE2 – Verizon Wireless Never Solves Customer Service Problems

So Verizon agreed to give me a brand new phone.  I picked out the Razr Maxx.  They shipped it to be and the box was already open the the device was actually still powered on.  To make things worse the phone won’t charge and just keeps giving me a White Light indicator.  To make it even worse, I had already activated my account on this phone so now I can’t go back because when I try it doesn’t work.  To make it even worse, the local Verizon store is out of the Razr Maxx so I have to wait for them to ship me another one.

I have to say, the Verizon person did have to search far and wide to find me another new Razr Maxx, apparently they are pretty popular.  It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and hopefully will be unopened but most importantly working.  Verizon also agreed to pick up a case and screen protectors for the device since I have been having to buy new ones each time my phone changes models.  They are trying to make things work.  I just wish it would actually work already.

UPDATE – Verizon Wireless Never Solves Customer Service Problems

Heard from Scott today at Verizon Wireless.  Actually I sent my email last night at roughly 6pm and had a response in my inbox asking me to give him a call at 6:13am this morning.  I have to say that isn’t bad, but I’m still frustrated it had to even get to this point.

Scott has offered for me to pick any phone they have available at Verizon and he will send me a new one to replace my Droid Bionic.  I asked if it would actually solve my problem (you remember I started with a Samsung Charge and moved to a Bionic to “solve” it awhile back).  He was surprisingly honest saying “He has all hopes it will solve the problem but cannot guarentee it”.

So here I find myself trying to find yet another phone once again.  While changing my phone for a new one is nice, i still think they owe some sort of credit as well for this whole problem.

Verizon Wireless Never Solves Customer Service Problems

Below is the whole problem I have been having with Verizon since I changed my phone out during the summer.  I just emailed this to their executive board.  Maybe I’ll get a response… Maybe not. 

Earlier this year I replace my old out dated Motorola Droid phone because the phone screen became unresponsive. Although I had the insurance on the phone I was informed since there was not damage to the phone it could not be replace and I would need to replace the device myself or call back and “report damage”.  I did not feel comfortable with damaging the phone myself as Verizon’s representatives indicated so I opted to replace my phone with a phone capable of the new 4G network I was seeing in numerous advertisements on TV and the Internet.

I purchased a new Samsung Charge from a Verizon Retail store in Manassas VA.  Within the first week I noticed that my 4G and 3G data connection on the phone would drop and not come back until I rebooted my phone or place the phone in “Airplane Mode”.  On several occasions even a reboot or “Airplane Mode” would not resolve the problem.  This prompted me to place a call to Verizon Customer service who informed me that since I was within my 14 day period I could just walk into the store and have it replaced.  I did that exact thing.  I also asked customer service what would happen if the problem happened again because the 14 day period would be over and they said it wouldn’t be a problem as they could “take care of it still”

A month later the problem occurred again.  I again called customer service and this time worked again with another agent who again told me they would need to do additional troubleshooting since the problem occurred in the past it must be on their network and they would have an answer for me in 2 business days. I stressed to the representative that I absolutely needed it working in 2 days because I had to go to work and was informed that would not be a problem.  I called three days later and was informed 2 days was wrong and it takes 5 business days for the problem to be resolved by your “engineering” team.  I again expressed my frustration with the representative over being told incorrect information and asked to speak with a manager.  I was directed to Mark who apologized for everything.  He informed me he would call me daily on the problem to provide a status update, and check back with management of the engineering team daily to get the issue resolved. When I asked for a direct number he wasn’t able to provide me one except for the generic Verizon Number.

The next day I received a voicemail from Mark giving me the same information, he had no update, would escalate further, and apologizing.  I did not hear back from Mark the next day, I did not hear from Mark the day after that.  I then decided to call into Verizon and ask to speak with Mark.  I was informed by customer service that “Mark” wasn’t in the call center I was directed to, and they would email him to see if he could call me back.  They also informed me his shift did not begin again for another day.  So I waited again for two more days because I didn’t want to start all over again.  I did the same thing the next day and the next and got the response of “We will email him and have him call you back”.  Again not able to transfer me to his voicemail or anything.  Finally on the fifth day PAST the new 5 day deadline I said the heck with Mark and called in again.  I explained the problem again to a new representative who told me the ticket was closed the previous day with “could not duplicate issue” and it is actually 14 days to resolution.  When I asked about the previous time frames they told me I was given incorrect information.  This upset me even more.  I asked to speak with a manager who again was not able to do anything and suggested I replace my phone.  When I said I already did this, they said it was my only option because they couldn’t find a problem so it must be the phone.  I terminated the call without replacing my phone as I was very upset.

A few hours later Mark finally called me back.  He apologized for not getting back to me sooner and apologized for the ticket being closed and asked if I had the same problem.  When I explained the issue was still occurring (Data dropping from my phone and not coming back) he said again I would need to replace the phone.  I again informed him of the previous time I replaced it and he said that was my only option.  I decided to once again replace my phone with new.  I was then informed it wouldn’t be a new phone and would be replaced with a “Certified Pre-Owned” device and it would resolve the problem.  When I questioned why it was a “Used” device, they informed me I was out of my 14 day period and they could not give me a new phone.  When I explained the previous call (when I originally replaced the phone with a new one within my 14 day period) they informed me this is what they met by “they would take care of it”.  Although I was VERY unhappy to being provided a “Used” phone when I just purchased a new phone a month or so earlier, I had no choice but to agree because it was the only way to move forward as I was informed there was nothing else that could be done besides replace the phone.

When the “Used” phone arrived I followed the steps to activate and return it and again had the problem within hours of replacing the phone.  I called asking for Mark several times over several days but NEVER received a call back.  I again decided the heck with Mark and asked for a new Manager to help me after explaining the problem for yet another time to another representative.  I don’t remember the name of the new manager assigned but they said we would again re-open the ticket and replace the phone.  This made me even more upset and I explained the past couple of times we replaced the phone and it didn’t solve the problem.  They said that was all they could do.  At this point I asked for the phone to be replaced with another model device since they assured me the problem was limited to the phone model I had.  The manager suggested a Thunderbolt and I informed them it was cheaper than my phone, had less processing power, a worse camera, and could hold less storage so it wasn’t an apple to apples comparison.  They representative again informed me this was their only option.  I asked them to escalate it, and they said they could not.  At this point I ended the call as I was getting more and more upset.

The next day I called in again and explained the whole situation again and asked for my phone to be refunded so I could just go and buy a different phone model that was comparable.  The person I spoke to then put me on hold, and after speaking with a manager (at this point it wasn’t even a manager I was speaking with), agreed to replace my phone with a Bionic.  Again, “Certified Pre-Owned” but at this point I just wanted a working phone so I was happy to hear the problem would go away if I switched phone models.  When the phone arrived, they did not include a battery (which I had confirmed twice with the previous representative would be included) so I had to call customer service.  The person looked at my account and knew before I even told them the problem why I was calling.  (I’m guessing he saw the mistake in the order).  He gave me a credit on my account and asked me to head into any Verizon wireless store to get a battery and have it charged to my account.  I did this and started using my Motorola Droid Bionic.

Within 2 days I had the issue occur again.  I immediately called customer support to report the problem and they began “looking into the issue” again and said they would call me back.  They never did.  I gave it another two weeks and still did not receive a call back so I called again, explained the problem all over again, and got to another manager.  This person informed me it must have to do with bad service areas and they would run a test of the service in my location and see if it was bad service.  I explained the problem wasn’t limited to a single area and happened all over the place regardless even when I had 4G coverage on my device disabled.  They informed me they would call me back.  They never did.  I again called back about a week later and was informed the problem was due to weak 4G coverage at my phones primary location (My House).  I again informed them it happened all over, not just at my house, and occurred even when 4G coverage was disabled on my phone.  They asked to have my SIM card replaced and give it a try.  After they replaced my SIM card at the store I had the issue immediately.  I asked the representative to note it on my account and he said he would.  I call Verizon again the next day and they said they would open another ticket and look into it again and call me back.  They didn’t.

I finally called back in two weeks later and got another manager after I requested a second set of credits be applied to my account for the time I have been spending without data.  (When they replaced my phone with a Bionic they issued the first set of credits for each day without data).  They refused to give me a credit again and only offered me $15 dollars for the additional month and a half of data problems.  I asked to be escalated again.  I got to another manager and explained the problem again, he informed me this was a known issue with the Droid Bionic and would be fixed in an upcoming patch that was going to be released that week.  I mentioned this issue occurred on my Charge and the manager said he couldn’t speak to the Charge only the Bionic.  I asked where I could see online about this problem being documented from the Verizon website and he said it wasn’t published.  I asked why I wasn’t informed about this previously and he informed me he couldn’t say. He said I had to just Trust him.  This is a lot asking for Trust from someone who has been having an issue since they bought the phone and it still isn’t resolved.  So I said fine, if it would solve my problem lets go for it and I took the $15 credit.  He also agreed to call me back the next week to check and see when I received the update and if resolved the problem. The next week he did call me back and I informed him I had not yet received the update.  He had me run through the manual check process and I still could not get the update so he said he would again call me back the next week.  He never did.  I called into Verizon again and spoke with another manager who informed me I would just have to wait for the update to be applied and it would be done in the end of December.  I waited until today January 25th to call again.

I still today have not received the update and I’m still having the problem on my phone.  I called and spoke with “Justin” at customer service and informed him that even when I log into “MyVerizon” my phone doesn’t show up as a Bionic and asked if that could be why I hadn’t gotten the update.  He tried to manually force my phone to be read by MyVerizon as a Bionic but couldn’t get it to work.  He then transferred me to escalation tech support and they suggested we could only replace my phone again because it should have had the update and it wasn’t getting it.  I asked for new phone this time since it had been replaced so many times before and was told that wasn’t possible.  I asked for a refund so I could just go buy a new phone and was told that wasn’t possible.  They informed me my only option was to either call Motorola and ask them to replace as new or for them to replace the device with a “used” Droid Bionic.  I informed them I would be emailing you and was told that’s fine and asked if I needed anything else.

I’ll keep everyone posted on if I hear back or not.

Its All About Choices

So imagine this… Your sitting at your favorite restaurant… The menu is sitting closed on the table because its not like you actually need to look at it cause you get the same thing every time.  You order your meal (Say a burger and fries) and when it arrives it tastes great and you walk away feeling full and satisfied.  Not only did the meal taste great, but it left you feeling full, and probably about 1000 calories, 100 carbs, etc etc as well.  You don’t really realize how bad that burger and fries is bad for you until its 300 pounds later huh?

Now imagine the same thing all over again.  Except this time, you decide on something healthier for you.  Say the steak with a side of vegetables.  You still walk away feeling full and satisfied because not only did it taste great (assuming this place can’t screw up a steak) but you feel full and this time are walking away with much less (500 calories, 8 carbs, etc etc).

Recently I started the whole “Low Carb” diet.  I tend to eat out a lot and I don’t really anticipate any resturant carrying low carb menu anymore because lets face it… low carb was sooo 5 years ago right.  But I started stepping back when the menu was handed to me, and thinking for a couple of minutes about what to eat.  Instead of getting “the usual” or something else that wasn’t good for me… I started looking at what items would be best for me.  Needless to say when I couldn’t order that huge burger with french fries I was disappointed, but once my food came I was pleasantly surprised.  The meal left me feeling the same way I did when I would eat the burger and fries but this time I wasn’t full of all the crap that is bad for me… This time I was full of the good stuff.

I quickly came to realize that food is all about choices.  You have a set of requirements, they are pretty basic and everyone has them:

1. You want something that will taste good (who likes bad tasting food???)
2. You want to be left full at the end of the meal (no one likes being hungry)
3. You want this food in a timely manner.  (no one likes waiting or cooking forever all the time

These requirements are pretty easy to fill ya know?  The vegetables come out in the same amount of time as the fries and taste just as good.  I just found it very interesting that the healthy food accomplishes the same exact goal as the non-healthy food.  Which of course makes me think… why for all of these years have I chosen the un-healthy food?  Maybe the fact that the un-healthy food is constantly marketed to us alot more then the healthy food.  Kinda makes you think what else is being marketed to us that another better alternative is available..  but that is a blog post for another day.

My Million Dollar Idea

So I was reading an article on CNN the other day that talked about family members drowning in their car because the current was too swift to allow them to open the door.  I know they have tools to smash glass but those don’t help much for people who don’t have access to them.  I purpose we build a device that detects if the car is flooding and then automatically breaks the glass for you, releases the seat belts, and unlocks the doors…  I’m sure an electrical pulse or something could be used to break the glass right?

I know for a fact you cannot open a car door once the car is submerged until the pressure equalizes in the car (therefore the car also needs to be flooded on the inside but most likely you have passed out by now because of panic of trying to open the door and taking up too much oxygen).

By breaking the window, you could provide an escape exit as well as a quicker way to flood the vehicle and open the doors.

Again just a top of the head idea for anyone who has the know how to make it happen… I’ll only take %20 of the profits… ha!

Makes us think what we could all accomplish if we just banded together

Read this today: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html and it really made me think what the rest of the US and World could accomplish if we just banded together and got it done.  Just some food for thought.

Something that would have taken years, took eight days… Imagine what we could do for cancer or AIDS or poverty.

Quote of the Day

“I know things that you don’t, I’ve done things that you won’t, theres nothing like a trail of blood to find your way back home” – SixxAM

Interesting Article on Depression vs Recession

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1868969,00.html

It makes some interesting points.

Credit Card Rate-Jacking

This article was on CNN today: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/credit.card.rates/index.html Talk about some BS right?  The fact that everyone is running around saying:  “I’m trying to protect the consumer” and then they get a phone call from some person who makes large donations to their campaign and all of sudden the bill just sits there and sits there.  When are our representatives going to grow a pair and say “fuck this, I’m doing what is right” and I’ll bet you’ll still get elected next year because the America people remember the fact that you did the right thing… So your pockets won’t get full of money, but you’ll know you would have done the right thing.

This type of stuff happening in this economy is bull shit espeically since we pass the bail out package.. which by the way isn’t being used the way that we were all told. (IE government no longer buying trouble mortgages).  We are bailing out companies who knew they were doing bad shit, and kept doing it.  Pretty much “if you don’t say us and give us your hard earned money, we will just spiral down and the economy will be worse… Ohh we knew what we were doing was wrong, but fuck that, we are soo important to this ‘America’ that you don’t have a choice”.

What ever happened to honesty and having to answer for your actions?  If your pockets are deep enough, you can just buy what you want, or if your influence is deep enough you can just do whatever you want because they can’t afford to go after you.  It is ridiculous… simply outrageous that this Bill has been sitting in the Senate for so long… I a America consumer demand that something be done, stop taking payouts from the Financial industry and start getting something done… If it wasn’t for the lack of over-site and payouts you took to begin with we wouldn’t be in this situation.

AMERICA – From World Super Power to Third-World county over night thanks to the apathy for American Consumer.  Oh but lets not forget, we can still go all over the world telling people how to fix their damn problems cause you know our way has worked so damn well so far.