After nearly 6 months of battling with Verizon Wireless to upgrade my cell phone, I am a proud new owner of a Blackberry Storm.  Sadly, none of it is thanks to the customer service of Verizon Wireless.

Readers and Twitter followers will recall Verizon Wirelesses’ terrible customer service and my plan to cancel service with Verizon Wireless from a while back, but after researching other carriers and phone options I was hesitant to do so.  After the last incident with Verizon I decided to take to their support forums.  There I left a brief synopsis of what had happened and left links to the two blog posts I had written about the terrible service I had received.  Within 24 hours of posting in the forums I was contacted.

After being contacted I had my faith in Verizon Wireless somewhat restored.  Obviously they are terrible at monitoring their social media mentions since I put out a number of help cries both on Twitter and on my blog and not a single person took the time to contact me, but at least after a combined effort and leaving a message on their forums I felt that they were finally listening to my outcry.

The representative that contacted me asked for some additional information, some of it I felt was a bit ridiculous because they should have had it on file, but since I was hoping to finally get somewhere with the company I obliged.  In the e-mail I was told my information and concerns were going to be passed on to their local support representative.  Sadly, that was the last I heard from Verizon Wireless.  I have yet to receive another e-mail or even a phone call from the company or their support people.

So how did I wind up with a Blackberry Storm?  Last week my wife received a VIP promotional offer in the mail which offered the Blackberry Storm for $49.95 along with a buy one get one option, and let’s be honest I would be stupid to pass up on such an amazing offer.

So alas we head down to our local Verizon Wireless store and scored us some new phones.  The process took forever and the salesman we dealt with was pretty much clueless and tried to charge us full price for the second phone, but after explaining to him the offer, which he had right in front of him, and help from a manager we got the phones at the right price.

What I’ve Learned

Through this experience I’ve learned a few things.  First Verizon Wirelesses’ customer service has gotten terrible over the last year both in store and obviously through its main support division.  Second I learned that no matter how terrible your customer service is sometimes if your product is good enough and trusted people will look past the poor support for the right price.

The key in what I just said is for the right price; had Verizon not offered the VIP promotion I had fully intended on switching to AT&T for an iPhone in August when my contract was up.  Verizon Wireless has severely tarnished their image in my eyes and my trust in their customer service is nonexistent at this point.

What Businesses Can Learn from This

In this economy people are willing to bend a little more if the price is just right.  I did in this situation because I was desperate, and Verizon was able to retain my contract with them even though they have treated me terribly over the last six months.  If you’re a business that wants to sieze the day and take advantage of this, now is a better time than ever.  However, it’s important to realize that the economy won’t be like this forever and once that time comes if your service sucks even the right price won’t be enough to keep even your most loyal of customers. If my financial situation was better than it was at the current time I would have broke my contract with Verizon Wireless and switched to AT&T immediately.  In fact I debated it on more than one occasion; I just wasn’t in a place financially to do it.

The key in hard economic times is trying even harder to wow your customers.  The happier you make them now the more they will be willing to throw money at your product or brand when things are financially sound.

You might recall back in February when I posted about wanting to cancel my service with Verizon Wireless.  After almost 10 years of service with the company I felt completely let down as a loyal customer and was ready to walk.  At the time it was my second attempt to try and upgrade my phones early and get some sort of break, but the company refused to budge.  Even after speaking with multiple sales people and a store manager, I left the Corona Crossings location empty handed.

After a few months of shopping other providers I was teetering on the idea of whether or not to give Verizon another chance.  After all for over 7 years now the company has had exceptional service, it wasn’t until this past February that they really disappointed me.  So today, when my wife went to pay our cell phone bill and inquired about upgrading and was told we could upgrade to the Blackberry Storm at a significantly discounted rate, AND charge it to our monthly bill I decided now was a better time than ever to give Verizon Wireless a chance…Boy was I wrong.

This evening my wife and I went into the store tinkered with the Blackberry Storm for a bit and both decided it was in fact what we wanted.  The sales manager we were dealing with confirmed that we were in fact eligible for the upgrade as well as the Blackberry promotion to buy one get one which made the two Storm’s and a few accessories just over $200.  When we expressed that we wished to charge it to our account the manager told us that he wouldn’t know if we were eligible for that until the end (Something the other salesperson that my wife spoke with earlier failed to mention).

Though wary because of past experiences like this I told the sales manager to go ahead and proceed and after about 20 minutes in the store we are disappointed to find out that we are apparently ineligible to receive the charge to our account because we have had a few late bills and a few instances where our phones were shut off.

I’ll admit that we don’t have a perfect track record, but even in the instances where our service has been disconnected we have paid the amount needed to have it reconnected within an hour of it going down EVERY time.  Not to mention if you look at my nearly 10 year history with them it’s only gotten to that point over the last year or so due to various hardships we had run into.  Again after some serious aggravation and discussion I again was forced to leave the store empty handed because the manager couldn’t do anything for me.

My biggest problem with this situation isn’t that we were denied billing the phones to our account, I get that there are consequences for late payments and such; my problem is that the salesperson my wife spoke with previously said we could and he had our account information in front of him at that time.

Even more so I am upset because this is the second time this particular Verizon Wireless store has let me down.  The biggest kicker here?  They won’t let me out of my contract until August yet they have failed to hold up their end of the contract and provide me the kind of service I expected from them when I signed that 2 year agreement.  Why are so many companies during these tough times doing even worse to keep customers happy?  Why in a down economy do you want to turn away customers willing to spend the money, it just doesn’t make sense.

For at least the last seven years or more I have been a loyal customer of Verizon Wireless. They have a reliable network, their prices have in my opinion always been fair, and every time I need a new phone or my contract comes up for renewal I gladly sign up for another two years.  Clearly I’m a fan of Verizon’s service, so much so that I got my parents to switch from AT&T to Verizon some years ago, and regularly recommend their service to people looking for a new cell provider.  Sadly my seven plus year love affair with Verizon Wireless is in jeopardy because of the poor customer service I received at their Corona Crossings store in Corona, CA.

Learn From Verizon’s Mistakes

For the last few months I have been seriously considering upgrading my cell phone, but I couldn’t decide whether or not I really wanted a Blackberry or even if I was going to stay with Verizon as my service provider.  After spending some time comparing networks and phones I decided Verizon still gave me the best bang for my buck. Finally this past Saturday, Valentines Day, my wife and I decided we would go and upgrade our phones.

In the past this has been a fairly simple process; we take advantage of whatever promotion is going on at the time, sign another two year agreement and leave the store happy owners of new phones.  Unfortunately that isn’t what happened this time.

We were greeted when we entered the store and we explained to the woman assisting us that we wanted to upgrade our phones. She took us over to look at our account and then told us that we couldn’t upgrade until April 26. I explained I understood that we couldn’t do the credited upgrade until then, but that we wanted to take advantage of their buy one get one Blackberry promotion and just sign into a new two year agreement.

Strike 1

The employee explained that the only way we could do this was to setup a third line, which we obviously didn’t need. So instead we just asked if we could pay the $99.99 for two Blackberry Curves. She then said that the $99.99 only applied to the buy one get one promotion, but we could get one at $99.99 because my wife’s phone was eligible for an upgrade, but we would have to buy mine at the full price of four-hundred some odd dollars.

Strike 2

I explained to the woman that we had never had any issues with upgrades and promotions in the past as long as I signed into a new two year agreement. I then told her I would be more than happy to sign up for two more years AND upgrade my data plan to accommodate the new phone usage to which she said she could not do.  I asked her again if there is anything she could do to assist me with the upgrade without having to wait until April.  She regretfully stated that there was nothing she could do for me.  Frustrated I left the store empty handed.

Strike 3

After spending about ten minutes cooling off from my frustration, after all I have had the same phone for nearly two years now and it isn’t capable of doing half of what I want it to, my wife finally convinces me to go back in to speak with a manager.  We return to the store and are greeted by the same employee. I explain to her my frustrations and how I have never had an issue with upgrading my phone during a promotion in the past and I would greatly appreciate any assistance she could give me.  She stated there was nothing more she could do for me, but if we wanted she could see if her manager could assist us.

She called her manager over, I explained our situation and again we were lead over so the manager could look at the account.  I again told her I would be more than happy to sign another two year agreement AND upgrade my data plan to accommodate the new phone, but did not want to have to pay a non-promotional price for a phone just because I’m not eligible for an upgrade until April.  In the end we heard all of the same spiel about upgrading and I was told that since our upgrade in 07 policies have changed and they can’t do upgrades the way they used to. Even with her help I could not take advantage of any promotional rates or offers on their Blackberries; however after April 26 I can go back and get a $100 credit towards any new phone.  Again I left the store empty handed, frustrated, and feeling less than loyal to a cell company I have stood by for so long.

The Take Away

In this economy the hardest thing about this whole situation was that I was throwing a ton of money at Verizon Wireless and yet they refused to help me.  I came in with the mindset of purchasing two new phones, though at a discounted rate I am sure there is a significant profit made by Verizon. In addition I was offering to sign into another two year contract with them, meaning I would be paying for their services monthly through 2011.  Finally I offered to upgrade my data plan, meaning that I would be paying them even more on a month to month basis for their service.  All I asked for in return was the courtesy of taking advantage of one of their current promotions.  But years of loyalty to their brand and even these offers weren’t enough to make them budge.

In these tough times companies need to consider their existing customer base, especially the long term loyal customer. Long term customers have been their all these years and they will most likely be there for years to come.  These are the customers who are going to be around and support your business in a tough economy.  These are the ones who have fueled your business from day one.  Unfortunately in this case because I was a long time customer I was the one who suffered, and I was unable to take advantage of an offer that only new customers benefit from.

Both the woman working the floor and the manager could have easily rectified this that evening by simply offering me some sort of compensation.  A counter offer, another option, anything, but in the end they did nothing.  If they were truly listening they would have noticed my frustrations and my outcry and this blog post may have never come about.

In the end I have a few options all of which are even more frustrating…I can pay $170, break my contract with Verizon Wireless and go to T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, or any other cell provider out there and get a phone that does what I need it to now.  I can stick with Verizon AND get a new phone, but suffer paying a non-promotional cost on a phone or even better buy it off eBay or another online source and replace my phone now.  I can wait until April 26th or later to upgrade and simply deal with my mediocre phone which doesn’t allow me to complete productivity tasks that I would like it to.  Finally I can save the money, skip the upgrade, and in August leave Verizon Wireless for another company without breaking contract.  If this was your company what would you think of my options?  What would you do to rectify the situation?