dvdjunkie32

I've always been a prepaid customer, but on BF, I took a dip into the unknown world of contract phones. I swear these companies want to purposely confuse the customer, and now I feel burned.


It started when my gf offered to buy me an Iphone for Christmas. I got the $99 Iphone 4 at Verizon. The drawback is due to my bad credit, I had to be on a sub-account of her account.

After a couple of weeks with the service, I became more unhappy with my gift. My first Verizon bill would be on Dec. 13 for over $200 bucks. I was on one their lowest minutes and data plan, and still paying over a 100 bucks after all the fees and shit. My gf graciously offered to let me return the phone for a refund and put the $100 bucks towards an Ipad instead.

We both called Verizon, and spoke to different agents. Both agents told us that we could get a full refund and the contract terminated if we returned it within 14 days. There would be a re-stocking fee though of like 35 bucks.

I went back to the Verizon store, and stood at the counter for literally half an hour while the clerk worked to terminate my account. I was told the credit would go back to my gf's account.
Well today, she finds out that there will be no credit, in fact, she owes 14 bucks.
Apparently Verizon expects you to pay the activation fee, and $$ for the use of the service. I looked up their return policy online, and sure enough, you still have to pay the activation fee. It was probably detailed in the contract they gave us.

Yet, I still feel lied too. The CS agents made no mention that we would end up owing money, not a true refund! Neither did the guy in the store who said my GF would be getting back a refund for the phone minus restocking fee. I would have kept the damn phone if I knew it would end up costing more $$$. I offered to pay my gf back the $99 so Verizon basically screwed me out of my Christmas gift.

Would complaining to management do any good?

Chrisedge

Sounds like you didn't read all the details. Activation, and re-stocking fees plus your usage of the phone (Whatever service you used for the month, they aren't gonna give you any of that for free)....

Josh-da-man

Cell phones plans are designed to ass fuck you.

You have to be very careful when locking yourself into a contract and go through all of the details with a fine-toothed comb.

TGM

live and learn, brah

EdTheRipper

Even if you have a valid complaint, don't bother with Verizon. Their customer service people are freaking terrible. It's better to just suck it up and take the loss. I went at it with them over a stupid $100 Visa gift card for months. You can't win with them so don't even bother trying.

Shannon Nutt

Cell phone plans are a money pit. Verizon's doubly so. You MIGHT have a case, but is it worth the time/effort? I say eat your loss and get on with your life.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

This is one of the reasons my wife uses a pre-paid with t-mobile. She doesn't care about using data, but can pay a few dollars if she needs it for a day, spends about $100 a year on the minute cards, and has a cheap android phone that works for her.

TheBang

It's in the terms you signed when you signed up for it. I guess you didn't read it.

I'm not trying to be rude here; it doesn't sound like you understand how phone contracts work. If you had kept the phone instead of returning, you would have had to pay an unsubsidized price for it, so you would have owed something like an additional $400.

nick1091

It might all depend on what you said to the rep. If you specifically mentioned just the phone, they might've assumed you knew the activation and service were sunken costs.

Did both the reps say the same thing? Curious why you and your gf both called.

fumanstan

So was it just the activation fee, restock fee, and the charged service usage that ate up the $99 credit you were expecting back from the iPhone? Just wanted to make sure.

I don't think it would hurt for your girlfriend to try calling Verizon again and asking them if there's anyway to waive some of the fees because less then 2 weeks of service cost you $100 just to see if it's possible. If not, then you'll just have to suck it up since you don't have really have a valid complaint and just consider it a lesson learned to plan better when it comes to the monthly fees you'll have to deal with for a smartphone.

dvdjunkie32

And all the taxes and fees. Just seems weird to me that you return a product and they end up making money off of you. I just feel like their reps were not up front and honest about all the charges we would get. The rep I talked to clearly told me that the restocking fee would be the only thing I would be charged for.

They certainly lost me as a future customer, and my gf said she will leave them whenever her contract is done. And Verizon's claim that over 90% of customers never go over 2 gigs of data is totally bullshit. I barely used the thing, and already had 400 megs of data in less than 2 weeks. I guess it's just a price to pay in order to not be shackled to them for 2 years.

Deftones

yeah, i was sort of shocked to see my wife's iphone 4 used 1 GB of data. she doesn't even use data outside of our house (where there's wi-fi), because she's a techno-tard. i don't have any email accounts linked to push data and she's not part of any social network.

fumanstan

That's probably what nick1091's comment suggests. The CS people would be correct that the restocking fee is the only additional cost you would have to be paying, and assumed you knew that activation and what not were non refundable.

I've only used about 500 MB of data for an entire month on T-Mobile, and that's including GMail, surfing the net, and downloading a few apps. Not sure why Verizon usage is so high, unless it happens that it counted an IOS update when you got the iPhone, which might inflate that number early on.

Chrisedge

You used their product and service and you expect them to just give you the service to try for free?

tommyp007

Yeah, I worked for AT&T for a couple of years, and no matter when you returned the phone/account, you were never refunded the activation fee, taxes, etc.

Sorry, man.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

And taxes would be a complaint to the government and not the store.

dvdjunkie32

I didn't think about that. I did update the IOS and downloaded a few apps. So does a 40 mb app count as 40 mb of data?

dvdjunkie32

Well other stores let me buy goods, use them for free and get a refund, why should Verizon be any different?

DirkUSA

Absolutely, if downloaded with 3G instead of WiFi!

Some companies like to make money..............

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?

dvdjunkie32

You're missing the point. It's about expectations. If I had a customer base returning a product, I would make sure they clearly knew all the upfront costs for the return so they don't get socked with a surprise later on.

Of course, if you are a big company like Verizon, maybe they can afford not to give a shit about their customers.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Just because other non-cellular stores do things a certain way doesn't mean all stores do things the same way. Not every store out there has to time to go through all their policies with every single person that buys a product for them. That's why they print out all those things for consumers to read in advance.

Yes it sucks when something like that happens but that's how we learn.

Chrisedge

You USED a service. This is not the same as returning a unused product and getting a refund.

disneyguy

try hooked on phonics, learn how to read..

Abob Teff

I hate cell phone companies as much as the next guy ... but are you serious?

I edited your quote down to the part that pretty much sums it up. You paid $35 to activate the phone and they activated it. You used a service and should expect to pay for it. They didn't give you a free 14 days trial like an online rental service. You didn't read the contract ... caveat emptor.

By the way you wrote this, it sounds to me as if you waited more than the 14 days. I'm giving you the benefit of doubt and assuming you went back before the 14 days was up. If you went past the 14 days you got off lucky -- they should have charged you a termination fee and given you nothing.