Verizon Wireless Total Coverage Insurance Voided By Their Own Tech Support Advice! Result: $300 Damaged Device Charge New York, New York

17th of Nov, 2011 by User482567

We recently contact Verizon tech support after our teenage son's phone Droid X stopped working. We've had the phone for about 11 months after purchasing as a "Certified Pre-Owned" for $150. At the time of purchase the Verizon sales rep gave my wife the sales pitch about insurance and "Total Coverage". We decided since a teenager would be using the device the insurance would probably be a good idea...especially after seeing how often he dropped his previous phone. We had contacted tech support previously due to the phone malfunctioning and they were able to resolve most of the issues to our satisfaction. They were very helpful and advised that since we had insurance, should the phone act up again, just give them a call and they'd send a replacement. At least four or five months have by without further issues. He then told us that he'd dropped his phone after school and the screen looked odd. We again called tech support and they advised him to remove the battery cover and check to see if some indicator was tripped to determine if water exposure was involved...it was not. The technician verified our account information and insurance, then stated there was off chance that we'd receive the new phone the following day, but it would be more likely to arrive the day after that. He advised us to make sure we sent the damaged phone back quickly in the same box that the replacement arrived in to avoid being charged. He asked if there was anything else he could help us with and we thanked him for the assistance and ended the call. The phone did in fact arrive the next day, which was late last week. Imagine our surprise today when we received an email from Verizon advising that the phone had no "mechanical or electronic defects", and as such we were being billed $300 for a replacement "Certified Pre-Owned" DroidX. Double the cost we originally paid for a used DroidX...after paying $6.99 a month for insurance. We called customer support and were advised that the screen was cracked on the underside (not visible) and that was not covered under insurance. My wife recalled the "Total Coverage" sales pitch and asked to speak to a supervisor or manager. She was told she could do so, but would be told the same thing. My wife asked if she would basically be wasting more time on hold, to which she was told "yes". The frustration of this caused us to pull up our billing statements to see just what level of coverage we had been purchasing for eleven months. We learned that we had in fact been paying for total coverage and should be subject to a $99 deductible for a replacement. We also researched the different coverage levels to make sure we hadn't actually purchased an extended warranty instead of the total insurance, which we hadn't. This bit of research led to the next forty-five minute phone call to customer support. They initally told us very quickly that we had full insurance and should have to pay only the $99 deductible. In trying to determine why the first rep gave us incorrect information and why the $300 charge was added to our account, the rep determined that we sent the phone to Verizon instead of the insurance company. Well of course we did, as that's exactly what tech support instructed us to do. The rep advised that tech support should not have instructed us to do so and they must not have known we had insurance. They most definitely knew this, as that's the first we told them. It was also the send call to tech support since we got the phone and they were advised of the insurance on the first call as well. They also had our account information pulled up and the insurance issue was mentioned repeatedly. My wife asked to speak with a supervisor or manager and was told by the rep that they didn't know who that would be and/or none were available, and they weren't allowed to give that information out. She advised that this was our fault for using the wrong terminology during the tech support call. If we had told them the screen was cracked they would have known exactly what to do. We had no idea the screen was cracked....it was cracked on the inside! We were with a competitor for eight years prior to switching to Verizon and we never had any problems at all. Now we're looking at $500 cell phone bill (3 lines, 2 data pkgs, and a $300 "damaged device" charge) just before Christmas. My employer has put lots of resources into an extensive customer service campaign over the past three years and I fully understand the consequences of both good and bad customer service. This whole ordeal is very likely the worst customer service experience I've had and it will certainly be used as an example. My admin assistant is our customer service coordinator and she also happens to manage the cell phone plans for our 1,000+ employees. Karma and irony both have a way of driving the importance of customer service home, and I can guarantee I'll go to great lengths to ensure it will be a very long time before a Verizon rep gets a "Vendor" badge at our front door again. Good customer service should be the rule whether that customer happens to be a kid with a basic question or a board member for the local Chamber of Commerce (a little bit more of the karma thing).

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