Dear Verizon, You Call That Customer Service?

As you may or may not have heard, my current phone manufacturer decided to kill off the phone. Yes I’m one of those idiots that has a Palm Pre Plus. I have to say it’s a great little phone and I’ve not had many complaints. Contrary to HP’s statements, webOS is dead. It is an ex-parrot.

Since my phone has no upgrade path I thought I’d go to my wonderful cell phone provider and see what I could do about upgrading today.

Yes, I was willing to spend CASH today for a new phone. But what I got was a complete waste of my time.

First of all, for the money I’m spending, I have to put my name down on a list? Is this a friggin night club? Seriously? Ok fine, put my name down and chat with the white girl with the dreads who tries to sell me on an iPhone after watching me play with a Droid 3. Um, hello? Some sales incentive going on or what?

So this dude with two thick pieces of metal stuck in both his ears asks if he can help me. I say hey, my phone company killed my phone. I was thinking of upgrading and wanted to get some pricing. Over to the counter with all the other sheep.

He pulls up my account info and literally says, you can wait until December, which is when you’ll get a full upgrade or you should ask around your friends for an old phone since Verizon is used by a third of all Americans.

Um, that’s it?

I did mention to you that I’m willing to buy today.

Didn’t try to sell me anything. Just said, wait until December, when prices will be different or get a phone from a friend.

Hey schmuck, were you even listening to me?

I want a new phone NOW!

But no, I get some worthless drivel about asking a friend for a phone.

Hello Verizon! Do you seriously call this customer service? Don’t you see how useless your store personnel are?

He did mention I could pay the full price but as soon as he saw my account info it was, wait until December or get a phone from a friend. And that was that and he didn’t care about me, just wanted me out of the way for the next suck, um, customer.

So this tells me one thing. Verizon has really crappy store salespeople. I mean really crappy. He spent zero time trying to determine those little things like needs and wants. He spent zero time trying to determine whether I wanted to buy TODAY, which I did. He just looked up my contract and said wait until December or get a used phone from a friend.

That’s customer service?

No that is not customer service. That is called losing customers. You keep that up for long and you become HP.

Do I expect anything? Not really. Verizon’s store salespeople pretty much showed me what they think of me with their lack of, well, any effort. I guess it’s good that my phone manufacturer is giving up the ghost. I guess it’s a good time to see what else is available.