[G2 General] jayochs:
so, i used to run a verizon franchise store for 2 years. we prided ourselves on excellent customer service, and just treating people great overall. i know what a headache corporate stores are, and how incompetent corporate employees tend to be, so when i worked there, i made myself fully aware of all aspects of each phone, and i helped people immensely.

i've had so many bad experiences at corporate stores, but today trumped them all.

so i ordered online, and all i had to literally do was go there on my lunch hour at work, let them activate it, then i would leave. that's it. it was paid for, and i was gonna do the ESN swap myself (bc i have unlimited data, and put it on another line.)

there's like 3 people in there. in front of me was this dumbass girl who took 15 minutes to decide if she wanted a white or black iphone. then, she spent 10 more minutes trying to get her parents on the phone to approve the upgrade. so by now, it's like 12:30. i have an hour lunch until 1, and i'm hoping it'll be dunzo in a few minutes.

i get called up, i tell him im just picking up, he gets it, activates it. i say, "don't do anything like put on screen protectors for me, just power it up please so it activates and then i can go, because i've got to be back to work at 1." he's like, sure no problem.

we activate it, great! i do one last screen test......bam. dust and dead pixels under the screen. i was like, you HAVE to be kidding me. so i say, man i'm incredibly sorry to have to do this, but look, there's problems with this screen. can we do an exchange?

he's like oh let me see...and he looks and can't see the issues at all. so he brings it to his manager. his manager spends time staring at it and is like, "there's absolutley NOHTING wrong with that phone. don't do an exchange." and i overhear this..i'm like um k..guy comes back, says "yeah sorry, we can't see it." i go, "man look, it's right there. see that speck of black? dead pixel. see those other specs? dust under the screen." he's like, oh..let me show him again.....

so he shows the manager, and this seriously goes on for 20 minutes. he kept saying "There's nothing wrong with that screen; there's no dead pixels. i have PERFECT vision, and there's nothing wrong wtih it."

so i walk over, and i go "look, pal, i have 20/20 vision. i've had phones with dead pixels before, and hell, my DNA right now has a dead pixel. i'm NOT living with antoher $600 device with dead pixels again, when i should be gettinga perfect device." and he's getting all mad at ME because i want a flawless screen. REALLY GUY?!

he keeps saying there's nothing wrong, and he has perfect vision. i'm going, "WHY would i make this up!?!? i JUST got the phone minutes ago, and saw a defect. WHY would i lie about a defect right in front of you? WHAT do i have to gain!? NOTHING!"

so he's all pissy and goes "ok whatever, this is a busy store, i have a busy store to run, i can't be sitting here looking at phones all damn day, just swap it out, i don't care." i say, okay thanks! lol...and then i ask the guy i was dealing with, so i can return this at any verizon store, not just this one, in case something is wrong with the next one right? he's like yea, but i mean, you only get 1 return and that's it. i'm like, seriously? what if it's defective? and the manager overhears and butts in with his 2 cents: "oh well, you know, we can't have you sitting here going through ALL of our stock and opening ever phone just to see if you found one you LIKE." i laughed and walked away.

seriously? what an ass. and THAT man was a manager of a corporate verizon store.

it then took like 20 more minutes JUST for them to swap it out. seriously. another 20 minutes to swap phones. at this point, i'm late back to work, and now i had to use MY OWN personal time from work because i was over a half hour late because these arrogant people wouldn't simply admit the customer was always right, which was our standard motto at my franchise store.

yet another reason to deal with the local businesses rather than going to corporate verizon; these people don't know a thing, and they don't care about a thing you want. you goto a small business franchise, and they actually care, because it's THEIR business.

so yeah, if you're ever in NJ, don't go to the Howell store on Route 9!

sorry for the book, but i had to vent :)