My wife and I had been with Verizon for well over a decade (from the time we first got cell phones back when we were first married). Back in 2014, my wife's iPhone died and we needed new phones desperately (and we were eligible for the upgrade, so we went in hoping to stay with the iPhone). Verizon would only offer us the Samsung Galaxy, so we decided to try it. I disliked the Samsung phone, but it was functional. Then, toward the end of our 2-year contract, it started just deleting my court dates from the calendar (and let me tell you that missing scheduled court dates is the kiss of death for an attorney). After I discovered this (by missing 3 court dates in a single week--I had gone 20 years without ever having missed a court date, and then missed 3 in one week), I went in to Verizon to get new phones. The end of our 2-year contract was literally 3 weeks away, so I figured it would be no problem upgrading a little bit early.
When I went in, I told the guy who waited on me what the problem was and that I wanted to upgrade to the new iPhone. He looked up my information and told me, "You have to wait 3 weeks until your contract is up." I told him that I was an attorney, and that having a phone that deleted my court dates from the calendar was a deal-breaker. He SHRUGGED HIS SHOULDERS at me. So I walked out and immediately went to AT&T and signed up with them.
Not only did Verizon charge us an exorbitant "early termination" fee (which I found ridiculous, since we terminated 3 weeks early), they continued to send us bills for 3 months after that. When we got our phones, they also threw in two "free" Verizon tablets which were crap (my wife's came out of the box with a dead battery, she had to send it back to the factory and wait a month for it to be returned, and when it was, it came out of the box with..........ANOTHER dead battery) and that we never used (oh, and those "free" tablets ended up costing us an arm and a leg). After the early termination fee, we were still getting charged for the tablets. So again I went in to Verizon.
The clerk said that when we canceled our phones we DIDN'T cancel the service on the tablets. When I said that it was only common sense that when we asked to terminate, it meant our ENTIRE CONTRACT. He said there was nothing he could do, but that he would terminate the service on the tablets right then, which he did. I then demanded to see the manager, who proceeded to come out and get mouthy with me. She said she couldn't terminate the charges because it was "company policy," and that they had already provided the service for that month. I said, "Look at your own computer. It shows that we used 0 data. We haven't used those tablets in months because they're crap." I told her we paid the early termination fee, even though it was outrageous, and I demanded that the service charges for the tablets be taken off the bill. She said she couldn't do anything about the charges because the service had been terminate. I said, "HE JUST TERMINATED IT JUST NOW!!!" Again, she said there was nothing she could do, and that I would have to call a 1-800 number to talk to them.
When I then explained to her that I would have been happy to stay with Verizon, but their clerk decided to not be at all helpful when I first came in, she said, "I take it you work in the court system?" I said yes. She said, "Then you understand how a CONTRACT works." Just barely able to keep my composure, I told her, "Yes, I know how a contract works, but I also know that negotiation and good customer service is a thing." She again said there was nothing she could do, so I walked out.
We then got ANOTHER bill the following month, and ANOTHER bill the month after that.
I implore you. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH VERIZON. I can't say that AT&T is that much better, but their customer service so far has been head and shoulders better.
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