Why is Verizon still in business ?

[Pardus]

Went to the local Verizon store and the rep is pushing Apple and Droid phones on me. When I tell him, I want Android 4.x phones only, he gets very rude and tells me if you don't like what you see here, go shop elsewhere.

When I confront him again after the store empties out, I asked him why he is being so damn rude. He comes back again telling me Verizon doesn't have to offer the phones I want, pick whats on the shelf or leave.

Thanks Verizon for showing your true colors. No way in hell will I ever go with them.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

You do realize that most phone stores are privately owned and don't have a lot to do with Verizon other than selling their contracts right?

 

[foghorn67]

You do realize that most phone stores are privately owned and don't have a lot to do with Verizon other than selling their contracts right?

Doesn't matter if it was corporate or franchise, VZW sucks. And their policies, plans and behavior makes it hard to stick with them.
After 10 years with them, I finally left. Good riddance.

 

[richierich1212]

Because people put up with their crap and pay out of their asses for it. Plus they have the best coverage.

 

[abaez]

Consumers get f-ed in the ass by them but they don't care "because they have the best coverage." Whatever floats your boat while getting screwed.

 

[Joe1986]

Find a Verizon corporate store, they maintain lists on their website, and you can buy whatever the heck you want off their website, and or get better prices from 3rd party websites like Amazon, Wirefly, etc.

If you want to see a specific model, go to another carrier's store, and look at the model you want, they're almost identical, except for some labeling and bloatware.

Verizon is so successful because it has the best network. I've literally tried them all.

If you want to get really tricky, buy an unlimited plan off ebay and assume it, bring your own used Verizon phone.

 

[Fardringle]

Verizon is still in business (and very profitable) because in a very large portion of the continent (geographically) there simply is no other option. And even in places where there are other options, Verizon frequently has better reliability and signal strength. Yes, they do cost more and I wish I had other options, but in many of the places that I need to use my phone there simply isn't a signal at all from any other carrier.

And as VulgarDisplay mentioned, the brick and mortar stores are not owned by Verizon and they don't have any interest in making you a happy Verizon customer. They just want to sell the phones that give them the most profit. If you don't want to deal with that, go to a different store or order your phone online directly from Verizon.

 

[Fingolfin269]

What store was this? Doubt it was corporate. If not corporate then it's not a "Verizon Store".

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like you dealt with a concessionaire kiosk. I have had Sprint, AT&T and TM over the past two decades, and now VZF. My VZF pakage gives me more at a better price than any of the others, and iut definitely has the best coverage when I travel.

 

[Kneedragger]

Go to corporate Verizon stores only.

 

[blairharrington]

This is such a dumb thread. One bad experience does not reflect the entire company. Verizon is still in business because they have the most coverage in America and make obscene profits every quarter.

This issue with the sales rep can be applied to all major American carriers. The morning that the S4 Active was released at AT&T stores, I went to my local one. The sales rep told me they sold the one unit they got that morning (1, really?) and that no other stores nearby had any left. I became suspicious. When I asked how she knew that she said she had checked earlier that morning for a customer.

This made no sense to me. I politely left the store, got on my iPhone in my car, and sure enough the next 2 closest AT&T stores had Active's in stock. This same sales rep completely botched my attempt to temporarily add international packages to my plan a few summers ago. I've thought about writing a letter to someone at AT&T (who, I don't know) because her incompetence scares me and God knows how she's messed up with other customers.

Point is, bad sales reps exist at pretty much all companies. Even Apple, a company that for the most part has what I would describe as pleasant and knowledge sales reps can occasionally fail me.

 

[Bateluer]

Went to the local Verizon store and the rep is pushing Apple and Droid phones on me. When I tell him, I want Android 4.x phones only, he gets very rude and tells me if you don't like what you see here, go shop elsewhere.

When I confront him again after the store empties out, I asked him why he is being so damn rude. He comes back again telling me Verizon doesn't have to offer the phones I want, pick whats on the shelf or leave.

Thanks Verizon for showing your true colors. No way in hell will I ever go with them.

Shouldn't have been difficult for the rep to show you the Razr HDs, the Droid 4, the SGS3, the SGS4, the Razr M, the Spectrum 2, the Lucid 2, the Droid DNA, the Stratosphere II, the Pantech Perception, or the Note 2. Not too many Android 2.3 based devices being sold in stores new these days.

 

[AstroManLuca]

You're on AT. You should have done your research beforehand. You ought to know by now that sales reps are useless if you have more than total newbie-level knowledge on a subject (and outright harmful if you ARE a newbie).

What's so hard about going to Verizon Wireless' website, pulling up their list of phones, and finding one that meets your needs? They either have it or they don't. And then go to Wirefly or Amazon and buy it for much cheaper than Verizon's price.

 

[Insomniator]

They are still in business because they have the best coverage. I never have to worry about it, it seems like I pretty much have 4G everywhere too. GL on other carriers. FIOS rocks cable as well.

Sales reps are retarded, but they are for every company, not just VZW.

 

[AstroManLuca]

They are still in business because they have the best coverage. I never have to worry about it, it seems like I pretty much have 4G everywhere too. GL on other carriers. FIOS rocks cable as well.

Sales reps are retarded, but they are for every company, not just VZW.

Very true. I get LTE out at my parents' house in a rural area. Meanwhile, even basic voice coverage isn't a given on Sprint or T-Mobile (haven't checked AT&T).

In the city it doesn't matter, but out in the country, Verizon will have you covered.

 

[KB]

Verizon does piss me off since they continue to shrink my data caps, but charge me the same price. Everytime I upgraded my device, they claimed they had new plans, I went from unlimited to 5GB, to 2 GB, and my price stayed the same, it didn't get cheaper. If you want an Android 4.x phone, buy from their website. I pre-ordered the SG4 and got it 1 week earlier than anticipated.

 

[vi edit]

Very true. I get LTE out at my parents' house in a rural area. Meanwhile, even basic voice coverage isn't a given on Sprint or T-Mobile (haven't checked AT&T).

Same for me in Central IL. I get LTE in my rural home with Verizon. I can't even get a signal with AT&T. I tried doing Straight Talk on the AT&T GSM network. It's just not good enough outside of the major metro areas.

I had LTE coverage about 80% of my trip from central IL to Rapid City, SD on verizon. An ATT device would have died searching for a signal about 4 hours into that 16 hour trip.

 

[Spineshank]

Find a Verizon corporate store, they maintain lists on their website, and you can buy whatever the heck you want off their website, and or get better prices from 3rd party websites like Amazon, Wirefly, etc.

If you want to see a specific model, go to another carrier's store, and look at the model you want, they're almost identical, except for some labeling and bloatware.

Verizon is so successful because it has the best network. I've literally tried them all.

If you want to get really tricky, buy an unlimited plan off ebay and assume it, bring your own used Verizon phone.

I agree. Tried em all. Went back to VZW and have stayed ever since.

 

[cheezy321]

VZW is in business because it has the best coverage. I have LTE service out at our family cabin. Can barely get 3G on AT&T. Thus why I switched.

 

[pantsaregood]

I stopped dealing with Verizon back in 2010. I had an LG enV Touch at the time, and it had started behaving erratically. Being that the phone was almost completely locked down, I had to take it to Verizon to investigate the problem.

They give it back to me after 30 minutes and tell me they "did a software upgrade." I walk out of the store, notice there's a chunk of plastic missing from the side of my phone, and immediately walk back in to point out that it wasn't like that before I gave it to them. They promptly say "your phone is physically damaged, we're not liable for it now."

I then bought an HTC HD7 on T-Mobile and happily canceled with Verizon.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I'm open to the possibility this is only half the story. It's a bit odd that an employee gets moody tells you to leave. It happens, but usually something else happens before that happens.

Either way, whatever Verizon's issues are, I'm sure this one store employee isn't important enough to be a representation of everything that is wrong with Verizon (if he's even an Verizon employee at all). And I doubt the employee training manual refers to "If they customer asks for phones we don't have, tell them to go pound sand".

 

[Cogman]

Why are they still in business? Because there is very little competition. Here, it is verizon, T-mobile, At&t, and one or two small carriers. Other than that, nothing.

Of all of them, verizon offers the fastest speeds and best coverage (here).

 

[T_Yamamoto]

This. Pretty much.

 

[grkM3]

I love Verizon and we have a family plan that has 4 unlimited smart phones and a reg phone and pay 231 plus tax and fees that brings it to 251 a month.

4g everywhere we go and I just looked at 3 of the phones and all were well over 6 gb so far this month.

also get a 20% discount for working at Raytheon

comes out to 62 bucks a line after all fees and taxes with unlimted data and texts and 700 min talk time with free nights and weekends and Verizon to Verizon does not take up min.

ya Verizon sucks lol I challenge the op to try and get a better deal somewhere else

 

[npaladin-2000]

VZW is still in business because, like GM, Toyota, and Apple, they have most of their customers trained to never ever contemplate the competition.