Upgrade Issue

Today was an interesting day for me as it pertains to my wireless experience. I attempted to go into a Verizon Wireless store to check out the HTC Thunderbolt and the Apple Iphone 4. I wanted to look at the iphone 4 first because I have been dealing with android devices for a while now. I go over to the Iphone 4, and I start to play around with it. I feel like a deer caught in headlights because I have NEVER used one before (don't judge me). I go to the Verizon store and ask some very specific questions because I know what I use my phone for. If you have read my previous blog entitled "This Samsung Fascinate!", you would know that I had a very serious issue with utilizing my call waiting and conference calling on that phone because of a software issue with the phone. Well naturally when I go to try to get a new phone, I am going to need the phone to complete those tasks appropriately.

I go in the store and have a nice young man eager to assist me because I would like to upgrade. I tell him what I use the phone for and what I am looking for and immediately he seems turned off like I am talking too much. I explain to him that I need to make sure these features work and when I explain it to him, his eyes glaze over like he has NO idea what I am talking about. After a solid 10 minutes, and me having to demonstrate the issue, he finally understands. He even goes and gets another gentleman to try to assist him with this. We try placing calls on the iPhone 4 so we can utilize the call waiting. That works fine. Then we try to utilize call conferencing after using the call waiting and it was unsuccessful. Then we try placing calls utilizing the call waiting, and disconnecting one of the calls (not all). That was unsuccessful. Next we try all of this on the Thunderbolt. These steps were also unsuccessful.

When the reps finally understand what I am trying to accomplish, and see how unsuccessful we were with trying to get this done, the rep originally helping me says "You may just have to give up on upgrading". I was shocked that he said that to me. Was he implying that I can never upgrade again if that feature is important to me? He asked me "does it work on your current phone [Droid X]"? I told him yes and showed him HOW it works. He said "well if you really care about placing those kinda calls, you may just have to use Motorola's from now on!" Again I was floored! You are telling me that even with all the money I pay each month, and with all the money that I am paying for the phone, I just have to be stuck with one kind of phone and just deal with it because I want to place calls? I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life and when I asked if he was serious he completely said yes like there was nothing wrong with the whole scenario. I asked if he had ever heard of this and he said no. I asked if he understood why I felt the way I felt, and he said yes. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do. Needless to say I was very unsatisfied.

This just further proved that Verizon Wireless doesn't care about the satisfaction of their customers. They are willing to charge you all this money for products and services, but don't really care if the product or services really work!