Anyone who knows me well knows that I have have zero patience… for crappy customer service.
Usually, I let the offender know via a nice old-fashioned letter. Feels good to get it all out, stick the stamp on, and see what happens. 100% of the time I get a call or letter seeking to remedy the situation.
I’ll be doing the letter-writing thing again for what I experienced today at a Verizon store in Apple Valley, Minnesota.
But… I also want to let it breathe a bit here on my blog. Because an online rant seems fitting for a company that tries so hard to get it right in its ads and in what it does online. And, is trying so hard to compete with Web favorite, Apple. Case in point, the whole iPhone envy “There’s a map for that” campaign.
Well, as Yoda said, “Do or do not, there is no try.”
By the way, I’m not holding my breath for a response on this one. Because I simply don’t think the particular store manager on duty today cares, or is informed enough about the phones Verizon sells.
The issue:
I went into the store last week on the first day I was eligible to upgrade my phone. I chose an LG Dare. Liked the touch screen. Liked the features (micro SD, the camera, video, etc…) and it was in my budget with a $100 rebate. Went home, put the phone on the charger overnight and saw it was fully charged the next morning.
At noon, I pulled the phone out of my pocket for the first time. I thought it was odd it was already down one bar. Used it once in the afternoon, saw it was down to two bars. At 5pm, as I got into my car for the drive home I looked at it again… one bar of battery life. By the time I pulled into my garage it was dead.
Must be a bad battery I thought.
I charged it up again overnight, but the next two days brought the same result. So I figured, better go get a new battery.
Friday night, I stopped into the Verizon in Apple Valley and explained my situation to the service rep. He took my phone, noticed the make and model, said nothing about it and comped me a new battery.
Saturday morning, I put the fully charged phone on the kitchen counter. Picked it up at 5pm when I left the house to go shoot video at a high school football game and saw the phone was down halfway to two bars. Huh? Guess it wasn’t the battery. The phone stayed in my pocket until after the game when I went to call my wife… the phone was dead.
Clearly, it wasn’t the battery.
So I trudged back into the Apple Valley store today, explained my situation, told the rep I wanted my phone replaced because clearly it wasn’t operating as it should.
I expected an “Okay, let’s try another LG Dare.”
Instead, I got “Okay, you’ll have to pay the $35 restocking fee though.”
“No, I won’t,” I replied. “Not for a defective phone.”
Enter clueless manager. Should have gotten her name, she deserves the pub. She came out and told me the battery life I was experiencing was normal for a touch screen phone. “You’re going to find that with all the touch screen phones. My BlackBerry Storm is the same way.”
Really. 8 hours of battery life? Not even enough to allow me to use it on the commute home from work each day?
She then told me I would have to pay the restocking fee to replace it and try another one.
Idiot.
I told her I didn’t think so, and then she went to look for another LG Dare.
When she came back, she told me she’d waive the restocking fee but I would have to choose another make and model of phone. They were out of the Dare.
Given her ringing endorsement of the touch screen phones Verizon offers, I didn’t want to even bother with the Versa or any other phone with a touch element if crappy batteries are the norm. Who would buy one, I’m thinking? Until I bought the Dare, I’ve always been able to get 3-4 days max out of my phone battery.
I chose a fairly basic phone, for less money, and left the store. Disappointed that I’m stuck for another two years with a phone I’m not excited about. (I’ve been a Verizon customer for several years, renewing faithfully every two. My wife has her phone, my son has one and my in-laws are on our plan. We’ve got a few bucks tied up in Verizon).
As of right now, I’m not exactly a satisfied customer. Might be time to take my family’s phone business somewhere else.
Enter the next chapter:
When I got home this afternoon I decided to search for any other customer stories about bad batteries and the LG Dare. Or just customer reviews, good or bad, about the phone. Or, solutions I should have sought, if any exist.
Yes, I found some complaints about the battery life.
But I was pissed when I also started reading comments like the following on this page:
“One of the strong points of the DARE is the Battery life” (with a link to a review that says: I’ve been using the standard battery since Sunday morning, its now Monday afternoon and I still have a full level bar without using my phone constantly. I made a few calls, two text messages, and phone on 24 hours, and took one photo, not to bad.)
And:
“Great battery life here as well. I can go a couple of days without charging even when using bluetooth for almost all my calls, texting, and using the web browser. This phone gets the best battery life of any phone I’ve used on Verizon.”
I know online reviews only tell some of the story. Sometimes, they’re planted company propaganda.
But they do provide some perspective.
I can only assume the manager I met today doesn’t know what she’s talking about. If battery longevity is an issue with the Dare, why didn’t the rep I talked to Friday night throw that at me?
Remember, he comped me a new battery.
Why make the statement that all your touch screen phones have horrible battery life? Not exactly the sales language Verizon’s higher-ups want you using, I’m guessing.
So what gives? I guess Verizon’s just another company that can’t see the big picture. It’s about the customer, Every customer’s situation is unique.
Don’t assume every customer is out to get you and is lying about their experience. Don’t pretend to be smarter than your customers.
Don’t make stuff up.
Can you hear me now?
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