Had I mentioned that I got a new phone? Probably not.
I was driving around with Pat on Monday, not really sure what we should have been doing. We stopped at Circuit City to check out prices for replacing our mom’s TV, which had recently starting behaving oddly. After reviewing their horribly overpriced flatscreens, I wandered over to the in-store Verizon Wireless kiosk.
We goofed around the the Treo 650 that they had affixed to the counter, and compared it to Pat’s luxury phone. It turns out that Pat’s phone has a flash that will render you blind when it takes your picture - but only if you put your eye lens directly on the flash bulb and then poke your eye out with a pencil. So I suppose that I could say that the flash is pretty ineffective.
Anyhow, I started talking to the guy at the counter and we reviewed my account. It seems that I had been under contract for 2 years, and Verizon was offering me a $100 incentive to renew. I asked about the rate plans, and altough it seemed that I couldn’t reduce my monthly fees (already pretty high for both our phones) I would be getting more minutes than before. I knew that I couldn’t sell the change to Berta without keep ing at least the same monthly rate (and thought better to to try to lower it if I could) so I made sure that this was the case. The sales guy consulted with his manager and that was the consensus.
I’ve never had any real problems with Verizon, so it seemed like a good deal, however, the rest of the day would prove out whether Verizon was really going to be a problem for me.
I decided to check with Berta first. Always a wise desicion. She seemed a bit reserved, but I had some money available for the phone (otherwise pretty expensive) and with the discount and everything considered, it wasn’t a bad deal. So we drove back to Circuit City.
When we got there, the guy I talked to wasn’t there. Nor was his manager, the one who had helped answer my billing questions during my initial visit. The only person there was the only person we hadn’t talked to before, some librarian-looking girl. Nice enough, but not as interested in selling anything as the original guys were. She pulled up my account again, and we looked through everything all over again. It all checked out, and then she went to check if there were any Treo 650s in stock. The guy from just minutes before had told me that they were in stock, so I was somewhat surprised when she said there weren’t any.
Hmm. Ok. She said she would call to the Downingtown store (actually closer to my house, but always so busy that I don’t like to go in there), which she did, and by the end of that phone call, there was one waiting for me there. She did warn me that they would be busy (not a big surprise), but they did have the phone I wanted. Great! We left for the Verizon store in Downingtown.
We arrived and walked around the store, waiting to be helped, or standing in an imaginary queue or something. Eventually, a large black woman came over and asked what I wanted and what my name was. The questioning was worded a bit oddly, since I was expecting that she would actually help me, but then she just wrote the information down on an appointment pad sitting on a table near the door, and stood there. Motionless. Arms crossed like a bouncer, waiting to reject the next person to enter the doors.
My number finally came up, and a guy behind the counter retrieved the phone that was reserved for me. I told him my mobile number (third time that day!) and we reviewed the account information. I told him what I wanted to do, and he nodded and tapped ont he keyboard. Then he asks me a question, “So you’ll be wanting to add the internet package to your account, then?”
“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” I reply. “What is it?” The first hint of the true evil to come.
“Well, you’re buying an internet phone, so you’ll need the internet package. It’s an additional $49 per month for unlimited access.”
“Hmm. As I said, I don’t want to pay more than what I pay now, so, no, I don’t want that.”
“Well, we can’t sell it without it. Right?” He turned in his swivel chair to ask the guy who had then walked up behind him - the manager from the Circuit City store.
“Yeah, you have to add the internet package,” said the manager guy.
“I don’t want the internet package,” I said. “I want this phone with a renewal of my current plan.”
“We can’t sell it without the internet package.”
“Pat!” I yelled. And when Pat came over, I was already on my way walking out.
When we got back to the house, I was still angry. I looked up some plans on Verizon’s site, and they specifically offered an as-you-go internet plan, which costs only for what you use it and no monthly fee. My original plan let me use minutes of my air time (at a slower bandwidth) instead of the monthly rate pack. That’s all I really needed. Verizon’s web site indicated that this option was still available. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t buy it at the store.
I fumed a bit, then I finally called the number on the phone bill to ask someone why this was the case.
The girl on the line was pretty nice. As it turns out, they have a lot of trouble with the retail stores in this regard. You see, they get commission for selling those extra things, and they love when smartphone users come in because they can sell all of that extra crap. It’s lousy when a manager tells a sales guy that he can’t sell a phone without the plan, though. That’s just unethical.
The Verizon operator said she could call the store and tell them to give me what I wanted. But I told her that although I would still be interested in the phone, it was only if I didn’t have to go back to that store to get it. So she called every store from here to Philly to find someone who would sell it to me. Nobody had them.
Wait a second. – I’m pretty sure that what was happening here was a case of, “We have them in stock, but we’re telling you that we don’t so that we can force the internet package (thus getting our commission) on any fool who buys one from us.”
Eventually, I gave up waiting for her to find a place that would sell me the phone. I told her to transfer me to sales, and I’d buy one to be shipped. 20 minutes later, I had my FedEx shipping number in email.
That was Monday. Today, I’m happily using my Treo 650. It is the sweetest phone. I’ve been taking a bunch of pictures with it. Most of the stuff from the yard sale is from that phone. Mom had complained about the resolution and quality of her 600’s photos, but I haven’t seen that problem so far. My photos look as good as I would expect from my phone, and considering that my old Kyocera 7135 didn’t take photos, this is quite a step up. And the speed of the OS is so much better.
I have a mind to go over to the Verizon store and tell them off, making sure they know they lost a whole sale because of their policies on the internet package, but what would I say that would make a difference? I’m sure that other people have worse stories than mine. In fact, I’m not sure that I even want to hear any Verizon stories more awful than mine. Considering that I’m still sticking with them after that day of utter unbelievability, well, maybe that’s stupid, but I know things could be much worse.
I have a few more applications from my old phone I need to upgrade to make use of the higher resolution, but I like it pretty well so far. The battery life has been kick-butt, too; For all of the playing around with it I’ve already done, I have yet to need to charge it.
Now to find some custom ring-tones…
