Verizon — Local services in College Park

My family have been Verizon customers almost my entire life. When I moved to D.C. I began using Verizon Fios for my home internet. Setting that up was an entire debacle - it took over 7.5 hours on the phone with support to get it set up even though its advertised as a 5 minute process.

Recently I wanted to move my phone line from my parents account to mine so I could begin paying the bill. My current phone is close to five years old and has passed its "contract" phase. I figured it wouldn't be hard to transfer my number from my parent's account to mine. Little did I know.

The Verizon website is glitchy and puts me into a log-in loop. Every time I sign in it takes me immediately back to the sign-in page. It is impossible to sign in to complete the transfer of the line online. I went into the store today to try to get help on getting it transferred. The General Manager was the first woman I spoke to. She informed me that there was nothing they could do to help in person because all transfers had to be done over the phone and that I could call a support number and it would get fixed in about five minutes. I called that number only to get put on hold for over an hour before the call was mysteriously terminated. I went back inside and let the General Manager know about that interaction only for her to tell me once again transfers could only be done over the phone.

At that point I had brought my tablet in from my car and showed her how you could do it online which was news to her. Apparently the General Manager of a Verizon store doesn't understand what should be basic services of the company. I asked if we could log into my account on their system in the store and if they could assist me in completing the online transfer process. She once again told me to the call the number and when I informed her once again that I had sat on hold for over an hour only for the call to go dead she told me that the service center for transfers wasn't staffed on a Sunday. This is after she told me to call them three times and I sat on hold for over an hour.

At this point I asked if I could just upgrade my phone on my parents account - my current one that is five years old is on its last legs which is why I was going to transfer it to my account (transfer and upgrade all in one visit to the store). She informed me that if I was going to upgrade my phone it would tie me into a two year contract - even if I bought the phone outright - and that once it was tied into a contact it couldn't be transferred to my account. That makes absolutely no sense. It shouldn't matter who's account the contract is on. If there are 17 months left on it and someone pays it then it should all be the same. After doing some research on my tablet in the lobby I found what she was telling me to be incorrect. I tried to inform her of that and show her that what she was telling me was wrong per the official Verizon website but she refused to listen.

After close to two hours at the store I left with no solution. The website is still in a sign-in loop, the support center isn't staffed when I'm available to call, and the staff inside the store are both not knowledgeable about their own company's policies they are rude to boot. I spent the entire time being told incorrect information and being talked over when I tried to ask questions or raise points. At no point did any employee in the store attempt to start at the basics and even pull up mine or my parent's accounts. They tried to pass the buck completely and plead they had no way of doing anything even though...

I was fine with their service until I gave them my phone to activate it. To begin, I tried to activate my phone via online before coming here. I had a sim card sent to me by a Verizon rep via phone. After receiving it, I followed the directions that came with it to activate it. The sim card was detected by the phone and I had a new rep trying to activate the phone for me, but he told me the card was "incompatible," meaning I was given the wrong sim card. So, that leads me to this Verizon store. I came in with the wrong sim card stuck in my phone. The reps took it to try to get it out so I asked if they had mini screwdrivers to remove the case rather than try to stick something in the sim slot. The rep talking to me said they're using tweezers. They get the old sim card out and gave me back the phone and a new sim card. Problem is, the phone could not detect the sim card. The reps at this store told me the sim slot is damaged and though the phone works, it cannot read the sim cards. So, I took out the new sim card and put back the old one to see if it detected it. Nope. I even noticed a dent and a scratch on the old sim card. I told the reps at this store that the phone detected the old sim card before I gave them the phone so it's possible that they damaged the phone while removing the old sim card with tweezers. One of the reps responded by saying she did not use tweezers, she used her "nails." They did not offer me to replace my phone, instead they offered a choice to buy a new phone by paying the total cost into monthly payments. The problem with this is I have a free upgrade in 4 months and if I were to take their offer, getting the new phone would cost more than to wait 4 months for a new phone (at least $50 more than 4 months bills combined including activation fee). This leads me to my point of how I came into this store expecting to get a phone activated, but instead, along with not getting an activation, I received a phone that no longer works when it obviously was able to detect the previous sim card before (the phone stated it detected the sim card before I came into this store even though it was incompatible) and the reps wouldn't admit the possibility that they damaged the sim slot while trying to remove the old sim card. I lost complete faith in this store and would never trust them in handling a phone ever again especially when they didn't even ask me if I was okay with them removing the old sim card when they obviously did not have the proper tools needed to remove it without digging into the sim slot (ie screwdriver to unscrew the nails and pop the...

I do not believe any verizon location better than other verizon location. HOWEVER, you will have better chance at a Corporate store than authorized retailer store FOR SURE. It is the people you get to interact with and helped from. I am lucky that Johnathan W. helped me through my issue I did not know it end up being that complex, and I end up found out by overheard that he STAYED OVER TIME when I was walking out the store; so Thank you soo much for taking care of your customer until the end and getting questions and issues resolved. I was originally came in via appointment after calling customer service for checking on my phone and get it traded in. Johnathan was patiences with my poor memory on trying to get my password right. He was able to figure out my apple watch connectivity, network, and over plans. He tried his best to explain this complexity of the Number share, yet he did not have to. He checked my overall plans and see if there anymore ways I can save more monthly on my ends. At the end, he recaps what I need to keep an eye out for in billing, reminds me to notify Verizon if plans have issue, and print out for me the bills and notes with explanations for them with the recaps. I walked out a happy customer, knowledgable customer, and an aware customer and that was probably thanks to 100% Johnathan excellent service. Will update more once the plans set in motions throughout months. However, this Verizon store is very lucky to have Johnathan helping out customers with kindness and...