Verizon — Local services in Goleta

I wouldn’t even give this one star if it were possible. This store is full of unprofessional, lazy employees who need significantly extensive training on customer service and operations. I went in to the store in late April/early May for a promotion that gave me a free iPhone 15 if I traded in my old phone (13 pro max). But months later after being overcharged again and again it became clear that I never got the promotion. I spoke with their customer care team and they found the mistake and told me that it needed to be corrected with the same store I bought the phone from.

I called mid-July and was told that I could only get help from the manager or the exact person who sold me the phone. However, they were both gone for a week so I had no choice but to wait until they returned to work, annoying.

Once I finally got ahold of this manager (one week later), I was told they found the mistake on their end, they would get this resolved with their support team, and I’d hear back the same day (this was a Tuesday). I didn’t hear back that day or within the next few days, so I called back on the following Saturday. I spoke to a guy who told me that there was no update or anything he could do, the manager wouldn’t be back to help me until the following Wednesday, and that he had customers waiting in store for his help so he needed to end the call. He also said that for better help, I could come into the store and wouldn’t have to wait on the manager because it was their mistake.

So I went into the store on Sunday (the next day) and spoke to a an employee who told me that the issue had been resolved on Tuesday when I called, but it would take 2-3 billing cycles (so another 2-3 months of being overcharged) to reflect the change. No one called me to update me and given that my previous bill was $117 and this new bill is $165, a 2-3 month wait is really unacceptable. A major reason why this was unacceptable is because the phone should have been free, not nearly $50 more per month. I told the employee and he said “I don’t know what you want me to do, like I said they resolved it”. I asked him to call their support team for a different/better solution, to which he replied “I’m not calling them Miss, it’s already fixed.”

I called customer support myself while in the store and they said they would take over the case and resolve it. I’d only have to wait 1 week to see the change and they pushed back my billing cycle dates to make sure I wasn’t over charged again, FAR more reasonable. I understand that mistakes happen and there are appropriate channels that need to be taken to correct them, but my experience with this store was absolutely horrible. Having these employees talk down to me as if the mistake was my fault or solely my problem to deal with is deplorable. They lack initiative, empathy, and professionalism. The manager only being available every few days is insane. Also that same employee from my Sunday visit even walked away and helped another customer while I spoke to the Verizon representative on the phone to get the situation fixed. At this point with all the work I’ve done to correct their mistake, I should’ve...

Subject: Misleading Sales Practices and Poor Customer Experience – Verizon Santa Barbara Location

In October/November 2024, my husband and daughter visited the Verizon store in Santa Barbara to inquire about phone upgrades. A store representative assured them there was a special promotion allowing customers to turn in any iPhone in exchange for a free iPhone 16 — with the only cost being the sales tax on the new device. Trusting this information, my daughter traded in her nearly new iPhone 12 and my husband turned in a later model, both expecting this promotional deal.

To our surprise, the following bill showed we were being charged the full price for both iPhone 16s — spread over 36 monthly installments, adding an unexpected $200/month to our account. When I contacted Verizon customer service, they claimed the trade-in was only for credit and that the phones were not free, contradicting what the store representative and the advertisement stated.

Additionally, the store added services we never authorized, including Amazon Prime and other subscriptions, which took considerable time and effort to have removed and refunded. As if that weren’t enough, they also sold my daughter a screen protector for $80, claiming it came with a lifetime warranty. That protector broke, and now they’re refusing to honor the warranty they promised.

Between the misleading promotion, unauthorized add-ons, and broken promises, this experience has been deeply frustrating and disappointing. I no longer trust this store — or Verizon’s retail practices in general — and would advise others to be very cautious before signing up for any...

I went in to hook my new iPad Pro up to cell service on Verizon and have had one of the worst, if not the worst, customer service experiences of my life. First, the employee, Patrick Perreault, did not know how to proceed and got stuck. Another employee helped him out so he could set up a new account for me. I was told I’d need to pay $60 in cash, plus another $37.71, so I did. The process took a long time, and finally my iPad had cell service. When I got home I discovered that my iPad was actually on a lesser, $40 plan, not the $60 I’d just paid cash for. Not only that, but my receipt had another person’s name on it with my credit card information below. Naturally I phoned Patrick Perreault, who said he’d look into it and call me back. A while later he did and told me even though my device shows I’m on the wrong plan, and another person’s name is on my receipt, he checked and everything is really o.k., not to worry about it. Well, call me skeptical. I looked again at my receipt, and discovered the mobile ID number listed is not the one for my iPad. I dialed the Verizon help number and found my device ID has a $40 plan, and the other, wrong ID, has a $60 plan, which, as I suspected, I’m paying for, but not able to use. Not only that, but my credit card is showing a $40 pending charge for a plan I do not want. I would think an employee, confronted with the facts I gave him, could have acknowledged his mistake and fixed it. I am hours into this mess and don’t know how many more it will take to...