Verizon — Local services in Mission Viejo

UNETHICAL AND DISHONEST. GO TO A CORPORATE RETAILER AND SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLE AND HIDDEN FEES.

I had the unfortunate displeasure of working with BRANDON. I have never written a review online about anything in my life, but Brandon was so scheming and purposefully dishonest that I am willing to take time out of my day to hopefully save other unwitting customers from making the same mistake that I did by coming to this retailer instead of a corporate location.

I went in to open a 4 line military family plan as advertised by Verizon knowing exactly what I wanted. Brandon was the embodiment of every negative stereotype you have ever heard about sketchy used cars salesmen, I had to reign in Brandon’s attempts to upsell me no less than five times in the first ten minutes before finally resorting to physically pulling out my phone and showing him the very clearly delineated 4 line plan advertised on Verizon’s website before he was finally willing to move on to his attempts to upsell us on the new phones instead.

Once we settled on the plan, 2 Iphone XRs, and one Moto Z3 the paperwork began and he asked me to sign a receipt for the costs of the plan that did not in any way shape or form match the Verizon online pricing forcing me to again correct him numerous times before finally agreeing to the advertised plan. Sensing my now obvious skepticism Brandon promised us numerous times that:

“There is absolutely no difference in pricing between this Authorized retailer and getting the phones online or at a corporate store, no hidden fees whatsoever.”

At this point I essentially resigned myself to getting out of that store as quickly as possible and calling Verizon customer care to ensure that I was in fact signed up for the plan I wanted, and that is where I went wrong:

Prior to getting out the door Brandon informed me that I owed $276.28 for taxes on the phones due immediately. When I raised an eyebrow at the seemingly high taxes for the 3 phones ($750 + $750 + $480 = $1,980) Brandon “assured” me of two things:

1. The taxes are just state and local, completely standard, that is the only thing being charged right now.
2. It would be the same cost anywhere, and if we have any issues after the fact we could return the phones within 14 days no questions asked for a FULL REFUND.

Like an idiot, I swiped my card before asking for an itemized receipt, and when I did ask Brandon gave me a sales receipt showing only the total cost, no breakdown of where exactly those $276.28 in taxes were coming from.

Two days later when I finally used my brain and sat down and researched the true costs of these transactions I realized 8% of $1,980 is only $158.40. Brandon apparently had tacked on an extra $117.88 in “Service Fees” after blatantly refusing to disclose this information or provide any paperwork detailing this. These fees, which are completely within the rights of Authorized retailers to charge as long as they are disclosed, essentially break down to a commission for the sales person.

After learning this I gave the store a call with the hope of returning the phones for that full refund I was promised and taking my business to a corporate location where I wouldn’t be charged a hidden service fee. Unluckily Brandon answered the phone, and when I questioned him on EXACTLY what I was charged $276 for he STILL DENIED that there were any additional fees tacked onto the taxes and then dropped the bomb, very smugly I might add, that I actually would not be able to return the phones for a full refund, because there was actually a $70 restocking fee for each phone = $210, even more than the initial hidden fees!

Last fun find after speaking with Verizon: Brandon added $39/mo for insurance for the 3 phones without ever discussing this with me!

Conclusion: Unless you want to overpay $120 in commission for front row seats to Brandon’s artful display of shady sales tactics and near-magical inclusions of hidden fees steer very...

My husband I went here to pick out a new phone for my husband. Ines helped us out. She was super fast running numbers to help us get the best deal out of a promotion and got us checked out quickly.

The following day 11/4/25, I had some issue with my phone which was entirely unrelated our visit the prior evening. Chris was helping me.

A TON of customers flooded into the store which seemed like all at once. There was some type of service outage/issue in the area preventing phones from being activated - this is what the customer service rep on the phone told us AND then there was a network/WIFI outage at the store while all the customers were there. Most of the customers were kind and understanding of the issues and planned to return later when the issue was resolved. However, there were a few irrationally irate customers including a man who came in with extremely hostile energy. The hostile man was demanding to have his extremely inexpensive phone bill BEAT by Verizon in terms of cost which was unreasonable in 2025. While Chris was attempting to help this man, the man flew off the handle and started yelling. Chris handled the situation with such professionalism and grace - much better than most people could have handled it. Chris insisted the man leave the store and the man did not want to leave. Chris made him leave ensuring the safety and comfort of all other customers that were waiting in the store to be helped. Hats off to you Chris, that was a tough situation to manage. He did all of this while helping everyone else at the same time. Truly impressive...

I have been a Verizon customer for many years and have always loved the service. But I recently had the worst experience getting a new phone at this store. I was straight up lied to. I specifically went in there not wanting to make payments on a phone. The salesman told me that I would not have to and even when signing the contract it mentioned something about payments and he assured me that that was not going to be the case. I even paid money up front and he said because of that I would not have payments but I also got accessories to make it work. On top of that with the new years deal I got a tablet and he never mention the additional line fee I would be charged. When I got my first bill and saw all on this I called Verizon and they just kept telling me that their policy is that on all new phones you must make payments and no one would help me. I even tried contacting the sales associate and never heard back from him. This was not a misunderstanding. I asked multiple times with my husband next to me to confirm no payments and the price we would be paying. We went knowing we did not want to make payments on the phone. We were lied to, deceived and ended up paying more money than we led on to believe we would. So...