Verizon — Local services in San Mateo

Incredible experience. Went to return a $100 defective item within a week of purchasing. The store manager (MD I think) told me I could either return the item "DOA" and get a new version or pay a $50 restocking fee. Seems reasonable but I said given the product was defective I'd like my money back. He pointed at the contract and I said "yes, but the contract says nothing about defective products" and another employee told me unopened products can be returned for no charge. He said nope, the "system" won't allow that. I said OK, how about I exchange my item for a new one then return that new one (which was unopened) for the $100. Nope, the "system" wouldn't allow it. He told me "take us to court if you want" and kept saying "I've told you 23 times, I can't do this." He then told me to call customer service which I did from the store. After getting through to customer service they said what MD said is wrong, there is no restocking fee in this case. I found another manager, Cynthia, who warmly took time out of her day to fix it for me within ten minutes. Refund, no restocking fee. All while MD was on his lunch break at 1:30PM. Maybe I was rude and not listening, I thought I was being reasonable but I get these interactions can be tough. That said, the simple fact is another manager fixed my problem while MD simply could (or would) not. That's about as bad of customer service as I've ever experienced. I've never had a sales manager say "take us to court" when I didn't even bring that up, I just wanted a way to find a solution to the problem. Pathetic and embarrassing by him.

EDIT TO REPLY: Thanks for your reply! I understand people have bad days and can be rude, I was probably being rude myself. It happens, I'm a grumpy customer, we're wearing masks, we're both annoyed. What I can't understand is why he refused to help and gave up when there was a clear solution another person came up with quickly. He has my email address in the system and is free to write me an apology for his behavior, I would also take ownership that I was being unpleasant at times in a frustrating situation. That, as said, someone else...

I have spent 7 hours here over the last 3 days and have worked with a number of staff. First let me say if you want to get anything done right for sure ask for Abraham. I also worked with Jessica and she did a fine job. The store manager's name is Houman and he is the worst and is incredibly pessimistic. When things didn't automatically work the first time he said to Jessica, while standing behind a pillar like I wouldn't hear or see him, that it's never going to work and she should just give up. As he stormed off after giving me and my husband a begrudged look Jessica apologized to us for his behavior because even though he tried to be secretive we clearly heard him. When we finally finished getting our phones he rushed over and was all happy saying we could call him if we ever needed anything and thanks for our service, but I still had a sour taste in my mouth after all his negativity an hour before. After 6 hours we finally got our phone plan set up but were only able to transfer over one of our prior cell phone numbers at the time so we had to go back. When we went back just to port a number over, something that normally takes 5-10 minutes, we worked with Alma. She was very pleasant even after this normally easy process had been going on for an hour. She told us the port had gone through and we needed to wait for approval from the previous provider first so we should go home and we would receive an email in about 30 minutes confirming the port over worked. However 12 hours later I called Verizon and they said that the port was never approved in the beginning because the billing zip code provided was wrong. Alma never asked us for a zip code, so either she or one of the many tech people we were transferred around to just assumed a zip code for us and typed something in. I have spent 7 hours in the store and 1 on the phone with Verizon and I finally have a phone plan with my numbers ported over. Just remember if you go into this location and want it done the first time ask...

I've been to this store in particular only about six times, and it was six times too many. The first time was to actually switch to Verizon's service. While attempting to, apparently some of my 'information' didn't match (don't know how that's possible since I had multiple other bills in my name.) The employee at the time, Sergei I believe his name was, wrote down a phone number I had to call to get it resolved. The number led to an automated service that did absolutely nothing. I went to the Verizon store on Automall, and not only were they far more cordial, the service rep actually FOUGHT to get my contract pushed through, and I got my phone and service that day. Two years later, I return, to get two more lines added to my plan and have the phones shipped to Arizona. This went against my gut instincts to do it online, and I should have listened. The manger there, Mina, suckered me in by saying she could knock 50 bucks off my monthly bill if I did it in the store. Rather than making good on her promise herself, she passed me off to the obvious Newbie in the store, whose short term memory must have been fried as a child because he asked me for the zip code 8 times before the manager had to step in and take care of it. Not only that, but the order was never closed properly, so when the phones arrived, they had no service, leading to another week long battle with Verizon that eventually transitioned into a TWO MONTH LONG BATTLE that involved them screwing with my credit, making me climb the corporate chain six times before finally getting it resolved, eventually requiring the termination of my account and recreation of it because of the metric ton of screwups THIS STORE caused. If Verizon didn't have the coverage they did, and I didn't need said coverage, I would switch in a heartbeat. Save yourself the headache, go to the one...