Verizon — Local services in Van Buren Charter Township

I came to the store and said I saw a deal online for a free iPhone when adding a line. The representative said that it wasn’t free, but they offered the same deal at their store. I looked up the deal on my phone and saw that it was “online only.” He said he had the same deal there in the store and that it was only free if there was a trade-in. Instead, I would have to pay a monthly fee for three years for whatever phones I bought (since I was just adding new lines).

I must have gone back and forth with the guy for about 5-10 minutes. No matter what I showed him in the fine print, he assured me that the deal he was offering from his store was the exact same as what I saw online and that the online deal was only for people trading in phones.

He talked me into a couple iPhone 15s (instead of the 16 Pros I wanted), saying he had one in stock and was going to check another store to get the other. While he was checking inventory, I overheard another employee quietly say to the man that he shouldn’t give me the phone they had in stock because it was a return and was defective, but the man continued, never saying anything to me about it.

While he was doing that, I went through the process on my phone, and I placed my order for 2 iPhone 16 Pros online. I showed the representative that I had just made my purchase and added two lines for free, with no trade-ins. He said, “Right. That’s the deal”—as though it’s what he was trying to sell me all along.

I said, “No, this is not the deal you offered. This is the deal you assured me didn’t exist. You said an iPhone 16 would cost about $8/mo and a 15 would cost about $3/mo, and you said there was no way to get a free phone without a trade-in. So let me ask you. Did you not know about this online deal? Or did you just lie to me to make a sale?”

He assured me that he didn’t lie but then tried to change the story again (more lies).

I said, “Well, you either need to admit you lied or get your information straight. But either way, you’ve lost my business, and I will never be shopping here again.”

Upon reaching home, I looked at Google reviews and saw that someone else had experienced something almost identical at this particular store, and others had similar encounters, which tells me this is a regular business practice and not an isolated incident. I will never be shopping at the Belleville, Michigan...

Came in this morning after trying to set up 4 new lines online and said I had to go into a store to complete the process.

Had the unfortunate experience with dealing with the “Store Manager” James. Extremely arrogant and condescending from the moment my wife and I walked in the door.

Of course, the promotion they have online isn’t available in store.

After assuring me he would get us “the same deal”, more or less, for cheaper or the same price we agreed to proceed.

I was constantly talked down to and insulted, when I asked further questions about the Disney + promotion, I was asked by James — “What’s your deal man??”

My deal is that I am signing up for a 3 year contract that I will be on the hook for for the next 36 months and I want to be sure I understand exactly what it is that I am getting and what the cost will be.

Thankfully they didn’t have the color and storage phones we wanted so I was able to leave without making things more uncomfortable than they already were.

It’s unfortunate that this is apparently the leader of the store that thinks it’s ok to talk to (potential) customers in the way he does.

It also wasn’t just me.

There were several other customers that came in with questions regarding their phones and service and received the same arrogant and entitled attitude from the “store manager”.

The poor guy that was washing the windows also was scolded and belittled by him as well. He rudely interrupted the young man that was washing the windows and asked “WOW THIS MUST BE YOUR FIRST DAY 🙄” Thankfully he snapped back, “No sir I’ve done this a million times” and dismissed James’ constant head shaking and eye rolling as he watched him wash the windows.

I was happy to leave without giving them my business. I have worked in sales over 20 years and am a small business owner. I have met and worked with people that have the same repulsive chip on their shoulder attitude that they know everything, and everyone else is so dumb.

Will never return to this location and will be sure to let everyone I know how the “leader” of the store treats people.

BTW—Tara (I believe her name was) was awesome and a pleasure...

Honestly, I was raving about my experience here to my Mom. I never thought I'd be bragging about how good a Verizon store experience was (No offense, Verizon, nothing personal...As far as I can tell, it's really more of a telecommunications company thing in general. ;)

Anyway, I went in here thinking it might be time to go onto my own plan (I am currently on my family's plan). I spoke with the man there who was currently free - I found out later his name is Mikey - asking him about going onto my own plan, and right out of the gate he warned me it would most likely be more expensive. That was my first clue that I was in good hands.

After some further talking, Mikey found that not only was I better off staying on my current plan WITH my family, but also it would be cheaper IF we UPGRADED the family plan completely, more specifically to one with unlimited data usage (We had one of the old grandfathered plans of 8 Gb/month, or something like that). So we would be saving money, getting a better plan, and all I did was come in here to talk about getting my own plan instead.

Overall, just an undeniably positive experience, and with an undeniably positive outcome. For the first time in my Life (We live out in the country, where Internet service is, unfortunately, still quite far behind...) I can now stream movies and shows on Netflix, watch all the YouTube videos I want, and stream my Spotify music ALL DAY, and not have any issues. Yes, I know this is not something surprising for most people...But for me it's genuinely a little...