?????? I have found their customer service to be America based, very patient, and extremely helpful and knowledgable.
they wanted to charge $10 to transfer her contact info
I encountered that at a "Verizon Authorized Retailer" ... the regular Verizon Wireless store does it for free ... for both of our phones ... every time we upgrade.
I have been a Verizon Wireless customer since "Day Zero". My first wireless phone came from Bell Atlantic Mobile.
Sometimes I get good service from Verizon, or from Verizon wireless.
However, when something goes wrong, and something always goes wrong, they are horrendous.
I’ve spent hours being transferred around their phone tree back and forth to departments who keep telling you oh that’s not their area, they will transfer you to the right dept. Literally that can go on for hours. And yes, I yell at them etc and they promise this time it will be resolved, and it isn’t.
I’m glad that has been your experience. I’ve been with them for four years and I have yet to have a good experience with them, except when I’m buying something. They’re nice when they see dollar bills. When cash ain’t gonna flow, the reps have been unable and unfriendly. (I’m not one of those customers who goes over, then expects them to wave the charges, btw. I use about half of my minutes each month and I pay my bill on time.)
Our area only has the big black sign “Authorized Dealers”. As we were wrapping up my wife’s phone upgrade two weeks ago, I asked the rep if she had transferred the contact info. She said no, and that she could do it for $10. She said Verizon removed all but one transfer device in each store and that they were to encourage customers to do it themselves. That requires the old phone to be activated.
So, instead of taking 60 seconds to hook up the two devices and transferring the contacts directly, she had to call, reactivate my wife’s old phone, upload the contacts to Verizon’s website, hang up, then call again to reactivate my wife’s new phone a second time. That took her an extra 23 minutes.
When I got home I had to download my wife’s contacts via CSV from Verizon’s website to my computer, then transfer that file to her phone via USB. No problem for me. But, for people who are not initiated with transferring files, etc., the process is probably overwhelming and they’ll just give up and pay the fee. She gave me some “legal liability” issue with their new policy. Maybe that’s true, but it just ends up looking like another money grab for a service that should be included with the purchase (which was last year when I got a new phone).
Like I said before, Verizon’s cellular product has been better than AT&T’s GSM, but the customer service has been much, much worse. At least at AT&T I felt like they wanted me as a customer. I was with them for 6 years before Verizon. During that time my bill went from $40/month to $25/month, and I had more minutes than I get from Verizon now. They sent me a new phone free every 18 months and the customer service reps were always congenial on the phone. With great apprehension I moved to Verizon to get better coverage.
Anyway, that’s just one of my long-winded reasons for avoiding any of Verizon’s other products. I’m glad you’re happy with them. Maybe I should move to where you live.