Verizon Wireless False Advertising, Deceptive Business Lake Elsinore California

 In March of 2013, my wife and I walked into a Verizon store in Lake Elsinore California. We wanted to get information and costs to obtain a Jetpack to have our own Wi-Fi hot spot. The sales man who helped us started being very friendly. He told us that it was a good time to get a Jetpack because we could get a free phone upgrade. The phone being offered was a Samsung Nexus. He checked our account and told us that we were paying around $280 plus taxes with our current family phones (five of them). He told us that we could be paying less if we've got a two year contract with the Jetpack and the Free phone. He told us our bill would come down to $260 plus taxes. He also told us we would have four gigs of data to share among all units. We thought it was a good deal because we would be payin less and decided to go with it.

A week later, we came back to the store becuase the phone was over heating and the battery was not charging. We spoke to the same sales person. He told us it was probably a bad battery. He said he would give us a new battery and to come back if the we still had issues. A week later, we came back because it was still over heating and the battery was not charging correctly. He then told us it was past 14 days and he could not help us anymore. We told him that we had come last week and that we wanted to change the phone but he said to try the battery first and if we still had issues to come back. He said I waited too long. I told him I worked during the week and did not have time until the weekend. He said straight out that was not his problem. He did not want to help us and told us to go through the insurance.

My wife and I called Verizon Wireless at *611 to complaint while at the store. We demanted to speak to a supervisor on the phone. We finally got a supervisor after waiting 30 minutes and the supervisor asked to speak to the sales person. She spoke to the sales person but he told them that his manager was not in the store and even if he wanted to, he would not be able to change the phone. Verizon Wireless told us that they would call my wife and I the next next day and fix the problem. We went home thinking the problem was solved.

So we waited all day the next day and we never got a call. We finally got tired of waiting late at night and decided to call Verizon Wireless at *611. My wife and I had to explain all over what had happened. We demanded to talk to a supervisor. After arguing with the person on the phone, we finally spoke to a supervisor. We explained what had happened to the  supervisor. He kept apoloizing and told us he would make it right. Indeed, he did make it right. He said he would set us up with a new phone but told us it would not be the same phone. He said he could give us a brand new Samsung Galaxy 3. The only problem is that he could not give it to us without us paying taxes. But, because he wanted to make it right, he said for us to pay the taxes and he could give us a credit for that amount on our next bill. So we agreed and we gave him a credit cartd number and paid $60. He also checked out account and told us that our bill would come up to around $260 plus taxes. In addition, he said we would now have 6 gigs of data to share. In addition, he told us he would call us at the end of the month to make sure all was correct with our phone bill. We were very happy thinking it was all fixed.

The end of the month came and noticed our phone bill was over $400. We waited for a phone call from Verizon's supervisor but he never called. My wife and I called and had to explained what had happened and demanded to speak to a supervisor. We wanted to speak to the same supervisor but we were told that was not possible. This new supervisor told  us that she could not help us and that the phone bill was correct. Apparantly, we had signed a contract to pay over $300 a month. We told her what the sales person and what the Verizon supervisor had said would be our monthly bill. She said that was not correct. I checked the contract we signed and it only says we are paying $40 for the new phone and Jetpack. It does not say what our total bill should be. I argued with the supervisor but she did not care. I told the supervisor about the credit the previous supervisor had said we would get ($60) for paying taxes on the Galaxy 3 and she said she could not honor that. My wife and I demanded to talk to somebody higher in the chain. She told us we would have to wait 24 hours but someone would call  us. It has been a couple of weeks and still no call.

Verizon can not be trusted. They never returned one call even though they promised they would call. This was three different supervisors who failed to keep their promise. My wife and I have decided that we will terminate Verizon as soon as our contracts are over and we will go with a different carrier. Yes it will be a couple of years on the Jetpack and phone but contracts on the other three phones are almost up. I hope Verizon burns in hell.