Customer Service? Et tu Verizon?

Once upon a time, you could walk into a Verizon Wireless phone store and be greeted at the door or very shortly after arrival. You could walk around and look at the phones and then ask a salesperson for more information about features and calling plans. We got our first mobile phone back in 1994. It was what they called a bag phone. It looked as if someone had taken an office desk phone, hooked it up to a huge, heavy battery and wrapped it all up in a leatherette case, about one third the size of an attache case! That phone came from either Nynex Mobile or Bell Atlantic Mobile, both of which later merged and changed its name to Verizon.

We’re currently off our obligatory two year contract with Verizon, but paying our bills each month. Chuck and I have been doing a lot of research online about the Apple iPhone (available only through Verizon’s competitor AT&T) and the BlackBerry Storm, exclusive to Verizon. Because we’ve had all our cell phones with Verizon for 15 years and been happy with their service, we figured the iPhone was off the table. We went into the Verizon store tonight wanting to handle the BlackBerry phones and get a better feel for which one we wanted to purchase. That purchase would effectively lock us into another two year contract with Verizon.

A few years ago, we went to a Verizon store and purchased three phones, two to replace existing phones and the third was a new one for my Mom in Rhode Island. Two different employees worked with us ‘til just past closing in order to get my Mom’s phone a Rhode Island area code of 401. Everyone was knowledgeable, friendly and totally got the concept of customer service.

Tonight, we walked into the very same Verizon Wireless store, where there must been more than ten employees behind three different desks and counters. There were only four to six other customers, mostly in pairs or family groups, at any given time while we were there. Not one employee approached us. We looked at the BlackBerry Storm and the BlackBerry Curve. We also made a circuit of the whole store and looked briefly at all the other cell phones.

I finally walked up to the counter where there were six people standing and sitting. I asked who we could speak to, to ask a question. Blank stares. One gal said: “Umm what kind of question?” I said we had a few questions about the Storm and the Curve. More blank stares. Then a couple of employees volunteered a gal who walked toward us. We moved over to the display with the Curve and the Storm. She stood a few feet away and answered our questions crisply. She never once volunteered so much as a smidge of information. Through the entire, albeit brief, conversation she never, ever stopped drumming her fingernails on a nearby shelf.

Drum, drum, drum...
Drum, drum, drum...
Drum, drum, drum...
Drummed us right out of the store she did.