[Dave88LX]

I went to Circuit City tonight to pick out a bag for my new camcorder, when I decided to just check with the Verizon kiosk if they had any Storms in. Girl was super helpful, talked to me about it for a while, and told me the store up the road showed 30 in stock.

So, we went up to the Verizon store up the road.

Stood in the line for about 5-7 minutes, looking around the whole time for a sales person that wasn't busy helping people pick out a headset or a case. There was nobody ahead of me except the people actually at the counter. I turned around to hear the person behind me saying they were going to sign in to the kiosk. Sign in, WTF?

There was a girl standing by the kiosk texting, and we made eye contact. She finally speaks up and asks "well, did you sign in to our kiosk?" What the **** do I need to sign in to a kiosk for? I'm in the friggen line. Thanks for texting the last 5 minutes instead of letting me know before. So, after that I sign in to the kiosk, as someone else who came in behind me finishes signing in.

I figure OK I'm signed in I'm going to go play with the phone. As I'm playing with it, someone else walks through the door as another customer is finishing up, to which the guy says "can I help you?" and she gets served, ahead of me. It's been about 15-20 minutes by now.

Meanwhile, we have "John the stock boy" just putting crap on shelves behind the counter. We have Bertha who is apparently just a greeter standing by the kiosk sending text messages, and we have Rico Suave the typical greaseball salesman who finished up with his other customer, who is now chitchatting with the sales guy who is actually helping out the people at the counter, and telling Airborne stories, looking at me a couple times, but not helping.

So, I get back near the the customer counter, and see there are 2 more people ahead of me in the queue, and the same two people have been at the counter for at least 10-15 minutes now.

I ask Bertha how much longer she thinks the wait would be, and I just get a dumbfounded look and she tells me blah blah we have 2 people working. I told her that's not what I said. Are those 2 people in the queue the same ones at the counter, or are there 2 more ahead of me after that? She said she thinks there are 2 more ahead of me. I told her that by this point I already wasted half an hour of my time, I'm not sitting here waiting for them to get their crap together while they had 2-3 idle employees, and walked out the door.

I understand if a store is busy, fine you're busy. But when you've got 3 people standing around f'ing off, when it's clear that I need something, and I ask two times, I'm not going to waste any more time.

Hopefully tomorrow's better. That incident actually gave me a headache, after wasting a half hour of my time. Stupid people.

[jh4for5]

Ouch. Order your storm online or through CS. IT's much easier.

[csiguy1]

Got mine today. Walked into Verizon store and they had them in stock. Works great.

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[jbjtkbw007]

I second that. I ordered through the assistance of a rep met on these boards and it couldn't have been smoother.

[Terrigno]

Wow. Really nice write up though. That really sucks man. Sometimes sales people are that way. Lazy sales people I tell you. Yeah, order it through Verizon CS over the phone and you will have it pretty quick! Hope that helps out.

[jbjtkbw007]

My favourite part of this story was the Rico Suave reference.

Truly Old Skool you are.

[Terrigno]

My favourite part of this story was the Rico Suave reference.

Truly Old Skool you are.

lol, I second that!

[Dave88LX]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiico Suaaaaaaaaaaave.

I swear man, this guy looked like a total sleazeball, a guy who has that kind of face you just want to punch for looking the way he does. I'm not saying it's right, it's just how I feel.

I almost want to go and talk to that girl at Circuit City again and see if I can get her the sale and just pick it up at the other store, it would be worth it for them not to get the sale. Don't know if it works like that or not.

[Dave88LX]

I feel much better after venting though. Haha.

[darkus]

Are you in NYC? Seems like every single verizon store in NYC is exactly how you described it.

I love the verizon network but the people in the store are scum, pretty rude and somewhat arrogant about their storm. While talking with them Im always reluctant to give them my bussiness just because of their bad attitude, but so far luck has it that the phone has always been out of stock, so my decision was always made for me.

[latteguy73]

Definitely order your stuff online. I went to the loca
Vzw who said it will be after xmas if I order through them. I decided to order it online and it arrived in 2 days, from start to finish. And I'm in hawaii

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[sam123gil]

Man sounds like a terrible thing to happen.

[fast2000hayabusa]

Sounds like florida to me...
These a$$helmets here...
What a cs nitemare!!!

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[SaMaster14]

wow, thats a horrible VZW story. I'm sorry you were treated that way. the Verizon that I go to, everyone is nice, its a great store.

Personally, if I were in your shoes though, when the guy in the store started helping someone who had walked in behind you, I would have said something, and cut the other person off. I mean I guess its rude, but you should have been helped first. thats just me though.

[Gameking72]

Holy crap I guess I'm lucky cuz my Verizon store is awesome I'm rally good friends with the manager

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[TheFarmer]

Our Verizon store was super busy today as well. Went to pickup a charging dock for the Storm and did not feel like waiting 30-45 minutes just to buy it after "signing in" so I just headed down the mall to a kiosk and bought there in 5 minutes.

[l1tech]

That sucks ! Have to say that I have been impressed with our new corp store here, minimal wait times, organized and knowledgabe staff. Do have the same girl at check in kiosk texting away on her Voyager but at least she stops and acknowledges you and signs you in.

[Mastr0]

every store is like this - the way i had it explained to me is: signing in is the only way you will get help in a store unless you are just paying your bill (using the self help payment kiosk) it can be frustrating but based on the volume the stores do there is no other way to manage the lines and make sure every customer gets help. in addition, just because someone is not physically with a customer does not mean they are free, they could be doing something else vital to the operation of the store. . .furthermore everyone in the store has different roles. Example: sales rep, greeter, customer service, tech, manager . . etc and based on you getting a new phone, u were put into the sales que .. maybe the person you saw texting was the manager texting her boss something she needed, or a tech person seeing if someone has a phone in stock. . .

[CSSVT]

Wait so....you're blaming the store for you A) not knowing to sign in, B) Getting frustrated that you had to sign in, C) Having to wait in line?

Sorry but I have no sympathy. With all of your employee berating you sound like one of the guys who lives in my neck of the woods who thinks that just because he makes a little money and works for a big name company (regardless of rank) thinks that they're better than everyone, need to be waited on hand and foot with better service than everyone else and you need what you want, when you want it, the instant you want it.

JMO....maybe you legitimately weren't treated that great but with the full paragraph dedicated to bashing the employees I can't have sympathy for you. The guys at the store where I'm from are close to being more dumb than a sack of bricks when it comes to their products...but I don't verbally bash them for knowing about stuff, how they run their store, etc.

[darkus]

Wait so....you're blaming the store for you A) not knowing to sign in, B) Getting frustrated that you had to sign in, C) Having to wait in line?

Sorry but I have no sympathy. With all of your employee berating you sound like one of the guys who lives in my neck of the woods who thinks that just because he makes a little money and works for a big name company (regardless of rank) thinks that they're better than everyone, need to be waited on hand and foot with better service than everyone else and you need what you want, when you want it, the instant you want it.

JMO....maybe you legitimately weren't treated that great but with the full paragraph dedicated to bashing the employees I can't have sympathy for you. The guys at the store where I'm from are close to being more dumb than a sack of bricks when it comes to their products...but I don't verbally bash them for knowing about stuff, how they run their store, etc.

You shouldnt get all over the OP. VZW stores in the northeast are pretty bad and alot of us can relate to the story. I dont think its a case of the OP being arrogant, its just that the sales people at VZW stores up here are genuinly terrible, and it has nothing to do with their knowledge of the product.. I assume they don't know anything about the product. its the fact that when you walk into a store you see like 5 people just sitting around or talking with their co-workers (pretty obviously not working) and they ignore you until you nearly have to beg to get service. I dont know why its like that at VZW but almost every manhatten VZW store I goto is like that, which is strange for a city where CS is pretty good overall.

[CSSVT]

I dunno, clearly it's just me but I don't think attacks on the employees are warranted be it to their faces or not....nor do I think full blame should be placed on them for his service not getting completed. People who bash the retail/CS sector are generally those who have not worked it and therefor don't know the ins and outs of it. Just how it goes. I don't have experience with any VZW stores in the NE as I'm from the South but eh, it just seems like, to me, the OP came off quite arrogant....I was actually pretty shocked that no one defended the VZW store/employees in even the slightest.

[Advntrous1]

I'd also try to call the manager and tell him he lost a customer. Maybe he'd want to give you
Free stuff.

If nothing else , we should start posting which stores treat customers like crap and which are good. Maybe if we start swaying numbers verizon will notice.

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[apollo kids]

I'll second that northeast verizon stores are terrible. I was a verizon customer for five years but didn't re-up my contract the last time it lapsed due to the lack of help/professionalism at these stores.

[mully]

I feel your pain. Every time I go into the VZW corporate store it's the same. 15 people working there.....4 or 5 customers....but the wait is like 20 minutes...WTF??? Most of the employees seem to be just kind of goofing off with each other. And signing into that kiosk is just plain weird. If you aren't familiar with it, how would you even know that you have to do it??
The VZW store near where I work (Columbia, MD) is so bad I refuse to go there any more. The one near where I live (Westminster, MD) is leaps and bounds better. Strange how 2 stores are so completely opposite when it comes to customer service.

[mully]

I dunno, clearly it's just me but I don't think attacks on the employees are warranted be it to their faces or not....nor do I think full blame should be placed on them for his service not getting completed. People who bash the retail/CS sector are generally those who have not worked it and therefor don't know the ins and outs of it. Just how it goes. I don't have experience with any VZW stores in the NE as I'm from the South but eh, it just seems like, to me, the OP came off quite arrogant....I was actually pretty shocked that no one defended the VZW store/employees in even the slightest.

CSSVT, you are lucky you are in the south. People down there really seem to be genuinely nicer. My familly all lives in Arizona and the people there are very friendly.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore-Washington suburbs) people are just plain arrogant, rude, annoying, and self-important. It's all ME ME ME ME.

That's why I can easily understand the OP's issues. Around here there is no way to even know that you have to sign into the kiosk, as there might be a greeter, but they sure as heck aren't greeting you. They are usually texting, on the phone, or goofing off with the other employees. Some of the stores here really are pathetic. A few are fine (I am lucky to be close to one that is "acceptable"). But the majority are just plain impossible to deal with.

OK....I'm done ranting. Sorry....