Verizon Techs Clueless or RIM Unscrupulous?
 

There seems to be a reoccurring theme in most of these posts. I routinely read individuals claiming that Verizon techs are notoriously clueless when it comes to answering questions and giving accurate information.

Having been with Verizon many years now, I can say without hesitation that I have been very satisfied with the quality of customer assistance and phone service. My experience with the other major carriers has been completely unsatisfactory. I do not work for Verizon in any capacity.

I have owned various phones during my Verizon experience. However, it wasn't until I entered the Blackberry world that I began to require assistance in getting the phone to simply perform basic functions. I love my Storm but the unit should not have been released until it could perform all of it capabilities acceptably.

A Verizon representative told me that while Blackberry phones are amazing, it would not be wise to purchase the Storm when it was released. My tech at the VZW store told me the phone OS was flawed and that RIM was releasing a defective product simply because the Christmas craze would result in a mass demand for the new touch screen unit. I was told by my tech that the phone would not make its initial October release and that if it was released before Christmas the OS was have many issues. He has additionally told me that RIM is notorious for telling carriers one thing and then making public statements to the contrary. To date, the tech I have dealt with has given me accurate information. Before the 14 day period expired, a Verizon customer representative encouraged me to return the phone for a Curve. Being that many in this forum have actually done this, I think I got good advice. But I stuck it out with the Storm because I see what the phone might actually be when it operates flawlessly.

Now, the RIM CEO has basically publicly conceded that RIM knew the phone had serious issues and still released flawed units to be sold to customers. They knew that people, myself included, would line up to get the new toy for Christmas.

The bottom line is that RIM is into making a fast buck, just like any other company. It capitalized on the success of its previous models and released a new technology phone that was seriously flawed. IMO, its not that Verizon techs / customer reps are clueless. It's RIM mass producing and flooding the market with a flawed product through a third party carrier and not supporting the carrier with accurate information. So when a representative is forced to hypothesize or wing it, I say the blame falls upon RIM.

With that stated, I still love my Storm and hope RIM makes good by ultimately providing an OS upgrade that allows the Storm to live up to all the hype.

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

Great post.I would like to think that some of the issues were underestimated and that everyone acted with good intentions

My experience with VZW has been the same and I have been with them for many years. The Storm is my first BB and I love it. Fortunately I do not seem to have hardly any of the problems that others I read about in these forums have encountered. Mine performs much as expected on a daily basis. Perhaps I am not a power user or a power text/email user and thus have not encountered the problems.

I find VZW techs to be mostly very knowledgeable and quite informative. I have no complaints with them at all.

Wirelessly posted (hope is everything!)

VZW is who put the pressure on to release. VZW made the decision to release with that OS!

Well, lets all of us take a different approach, lets not look to find blame since we all own a Storm. We should organize and place pressure upon both companies to get the product that RIM produces and VZW sells to get the coIrrections.

But I also note, there does not see to be many complaints from the other side of the big pond. Could it be VZW and what they have locked out causing some of these problems?

I agree ishore. Of course Verizon must assume some of the blame for knowingly distributing the product. I focus at the executive level and not at the lower echelons. The customer service representatives and techs normally take the brunt of the customers' frustrations. Most techs though are pretty knowledgeable and have always sent me away satisfied. I have no doubt VZW was putting pressure for a Christmas release - they want to make money. But it is also RIM that advertised well in advance that it was on the brink of releasing a fabulous new i-Phone competitor. Of course VZW was placing pressure. But RIM hyping up the Storm long before it was ready for release was the precursor.

I must concede that overall the Storm is a great toy. Despite the bad camera app and routine battery pulls, I love my phone...when it's running well.

If you figure a way to collectively organize to the extent that we could effectively pressure RIM and Verizon to engineer quicker solutions - I am all for it. However, I think we are stuck waiting and hoping that each new OS upgrade solves all the design flaws inherent in this new unit.

Wirelessly posted (Its All About the U!)

I think its þhe financial dept NOT coordinating with marketing and IT

I am new to BlackBerry and new to this site. I decided to join because of the plethora of knowledge on this site.

I also have been with Verizon for many years and got the Storm to replace my Ipod touch (which i dropped in the toilet). I have had no issues with Verizon, and aside from a few quirks with my Storm, I love it. I have yet to see a device such as the Storm or Iphone released with no issues. Devices such as these are complicated to say the least. Although I agree it is not perfect, I am looking to the future when all the kinks are worked out and the Storm excedes my expectations. For now I am enjoying it and overlooking the minor flaws because I feel it will only get better.

That's my 2 cents. And thanks again for this site.

I can completely agree with you my friend. Verizon wireless has by far the best customer assistance. And I've been with t-mobile(the worst) an AT&T(alright). Everytime I've had a problem it gets solved right away. GO verizon =)

While I agree that VZW techs are more helpful than techs at other carriers, I find the average VZW tech to be rather under-educated to troubleshoot my phone issues. Every time I have a problem with one of my phones, I end up walking out of the store with a replacement phone (or the number to customer service to get a new one shipped to me). The techs never seem to be able to troubleshoot my issues (sometimes hardware, sometimes software related).

When it comes down to it though, I am also very satisfied with their service, my problems always get fixed, albeit it's because I get a whole new phone, but the point is it's fixed.

And what did Verizon LOCK OUT on the storm??

I'm not aware of anything on the VZW Storm/9530 compared to say the Storm/9530 from Telus or Bell..

That's because those guys are really only trained to determine whether the problem is warranty related, and if so, to exchange the phone. Those stores get way too busy to troubleshoot every technical problem.

If you ever have to call in to VZW tech support, that's where you'll find the really knowledgeable guys.