This last Wednesday Verizon finally released the xv6800, only 6+ months after some of the competitors released their version of HTC's Windows Mobile 6.0 based PPC Phone. There were forums and threads all over the internet saying this and that but the majority said that the reason for the delay was the phone was failing testing @ Verizon. This is rather believable as Sprints Mogul was having some major bluetooth problems. I can totally understand pushing back a release for quality reasons, I wish I could have pushed back some of the software releases at my company for quality reasons. There is a saying though; "Sometimes you just have to shoot the engineers and ship the product". Us engineers would definitely tweak and add and tweak and change forever if allowed.
But anyways, I was ok with the delay for quality reasons, if getting a little impatient still. But then, when I could finally get online and use my New Every 2 and get this phone for dirt cheap ( >$200) all h3|| brakes loose! The only place the phone is available is online so I get online and start the process. It gets to the billing address for the payment method, mind you they have NO control over what addresses the credit card and banks allow you to use as this billing address, and I start running into problems.
They have no ways off forcing all banks/cc companies to force their customers to conform to any rules yet they force, FORCE, you to put in a completely valid (USPS verified) address that is NOT a P.O. Box. So you know I live in Eaton, IN where the ONLY way I can get mail is through a P.O. Box. I have a street address for 911 purposes and Fedex/UPS have both shipped multiple things here (lots of wedding presents and a few of my own things

) but the United States Postal Service refuses to deliver mail to my door and does not recognize my street address as valid (no 4 digit extension on the zip-code and such). Since a most online and billing things won't let you use P.O. Boxes I've been using my street address as the billing address and have had ZERO problems till now.
So you start to see the quandry, there's no way I can even change my billing address to a valid USPS address with it not being a P.O. Box. It still irks me that they force that and they have no control over it but I was cool, picked up the phone and called the Customer Support number (for the first time). She pretty much tells me there is nothing she can do and is no way for her to force her way around the address issue but maybe Internet Customer Service can do something so I get transfered (conference call actually) to a lady from Internet Customer Service (why they heck do you have seperate CS departments anyways??). She says there's nothing she can do and if I'd have called her she would have forwarded me to the normal CS service. They tell me to call tele-sales the next morning and see what they can do or to talk to the Post Office as there is NOTHING THEY CAN DO!!
So the next day I call tele-sales and present my problem and once again I get a "we can't force our way around it, there's nothing I can do" speech and I get transfered back to a CS person, even though I said I'd already tried them; they still couldn't do anything supposedly. The only new advice offered is to go into a store and ask there if they could get me something.
I decided to try the Post Office and called their general support line (not local). This lady was a REAL treat. She told me, with no icing at all, that it wasn't there fault or there problem and blamed it on the government and said they couldn't help me. I told her in no uncertain terms I didn't give a rip (maybe my voice was raised

) and that if they would deliver mail to my home I would have a valid USPS mailing address, I sure as h3|| didn't ask for a P.O. box.....she just hung up on me. I was rather livid, both at Verizon and the USPS at this point. I decided to sit back and relax and let my heart rate lower.
Alas, next I decided to believe the Verizon CS people and I soon found myself sitting in a store watching my name on a queue of like 20 people. Don't even get me started on cell phone stores, thats a whole other matter. But when my turn came (a rather short period of 20 minutes, the shortest yet for me) I explained my problem and was told once again that since it wasn't available in stores yet that they could do nothing about it, then the real kicker I thought; he said that once it was available in stores they had no obligation to match online prices. Sure, i understand this, if they can screw you out of 100+ dollars they should!!! grrrrrrr. He did give me a number for tele-sales, which was different than any one I'd called before, what a helpful guy!!
So, as a last ditched effort I called this new tele-sales number and wonder of wonders, I got a guy that didn't automatically say "not my problem, no can do". Though, over the course of 20 minutes I got put on hold like 10 different times; he kept saying "i have to talk to, xxx, let me see what I can do". I was starting to loose hope already, then after the 10th time being put on hold I suddenly find myself talking to a new customer service lady. I was like "here we go again". Though, once again this lady didn't come right out and say the normal bs about whose fault and lack of ability. She tried a few things and soon I found myself once again talking to an Internet Customer Service lady. I had already tried asking for supervisors and managers and had gotten nowhere and so while this last lady was trying to help me I googled and found some big wig verizon emails and numbers.
But as I was starting a scathing email to the VP of Customer Service this lady said the magic words I'd been waiting for...."We can definitely get you set up here". WHOA, what did I hear. She then proceeded to tell me that they had the ability to get around the valid address thing and that she would get my order shipped out that afternoon. I was flabbergasted!! Why had none of the other people I talked to known about this work around. Was this lady a magic being or something?? So she got me taken care of and I was to receive it the next day in the mail...i was excited!!
Finally, to add insult to injury, I find out that it DIDN'T get ordered in time and DIDN'T get shipped out. I called the CS and they told me some supervisor hadn't OK'd it in time. But they said IT WOULD DEFINITELY get shipped out on Monday and I'd have it Tuesday....(right now it's Saturday)....
lets just say I'm not optimistic about seeing this phone before Christmas....
Comments
Mon, 03.12.2007 13:30
Easy Melon! Deep breaths! In for 4 out for 4! Feel better?
Tue, 04.09.2007 20:38
No charge, Melon! Just glad we could be there for ya! Daddy V
Thu, 30.08.2007 08:41
You guys are really giving me some support and encouragement here. Way to be there for me!
Fri, 24.08.2007 07:30
Only gets worse....
Thu, 23.08.2007 06:02
Get used to it, big guy! Daddy V