I just went through this with Verizon.
I bought two smartphones through the 800#. They arrived precicely when they were supposed to. I went to activate them the next business day. Phone 1 was to have my current phone number ported to it, the second one was a new phone #. After two days of fighting with them, I was able to get phone 1 ported. Four MORE days, and about 6 hours on hold, phone 2 would still not activate. As far as the idiots I was talking to was concerned, the device I was holding in my very hand didn't exist. Nobody would check the ESN, or run the confirmation # they gave me when it shipped. (if someone HAD run the ESN, they'd see the phone was never pending activation - it was as if I bought the phone off ebay.....) Why'd they even mail me paperwork, if it all meant nothing?
I was patient with all the holding.......she said there was a lot she had to talk to her manager about, and have his okay. Fine - until she thought she put me on hold the last time - and the whole conversation she had was about another account, with another 800# floozie. Now it made sense as to why my problem never got solved via the call center. Half the time she couldn't remember who I was (after she came back on from "talking to her manager"), and I had to tell her the whole thing all over again. Now I know why. She always said she "made a note" of this and that "on my account".....if that were true, why could her lying a-- ever remeber a single detail from one day to the next? Or why didn't the next floozie know anything if there were "notes on the account"?
I finally got the phone turned on via local dealer who was willing to step on some toes for me and just get it done. Now I have the bill - and they want to charge me activation, first months' service, and a $300 early termination fee for a phone # that was never activated in the first place. Everybody told me the phone "wasn't in the system"........well, it sure seemed to be in the BILLING DEPARTMENT'S SYSTEM!!!!!!