Horrible customer service and manager experience at the Clifton Park, NY store

Posted Fri May 25, 2012 1:16 pm, by Mark L. written to Verizon Wireless (Cell Phones)

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To whom it may concern:

On Friday March 9th, 2012 I went into the VZW store in Clifton Park, NY at 15 Park Ave around 6:50pm. Earlier in the week, I had received my 1st IPhone and needed to get my phone book transferred. Because my old phone was a standard phone, my downloaded "Backup assistance" would not work going to the IPhone (which is a different issue that I think is ridiculous), forcing me to drive into this horribly managed location.

When I walked in, not a single person greeted me. I signed in on the electric chart and was 3rd in line. As I walked around, I found the "greeter" changing out accessory peg hooks in the old tech bench area. Knowing that greeters have done number transfers in the past, I asked him if he could do mine so that I didn't have to wait. He said that he was busy and could not. As I sat there, a little upset about this, I discovered that the store manager, whom I found out is Wendy D'Agostino (not sure on the spelling), was sitting in her office right outside the tech area seemingly doing nothing. When I poked my head to see really quick, she was doing what appeared to be emails while myself and the line outside sat there. I did notice that she was not on the phone or helping anyone at the time that would have given her a reason to be in the office. As I continued to wait, the line continued to grow and the greeter continued to work with the peg hooks just around the corner in the tech area which is out of sight from the front door. At one point, a sales rep even came back and asked the greeter a question. When this happened, the greeter poked his head around the corner and said "wow, it's really getting busy out there". The greeter then went back to his work moving accessories. At this time there were 7 people checked in and it was about 7:22pm.

By 7:30pm, there were 9 people in the scrolling list and I was still waiting for a 60 second phone book transfer, the greeter was still moving accessories, and Wendy (the store manager) was still in her office. Around 7:40, the greeter finally finished his task and went to the front of the store. At that time, I was 2nd on the list, and a few minutes later around 7:45pm, Wendy came out of her office. When she came out, Wendy checked with her staff to see where they all were in the customer process, grabbed the next person in line and got the customer started. About 2 minutes later, a rep freed up, and Wendy passed off the customer to that rep. Finally!! I was up!! Wendy went and looked at the tablet that the greeter had and called... the 4th person in line!! I could not believe that I had just seen this. Not wanting to cause a scene because I was afraid that I would lose control, I sat there steaming mad. a few minutes later, a rep freed up, called me and we talked about what I needed done. Within 2 minutes of this, I was out the door... 70 minutes after I had entered.

In the 70 minutes I was in the store, the line went from 3 when I walked in to 7 about fifteen minutes later to 9 once I was there for almost half an hour and was still at 7 when I left. During this 70 minute phone book transfer, the greeter was not anywhere near the door or helping anyone for over half an hour, and the store manager Wendy was hiding in her office for 45 minutes. When I spoke to a friend in the company about it, they said that the managers get alerts on their phones when the electronic wait lists get too big or the wait becomes too long. Finding this out after has made me even more angry because now I know that Wendy knew what was going on 5 feet outside her door and still continued to ignore the customers. I find it hard to believe that Verizon wants this type of a person managing its business. I assume that she is probably being documented on poor performance and does not care about her job, and that is why she chose not to help her staff or the customers on a busy Friday night like that, and if she is not on her way out, she should be. I will not ever go back in to the Clifton Park store location despite it being only 2 miles from my house, and I will continue to tell anyone and everyone I know to avoid the Clifton Park location. You have a manager in place that does belong there, does not know how to manager retail, and is doing a bad job at promoting your brand. Over a month later, and that night still upsets me. I am only writing this letter so late now because I just found out about this site.

Thank you for your time in listening (reading) about my horrible experience at your store.

I am leaving my email address below in the event that you would like to respond to this complaint. I did not leave my number because I did not Wendy to see this letter and then have my number. In addition, when I spoke to my friend who told me about the wait time manager alerts, he told me that Wendy seems to be favored and given preferential treatment in the district by her district manager (Mark Gismondi sp?), so I didn't want him to get this and then have my number either. Wendy proved that she should not be a manager that night, and if her district manager hired her or likes her over others, then I do not trust him to handle this matter correctly either. I don't mean to be paranoid, but I have lost a lot of faith in Verizon as a result of this.

Sincerely,
Mark

It is not my place to decide what to do. However, you need to get a better manager in a location that is as large and busy as the Clifton Park store. Maybe Wendy needs a small and slow location like the Colonie Center location, or the Rotterdam Square mall location. The Rotterdam location would be best because there is not an office to hide in.

My email address is XXX should like to reach out and respond to this letter. If you choose to, you can leave a contact number for me to call. I have not left one here out of fear that Wendy might get it and do something in retaliation to my account.