Buy from Amazon or Verizon?

[JeffDenver]

I generally buy through Verizon by default unless the price is significantly better on Amazon.

Amazon ships stuff in such a haphazard way. When I ordered my Rezound from them, their tracking number didnt work (I got the product before it even showed a departure scan) and it arrived late. That is normal for Amazon wireless. It is something you just have to deal with if you want to buy from them.

Verizon, by contrast, has always been lightning fast. I always get stuff from them quickly.

And yeah, generally speaking there is no real difference between buying from Verizon or Amazon. Your discounts, plans ect, will generally be the same. The only exception is Verizon-specific account discounts. If they give you $50 off your next phone for example, you cant use that with Amazon.

 

[ej0rge]

I'm gonna try to report my facts without opinion here.

After being surprised and dismayed that neither Costco nor Radio Shack had either the D4 or any clue when the might have a D4, I paid $99 to amazon wireless beta on launch day, and received my phone on Monday.

And that was when the trouble started. I could not activate my phone.

After a few calls to Verizon and Amazon, I finally found someone who had a clue - someone at Amazon who got in touch with someone at Verizon - who was able to get me connected.

That all took me a few hours. But ignorance in customer service is almost a culture of business these days - there are literally executives who believe that the best way to manage customer service is to not tell customer service reps the truth, whatever that truth may be. I'm not exaggerating - I have worked for these people.

Ultimately i think the problem was that i selected my office as the shipping address before i arrived at a page that explained in uncertain terms that to avoid fraud they could only ship to the billing address, but at that point there was no way to change the shipping address, or at least i had no obvious incentive to tell them to please have my phone sit on my porch for several hours while i work 38 miles away from it for several hours until it is too late for me to contact verizon customer service if i need them.

Verizon is still under the impression that my office is my billing address, which is untrue, and the website won't let me change it until I've been through a billing cycle. But i don't particularly care.

At any rate, it turns out that amazon only managed to forward my credit application to verizon. I received, on friday night, a vague email from amazon stating that there had been some sort of issue with my order and that i should try to activate my phone when i get it, and if that failed, I should call verizon.

The really interesting part of my conversation with Amazon Wireless Beta on Monday was when the enclued CSR took me off hold briefly to verify that i did in fact have my phone already, and explained that his system was under the impression that my phone had not yet been shipped. I found this interesting as the impetus for my call had been to inquire why i had been unable to activate the phone i had received.

ultimately my D4 was activated and my Amazon Wireless Beta CSR informed me that my number port was in process and might take a couple days since they usually initiate it when the order is received.

Today i called Verizon to ask how much longer i have to carry around two phones and was informed that the number porting process had not been initiated. After some awkward supervised communication with a phone robot i was told by my verizon CSR that it would take between 1 and 24 hours to port my number, and about 5 minutes after i hung up my number was ported.

Between the home dock and the navigation dock ($40 today from amazon w/ the Y cable), any money i saved by going with amazon was spent at amazon. I am convinced that this is all part of jeff bezos' evil plan for world domination.

 

[JeffDenver]

Ultimately i think the problem was that i selected my office as the shipping address before i arrived at a page that explained in uncertain terms that to avoid fraud they could only ship to the billing address

Wow...REALLY? That is very odd. I had my Rezound sent to my office address no problem. I wonder if that is a new thing with Amazon. I got my phone in December.

Today i called Verizon to ask how much longer i have to carry around two phones and was informed that the number porting process had not been initiated. After some awkward supervised communication with a phone robot i was told by my verizon CSR that it would take between 1 and 24 hours to port my number, and about 5 minutes after i hung up my number was ported.

This might be a good time to plug Google Voice. With a Google Voice number you would not have to carry around two phones, ever. In your situation it would not have even been a minor inconvenience.

Between the home dock and the navigation dock ($40 today from amazon w/ the Y cable), any money i saved by going with amazon was spent at amazon. I am convinced that this is all part of jeff bezos' evil plan for world domination.

I ended up saving about $70 with Amazon. I am on the fence about going with them again though. And if they really have changed their policy about shipping to the billing address only, I probably wont buy from them again.

 

[ramar]

I said I'd report back to the forum if I had problems with Amazon Mobile and I did...

My Droid 4 from Amazon Mobile was delivered in 2 days as promised. It was packed well and even came with a surprise gift... a car charger. However, when I tried to activate the phone it didn't work. After several failed activation attempts I contacted Amazon. They took my info, put me on hold, and called Verizon. Verizon told Amazon that my phone wouldn't activate because it isn't compatible with my plan (I'm on the old America's Choice Family Share plan). I asked the Amazon rep about the return policy but I also said that I wanted to contact Verizon myself before I decided if I wanted to return the phone. A few hours later I had time to call Verizon. The Verizon rep said that the droid 4 (and all 4G phones) are not compatible with my plan. When we explored changing my plan so I could activate the phone, he discovered that the phone couldn't be activated because Amazon had reported it as returned. I then called Amazon back and they told me the only way to solve that problem would be to ship me a new sim card. Instead, I had them email me a return shipping label and I sent the phone back to them. I then went to a local Verizon "Premium Retailer" called The Wireless Zone. They were able to sell me a Droid 4 and activate it on my old plan. I don't know how they did it but I was happy to keep my old plan because it's less expensive. The only problem with them is they didn't give me the unlock tool for the back cover and when I called to ask about it they acted like I was an idiot. The rep told me you don't need any tool to remove the back cover. I asked him to look in the box of another droid 4 so he could see the tool and he said they didn't have any more in stock. I'm still trying to get the unlock tool from this knuckle head. I'm sure I can improvise something to remove the back cover but I shouldn't have to.

I've always had good service from Amazon but I will not be buying from Amazon Mobile again. I paid 30 bucks more buying locally but at least I can go face to face with clueless reps (and/or their managers) if things get screwed up.

 

[ramar]

Fyi...

1) I believe it's Amazon Wireless not Amazon Mobile.

2) Amazon did issue me a $50 gift card for my inconvenience.


Sent from my DROID4 using DroidForums

 

[syndicate0017]

Then why did verizon turn me away when I tried to have my current droid x fixed for usb plug issues that I bought from craigslist? I had the previous owners receipt with me and was told by the in store rep and over the phone that verizon does not replace third party devices, including Amazon, wirefly, etc...

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Umm that's completely different. You bought a used phone. The warranty doesn't transfer between owners. If you sell the phone, the warranty goes out the window

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[mekanism]

Umm that's completely different. You bought a used phone. The warranty doesn't transfer between owners. If you sell the phone, the warranty goes out the window

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I didn't expect them to fix it and knew it was a long shot but I was still told by both an in store rep and over the phone that Verizon only supports devices that they sell. If your device is purchased through any third party retailer it is that retailer's responsibility for replacements and exchanges. So if you buy through amazon I believe you have to ship it back to them for warranty work.

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[kinfolk248]

yea im trying to decide where to buy a nexus.... amazon has it for $229 and verizon says $249. idk idk idk HELP!!!

 

[Kabilos]

. I'm still trying to get the unlock tool from this knuckle head. I'm sure I can improvise something to remove the back cover but I shouldn't have to.

I thought I had this exact problem when purchasing my phone from Verizon. I ended up finding it in the bag later that night but while I was at work, I used a paperclip to put in the hole next to the 1080p dialog on the back of the phone. I thought I had scratched something but when I looked closer to my phone, under the plastic where I thought i scratched something there is a hex screw. So no worries about scratching anything. The tool is just a small piece of plastic the size of a paperclip 3-4mm in length.

So no worries about damaging anything.

 

[ramar]

When I started this thread I was pretty confident that I'd be OK buying from Amazon Wireless. Now I doubt that I'll ever buy from Amazon Wireless again. However, I will continue to buy from Amazon's main site.

I hope this helps you decide.

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[ramar]

Thanks Kabilos! Yes, I was able to improvise an unlock tool but I shouldn't have to. It irritated me that the rep said that you don't need a tool to remove the back cover and implied that I was foolish to think so.

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