There is something about Verizon stores that I’ve grown to dislike. At my old job, I was the account administrator for a dozen Verizon phones, which means I was the one who ‘escorted’ various employees to upgrade their phone every two years. And I ended up wandering in to make major changes, get new lines, etc. I have never gotten through a Verizon store visit in under an hour… for anything.

This weekend, as one of my last acts as the official administrator of the account, I wandered in to change me and Fluffy’s lines from a work account to a business account. It was an empty store, but I still had reservations. I’ve gone into an empty store before and waited forty minutes for someone to get me.

I can say I was in and out in less than ten minutes this time. Of course, I was because the guy there could’t pull up my account. Even though I gave the correct account number, PIN, and was an administrator. And, despite the big Verizon sign on the door, it wasn’t actually a Verizon dealership. Just a licensed one that only sells Verizon, so if I wanted to make changes I had to go to a ‘real’ Verizon location. Fortunately, there was one in driving distance, so after a brief excursion to pick up G.I. Joe and Twilight at Target, we headed over to the ‘real’ Verizon store.

The real store is smaller and less roomy as the licensed one. It also had maybe two dozen people milling around and five sales people. I got near the counter and waited. After about a minute, a guy came over and asked me if I signed in. I said no, I didn’t see a sign in screen. Somewhat rudely, he pointed to a console in the center, which had a flashing banner ad on it. No big sign that told me to register to service. Then, a few seconds later, it changed with a tiny little banner showed up to tell me to do so. It wasn’t up when I came in, so obviously I needed to know the animated screen would eventually have a sign in request.

Yeah, obvious.

He asked me what I wanted and I told him. He said it couldn’t be done at the store and I would need an authorized person to fax in a phone. I pointed out, I am the authorized person. He said it couldn’t be done, but “if I wanted to wait…” with the tone of some who really would like me to go away.

I waited.

About a half hour later, this lady called for me. Despite the urge to snap (which never helps anyone), I explained it. She took me to a nice quiet computer. I gave all the information as before, but this time it magically worked. I have no clue why the licensed person can’t do this, but the whole idea of a Verizon store being not Verizon just annoys the hell out of me. This girl was very helpful though. I explained what I was doing and brought out my phone usage pattern (I average 15 minutes a month, Fluffy averages 360). She got us a good plan, walked me through what I needed for my company discount, and out the door in only 30 more minutes.

It was nice finally getting good service, but it wasn’t exactly very enjoyable for the first hour or so of this entire process. Going to the wrong Verizon store just set me on edge, since I would expect a store that has a big Verizon sign to be a Verizon store. You know, with the ability to make changes? And, having a sales person insist that what I wanted wouldn’t work really didn’t help. But, it ended nicely.

There is also the relief of having the phone under my own control again. It was one of the few things that tied me into my old job. A form of payment for the right to call me for the random issues. But, they had to shut down the phone plan and gave me a week to fix it. So, one less thread connecting me to my old life.