A long-time user of Apple's iPhone, I decided to switch gears and buy an Evo on November4, 2010. At the time of the sale, they wanted to charge me a $35 setup fee. I asked them to waive it since they should be happy to get business away from an iPhone user at AT&T. The manager agreed to waive it, but pointed out that it would show up on the first bill, with the credit coming on the second bill. Weird, but OK. After spending a whole day transferring my songs, pictures & videos from iTunes to the new Evo, I ran out of space. (Turns out that Evo's 16-gig drive wasn't big enough to hold my 13-gigs of data. I've since come to understand that it has to do with the compression rate of iTunes to an iPhone vs. some other interface from iTunes to Evo.) I returned to the store, pointing out to them that they should have pointed out this "feature" when I purchased it. I got them to agree to sell me a 32-gig discounted by the cost of the 16-gig which I was returning to them. They told me OK, but only after I returned the 16-gig card which I was keeping for another day in order to more quickly transfer the data. Fair enough. The following day I returned the 16-gig card. However, for the credit, they told me they couldn't credit my visa--that they'd have to credit my Verizon account. Weird, but OK. For various reasons, 2 days later, I decided to cancel the Evo and the new Verizon account. Since Verizon advertised that you have 30 days to return the phone at no charge, I expected no hassle other than the inevitable questions about why I decided to cancel. They first canceled the contract, and then (2 minutes later), told me that they couldn't credit my visa for the return of the 32-gig data card. Weird, but OK. A few weeks later , I got a bill dated November 6, 2010. I fully expected that the debits would only exceed the credits by the phone and data usage for 4 days. The bill was for $299.98. Part of this was a $350 early termination fee. So when they sent the bill, they knew I had terminated, but hadn't credited me my due. I phoned and after sitting on hold for 20 minutes, got to speak to someone who assured me that it just takes time, and that I should just ignore the bill. Subsequently, I got a bill dated December 6, 2010, sowing a credit balance of $109.76. On December 20th, I called again was told that the check would be sent soon, and that she'd call me back on 12/23/2010 (she didn't). On 1/7/2011, I called again, and was told that a billing refund check would be requested. At my insistence, he forwarded me to someone else who told me he'd pass on my complaint. That day, I got a voicemail from Andrew at the President's Office, who said he'd call me on 1/10/11. He did call and said he'd investigate. Several days later, I got another bill, this one dated January 6, 2011. This one showed that, on second thought, all I was owed was $32.95. I called and left messages with Andrew (who once told me, "I'm in the President's office--you can't get any higher than this) on numerous occasions. On 2/16/11, Andrew promised that he would review all of the charges and credits and get back to me. On 2/21, since I hadn't heard from him, and since I didn't have a refund check, I called again, and he said "something happened" with the refund check, so they're re-issuing it. A week or so later, I received a check for $32.95 dated 2/22/2011--over 100 days after I'd returned the equipment. In the meanwhile, I went through the various debits to my visa, and credits to the visa and to my Verizon account (from 3 different bills) and figured out that Verizon now owed me the $35.00 setup fee which the manager of the store had promised to waive. I sent an email to Andrew telling him as much. Despite numerous phone calls and emails since, I've never heard from Verizon again. For 3 months, I had to write emails and make phone calls to get some of my money back. And now I'm still owed $35, which Verizon, apparently, refuses to pay.
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