It's Incredible Too

I love video games.  Love, love, love video games.  I love to read about them, I love to collect them, I love to play them.

I also love, love, love game apparatuses so much that when I discovered that Verizon offered a PlayStation certified phone, I knew it was the perfect electronic device for me.

I researched it online the 'Randy' way, which means quite extensively, I went into the Verizon store to check it out in person, thought about it, penciled it all out on paper, thought about it some more, counted and recounted my allowance and then took the plunge and bought it.

Since I was no where near close to getting an upgrade on my current phone, the manager at the Verizon store in town helped me jury rig our account and I came home with a shiny new Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.

It's a phone!

It's a gaming device!

That's not it.

As a phone it works quite well, and really for playing whatever games there are available for the phone, it works great.  However, and this is a huge 'however', in my opinion, there aren't the games available for it that I was led to believe.  I am not saying that anyone fibbed to me, I am just saying that despite my best efforts to make an educated decision for me and me alone, as not only a middle-aged 'gamer' but a collector of said games, there are just not the games offered for the Xperia that I thought there was.

Earlier this month, I decided to act upon a bit of trouble that I was having with the phone - I couldn't access the Verizon app store to spend what little of my allowance that was left on any games that were 'Xperia optimized'.  I had access to the Droid market, but not the Verizon app store.

Since Darlene, the Verizon tech I ended up with, was so great about calling me back to let me know what was happening, I was very hopeful that in a few days, I would have access to the Verizon store and thus, access to all the games that I was led to believe were available.

Five days go by and I hear nothing back from Darlene.  I called Verizon and I am told that it takes at least a week for my kind of issue to be resolved.

I waited another week and try again.  This time, I am told that whatever Darlene has told me is completely wrong and Tracy (my new Verizon BFF) will be able to correct my issue, if I would be willing to stay on the line for a minute or two.

In the days waiting for my first Verizon BFF, Darlene, to call me back, I made a call to my friend at the local Verizon store, where all three employees (sadly?) know me by name.  I expressed my displeasure to him, mentioning that I felt that Verizon had over-sold the phone on it's game availability.  It may have been Secret Squirrel information, but I was told that since the phone didn't sell as well as Verizon had hoped, they had stopped supporting it.

It was suggested to me that if I was unhappy with the phone I should let Verizon know that I wanted a different phone and not to stop until I was satisfied.

So, with that in mind, by the time I connected with Tracy, I already had it in my mind that Verizon was going to give me a new and different phone and I was ready to go all the way to Mr. Verizon himself, if I had to.

After almost thirty years of being on Tracy's side of customer service, I have learned a thing or two about getting my way.  Over those years, I was hit with some pretty rude and nasty people who would say most anything just to get their garbage cans.

Also, I am my father's daughter.

I love a good challenge.  And, I quite humbly say this about myself ...  I have a knack for getting what I want when I believe that as a customer, I have been wronged.

Anyway ~

Back to Tracy and Tracy's attempt to fix the phone.  Whatever she tried didn't work.  At this point, I very politely told her how unhappy I was about the phone and what I wanted Verizon to do.

And you know what Tracy did right then?

She very nicely apologized to me over my unhappiness, displeasure and inconvenience ...

... and then ...

... wait for it ...

... she told me to pick out any phone that Verizon offers, (with the exception of the iPhone), and she will  overnight to me.

All I have to do is return the Xperia Play to Verizon, using the pre-paid FedEx label that will be sent to me.

Just like that.  No extra cost to me whatsoever.

Now, I should mention that a week has gone by and I still haven't received my replacement phone.

Despite Tracy's best efforts, Verizon accidentally sent me another Xperia Play.  But since my new VBFF gave me her direct phone number, I was able to get a hold of her.

She very nicely apologized to me over my unhappiness, displeasure and inconvenience ...

... and then ...

... wait for it ...

... she corrected the error and my new replacement phone magically will appear before 3pm today.

My shiny new Droid Incredible 2 - with an extended battery, no less - arrived today just like Tracy said it would.

Even though I am a sucker for electronic devices, it may be a while before I even think that I need a new phone.  Now, the PlayStation Vita - that's another story.  Since that isn't being released until February of next year, I have time to save up.

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy