Just saw a few minutes ago that that the semi-newish Verizon store on the NW side of town has closed – not sure when it happened, but it was kind of weird and/or amusing how I found out.
It’s the store that is/was co-located with City Brew near 3rd Street NW and 4th Street, and it opened about two-and-a-half years ago, I think. Here’s some pix from June/July 2017 before it opened:
Here’s what happened: after nearly three years of basically being beyond happy with my Samsung Note 8 – the longest period of time that I have ever gone without getting “new phone fever!” – the itch finally started a couple of weeks ago. I opted for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 🙂 and it arrived yesterday. So far, I am absolutely loving it – it took less than an hour to back-up all of my Note 8 stuff and get it loaded up on to the new device, but once it was done – perfect. All of my apps, videos, etc, transferred seamlessly – although there were a few password changes for some services/apps that had to be changed. The phone seemed perfectly operational and activated – yay!
Zoom ahead about 24 hours to this afternoon – and I realized that the one thing that was NOT working on my phone was…um…the actual PHONE part! Couldn’t make or receive calls. Everything else worked perfectly – web browsing, messaging, apps, etc. But since I once-in-a-blue-moon actually have to talk to another human being, I set about trying to fully activate the device. Which entailed way more time than I thought on the VZW website, switching between the Note 8 and Note 20 looking at messages and screens, logging in and out of the VZW website more than a few times, watching a few videos, swapping SIM cards, ultimately getting locked out of the VZW website, and then finally…just giving up.
I realized that I would have to call Verizon to get this fixed…but was not thrilled that it would likely take a long time on the phone, punching through a phone tree, waiting for the next available representative, proving that it was actually me, etc. And then it occurred to me that the VZW store was just a few blocks away…and I had no doubt they could get my phone working/activated quickly.
So I drove over there, prepared to mask up to get in, and as I peered though my front windshield, I saw a sign on the door:
It took me a minute, but I realized it said that “THIS LOCATION HAS PERMANENTLY CLOSED.”
Well, dang. First, I was sad that it closed – it’s sad when just about ANY business closes. Second, I was frustrated because that meant I would either have to head over to one of the other VZW stores, or suck it up and call their support line.
BUT…as I grabbed my shiny new Note 20 Ultra to take a photo of the sign, I was greeted with a pop-up text message saying that my phone was activated!
Soooo…either the simple act of just appearing in front of a VZW store was enough to get my Ultra to take notice and get activated on its own…or there was some sort of weird, prolonged delay in the activation process that I have never experienced until now.
Sorry to see the VZW store close – hope the employees were able to transfer or land safely somewhere else!
Now the question becomes: what kind of shop should open in that space? Something that might complement City Brew next door, perhaps…
OH, and about the Ultra: yeah, it’s pretty dang sweet so far! A few very nice improvements include NO stupid Bixby button along the left side; better biometrics (fingerprint and face); very, very smooth scrolling; a seemingly smoother (and “tougher”) front screen; and way more photo/video options. Here’s a link to some reviews.
