After a failed attempt to purchase the Google Droid yesterday, and a conversation with their national customer service this morning, I’m off to try again.

Briefly, here’s what happened — has this happened to anyone else?

Yesterday I went into a store in Los Angeles at 5pm to buy the Google/Android phone and after waiting for 35 minutes, I was told that because I wasn’t eligible for the upgrade, I couldn’t walk out of the store with the phone that evening.

Yes, that “new every two” upgrade thing. I mean, I get that program (although I come from a culture where you don’t wait for that stuff. You simply buy what you want - sure a discount or free phone is cool, but I’m quite happy to buy new things).

Even though I expressed a few times that I was more than happy to pay full retail, I was told this was store policy. So that I could be really clear I was understanding what was going on, I asked them to verify that they had inventory. They said, yes but it was “getting low” and therefore the policy was only new customers or those eligible for the upgrade could buy and walk out of the store that night with the new Droid phone.

Wait. Whaa??

Confused, I asked, “You’d rather lose a sale, at full retail, right now because you have the phones in the back but you just don’t want to let me have one because I’m not a new customer or eligible for the upgrade?”

I was told that every store had their own policy and this was hers. So I asked her if she could call some other stores in the area to see if they had this policy and/or enough inventory, so I could get the phone that night. She flatly refused and told me I could use my own phone to call other stores if I wanted.

So … customer service not a familiar concept, I guess.

But wait. There’s more.

When I expressed how I’d been waiting for the phone for months and was so disappointed, the store manager flippantly asked me if I was so excited, why I’d waited so late in the day to come in, then. I mean, seriously?!? Even if I had been there at 7am, this utterly conflicts with what she’d told me was her policy.

Isn’t this the most deplorable thing? I’m a long-standing Verizon customer. I’ve maybe dropped a call three times ever and never switched to the iPhone because I didn’t want crappy AT&T service. I am still stunned by the exchange but glad I spoke with a great rep on the phone this morning, who told me if I ran into the same issue, I should call them while I’m in the store.

But this whole experience reminded me of the disastrous impact poor retail franchises, young, tired, fed-up employees, can have on national brands and all the good, creative, positive energy national campaigns and teams put in place.

Anyway, wish me luck. I’m off to try and get this phone again!