Verizon HORROR story

[David K]

My DSL went out early Thursday. Verizon had a disagreement with our local phone company, so we werent allowed to pay for DSL through them anymore. So Verizon up and shuts our service off, no notice.

 

I call Verizon Thursday around noon to find out wtf. The first time, i went through all their technical troubleshooting BULLSHIT. That call ended up with a "escalated technical issue ticket". DSL still not working. I call back a 2nd time, same shit. I call back a 3rd time, and the IDIOT keeps telling me that he is "sorry" and all kinds of smoke up my ass. The 4th time i call Verizon, which is at 4:30 pm, i finally ******* find out my account is suspended until payment with credit card. AT 430 PM, the end of the business day. So i get the billing dept, and pay those fuckheads by credit card. Im told the service should be back on by the end of the night.

 

Come Friday, no service. I call them at least every 1-2 hours. They cant ******* do anything right by this point. I miss a sale on ebay ive been waiting to win. I find out that my issue hasnt been addressed, and that it would take 48 hours to resolve. I told the moron to blow me, and i hung up. I continued to call them numerous times throughout Friday.

 

Come Saturday, no service. I call Verizon, and some moron has the nerve go through the technical troubleshooting steps with me......again. I RUN 2 ******* WEBSITES AND BUILD PC'S, I KNOW HOW TO RESET MY ******* MODEM!!!!! Then here is the lowshot, she tells me the 48 hours required to fix my service, does not include Saturday and Sunday. Well thats ******* great, those impotents get a day off while the customer suffers? I keep calling all Saturday until around midnight.

 

Come Sunday, no service. I called, and called, insulted, had pops call, insulted, called, called, called, and called,...all day long. Nope, no way they can turn my service back on until AT LEAST Monday. Then the bitch has the nerve to say there is a 2nd suspension on the account because we failed to report this DSL is connected at a BUSINESS location. WTF? My place is as residential and housy as it gets!!! I take care of that by being transferred to a supervisor. I tell him he can come sniff my dogs shit on the grass, and come over for Filet'de ******* mon if he pleases. Got that removed from the account.

 

Come Monday morning, no service. I call them and really let loose this time. The woman says she is going to "escalate" my "technical issue ticket" to a "higher" level of technical support. I tell her" ****, any higher and ill be with jesus, and guess what, he dont like you, because he told me himself". She had the nerve to laugh, maybe she found it funny, i sure didnt. I also told her that if i spoke to the same person every single time i called, they would have quit Verizon, left early, and went home to kill themselves". Finally they get the ******* point, and turn my service back on around 2pm, pacific time.

 

I strongly recommend that if you have Verizon, go somewhere else for your service. If you are looking for broadband, go hight, like cable, or with another company.

 

Charter Cable is going to be here at my place on Wednesday. Good bye Verizon.

[johnc]

Had a similar problem in late 2002 with Verizon. Their billing department mistatekenly cancelled our DSL service after being with them (GTE prior) since the old ISDN days. When it went out, I called and they said that we had cancelled the acocunt. After further discussion they determined that we had not contacted them for 2 years and had no record of us calling to cancel. Unfortunately I was told (by the billing department manager) that we would have to re-establish service and it would take two weeks. We signed up with Earthlink and after a couple letters to the CPUC and the FCC I received a $250 credit from Verizon.

 

FYI... never get angry or emotional while takling to vendors. It doesn't work. Just be calm, rational, and very insistent. Don't hang up, make them hang up on you.

[auxilary]

what john said. sometimes it also pays to be snide and sarcastic, corner them and let them dig own hole with poor customer service. don't wait for support, just go "manager. now"

[johnc]

Yeah, don't bang on the customer service rep. They often have no power to help you and are stuck on the phones listening to dozens of pissed off people all day. If you're polite, patient, and have a sense of humor you get them on your side. Often they will go out of their way to help and sometimes give you the names and extensions of people you should "really" be talking to.

 

Also, many support centers are based in India. Remember, these people are 13 hours ahead of us here in PST so keep that in mind. When you think you're talking to a customer service rep located there, ask what their real names are. They are often required to use a psuedonym. By using their real name you might be able to develop a rapport and learn a bit more about how things really work.

 

Use the customer service reps as internal informants on the company that's messing with you.

[Guest nezzie76]

I work for Comcast in the call center and I can vouch for what johnC says. I get plenty of "trouble" calls during the day and what JohnC says to do is definately the best way to deal with it. Calling back numerous times and calling people names may be satisfying, but in the long run it most often won't get you crap.

I try to help angry people but it can be difficult at times. Many people aren't really looking for an answer and just want to be nasty. Frankly if someone is verbally abusive I won't work with them and I stick strickly to policy. It's the customers that I can empathize with that I will go out of my way to work with.

My wife still has to learn how to deal with call centers. She gets really mad about something so then she calls them and is abusive, and VERY rarely does anything get accomplished, so then I have to call back to get the problem resolved ( that's why I do the bills )

I'd say the best way of dealing with the MANY problems that you would have to call a call center about is to just be as calm as possible. When I get heated up I wait for awhile before calling. Also try to get the rep to be on your side, even if the can't help you they will be more willing to find someone that does.

[Guest ZmeFly]

I was with them for a year and a half and actually problem free for that whole time, only had one disconnect for a day thats all.

 

Well one day just out of the blue they tell me I have to start using a credit card. I ask why and they tell me well we have no proof your paying us.

 

I said to them well Im paying my phone bill every month arent I. Uh well we have no record of that. So ok, you cancel my DSL but keep my phone on though you dont have a clue as to whether Im paying you or not?????

 

I let them cancel f@ck em.

 

Im getting cable.

[Guest Kelsey Mitchell]

i work in a telco call center and i can tell you, while it is all good to vent, aiming it at the reps on the phone will get you having less than what you want. There are two ways of doing everything, the correct way and the customer way, one is quicker and will be what you want, the other one is A LOT slower, but the rep is still following company policy so they cant get busted. Also in NZ you abuse the telco's reps and they will disconnect you, you do it again and they will do a permenant diconnect and inform the other telcos why we arent providing service. This is a black list that is VERY hard to get off of!

[gramercyjam]

Oh my. So there is a correct way and the customer way. Mere words fail to describe how completely twisted that notion is. I suppose everybody has some Dilbert cartoon posted up in their cubicle proclaiming all of your customers are morons too. It wouldn't suprise me. That's just how customers are usually treated when they call about a problem. I can recite story after story. Telcos, computer companies, car dealers, lawn and garden stuff, it doesn't matter. They are all out to part you from your hard earned dollars. Once that has been done, they could care less. In my experience, customer service has one purpose and that is to make sure you never call again.

 

 

 

Oh and if anybody should be blacklisted, it is the companies that are sending the thousands and thousands of US jobs to India.

[Guest Kelsey Mitchell]

oh crap, on re-reading that one I see it looks really bad. What I mean is that in every time someone calls and starts to abuse the rep, that rep is not going to make it their priorty to make sure the customer gets what they want. THey are going to try and get that person off the phone ASAP. Now when someone calls in saying "look i am really pissed here, can you fix it" that is ok and quite cool. It is when they come on with "look here you little@#*&, fix my F*cking phone you usless *()&)*(". THat is when the customer service experience will be terrible. Just for the plain fact that the rep will want to get that off their line. As Nezzie76 said, if a customer just wants to be nasty, the rep DOENST have to work with them.

 

Sorry my previous post came off wrong, didnt read before posting, also what is meant by being blacklisted is that if you are continously abusive to our reps, we will warn you and if you keep it up we will stop providing service, and inform the other telcos that this is the reason that we have done this.

 

Cheers!