I spent a good part of our vacation screaming at Verizon. Which I guess shouldn't be a surprise based on how well my first conversation with them went. See, they were supposed to turn off our phone and DSL line the day we moved out of the house and transfer new service to the new house in 30 days. Except they didn't. Our phone continued to work and I continued to call them. It took 8 phone calls to get our phone turned off.
Because that is hard. For the phone company. And then I came home to a bill. For next month. When we don't have service.
And when I called them to discuss the bill it was discovered that the moron who was finally able to disconnect the service canceled our entire account and canceled the order for new service. And it took 3 MORE PHONE CALLS to get new service set up at the house. All we want is internet service and it took 3 PHONE CALLS. And during one of the phone calls they had the audacity to ask me if I wanted to switch my wireless provider. Ah sure, because you have been so competent with everything else you have done. Someone else said to me, "I'm not sure what the problem is, this is always so seamless." CLEARLY.
Verizon, here is a memo. During customer service training, when a customer is irate because nothing has worked right and they have had to call you ten times, do not tell them it normally works just fine. THAT IS NOT HELPFUL. Also, not helpful, "I'm sorry you feel that way." NO YOU ARE NOT.
10 hours of my life I can never get back. Spent on Verizon.
You know what is helpful, free stuff. Maybe a free month. Or an apology. Because if I have to call you one more time my next phone call will be to Comcast I swear to G-d.
I'm putting 20 bucks on them not showing up the day we move in and I am blogless for at least a week. Anyone want to take that bet?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you kidding? I do not make losing bets.
There must be something in the water today, I had a customer service rant on my blog today too.
Augh!
So maybe I should not even bother ranting at them about the violent previews?
Incredible.
Augh!
So maybe I should not even bother ranting at them about the violent previews?
Incredible.
Also? I have never heard of transfer of phone service as being seamless. Phooey on Verizon.
Same thing happened to us when we moved, only I let my (at the time, new) husband take care of it. When all was said and done, I think we ended up paying for two months we weren’t there. Needless to say, I took over bills and dealing with discrepancies from then on.
If you think VZ is bad, you don’t want to go anywhere near Comcast. Verizon DSL techs are…iffy, but the FiOS guys know their stuff and actually seem to care, so if you have FiOS as an option at your new place, I highly recommend it over DSL.
I HATE Verizon. I think it is a pre-requisite that to work for any utility service in a customer service capacity you have to display a certain level of incompetence.
It’s true that every telco has problems but, I can’t really stand verizon’s problem, they should improve their service if they want to be in business for a long time.
Andy
http://bit.ly/JUrM9
I find it’s worth it to go to the Verizon store for service rather than rely on getting what I need from a phone call. Ironic, no? It’s not much better, but I’ll take every little bit. Also helps that their coverage is so much better than anyone else’s, at least in L.A. Too bad they don’t have the damn iPhone.
The thing that always kills me with Verizon is that when I’ve had to call about something, the person in customer service always says brightly “I see you don’t have FIOS TV! Can we interest you in it?” Yeah. We’ve have enough problems with Verizon and now you jerks want to take over my TV, too? I do not think so.
There is a special place in hell for phone companies. And Ikea “Customer Service”. Don’t even get me started.
We’ve had so many problems with our move, it’s ridiculous. The cable company has billed us incorrectly every month since we moved. We didn’t get a sewer bill last month, but this month we’re getting late charges. And the kicker is the power company who says they can’t verify our identity, so if we don’t provide proof of identification, ownership of the house, and proof of our social security numbers they’ll turn of the power on September 1. We just got this notice yesterday, so they’re giving us plenty of time to work with, of course.