New Low In Verizon Customer Service
On Wednesday I came home to find my Internet had been disconnected due to non-payment. Interesting given that I thought I was making the payments. I have paid every bill I received from Verizon. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so frustrating.
Yes I have the network.
See all those people who are supposedly supporting me? I spoke with probably half of them before I got my problem resolved.
Do you remember the fable about the blind men trying to describe an elephant? That is what trying to get a problem resolved with Verizon is like. Each customer service rep can only see a small part of the problem. It was so aggravating.
I just about got to the point where I was going to say to hell with them and just get a new provider. I was thinking it would be faster.
This is what took place over the 3 days.
Day1:
I was routed to seven different people and given five different phone numbers to call. I was routed to India twice and to two of the same people twice.
One of the people in India kept referring to me as ma’am. And we had an atrocious time understanding each other. I had to spell my last name four or five times before he got right.
The last person I spoke with on Wednesday said my account was indeed delinquent. She couldn’t pull it up and explain the problem because I couldn’t give her the correct account number. Pretty hard to do given that I have never actually received a hard copy Internet bill.
She said she would send me a bill and I could then call back. Yes, I know very helpful. I wait until I get a bill snail mail and then try to resolve it.
Day 2:
I went to the library and logged on to myverizon and got what I thought was my account #. It was hard to tell if my Internet was actually on that bill.
I came home and started calling. After almost an hour and 4 more people I ended up with Jessica. Of course they don’t use their real names. Jessica told me I was owing $229 and of that $169 was past due. She told me I could pay up and have my account reactivated within four hours. The problem is she couldn’t do that over the phone with a charge card. Nope! I need to do it on line or via the telephone automated system. Pretty hard to do since the account # seems to be in question.
She gave me the account number. She then decided against having me pay online. She said there seemed to be a land line associated with my account and she didn’t want me paying a bill and it actually not going to the correct place. She said she would activate my account as a “courtesy”. She then gave me another phone number and told me I would need to call them the next day to resolve the problem. She said to call first thing in the morning because she wasn’t sure how long my account would stay activated.
At least she was able to do something.
Day 3:
On day 3 I called and spent about 30 minutes with three different people and being disconnected once. The second person was Ron and of course was in India. He pulled up my account and gave me the number. He said it showed active, no land line and the payments had been received right along. He seemed to have the correct information as to when I started, when the payments were received, my account login etc. He said they had received payments from my phone company yet I wasn’t on the one bill option. He then gave me a number to call for one bill.
I called one bill and I think I am now set up. But can you understand how I can be skeptical that anyone there really knows what is going on?
In the past I have been very happy with Verizon but now I don’t know. But they are all the same.
Three days, 2 1/2 hours and 14 different people. It is really astounding!
Tags: verizon customer service
July 26th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
That is annoying, we had a similar problem trying to log into our Cox account and pay our cable bill. Too bad Cox is the only cable provider here
July 26th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Uhm, sounds VERY familiar!
July 26th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I gave my real name when I worked for T-Mobile. Most of the time anyway. And they don’t outsource, but the job still sucked.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I used to work for a “customer service company” they were the “middle man” for about 20 different companies. One happened to be a Windows Vista Rebate. (If you got your computer during a certain time you could get a mail-in-rebate-free-copy of the new Windows Vista.) First of all I don’t know why anyone ACTUALLY wanted the new Vista with all the problems they had…but that was beside the point.
Windows made the rebate process so complex that only about half the people applying ever got anything. I was on the “elite crew” of people that dealt with “really really REALLY pissed off people.” Lets just say it took about 3+ transfers to get to me. I was the guy that was “special” and could deal with the angry people. Wanna know the secret? I ACTUALLY HELPED THEM!!! I didn’t just give them the run around. I actually got them what they were looking for. They would always be so happy that I “fixed there problem.” The truth was, I knew the loop holes and could get people what they needed when they really didn’t deserve it since they didn’t fill out the forms correctly.
Honestly though, they tried to figure out the complex forms, Windows just knew the system. The 300 other high school robots working with me couldn’t actually help a fly if they wanted to. I’m sure I helped “give away” about 1000 copies or more of Vista for free. It is funny how actually helping the customer out made me one of the top customer support agents. I enjoyed the job because I got to “stick it to the system” every day by working the system to give away free copies of Vista. If I would have put down the answers on the forms of what people really said… there is no way they could have been helped….I would just put down the answers I knew they really wanted to have said so I could get them a copy of the new Vista.
Of course getting the new Vista is just like the icing on the top…after all the hassle they would get their new product and it would just kill their computer. Haha…Window’s and all of the other big companies out there really know how to make money…whether it screws people over or not.
The solution to customer support robots that can’t help you….is get really mad, stay on the phone until they get you to the one that will actually help you. An angry person got what they wanted about 70% of the time. A push-over would get what they wanted about 10% of the time….the rest of the time they just got told “I’m sorry sur but I just can’t help you.” After working in the business you can quickly tell who is a push-over and who you really just need to help out to get them to stop calling you back.
By the way…I’m on Verizon too…I just try keep the most simple system as possible so they don’t screw me over some how. Hopefully all works out!
July 27th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Adam,
So here I was so pleased with my patience and you are tellling me I should have acted with more anger. As it progressed I would tell the next person everything I had gone through so they knew what I was up against.
I also wonder if when Ron checked things out on Day 3 and everything looked fine if Jessica, the last person I had talked to the day before, had gone in and worked some magic.
July 27th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
My guess is Jessica was that “special person” that knew how to get through the loop holes. Activating your account as a “courtesy”….sounds exactly like what I would say about 50 times a day. “Oh, well I will give you the Windows Vista as a courtesy for all the trouble you have been put through.” It is true that being patient but explaining that you have had the run around like 10 times can finally solve the problem too. Sometimes you just have to get lucky and finally get the “Jessica’s” of the world to answer the phone and help you out.
As a side thought….you would be surprised how many _______ there are in the world….especially ones that use Verizon Internet. I saw so many times that one name would be on like 5 accounts and the only problem was that someone on the inside got 2 accounts mixed up. My guess is that some lady in Northern Utah with the name _____ hasn’t been paying her bills for the past few months. You should just change all of your account names to “Red” that might help you from having to talk to too many Ron’s in India.