My name is “John Smith” and I was a loyal customer with Verizon for more than 20 years. For years, I recommended Verizon for its network capacity, reliability, and service. Sadly, I recently decided to switch to a competitor carrier, and while I may change carriers again in the future, I’ve determined that there are numerous factors that will prevent me from ever returning to Verizon. I’ll not focus on the initial impetus for my decision to change carriers except to say that I, like many before me, finally decided to take advantage of all the benefits of being a “new” customer. While I don’t necessarily agree with it, I recognize and acknowledge that it is the nature of business, particularly within publicly traded organizations, to prioritize marketing for new business over the retention of old customers. I understand this focus for Verizon and If that were my only grievance, I never would have composed this letter. It is all the misses and issues before and after the switch that I believe need to be brought to your attention.
As I noted to begin, I was a loyal Verizon customer for more than 20 years. At the time of my change, I was paying for 6 lines of service. I realized that both of my children were using phones that were well past their prime and needed replacement and that my wife’s phone also was due for an upgrade. I still hoped to maintain my relationship with Verizon. So, I logged into the website, using my MyVerizon access, and tried to take advantage of the myriad “free” phone offers, only to find that I only qualified if I opened a new line of service or increased the price of my service and traded in a nearly new phone. I tried changing tactics, hoping to communicate with a specialist, and tried the “Chat” function in my Verizon app; unfortunately, on 3 separate occasions, there was no response for more than an hour as the “waiting for a representative” message simply stalled. Finally, I made the trip to a Verizon store, but the representatives there reiterated that, even with the knowledge that they would lose me as a customer to the competition, there wasn’t anything they could do for me.
With disappointed resignation, I turned to the competition and transferred my service. Once I ported my number to the new carrier, a whole new series of problems occurred. The first issue was my immediate inability to access my account. Even though I still needed to payoff several devices and make payments to the account, the access via website and app were both denied. Since I could not access my account remotely, I decided to visit a store to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, when I asked for assistance with this at the store, they informed me that only a “corporate location” was able to access disconnected accounts. This was not a kiosk in the mall, this was a free-standing Verizon store. There are no obvious indicators of which locations are corporate and which are independent dealers. When I found the corporate location, they were still unable to help me at the store. Instead they gave me a phone number that I had to call to pay-off my two devices. After 30 minutes of wading through dial-up menus and waiting for customer service, I finally was successful. Even then, though, I was not done, as my final bill had not been determined.
After a week or two, I received an email indicating that my final bill was now ready. There was even a link there that I could access to pay it off (Sign in to a disconnected mobile account). When I tried to use the link, however, I only received an error message that account information did not match their records. So, I once again trudged back to the Verizon store. I also recalled, at that point, that I’d used the Verizon credit card for more than a year and had over $50 in “Verizon Dollars” when I’d last checked. I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to use some of the bonus I’d accumulated. The representative at the store indicated that they were able to process a payment by cash or credit card, but that they did not have the ability to use Verizon Dollars and they again referred me to a customer service phone number to try for resolution. Once again, I worked through the system until I was able to speak with someone. The first 5 minutes was spent explaining what Verizon Dollars were, then next 25 minutes were spent trying to use the weblink noted above, using different names and phone numbers, even though he could verify that the number, name, and zip code that I was entering matched the information on the account. Finally, after another 15 minutes, much of it on hold while he conferred with someone else, he informed me that my Verizon Dollars were no longer valid because they were tied to the account that was closed. Surprised and caught totally unaware of this policy, I asked to be escalated to a supervisor to discuss my options. The representative said that he would be happy to do so and that he would transfer me directly to his supervisor; the next message I heard was a recording indicating that my hold time would be approximately 80 minutes. Not surprisingly, I hung up.
In summary, here are the factors that prevent me from returning to Verizon:
- A focus on new customers at the expense of retaining loyal customer base.
- Too much reliance on automated systems which creates three issues.
- Slow and/or no response from these systems with little recourse if they fail.
- Lack of knowledge from customer-facing employees who point to automated systems to resolve issues.
- Customer frustration as they wade through often ambiguous or irrelevant information.
- Extraneous Store Locations
- Its confusing to have corporate and non-corporate stores with different capabilities.
- The physical store should be the final option for a customer to be able to address any issue with their account. There should be a person they can speak with, face to face, to resolve ANY issue.
- Abrupt and dismissive treatment of disconnected customers; making it so difficult to conclude account business seems almost petulant. In a market that experiences so much churn, respect should be afforded these potential return customers.
