I called yesterday to upgrade my phones. I thought it would be a simple issue. Was I ever wrong.
First and foremost I want to say every agent I talked to was totally friendly and very helpful. However, the hoops I had to "jump through" made me begin to wonder if it was even worth it.
This makes my 3rd or 4th upgrade, I am not sure which, but things have changed big time since my last upgrade 2 years ago.
Not only have they changed a few things that were promised to me from the beginning, but how they do business has changed. And I must say, not for the better from my experience.
I won't even address the "broken promises". Those have been already addressed in many posts here in the Forum so I know I was not the only one that has issues with "broken promises". So I won't "beat a dead horse" as the saying goes.
This discussion concerns a totally different topic.
As I said, when I called yesterday, I thought my issue would be simple one. By the time it was all said and done, I had talked to at least 6 agents. Took over an hour on the phone. I didn't time it, but my wife said it was close two hours.
Always before, when I signed a new contract, I only talked to one person. They handled everything totally.
Well I started off talking to one agent. I talked about two upgrades I wanted and I talked about wanting the Rhyme. But to get the Rhyme, I had to add a line. OK. I know that is what is advertized but this was the first time I had seen that kind of requirement from VZM. She did try to help and she went to her supervisor and asked it that could be waved. After she returned (about 5 minutes) she told me no it could not be waved. She said my only option would be to add a line and then have one of the other lines disconnected. Which that is what I had planned on doing. It would have made it much simpler to just wave the requirement. But NO. In their "infinite wisdom", the upper level of VZM has decided to make it harder on their customers.
I got my free phone. But had to talk to two more departments. #1 a department to add another line, and #2, another department to disconnect a line.
My upgrades that I wanted on two of my lines were the Droid 4. The first agent started doing the order and when she told me the price, I advised her that the price was not $199.99 according to the website. They had dropped the price to $169.99. The agent said she was sorry, she didn't have that price. She had to transfer me to "Telesales" so I could get the online price. Another agent.
I had to explain all over again what I was trying to do. The first agent explained it to an extent, but I had to go over it again. I guess the second agent didn't fully understand. She was as I was, confused. She couldn't understand why I couldn't get the Rhyme free for one of my other two lines instead of having to add a line then do away with a line. She told me that she had never seen VZM do such a requirement on a free phone. I don't know if they have of haven't myself. As I said above, that is the first time that I have ever run into this issue before. She, along with me, thought that was very complicated. She also checked with her supervisor which she got the same answer as the first agent.
This whole process went on for many more minutes. As I said above, after it was all said and done, I had talked to at least 6 agents. And I was on the phone for almost 2 hours.
Yes, I know VZM got JD Power award for customer service. That is not as big of an issue as they would make you believe. I have worked for companies that got that award. I will be the first to admit their services had lots of room for improvement. But that is a side story that is not important.
I have done business with AT&T in the past and their customer service was horrid. I said I would never go back to them. But I do have to say, VZM with their requirements, broken promises, loopholes you have to jump through, and other issues going on, might be getting very close to AT&T's horrid customer service.
If that happens we the customers will be the ones paying while VZM gets richer and richer. Yes, you have to make a profit to stay in business. But way too many companies today have forgotten that without the customer and it's support, there would be no profit.
VZM, PLEASE get back to what brought hundreds of people to you. Your great customer service.
