I am writing on behalf of two different CSRs. This is a letter of not only a complaint of one but as a job well done of another.
Here’s the breakdown.
On May 8th 2014 I called to speak with Verizon for my mother because she had a charge on her account for “ROAMING” in the amount of $105.57. The plan that she is on (it has now been changed as of this writing) is the DIGITAL CHOICE 300, which is a plan that she signed up with in 2005. She receives 300 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekends after 9pm and national long distance for $34.99 a month. Cheap, I know but she doesn’t use her phone very much. On average she uses about 250 anytime minutes and about 200 N\W minutes. She is not supposed to be charged roaming as long as she is in her network which is Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. If she has to leave the state to another that is not part of her plan she turns it off and uses it for emergencies only because she knows she will be charged roaming fees. This I am not disputing. That was in her contract that she read and signed. However she was charged during the bill cycle of March 5- April 4 $14.49 for roaming fees. Not a whole lot but still an inconvenience and a surprise. She traveled to Sisters, Oregon which is about 105 miles from her home (still in Oregon) and figured maybe she hopped onto someone’s else’s towers and paid the fee. Imagine her surprise when she opened her next bill and saw a charge for $105.57 for roaming. She had not traveled outside her coverage area and did not go over her minutes (she only used 110 anytime and 21 n\w). I understand that roaming charges can take up to 60 days to show up on your bill because they are coming from other companies. The only time she had traveled this year was when she went to Sisters during the previous bill cycle. She called me and I came over to help her figure it out. I downloaded her bill and looked it over. All of her calls came from our town or the county we live in. So I called on 5\8\14 @ 6:30 pacific time and was routed to the East Coast office which is 3 hours ahead of us. I spoke with Peter who at first was trying to be helpful and see why she was being charged roaming fees. About 30 minutes into the 2 hour call he tells me that she went outside of her coverage area, then he tells me that she went over her minutes. I had her bills in front of me and she didn’t go over her minutes and all of her calls were in her home area. I continued to question him and then he gave me another reason. She called outside of her area code…. What? Are you kidding me? I explained that she has had this plan since 2005 and has never been charged for calling another area code other than 541. He offered to change her plan and that seemed to be his other go to answer for everything when he wasn’t making up ridiculous reasons for roaming charges. He offered to credit $55.57 and that she could make payments on the rest. He also changed the code in her plan to where this wouldn’t happen again supposedly.
On a side note, my mother is very frugal and lives on a fixed income. She is also very careful and checks continuously where she is at on her minutes. If she starts to get too close to being over she just turns her phone off. She has a landline phone that doesn’t have long distance and mainly uses that for local calls. She calls us from her cell to tell us to call her back on her landline. 90% of her cell phone calls are to long distance phone numbers and last about 2 minutes which consist of “call me on my landline” and her hanging up the phone.
Back to the matter at hand.
I had said that this wasn’t good enough. Which to me, being a customer service representative at a retail establishment for over 16 years, isn’t. Some may be okay with this but neither my mother nor myself felt that way. When I had said that it wasn’t good enough and asked again why she should be charged for roaming freshen she wasn’t roaming he stated she would have roaming charges whenever she called outside of her area code and now prefix. I was floored and so angry I was shaking. I was not yelling or calling names although when he went on the spiel of the area code and prefix I said that was (removed) and I wanted to speak to a manager right now. He put me on hold and after about 10 minutes he came back on the phone and said all of his managers left at 11:00pm eastern and it was now 11:30pm eastern. He said he would email his boss and let him know what was going on and he would call me when he got in at 2:00pm eastern time. By this time almost 2 hours had passed while I was on the phone with this guy and I was ready to be done. I didn’t want to argue and make it worse by implying he was lying but I was pretty sure he was. Why would the managers not be there if someone is still taking phone calls? I was just irritated and figured I would ask the manager the next day when I spoke with them at 11:00 pacific time.
On May 9, 2014 at 10:45am Pacific Time I went over to my mom’s and waited for this Verizon manager to call. An hour and fifteen minutes later I called Verizon. I was routed to the office in Washington and spoke with Eddie. Let me tell you, he is fabulous and so is his supervisor (he wasn’t allowed to give me her name but you should be able to look it up since it was her number that approved the other credit). He listened to my complaint and immediately got his supervisor who said that it was a known issue and to credit it all right now. He fixed her plan, because Peter did not, to nationwide service and still have her paying the same. He credited her account the rest of the balance of $105.57. He confirmed my suspicions of all the managers being gone while they were still taking calls as not being true. He also told me that he would be filing a complaint on her behalf because of the previous phone call, the CSR’s lack of service, and the experience I had on the phone.
If it was not for Eddie and his supervisor my mom would have cancelled her long time service, which is not a huge amount to Verizon, but still a guaranteed amount of revenue for you.
The matter has been resolved. I am only writing this so you know of these two complete ends of the spectrum customer service representatives you employ. Eddie and his supervisor need to be recognized for their excellent customer service skills and quick response to the issue. Peter’s actions need to be addressed and for him to be held accountable for his lack of customer service skills and his actions that stem from that.
Thank you for your time,
Robin
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