customer service experience

[HillM19]

Hello Verizon,

I, unlike those on this forum who have all had such wonderful experiences, would like to make you aware of the most UNPLEASANT customer service event I have EVER experienced. I had a simple request that turned into a complete disaster and NOT ONE person I spoke with was competent enough or cared enough to help me through it.

Long story short, ALL I WANTED was to add my wife’s Verizon account to mine. That’s all. Such a simple request. We made our first of at least 10 phone calls. We spoke with someone who said they could merge the accounts but first offered to sell us a new watch to go with my wife’s phone. Reluctantly, my wife agreed. HUGE MISTAKE. We called back after a week or so because at that point we hadn’t heard from anyone, the watch didn’t have service, and our accounts still weren’t merged.

We called back and the person we spoke with knew nothing about our previous transactions. We said, check the notes on our account that the last representative said they would jot down. “There are NO notes on your account,” said the representative. Just pause here for a moment. We spoke with SEVERAL call center representatives AND supervisors, multiple times and NO ONE EVER wrote down ANY notes. We asked every phone call to have them look at the notes and the response was the same – NO notes. We got disconnected several times after literally HOURS of being on the phone. “Please call us back,” we would say – NO ONE EVER DID. We would even call back immediately and ask to speak with the person we were JUST speaking with. That person was either not available suddenly, or they didn’t know who that person was. WHAT???!!!

Back to the story. We followed this pattern over a few MONTHS’ worth of time. We WASTED COUNTLESS HOURS on the phone. Someone would tell us they could make it work. Then, after an hour or two of back and forth, they would say they CAN’T do it but we’ll look into and call you back in a few days. NO RETURNED CALLS EVER. We always had to call back in and restart the process from the beginning EVERY TIME.

The watch was supposed to have service by itself (separate from Bluetooth). It didn’t for at least a few months. BUT they were happy to charge us for the service every month even though we didn’t have it! Also, during this process, our bill was different every month with NO EXPLANATION for why. We would ask what changed? What are they charging us for? They FINALLY got the accounts merged but were STILL charging my wife’s old account the whole time. They hadn’t shut it down, but they were happy to charge us for both accounts even though THEY were supposed to shut her old one down! NO ONE has given us our money back for that either! NOT ONLY THAT, but when we said we were cancelling our service they said they were still going to charge the full amount for the watch, even though we traded her old watch in for a $180 credit. I said I’m not paying the full cost for the watch, and they said they don’t give refunds for the credit. I said I wanted my watch back then (that we had already mailed to them). They said we won’t be able to find it. SO, THE PLAN IS TO TAKE $180 from me IN ADDITION to all my FRUSTRATION.

If I had to guess we spent an easy 40-hour work week total on the phone waiting for literally NOTHING to be accomplished. FINALLY, they figured out how to get the watch cellular service - right after we committed to another carrier and decided to CANCEL OUR SERVICE with Verizon. I was with Alltel when Verizon purchased them in 2008. For 16 YEARS I have been nothing but loyal to this company since then and this is how they repaid me. When we asked how they were going to compensate us for the ridiculous amount of time we had wasted with their completely incompetent call center personnel they said they would give us a discount – which turned out to be the customer loyalty discount. WHAT???!!! Shouldn’t I have already been receiving that for my years of loyal service???  NOPE. Just another SLAP IN THE FACE. Compensate me with the discount they had already withheld from me.

The only competent person we were able to work with was the representative who ended our service. LOL! Maybe that guy should be working in your regular call center, and you wouldn’t be having issues like mine. I will never return to VERIZON EVER. I’ll buy a Tracfone first. I’m appalled at how this type of behavior goes unchecked. We asked for someone above a supervisor SO MANY times and they all said there is no one else we could talk to. “Sorry we couldn’t help” was their viable solution to an ongoing problem they weren’t smart enough to resolve. That’s not a solution. Goodbye VERIZON. I’m not one of those people that leaves bad reviews for every establishment I come in contact with. VERIZON, congrats – you were the only one who has left a strong enough impression for me to take the time to write a review. You left me no choice.

[annelevine52]

I have been a Verizon customer for 23+ years.

The "Chat" system is now completely useless. They know that the representatives fail to follow through on their promises. They have now removed all capability to download or even copy from the chat box to document what they have told you.

I placed an order on 9/18 for a phone upgrade (pre-order, to ship 9/30).  Wanted to change the shipping address (hold at UPS office instead of delivering to apartment).  Chatted on 9/19 to do that and was told to wait until 9/23 for the order to get into the system.  On 9/23, I am now being told you have to change the address within 24 hours, so my first effort was on time, but now it is too late.

On top of that, even though the representative read back the apartment address to me multiple times when placing the order, it is wrong in their system and they can't change it.