To the poor customer service representative reading this. I know it's not your fault. I'm not trying to be mean to you. Nor do I want anything from you. My problem isn't with my account. My problem is not something you can even influence, let alone solve. My problem is that Verizon, a company that has been providing various services on a massive scale for years, has grevious problems with their website and customer accounts. It is frustrating to see such poor implementation in your systems. Where is the Quality Assurance? Where is the automated testing? I am not exploring the rarely touched depths of the website, I am doing a routine transfer of service. It's so common, there's a helpful link to it. And yet it has been an absolute mess. I've had better experiences changing my address at the DVM, than I have had changing it with Verizon.
Here's the problem with complaining to large organizations. Whom do I blame for the momumental failure that is your user account system?
Is it management, who aren't punished by the market for their terrible ideas because they basically have a captive audience?
Is it bad lead developers who don't know how to properly implement a web service, even though that's basically a solved problem at this point, especially considering the ubiquity and simplicity of a basic account managing system?
I don't know who should be ashamed, but somebody should be.
Here is what I wanted.
I wanted to move to a new house.
I wanted to transfer my service over to said new house.
I clicked the button that said "moving to a new house?"
I was then taken to create an entirely new service, completely dissociated from my existing account.
When I tried to find online assistance, there was none to be found. I cannot find an email address to which to write a detailed explanation of my issue. There is even a little 'chat bot', which is nothing more than a simple menuing system implemented like a 'choose your own adventure'. That is a terrible idea.
But now, and oh yes it does get worse, but now I am trying to create a new account. See, I need a new account for that new service I added. Because it's completely separate service. Because trying to move my service did not work.
So I log out of my current account. And I click register new account. And low and behold, what do I see? "Hello, Jenkins, please login with your credientials". I'm sorry, what part of 'LOG OUT' was not clear? What part of "I want to register a new account" was not clear? Why is the website recognising me and asking me to log in, preventing me from creating a new account?
Well apparently, it's because something at Verizon is caching my IP address and using that to recognise me. It can't recognize me if I change my IP address using a VPN. I don't know exactly what vulnerabilities this introduces, but I'll bet there are tons. What happens if I spoof my IP? Will I be able to hijack someone else's account, because the server cached the IP? I almost doubt it'd be that simple, and I'm not malicious enough to try it, but you better believe I am not happy when I discover that my ISP is caching my IP address to act as an ID.
I am posting this forum post without having logged in. Lets see if it makes the post under my name. That would be an interesting vulnerability test. (edit.. it did not work)
Worst of all, I have no idea how to actually contact somebody about this. There is no email I can find on the website. I don't even care if it's somewhere on there, the fact that 'Contact Us' does not have a clear and obvious form for emailing customer service is rediculous. I am reduced to making a public complaint on the forums, because Verizon cannot be bothered to do any form of customer service beyond phone calls.
I will repeat, just to be clear. Do not touch my account. Do not change anything. I am closing this account and making a new one. I am not asking for help, I am making a formal complaint, one that I know will be ignored but I feel compelled to write anyway.
