Customer Service

[danatol]

Yesterday was a long day, as I had to engage with Verizon Customer Support for the first time.  A few months ago, I moved from Comcast (25 years) to Verizon, as I found Comcast's support lacking.  I discovered the grass is not always greener on the other side of  the fence. When they were installing home internet, I was assured by the technician if I purchased the 1 Gig, my entire house would be covered and would be super fast.  I pointed out that one room of my house, my office, was below grade.  He said no problem.   To be sure he  added an extender.  He assured me I would never have a problem.   Well my upload speed from my device (and my son's) are under 30 mbps!  The rest of the house is over 900 mbps.  I reached out to Verizon, and their own solution was to sell me more services.  I could pay $99 for a tech to come to my house to do some rewiring (not sure what rewiring costs was, the $99 was for him to come.) to relocate the extender or router,  I told him unacceptable, and he said I needed to talk to customer support.  He transferred me.  They repeated what he said, but gave me other options.    I could pay $15 a month for insurance  ($180+ annually) and avoid any coss; I could rent another extender (not sure where we could plug it in as no wires in the office) for $5 ($60+ annually) or deal with it. (I am not sure if customer support understood the situation,  I asked her four times, if she knew what below grade meant.  She avoided the question until I pushed it. )  I told her I didn't want to pay for anything.  I just wanted the "fast speed" that I was promised and had been paying for the last 6 months.   She put me on hold and came back.  She said she discovered and was adament that my extender was wireless and that I could just move it.  I tolder her it was hard wired, and she said it didn't matter to disconnect it and move to my office.  I disonnected it, and lost all internet service, and our call was disconnected. (Because office is below grade, my phone operates on internet. ) She did call back, and I explained that the internet was down.  She said she would work on it, and call me back again.  She didn't, but  someone else did called me back, and said I had to talk to tech.  When I said I talked to tech and I needed a supervisor.  He said he was one.  I started to explain the situation, the phone call was "disconnected;" I was then in my kitchen and not a dead zone.  I got a voicemail then that said that they were happy my situation was resolved , and they were calling to survey me.  I didn't need to call back.  My son called when he got home, as I was more than exasperated (at this point between wait times and poor service, I had invested 2.5 hours with no satisfaction or solution.)   It took him four times to get through, as the automated system (after several questions) kept saying situation was resolved,but they would run a test.  The test came back fine, and the automated system would simply end the call.  Finally my son found a way to get though, after what seemed like a million questions. The person he got through to, after close to 45 minute wait, was able to get the internet back up running.   She was going to talk to a supervisor to see about if they could wave the tech fee and get back to us.....that was twenty hours ago.  Some other support called, but hey were not up-to-date, and the thought of starting over at 7 at night was too much.

Other discrepancies....when we signed up we were told we would b eligible for a $50 gift card and home security set.  At the appropriate time, I claimed the offer.  We haven't received anything.  The card is marked as received and their is no mention of the security system. 

Is this typical?  I am thinking I should run back to Comcast, as I didn't have this type of issue with them.  And in hindsight, their customer support now seems ok.  I guess I wouldn't have been inclined to type this, if  someone said, "I feel your pain, and sorry you went through this."  

Having been  on hold for more than 90 minutes yesterday,  naviagating their website and talking to customer support, my impression is that Verizon is strictly revenue and sales (and especially upselling) motivated, and not interested in the customers' experience or voice.  Feedback please!

[kh-gary]

Hi danatol,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Please check your Private Messenger inbox for a message from a Verizon support agent. You can find your inbox by clicking on the envelope icon that appears at the top right corner of this page. Response times may vary and may be delayed at this time. Please continue to check your Inbox for a reply from a Verizon agent. Please direct all correspondence concerning your issue to the agents who will be assisting you privately.

[danatol]

So on January 13, I posted about how dissatisfied I was with my  I Gig speed, and how the customer support was horrible.  I was told it was escalated to an agent , who provided no answers.  Just stated what should have happened, which I had said in my post already hadn't.   I responded back with information mid-last week, and still no response.   Is Verizon just revenue focuse, and not care about customers?  Is it time to run back to Comcast.?  I wasn't crazy about their customer service, but I can say they always delivered in the end.

My guess is that when someone posts a negative email, they quickly put it is being rerouted to an agent to resolve.  This gives the impression that they value their customers.  However, once the conversation is taken offline, they simply give you lip service and ignore the problem.