Incompetent Customer Service? Hang up and try again.

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Pro tip: If you find yourself in the middle of a heated conversation with terrible, confusing, rude, incompetent customer service representatives, it's best to hang up the phone and try again fresh from the start no matter how long you've been on the phone, and no matter how many times you've been transferred. Chances are if you had an incompetent rep help you in the beginning, you will be transferred to the wrong departments later on, and get all sorts of misinformation. The incompetent chain of reps will utimately waste your time and have you try calling all over again anyway. 

This is exactly what happened to me today. I called about an unauthorized equipment replacement. The first rep had no idea who ordered the replacement, and was even insinuating that someone either hacked my account or a rogue verizon employee placed an order without my knowledge. Then transferred me to a rep in department B.  The new rep explained that due to a faulty equipment I have, they automatically sent out a new replacement equipment, and that the old one will be discontinued. But to know which of the 4 devices will be discontinued, (and therefore, need to be replaced) or to get any specific info, I have to go back to department A (the one I just spoke to). I got transferred back to department A, and they told me they don't know, and to go back to department B. Then the new rep at department B, who is completely clueless, says I only have 1 device on file, which is clearly wrong. I said she must have made a mistake, becahse I have 4 devices sitting in front of me, all paid for, all with verizon logos on them. And she says no, only 1 is on file. She then suggested me to call the original phone manufacturer to find out more about my device!

Imagine that, a verizon customer that got sent a replacement equipment from verizon without any notice has to play a guessing game of which device is outdated. This call dragged on and on and became a 1.5 hr conversation with a bunch of incompetent, lazy, finger-pointing representatives that won't bother to pull up my device info list and just tell me a very simple piece of info. I have left out a lot of info in this post for brevity, but there were a lot of contradicting information between reps, and unhelpful, unreasonable advice. 

It's like if I went to McDonalds and asked for ketchup, and the staff all say it's not their job, transferred me to their kitchen worker, then to the cashier, then to the janitor, and then ultimately suggested I go to the Heinz headquarters and ask for some. 

I asked for their supervisor, and then they put me on a long hold. Frustrated, I hung up and called again. The new rep was a world of difference. Resolved my issue in 15 minutes. 

Verizon's employee training gap is huge. If you find yourself in a frustrating situation like this, I would advice to hang up and try all over again (make sure to pray to the Lord that a competent staff takes your call) rather than trying to talk sense into those that don't care to do a good job.