Billing, Purchasing, AND Customer Service: The Never Ending P.I.T.A

[Vbonk]

Looks like I’ve found a place where I’m not alone. I’ve seen a lot of posts here from people having, let’s just say, “a less than stellar experience“ trying to successfully do business.

My story...   An ATT customer with a large family and lots of devices. I was just looking to make the switch.  

To kick it off, I thought I’d port over two numbers and get two new IPhone 12 devices with unlimited plans. I want online and placed the order Nov 21st.

I just assumed that Verizon would be sufficiently skilled at selling phones and plans in a friction free manner.

Unfortunately I was wrong to assume Verizon, a leading cell phone provider, would make it easy to buy, um... cell phones from them.

I’ve spent hours and hours spread across many days and many support venues. I’ve chatted with them, talked on the phone with them, went over to a local corporate Verizon store, email too. I’ve spoken with a supervisor. All to no avail. 

It baffles me... they can’t get an order properly filled, yet they were able to quickly process their sale, on my card in an instant, so they are pretty good at getting money from people - it’s a great start I guess.

At first, it looked like everything might work out after one of the two phones arrived. Got it up and running as one would expect.

The second phone, well “we” aren’t sure...

1. I’ve been told it’s on the way.
2. I’ve been told it’s on hold because I haven’t paid Verizon a cent yet according to their records.
3. I’ve had to provide proof of their transaction on my card.
4. Had to ask them how they were able to send the first phone, with an extra $12 for expedited shipping/processing, if I hadn’t made a payment.
5. I’ve been passed from one support team/group/department to another and another.
6. A couple of days ago, on a two hour (yes, 2 hour) call ending with a supervisor telling me that it’s fixed, that everything is fine, there is a record of my payment and the order will be processed. No worries, the phone will be on it’s was soon.

Furthermore, this wasn’t done on a single call or anything. It took hours of effin around.

I check the order status this morning and lo and behold....

Order # 3086xxxx
Location code: N83xxxx
Order placed: Nov 21

“ Your order is on hold until you take action.”

“ Please resubmit your payment information or use a different payment method. Update payment information”

So I sigh, and I fire up another chat session...

A half-hour later, I’m dished off with the suggestion that I try a couple of other support teams, all of whom I’ve already communicated with...  

“you need to contact our CORE: 866-338-7390”
“You may also try our with our Customer Service: 800-922-0204 or *611 on your phone”

It’s like the twilight zone met ground hog day - every time we start over, and every time, it ends with support telling me to contact support. 

In an effort to break free from watching Punxsutawney Phil wake up day after day...
I asked the rep to contact the other support group(s) and tell them what we discussed and what they’re seeing in their system and get it sorted out. Either that or provide me with an admin login so I can figure it out myself and fix it.

I pointed out that since I’m not a Verizon employee familiar with Verizon support departments and their specific functions and workflows, perhaps they could sort it out without having to have me act as a project manager.

The response... “I’m in chat support, you’ll have to contact them yourself.”

Arrrggg!

It would be nice if they’d take ownership and fix their internal c.rap on their own and then just let me know it’s really fixed, that the phone is on the way, and they’re expediting it because they appreciate my business more than ATT did.

As it stands right now, my experience seems to indicate that Verizon and ATT are leaders in the “Terrible customer service and support” category. I was hoping Verizon was going to be better.