Customer service feedback

[blinknow]

Early in this year I was surprised to see my bill increase. When I called customer service for an explanation, the rep explained that the credit for my automatic payment was reduced by $5.  I told her that this was done with no prior notice or explanation;  that this was unacceptable, and that I was going to switch to another provider. She offered to change my plan to Unlimited Welcome to lower my bill.  However, she didn’t inform me that this less expensive plan includes exclusively deprioritized data. 

Last month we were in London, UK.  At numerous times we found ourselves in a very crowded place with no useable service, resulting in extreme frustration and difficulties in our activities.

Shortly after returning home, I called numerous representatives to find out why this happened.  None of them offered  a plausible explanation.  I can only assume they didn't understand that the answer to my question is that Unlimited Welcome includes exclusively deprioritized data.  I had to figure that out myself.

I switched our four lines to AT&T, taking advantage or their offer to pay off the balance on two of the phones that weren't paid off yet. Understandably,  Understandablly AT&T requires a copy of my final bill from Verizon as proof of my liability to pay off these devices.

However,  I  couldn't get access to my account because I’m not a customer anymore.  I called customer service, and the rep told me he would send a physical copy of the bill via USPS.   Thus far he hasn't done that.

So today I called customer service and requested the bill be emailed to me. This rep informed me he was not able to do this because "the system doesn't allow it."  He told me he would email the information about what I still owed on my devices, that he had done this many times before, and that this would fulfill AT&T’s requirement.  No such email has yet arrived.

I  drove to a nearby Verizon store, and demanded a printed copy of my final bill, which I received from him. So does "the system allow" this to happen, or not?

I hesitate to believe any of the phone representatives I mentioned here were anything less than well-motivated in their efforts to adequately respond to my reasonable requests. I strongly suspect they were not trained adequately.

There are other examples of ignorance and misrepresentation of Verizon's reps that I don't have time to describe here. I  have hopefully written enough here to validate my complete absence of any regret whatsoever in leaving Verizon.

By the way, I was a loyal Verizon customer for 19 years.. I strongly suggest Verizon expend more resources in providing acceptable customer service.

[SynthpopAddict]

There were a number of discussions about the autopay reduction several months ago; a form letter email was sent out to customers explaining it.  Maybe it went to your spam/junk folder or an email address you no longer use.

As for the CS, while many of us wish they still had it within the company and not outsourced, all the large carriers outsource their CS and getting inexperienced agents can happen anywhere.  My dad is a longtime customer of your new carrier, and when he lost his phone in the UK 2 years ago, requiring an international call to their CS, he got someone who didn't even know what an IMEI was.  It took a few more international calls before he got someone to provide the information (never mind his vacation was pretty much trashed since he was stressing over the missing phone).

It's been my experience that cell phone service is like most other things in life: you get what you pay for.  We're all using the same network, yet there's 3 pricing levels for the postpaid plans, 3 (lower) pricing levels for prepaid plans that have data included, and a bunch of 3rd party discount carriers (even cheaper) who also use Verizon.  While the fancy plans have some bells and whistles attached, what you're really paying for is priority on the towers.  I've been with 2 other carriers besides Verizon, and it's the same thing elsewhere - if you don't pay as much, your service isn't going to be what those paying more are getting.

But I don't work for any mobile carrier, and everyone's got their reasons for being with one company or another, so if things are better elsewhere, then wishing you the best.  Watch out for the autopay reduction Blue Logo Place is doing; I saw it in the fine print of one of their ads when they tried to poach me a couple months ago. 😉

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello blinknow, we want to help review your information about your final bill. So, we can better assist, we will be reaching out via Private Message.

-Sarge