Last Friday, I tried to upgrade my phone. After an hour, the rep gave up. She couldn't figure out how to sell me a phone. She said she would call me "later", which I guessed would be the following day. She said my guess was right.
That was my Friday evening with Verizon. No new phone, no conclusions.
I called Verizon the next day to cancel the order (if there was one). While trying to place a new order, I was told I had to do the following in order to buy the phone:
1. Back up all of my data.
2. Switch browsers.
3. Communicate on a laptop instead.
This new rep was punting, but I didn't realize it at the time.
So that was my Saturday. All day with Verizon, and still no phone.
Emails and texts began bombarding my phone. If I knew a guy named, say, Bob Verizon, I could show the emails and texts and get a restraining order.
All of them invited me to hurry and complete my order. But Verizon would not let me log in. I kept changing my password and trying to get in until I got the Big Red Orange Screen: Locked Out for 24 hours!
So that was my Sunday with Verizon.
I tried to resolve the problem in a simple way, by calling customer service. After 35 minutes on hold, I heard Verizon's cheery greeting. "How can't I help you?"
That department sent me to sales. Sales insisted I communicate with a laptop. A phone company cannot provide service on a phone. Sales, of course, knew how to make a sale, and through a complicated series of questions, I seemed to buy a phone.
I forgot to have it sent to my workplace, so UPS keeps trying to send it to my home. During the course of making the sale, I mentioned wanting to have the phone shipped to my workplace, but it was "too late!" of course.
Here is the kicker: Verizon acknowledges a "first" order only - the one that was too much for the rep on Friday night.
Where did she get my credit card information? I don't use a credit card to pay my monthly bill. And God knows I am not on a direct withdrawal plan - who knows what these blockheads would do with that! (Actually, I do know. They would pile on a lot of mysterious fees and yank them out of my bank account. Then, when I questioned the fees, I'd get the usual, "I don't know why, ma'am.")
I've canceled everything. I think Verizon pulls people off the streets and slaps headsets on them. The young woman on Friday night said, "It just won't let me do it!" Perhaps two dozen times. I used to train and work as a CSR for several companies in a "hub". If I had ever said something like that, I would have been summoned to my supervisor's office immediately. He would have said, "You need to be re-trained so you never say anything like that again."
Speaking of conversation, Friday's rep told me all about the weather in her area. I suppose she thought she was keeping me calm with her chatter.
If I spend any more time on Verizon, I think I'll drop dead from frustration. I am getting out.
