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.
So glad I go to best buy. Walk in with cash, pay and 10min later walk out with an activated phone.
Thank you for sharing the experience that you had over the past few days, Takemymoneyplease. We do expect our customers to get nothing but world-class customer service when reaching out to us. We'd like to turn the experience around. I want to make sure that we're on the same page. Have you canceled your order that was being shipped out already (to your home address)? -Kevin
Verizon can't retain and incentivize good agents to stay. Push out insufficiently trained new hires that usually quit within the first couple months of hitting the call floor. Can't create an IVR to save their life. Provide atrocious tools for agents to use. And their backend is held together with bubblegum and some duct tape.
If Verizon could take it's wasted money from marketing, maybe their support wouldn't be a joke.
Personally, I suggest any customer to get their phone elsewhere. Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, unlocked from the manufacturer even. Anywhere but from Verizon's clown system.
I canceled my order, and was surprised to receive a phone meant for someone else, a stranger. I mailed it back at a cost of $14.00
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