Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
dirtydog785
Enthusiast - Level 1

Has anyone else begun to feel like Verizon has moved on regarding customer care and retention?  I imagine at some point you can have such a massive client base, the single fish in the pond is not relevant.  Reason I say this is due to an issue that happened yesterday and today.

I have been with Verizon for over 19 years - service has gotten expensive, but so has everything else.  Last night, I attempted to purchase an Apple Watch, and the system bugged out; it charged me and removed money from Apple Pay for the taxes, but it would not complete the order.  It actually tried charging twice, but fortunately, my Apple Pay was low on funds.  It would have got me had I been using my bank account.

I then connected to live chat and the agent got frustrated with me, and when I refused to pay the taxes "again," she disconnected the chat.  Nonetheless, I stayed on and 3 agents and 2.5 hours later, no watch and no resolution.  Still have my money, and I have no watch.  I have to say the remaining 3 agents were nice, but resolved nothing.

This morning, I decided to call and actually speak to a human being.  The Verizon 800 number kept trying to send me to chat, so the third call I pushed zero and thank god, got a human.  The first agent could not solve my problem, but was sympathetic to what I had gone through and connected me to another agent.  That agent finally put in a ticket to try and get my money back.  (Keep in mind, this really is not about the money, it has become the principle of the matter).  During my call with this agent, I expressed that I was likely to leave the company and go to another provider.  No real reaction - later she told me that once the money was refunded they could reprocess the order.  I again explained I was contemplating leaving the Company.  Her response: "Oh."  I then asked for her to connect to what their version of customer retention is.  (At this point it does seem obvious that there is not any significant training being done on customer recovery).

I am now at the 3rd agent of the day, 7th during this ordeal.  This gentlemen was very knowledgeable and was able to look at my account and figure out in under 5 minutes, what 6 other agents could not do in over 3 hours.  (Someone give this guy a raise and put him in charge of training).  He confirmed that everything has been done to get the monies refunded.  It was at this point it went from the "obvious" to the "absolute" no training or acknowledgement of customer recovery!  He was about to end the call, but I was still looking for someone to say, "Wow, 19 years, we are sorry and we will own this."  Anyway, I asked to speak to a Manager and he connected me.

I was on the phone for less than 10 minutes with manager.  Unfortunately, not a lot of skill set in customer recovery at that level either.  First, she kept talking over me and out of the 10 minutes, she did most of the talking.  I had to finally ask her to stop and explain to her that under most customer recovery models, you want the customer to express their dissatisfaction and get it out in the air so you can address.  She then actually said, "I am not sure I am understanding what you are looking for, are you looking for some type of compensation?"  WOW - if I wasn't defensive then, she dang sure made sure I went there.  I explained to her that I was not looking for compensation, but instead wanted someone in management to validate this as a horrible experience and they would own the matter.  That means, what are you going to do in regards to my complaint about the agent disconnecting on me, and provided me with some assurance that my 19+ years as a client is important.  It seemed like she actually did not get what I was trying to say, she then started going over how they would look at the tapes, talk to the Team Member, and coach them, but they wouldn't go after firing her (Who the heck said anything about termination)?  On and on she went - I finally stopped her and told her that it appeared we were not seeing eye to eye and to avoid me being rude, I was just going to end this call and decide where I would take my business.  She was "okay, bye."

So now I am going to wait for my refund and discuss with my wife actually leaving Verizon for one of their competitors.  Sad to think of doing that after 19 years.  I am laughing though - being asked directly if I wanted compensation in a tone that was negatively questioning me.  NO I did not, but now that we are on the discussion, my current job, I charge on contract $250.00 per hour and in this case I spent 3.5 hours trying to address an issue caused by the Company.  (This is a joke, I am not serious).

I am serious though about leaving the Company.  Hoping two things will happen here.  One, I will hear from other customers to see if this systemic with the Company, or just a one off and it was my turn.  If systemic, then maybe it really is time to leave.  I may be a small fish in a rather large pond, but I am okay taking someone else's bait.  Two, maybe between now and the refund, someone will make me feel better and valued for being a 19 year+ client.

Sorry for the long diatribe, but I do feel better.  LOL - had to come up with my own method of doing that.  

 

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
Jzim2020
Enthusiast - Level 2

They don’t value their customers. I gave up and have been slowly cancelling my services. Next month I will disconnect 2 more. Can’t get a hold of anyone and if you do all they can say is I’m sorry.  Can’t stray from the script and they can’t do anything.

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
9wood
Specialist - Level 2

I agree with you my own experience can show same supervisor just ignore any complaint and will hang up on you as do others it's there way or the highway as the saying goes they know nothing will happen to them and it shows I had one rep tell me we get paid regardless says it all I had one threatening me who barged Into my call to boot who took great joy in her threat and you guessed it got ignored very obvious to me that they don't care and just laughing at us

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
ggomm
Enthusiast - Level 2

I totally agree that they don't care. I had a similar experience 2 years ago and my mom had the same experience last week. We've both been customers for nearly 20 years. I don't blame the first line support, they have a script and they try to help but they don't know how. Neither do the people on the phone. It usually takes multiple chats/calls to resolve an issue wasting hours of both the customer as well as verizon's time. Imagine the money they could save on support agents by having fewer of them who actually solve problems instead of lots of them who mean well but cannot help and don't have authority to do more.

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Ggomm, receiving the assistance needed from a company I do business with is imperative. I apologize you have gone through this type of experience. I will be more than happy to turn this around for you. Please share with me some details on the issue you or your mom are currently having?

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
cakes2
Enthusiast - Level 1

No. Verizon does NOT value its customers. 

6 months ago, I called Verizon because I was not getting any service in an area where I always got service.  They claim they fixed the problem...but guess what, they didn't.

Today is Jan. 16th and I have been calling for weeks about the following:

- call fails (90% of the time)

- calls do not go through  (25% of the time)

- if a call does go thru, it drops within 3 minutes  (75% of the time)

- when the call does go through, the sound quality is so below par, it sounds like you're speaking in a tunnel. It's slightly better if you put it on the speaker (iphone 😎 but in NYC, if you're outside, you don't want people listening to you.

- I usually use my landline to call customer service. Boy, is that a waste of time. They hang up on you...with the exception of 1 person who said that I am not the only one to complain about call quality, call fails, unable to make a call. Then, of course, the call failed.

- I have a business account with a password. The CSRs claim the password to the account doesn't work. Why not?  We haven't changed it in about 10 years! They claim they cannot help me if the password doesn't work. Why not?  I have given you the company name, address, phone, etc. They have my phone number. I'm not ordering a new phone...I just want Verizon to work.

- It's rare that you can even understand a CSR. Most have such heavy accents, it's not worth making the call. I don't care where or what foreign country they are located in, but people here have to be able to understand what they are saying. (and yes, I've had some CSR whose accents were totally acceptable).

It's sad that the company pays for my phone. But what good is a phone if you can't make or hear or lose a call. I'm thinking of going to another carrier and paying for it myself...and will talk to the powers that be in the office about the problems.

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

@cakes2 ,

It's really sad that you feel that way, as we are here to help you, and making sure your services are working is important to both of us. If you are having so much trouble with calls right now, then who have you contacted for assistance? How far from this area do you need to go until it improves? You said that you had called 6 months ago, but what exactly was done at that time? You also mention that this is a business account that you are having issues on. That would require you to contact Business Support at 800.922.0204 (Mon-Fri 8am-8pm local time) for any account-specific issues, like these call issues, but do you have internet access where you are using your phone mostly? This is because Wi-Fi Calling is a free feature that you should already have active on your line, and uses an internet connection to transfer your calls instead of a cell tower: https://www.verizon.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/ . This has been used successfully in a variety of situations similar to yours, and is already included in all of our plans.

Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
dirtydog785
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have to say, we have decided to leave Verizon.  I made some recent Apple Watch purchases, so we are going to pay everything off over next couple months and then move to someone else.  Gives us time to evaluate other providers.  Doubt I will be any more valued, but definitely can’t get worse for 20 year customer.  But at this point I have to follow principle.  Interestingly, I find some humor in the fact that on my post, customer service has reach out to two other people on the thread, yet ignored mine.  That is either intentional or pure incompetence.   At this point not sure which one, but I tend to go with pure incompetence, as if it is intentional, it still falls into the incompetence bracket.  Sad state of affairs, but guess I will practice what I preach and walk and ensure I remain vocal to all of my clients, friends and family.  

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Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

We're sorry to read that you haven't gotten the help you need in regard to your concern. This issue with your device not getting ordered when you spoke to several agents is not acceptable. We also are alarmed to read that you were not given any clear plan as to how this bad experience would be addressed by our leadership team. We understand why you would feel like leaving us, since there was no accountability on our part for this experience. We thank you for being our customer for so long and we do not want you to go. We would like to get more information on this situation to address it, so send us a private note when you can.

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Re: Questioning if Verizon no longer values its customers
cakes2
Enthusiast - Level 1

I don't know how to send you a private note. If you provide me with instructions, I would be happy to "discuss" this with you.  I don't want to put in my phone number, but if you can get it, please feel free to call me.  You can also email me privately, as you should be able to get my email address.  I really would like to have a discussion, as I'm not the only one frustrated with Vzn - how you have let down your customers with sub-standard service and the fact that the business phone numbers actually go to the regular CSRs and then you have to tell them everything and only then get transferred.  "Business" don't work during the weekends/holidays, weekends are off-shore - can't understand well enough to get help, CSRs who don't know what gets "lost" when you are told to re-set Network settings, etc. etc. etc.

Let's talk!

debi