Seriously...customer service seems to have poor standards.
oldfashioned
Specialist - Level 2

I'm speaking in general.  Verizon is a good product and I think it winds up being a better deal over the long run with lower monthly rates for more channels being included in the package.  There is a difference in Verizion's TV picture quality too.

At the same time, calling 800-VERIZON can be a pain and I believe at least half of what I have seen posted here on the forums about poor customer service experiences.  I know now how it feels to be lied to and/or outright given wrong information.  This is a service we are paying for and I think that at least a number of these customer service reps need better training on procedures and just on how to talk to people.  It's even more frustrating at times when I get someone by phone with a heavy accent who is hard to understand and/or who wastes up to 25 minutes repeating the same thing over and over, arguing with the customer, and giving contradictory statements without being clear.  To me it seems no different from calling any cable company or just customer service from a lot of corporations in general and it's pretty sad.

My suggestion to other customers is to beware and scrutinize and question everything because you just never know when you will have a turn with someone who really doesn't seem to know what he or she is doing.  Last week, I was on line with a Verizon rep specifically asking about this Internet encryption upgrade from WPA to WPA2.  The transcript is there and I was specifically told by this gentleman that my current router doesn't support this WPA2 connection.  But I was also told specifically by this gentleman that I would receive a free new router and absolutely nothing was said to me about having to upgrade my entire service in order to get a free router.  I agreed to it and I received this email confirmation.  And I was specifically told that that this new free router would be sent via UPS.  It's in the transcript so there is no question of what I was told.  There is nothing worse than being told that and then told later there is no record of any such order being made.

So yes...days later there is still no router at my door and I called to ask for a UPS tracking number and that's what opened up the floodgates, only to find out that this conversation with a Verizon rep on line was all for nothing.  A free new router is only sent out when customers upgrade to Internet speed of 75.  Then why wasn't I ever told this?  My internet speed was left alone at 50.  And nothing is even mentioned about this on the on line service page or to say the least, it's very unclear.  This was after getting the run around and speaking to two reps in a row and finally a supervisor who was a little easier to follow. 

The other thing too is that I was going over this email confirmation in detail and I didn't understand it.  This was the email order confirmation I had received following this original online conversation about this false promise for a new free router.  I think a lot of what is in these on line orders and follow up emails is communicated poorly to customers.  I think you probably have to be working for Verizon to understand all of this.  I really didn't understand why HBO and Showtime were listed as "new" on top of the email confirmation.  It turned out that those were just options that have always been there before but I would need to subscribe to those services specifically to get charges for those.  Confusing.  But what was more confusing is that I had this "Epix" service tacked onto the bottom, free for 6 months and then coming with an additional fee of $17.99 per month, which I never asked for!  The supervisor I finally spoke to was trying to push that on me and I specifically told him that I don't want it period so he sent me an email confirmation confirming that that has been removed.  That was just wrong.  You don't promise a free item and promise an order and not put it through and you don't throw in these extra services that the customer never asked for!   I also had to make it very clear that I don't want any new router or any upgrades to my service.

So typical of a large organization where one person or division doesn't know what the other person or other division is doing.

But I also specifically told the supervisor to make sure someone talks to this rep and review the original on line transcript because maybe it really is somebody new who didn't know what he was doing.  I understand that mistakes sometimes happen but that's just not right.

I was also hounded with so many unnecessary questions and arguments.  "Oh but I see in my notes that somebody called you earlier today..." and I kept telling this rep that nobody called me.  I was here at home and nobody called me...still kept repeating and arguing.  How many times do I have to keep saying that nobody called me?  I want the same existing service I had before...."well then I need to know what you had before" but you have my account information right there!  When I wanted a supervisor, this rep had the nerve to ask me why I wanted a supervisor and told me she must know the reason in order to be transferred to a supervisor.  I'm the customer and I don't have to justify myself like that.  What am I, on trial?  Unprofessional.  I told because we were wasting a lot of time going in circles and that she was being rude and that's reason enough.  Stupid.  What's the point when you get someone like that who doesn't seem to listen? 

Even with the supervisor....mind you, he saw my name which is clearly a common male name....he introduced the conversation by calling me "ma'am" and I kept trying to tell him I'm a sir, not a ma'am.  It's my right to correct someone who is misadressing me like that and he just kept going on and on talking over me.  I felt like I had to yell to get him to stop so I could say something just to correct him.  Even with these two other reps I had before him, they spoke so unclearly and kept slurring their words together and going so fast that it was hard to keep up. 

So all of this wound up being such a waste of time over nothing...and all because I was promised something....a free new router that is not within Verizon's policy to offer unless we upgrade our services.  How was I supposed to know any of that?

I am the customer and so is everyone else who is posting here.  I think these reps need to be better trained on how to treat customers the way they would want to be treated.  It sometimes seems like they cover for each other.  Even this supervisor admitted to me that sometimes these new on line reps get nervous about what they're doing after only having a few days of training.  I've had better reps before but I give this recent customer service experience a big zero for lack of respect, poor training, and bad ethics.  And what annoys me more in situations like that is continuing to get so many apologizes in a row...being told to death how sorry these people are so, so sorry for any inconvenience...seriously, I'm not being dramatic but that itself winds up wasting more time too in the end when I just was a resolution to the problem so we can all move on.

And sure, we could move on to getting service from a cable provider but I don't have time to switch and it's not very often that I have to contact Verizon for anything.  Renewing my contract every 2 years is usually better but even then, it's time consuming and I wind up having to get help doing it with a rep on line so I don't get confused as I usually do with the "my services" page.  I feel like a lot of this printed information is put into terms that only a Verizon employee can understand.

Verizon, if you claim to be so highly rated in terms of customer satisfaction, how about valuing our time?

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