Customer Retention or Customer Abandonment?

[WScott3]

You hear stories of how difficult Customer Service call centers can be and think "it can't be that bad..."  It is.  On three occasions I have spent over 1 hour on the phone with the Customer Retention department trying to renew/upgrade my service with Verizon.  I recently signed up my daughter (who moved into her first new house) with FIos Triple Play just like Dad had provided her with for the past 8-10 years at home.  Good news, it was MUCH less expensive for MUCH better service than Dad has been paying for so many years AND she gets a $500 Visa card!  Super!  So, Dad calls Verizon to find a reasonable way to either get the same deal or something close.  So sorry, you are not a new customer so you cannot get the same deal.  How about something close? Well, ok but there is still an $813 difference in cost over 24 months!  So, do I have to cancel my service and come back as a new customer to get a reasonable deal?  "That is your choice, sir"  WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO BE SO DIFFICULT?  So I call back a second and third time over a period of 3 weeks and now the price goes UP and the incentives go DOWN!

IS there anyone, any department, any hope of going just a little way to make a reasonable deal to retain a customer? Or is it too much trouble and easier to abandon that customer and hope that maybe he will sign back up later?  Maybe it will be just too much trouble to cancel the service?  Really?

IF THERE IS ANYONE OUT THERE THAT CAN GUIDE ME TO A REASONABLE RESOLUTION, PLEASE RESPOND!

[Anthony_VZ]

Verizon has always offered premium pricing to new customers and have done so since the inception of FIOS. This is a basic marketing technique for the acquisition of new customers. I am sorry that you are no longer within your promotional period and were unsuccessful at getting back into it. The only department within Verizon that can override costs is the retention office. I am sorry that they were not able to give you anything close to what your daughter is getting. Before canceling and reordering though, I would double check to make sure that you would even get new customer pricing at that point. Because when new service is added, they will run the regular credit check they do with all new sales and see its already been run on your social already and might not even give the new customer rate. I am not too sure, which is why I suggest double checking before doing anything.

[WScott3]

JUST CURIOUS...was that response addressing my plea for assistance in obtaining a reasonable resolution? Or was it just a not-so-veiled warning that Verizon will go to great lengths (searching CREDIT REPORTS for prior inquiries) to ensure that an exsting, LOYAL, decade long customer does not cancel service and obtain better pricing by re-subscibing?

Help me out and point me to the sentence where you are either assisting with a resolution or pointing me in the right direction?

[WScott3]

Hello.  Is this thing on?  Can anyone hear me?

[somegirl]

---

@WScott wrote:

Help me out and point me to the sentence where you are either assisting with a resolution or pointing me in the right direction?

---

---

@Anthony_VZ wrote:

Verizon has always offered premium pricing to new customers and have done so since the inception of FIOS. This is a basic marketing technique for the acquisition of new customers. I am sorry that you are no longer within your promotional period and were unsuccessful at getting back into it. The only department within Verizon that can override costs is the retention office. I am sorry that they were not able to give you anything close to what your daughter is getting. Before canceling and reordering though, I would double check to make sure that you would even get new customer pricing at that point. Because when new service is added, they will run the regular credit check they do with all new sales and see its already been run on your social already and might not even give the new customer rate. I am not too sure, which is why I suggest double checking before doing anything.

---

 *points*

[WScott3]

Thank you?? If you had read the initial post as carefully as the unhelpful Verizon response you would have noticed that I have spoken to "Customer Retention" several times for over an hour on each call, to no avail.  But, seriously, you've been really, really helpful.

[somegirl]

---

@WScott wrote:

Thank you?? If you had read the initial post as carefully as the unhelpful Verizon response you would have noticed that I have spoken to "Customer Retention" several times for over an hour on each call, to no avail.  But, seriously, you've been really, really helpful.

---

He stated that Retention is the only department that can give you a better price, and apologized that they can't do it. What else are you wanting? If they're the only people that can do it, they're the only people that can do it.

I did read you initial post, and the ones following. That doesn't change the fact that there isn't anything anyone on this peer-to-peer support board can do to get you a better price.

You don't get new customer pricing as an exisiting customer. This is the way of the world. Example:

You start a lease at an apartment and they give you a free month. You've lived there for a year, and you get upset that all of the new tenants are getting free months, too. You already got your free month, but now you want another one. How much sense does that make?

Feel free to switch to any company you can find that doesn't do exactly the same thing. Best of luck.

[WScott3]

Once again, your comprehension skills are lacking..... 

1.  I put out the request for guidance to a reasonable resolution on this p-p board.  Perhaps there is a "peer" who has obtained positive results via different means......also, this is more than just a P-P board, it is monitored by Verizon staff who are there to assist with resolutions.
2. I am not a 1 or 2 year customer asking for new customer pricing, I am an 8-10 year customer who fulfilled his 2 year contract with special pricing and have remained at higher pricing for an additional 6-7 years.  Pretty good payoff for Verizon's initial "new customer" offer, I'd say.
3. It is unreasonable for a new customer to take advantage of an offer/bonus and cancel after the 2 year contract or expect to immediately receive the latest new customer bonus....It is NOT unreasonable to work with a customer that has paid in excess $16,000 for services over the past 6-7 years and come to a new contractual agreement.

So, if you had actually read my post with comprehension you would certainly not have offered up your completely off base example of the apartment rental.  But again, thank you for your exceedingly valuable input, really.

[Ottlane]

Some girl, you are kidding me with your response, right?

[nitroboy1]

Cox is offering me a couple of very nice incentives to come back to them with out a contract and saving some money every month to boot. Dish network is really offering the best deal though to cut Verizon loose and save some bucks too!  I just check with verizon retention and experienced the same thing as you. I dont agree with Verizons policy but there are other options out there. I will probably take advantage of one of them in the next week or so and my contract isnt up for another year. I did a renewal a year ago to get better pricing but now the competition is even offering financial incentives to compensate for breaking a contract. For those that remember Ma Bell, they were so big they got away with all kinds of stuff. Verizon is at that point now and they will change or change will beat them down.

Good luck!