**bleep** Poor Customer Service

[POdConsumer]

I was with Verizon for 12 months and would have continued service for at least another year if my current location had Verizon access; however, after trying to deal with a finance issue that involved Verizon creating some sort of phantom account that had my one internet account divided into two individual accounts at close-out (a phone, of which I never had, and internet account, the one account I was only responsible for) I am convinced that I will never acquire their service again. 

Out of the 12 people that I spoke to, only 2 were even remotely respectful and concerned that my account was reported to collections for an amount that I was actully owed by Verizon on the account that I paid for 12 months and then owed the same amount to another phantom account that I never aware of.  Unfortunately those two were only able to transfer me to {please keep your posts courteous} who seemed upset with me for pointing out an error that Verizon made on my account.

It was even more sickening when I called the collection company to submit a formal dispute and found out (via undisclosed, but probably recorded, customer service) that when this has happened in the past Verizon took a certain course action to remedy it... This has happened before?!?! Why would a company continue to make the same error and risk the credit report of the customers that it supposedly values?

I quit a job because I thought it begged a lot of questions about my integrity. While I understand that the economy is tough, I question the integrity and social value of all of the less-than-helpful customer service people that addressed me over the phone and the company as a whole. 

What I have experienced over the past two days is a complete disregard for paying customers, and what I am sure is customers overall. I no longer have any regard for Verizon and the people it chooses to represent them, although I cannot speak on VerizonWireless. 

Let's not even start on the hoops and other digital malarkey I had to endure just to speak to a real person-- ironically, people who were just as useless. Verizon, you may be able to cultivate new customers via your deals and targeted marketing efforts, but you might want to work on actual stewardship that doesn't fall on the shoulders of your CSR department (another marketing ploy). 

[sickandtired2]

I HAVE BEEN ON HOLD FOR 39.29 WITH "SUPPORT" THIS IS THE WORST TECH SUPPORT ON THE PLANET!!!! HOW CAN A CORP AS LARGE AS THIS HAVE SUCH P*** POOR COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS?? IT IS NOW 42 MINUTES! I AM TOTALLY FRUSTRATED WITH THIS CRAP. i AM GOING BACK TO COX.

[Anthony_VZ]

POdConsumer,

Since we haven't heard back from you or have received a form submission as requested in your private support case, it appears assistance is no longer required. If you need any future help with your Verizon service, please make a post here on the forums so we can assist.

[smith6612]

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@sickandtired2 wrote:

I HAVE BEEN ON HOLD FOR 39.29 WITH "SUPPORT" THIS IS THE WORST TECH SUPPORT ON THE PLANET!!!! HOW CAN A CORP AS LARGE AS THIS HAVE SUCH P*** POOR COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS?? IT IS NOW 42 MINUTES! I AM TOTALLY FRUSTRATED WITH THIS CRAP. i AM GOING BACK TO COX.

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I'd hate to say it, but as a company grows larger and does not revamp their communication methods, communications start to break down. Being a person who works in IT (Datacenter-level), I can attest to this all too well, where I have to find documentation that should exist but doesn't and thus have to create it, or documentation that exists that cannot be found. You've got the human error aspect of the show, too. It's a sign of poor management at that point if it is not improved within a short while. Also, there is increased emphasis of volume and quality, however as the laws of nature dictate you have to balance between the two. Quality calls can take a small amount of time but in some cases you have to sacrafice time for well trained, well documented problem solving. It's the same way with employment. You can employ cheap, or you can employ quality. If you can find cheap and quality, then great but it's not going to happen often. It's the same reason why folks who are certified in networking or system administration often have larger salaries over a helpdesk position. You pay for quality. Now for HSI support, an essential skill should be network diagnosis (Know Ping, traceroute/pathping/mtr, MTU, What DNS is, DHCP vs PPPoE, know how to use a WHOIS page if unsure of who owns what, ideally knowledge of labeling, know Windows and/or OS X, etc) and basic skills on setting up devices such as modems and routers coming in the door.

Now more likely what you're seeing is in fact from a large call queue. If you've seen or have worked a helpdesk job before, you'll also find that folks call in about things that are completely unrelated to a supported problem and insist on getting support for it because it seems related, but also due to the communication issue above, supported problems are not resolved in a timely manner when helpdesk is done at a mass scale. Network outages take time to be communicated but I would agree, they need much better coordination in getting the information out, and less of the replace modem/blame computer deal. I've seen plenty of times where Verizon's own systems misreport the problem status, and at my own job I've seen plenty of times where someone is not able to reach something yet everything initially checks out fine when checked manually or automatically.

Just some insight as to what could be going on. I give every company the benefit of the doubt, but I also find it's best to not call during peak times if you have to call. Or, if you are able to just hop into a Live chat and wait out the queue.