Customer Disservice

[engjoanna]

My Verizon land line cannot connect with certain numbers. Most calls go through, but some numbers—calls to my plumber and my mechanic, for instance—ring a few times and then give me a busy signal.

My real difficulty began when I tried to reach Verizon Customer Service.

My first call lasted just under an hour and a half: an hour and twenty minutes on hold and perhaps five minutes talking to a person. He took my number in case we were disconnected. We were indeed disconnected, but he never called back.

I found a contact e-mail form to write to Ken Dixon, the vice president in charge of customer service. A week later, I still have had no response from his department.

I tried phoning again. I was on hold for about ten minutes before the connection failed.

I was frustrated and exhausted. A friend called on my behalf. He was on hold for an hour before he spoke to human being.

The representative took my number and explained that running a check on my line would disconnect the call. He promised to call back.

As predicted, the call was lost, but this time the representative actually called back.

He said he had found the trouble with my line. The call had to be transferred to another department, which could fix the problem. That is when this call was irretrievably lost.

The next day my friend tried calling the New York headquarters number. It seems that Verizon is unable to answer its headquarters telephone on a Tuesday afternoon.

A recorded voice apologized for the failure. My friend left a message asking for someone—anyone—to call back, and we are still waiting.

I also tried another online route. I wrote that the problem involved a land line.

Verizon sent a computer-generated e-mail telling me where to find services for FIOS and wireless.

I know that service is overhead and companies want to spend as little on it as they can. But this level of incompetence is maddening.

This kind of disarray is what one would expect of a company on the brink of collapse.

The craziest thing of all is that this is a phone company that can’t handle its own phones.

[jonjones1]

Go here

http://www.dps.ny.gov

call them for quicker service. They have regulatory authority over verizon

they can get you the help you need.

[LawrenceC]

Hi engjoanna,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Please check your Private Message Inbox for a message from Verizon_Support. You can find your Inbox by clicking on your username at the top right corner of this page. Please direct all correspondence concerning your issue to the agents who will be assisting you privately.