Recent MCI to Verizon Residential Service conversion - Terrible

[WB3FSR]

Hi Folks,

It is my understanding that Verizon staff members do review the posting here. I hope that this is the case as I would like to share many issues that I have experienced to help improve the process and services offered by Verizon.

First, ALL of the folks that I spoke with were very pleasant on the phone including someone in India! This is about all the good news that I can offer.

Background - Happily using MCI residential services over a number of years with two accounts. MCI worked great and performed all services in a clean and efficient manner.

Forced to leave MCI services and advised via letter that Verizon would pick up in the foot steps of MCI - I also understood that I could select other phone service providers other then Verizon if I choose to. Now I wish I had!!!!!

Typical MCI services that I had:

• Caller ID
• Call Waiting Caller ID
• Three party Conference Call
• Caller announce
• Speed Dial
• Voice Mail
• Call Waiting, No Answer Transfer to multiple locations with Caller announce (managed by me the user)
• Email Caller ID info (Sent to places I managed i.e. Black Berry - pop mail etc)
• Internet Voice Mail pickup & Play - Store
• Fast Access to Voice Mail from local phone (Dial 00)
• Fast Access to Voice Mail from cell phone
• Easily talk to live person for any variety of issues - Trouble - Billing - Competitive discounts - Promotions
• Initial conversion to MCI (ALL service available and ready the day of conversion!!!!!!!!

________________________

Now the Verizon story and Oh what a story they weave.

Contacted the conversion Team as per the conversion letter TWICE two accounts.

Discussed all of the features that I had with MCI and Verizon's features & price (Did this twice - Two accounts)

Told by Verizon conversion department that 99% of the services are the same - NOT TRUE! Further the services were included in the discounted package (NOT TRUE!)

• No date provided for the conversion
• Call Waiting Caller ID was not provisioned
• Speed Dial is not part of the package - More dollars and wait to have this added after service was turned up
• Speed Dial is crippled and not very useful - No pause control so I can not program access number pause pause pause then account code or access number or pin number etc. Most Verizon folks I talked to have no clue as to what pause is in a speed dial string (this concept has been around for over 20 years - What is with Verizon?
• Three party Conf call is NOT included in package Additional cost and wait to have this added after service was turned up
• Call Waiting, No Answer Transfer to multiple locations (managed by me the user) is not available
• Caller announce not part of package
• Told that Email Caller ID info (Sent to places I managed i.e. Black Berry - pop mail etc) is not available - Found out from friends that have Verizon service that it is available via Verizon Call Assist
• Contacted Verizon one day after orders placed to insure that I would have Verizon Call Assistant - Still waiting a week later - placed over 40 calls to numbers provided by Verizon (pass me on to someone or something else i.e. automated talking systems and 12 hours of on the phone over three days!!!! Most people that I spoke to have no clue what Verizon Call Assistant is, much less getting info or placing order for it - Even though it is FREE and part of service if you like.
• Verizon services turned up randomly over the past week - What happened to Your are now on Verizon and your service are ALL available!
• Additional note - After holding for almost an hour to connect with a live person in the Verizon Call Assist group - I was advised that the email they offer for Voice Mail deposits Only Indicates that you have a voice mail and does not include any Caller ID info - Since this service is still not turned up I am expressing what I was told. This means I am back to the drawing board - I really need to know who called remotly (IE Black Berry etc) whether they left a VM or not. Time to start looking for a new phone company....
• I'm sure I left out a few things here and there.

My frustration level is beyond belief and it's hard to put into words that are acceptable for a forum. @#$%#$%&$^#%^

I use Verizon Wireless and have for many years - They have been top notch so I thought the incumbent wireline provider (Verizon) would have its act together. Boy was I wrong.

I invite any and all responses especially any Verizon folks that really want to do something about these issues - I would be happy to discuss in detail any and all issues presented.

Ren

[Luna]

yikes!! I've been on the phone at least 3 times everday since I had my service turned on..They keep you on hold for at least 45 min. I'm tired of this. I used to be a MCI customer also..so I totally understand!

[admkshr]

Just a thought about Speed Dial -   even if there were some way to program in a pause I do not see how this would help you in dialing account numbers or pin numbers because the Speed Dial service does not actually produce call tones but simply enables the user to dial a stored phone number by pressing 1 or 2 digits instead of 10.