Dear Ivan,
For years, I’ve used Verizon for my residential land-line telephone service. For most of 2007, I also used Verizon’s DSL service. In fact, Verizon’s “same price for life” offer on DSL lured me away from the more expensive Charter Communications broadband I had been using since 2002.
Over that time, however, my wife and I noticed our Verizon charges gradually rising until the phone part of our bill passed well above fifty dollars a month. We realized that, given our calling habits and cell phone usage (our cells are handled by a different provider), we just weren’t getting our money’s worth.
We debated dropping our land line altogether, but opted instead to try Vonage. The VOIP provider was running a special — $9.99 / month for three months and $24.99 a month thereafter — that would save us a substantial amount of money. Since we wanted to keep our Verizon DSL service, I did some research.
A very friendly woman with Verizon’s customer service department let me know that keeping DSL would not be a problem, even though I was “porting” my telephone number to a different company. Verizon, she assured me, would change my DSL service to something called “dry loop” DSL — essentially, DSL that isn’t associated with a telephone number. The entire thing would happen automatically and seamlessly — the only thing different would be a slight increase in my monthly DSL bill.
Fantastic! I’d get to keep Verizon’s DSL service, which I’d used without complaint for almost a year, and I’d be cutting my all-in phone and Internet bill by thirty dollars or so.
The lady with Verizon asked if it would be all right if she had someone call me to try and work out a way they could keep me as a telephone customer. I figured, hey, why not, and we set up a day and time Verizon would call me.
That day and time came and went, marking the first of what would be four times a Verizon representative promised to call and did not. Their loss, I thought, and went ahead with my plans for Vonage.
The Vonage equipment arrived; our telephone number was transferred from Verizon’s dominion to Vonage. By the beginning of November or so, we had Vonage up and running flawlessly and the DSL continued as before. I was very happy.
Then, on the 25th of November, I noticed Internet service had stopped. My first thought was a network problem… then I booted up my laptop’s browser and found a splash page from Verizon telling me my DSL service had been suspended.
I got on the phone to Verizon. After some time, I found myself in a very difficult conversation with a gentleman who called himself Mr. Singh. He would be the first of at least three Mr. Singhs I would speak with over the next few days, all with heavy accents and English language skills that lacked the finer contextual nuances so essential to clear conversation.
Once I repeated myself several times to Mr. Singh and managed to get him to deviate from his prepared script (at times the conversation felt like a Turing Test with a very ill-equipped artificial intelligence) I learned my DSL service had been disconnected due to non-payment on our bill.
Except… I had our latest bill in front of me. It had been paid several days before the due date, which was, in turn, several days before the 25th of November.
And so it began.
I’m not going to take you through it step by step like I had to live it; while I wouldn’t mind having you experience the level of frustration and lost time like I did, other people will read this and I don’t want them to suffer. This letter will be long enough, trust me.
After three and a half hours on the phone with Verizon’s Internet, Billing, and Phone departments, my DSL was restored… temporarily. The issue? For some reason, Billing had never communicated the need to transfer my DSL to dry loop service, and so my Internet was shut off. No one could tell me exactly why Mr. Singh thought I had an overdue bill.
There was a larger issue: a supervisor believed I had to have Vonage contact Verizon in order to set up the dry loop. She would not be swayed from this belief, despite what I had been told by the first, very helpful Verizon representative weeks before. Vonage, for their part, were baffled by this request, and could do nothing to help me because, of course, they are not DSL providers and have nothing to do with it.
At the end of the day on Tuesday the 25th, another very polite and sympathetic woman explained that “there are so many laws and regulations involved” that many people at Verizon were unclear on the protocol for porting numbers and keeping DSL service active. I’ll get back to that in a bit.
She explained that there was “some problem” with my order (the dry loop DSL) and that Rob from the “local office” would be looking into it first thing in the morning. He would call me with a resolution.
Rob became person number two from Verizon to never call me. My Internet disappeared on Wednesday the 26th at around 11:30 AM. At first I thought it was simply part of the transition to dry loop DSL. I’m an optimist, I suppose. By two o’clock, though, I figured I’d better call, because the next day was Thanksgiving and I had a feeling people might leave early for the holiday.
So began another three and a half hour stint on the phone with Verizon’s Phone, Internet, and Billing departments. Different departments tried to talk to each other to put all the information together — different departments based apparently in different countries and which apparently do not share call logs on the same account. Every time I was transferred, I had to explain — from the beginning — exactly what my issue entailed and what I needed.
By the end of Wednesday, a gentleman in Tech Support decided that the real problem was with the telephone line coming into my house. He wanted to schedule a technician to come out.
Of course, the next day was a holiday, so I knew that meant waiting at least until Friday for satisfaction. That meant no Internet (and therefore no land-line phone service) for another thirty hours or more. I was very, very dissatisfied with this, since I had no reason (given the conflicting explanations provided regarding the nature of the problem over the last two days) to believe it was actually a technical, on-site problem.
Nevertheless, I agreed that the gentleman could call me back with a scheduled time a technician would arrive. I stressed that no one from Verizon who promises to call back ever does, and insisted he return my call within fifteen minutes. With a tone of great assurance, he told me, “I will call you back in five minutes, ma’am!”
(Yes, after over an hour on the phone with this gentleman, he still had not gleaned from my name or the timbre of my voice that I was not a woman. I let it go. What point in clarifying it?)
Guess what, Ivan? He never called me back.
I spent Thanksgiving with my wife, sister-in-law and her boyfriend. Everyone chipped in to make a different dish. I did the turkey. We watched some football, and a movie. All day, in the back of my mind like bile in the back of your throat, I couldn’t stop thinking that come Friday, I would have to get back on the phone with Verizon. I wondered if I’d gone over my cell phone minutes with all this calling. It was stressful.
Friday.
I started calling at eight in the morning. I began with Tech Support, which had no record of a service call order being placed on Wednesday. I was not surprised. At one point, I was back on the phone with Billing, who assured me they would connect me with the people who could help me — the California local office. They connected me with Tech Support, who not only insisted that Billing was not working today and no one was there, they also were, judging by their Pakistani or Indian accents, most assuredly not the local California office.
Turns out the local California office answers their phones in Tijuana, Mexico. No problem. The customer service rep there spoke perfect, fluent English. The only issue in communication — a common one for all of my telephone interactions with Verizon — was the absolutely abominable quality of the connection. Strange that a telephone company would have consistent static and noise on their lines. Apparently your blue-jacketed, bespectacled spokesperson and his “it’s the network” cadre of Verizon troops don’t bother with the quality of the customer service connection.
In case you’re wondering, Mister Seidenberg, it was not my cell phone connection — that is perfectly clear on all other calls.
Anyway, this last customer service rep tried to get me to the right person, and again, I was left on hold for so long he asked if he could try calling me back on Monday. I said sure, thanks.
Ivan, I don’t know if you’ve been keeping track, but when I hung up with that person, counting Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday all together, I had been on the phone with Verizon a total of ten hours and thirty minutes.
Ten hours and thirty minutes.
Three days.
No resolution.
Guess what I did next, Ivan?
I called Charter Communications. Spoke to a nice guy named Earl, who was based somewhere in the Southern United States. In a little more than thirty minutes, he had my 5 meg cable broadband account set up, gave me a deal on the first six months and arranged for a technician to install it the next day — a Saturday. Twenty four hours later, I had a strong broadband Internet connection and the use of my land line telephone back.
One Charter Communications person did this in a half hour, while a dozen or more Verizon customer service representatives with ten and a half hours could do nothing.
Monday came and went, and of course I received no call back from Verizon.
Allow me to reiterate the specifics of my complaint. Indulge my inclusion of a few things I didn’t address above.
- Verizon undoubtedly has many customers who wish to port their telephone numbers to Vonage or another VOIP service and still maintain Verizon DSL service. Based on the several conflicting sets of instruction I received from different Verizon representatives at different levels of authority, Verizon has not trained their staff on the correct way to handle this. Verizon is a telecommunications company. Figure it out. You would have kept me as a customer if proper training was in place.
- Verizon does not link a customer’s account from one department to the next, and Verizon’s customer support representatives do not share call logs for a customer from one department to the next. This results in a frustrating game of — you guessed it — telephone — when reps from one department try to explain things to another. It also causes your customer to repeat themselves innumerable times in the course of seeking satisfaction. Ridiculous. Coordinate and link your departments.
- I do not begrudge the right of people in other countries to work for Verizon. That said, Verizon would do well to make sure foreign-based representatives are fluent in English. The quality and efficiency of the customer service experience diminishes a great deal when on the phone with Verizon’s outsourced foreign labor.
- Without direct call-back extensions for each and every customer service representative, there is zero accountability to individual customers. Four times, a Verizon representative promised to call me back, and four times, they did not. Why should they? I have no way of reaching them, and the odds that I will be connected to them by calling the toll-free number are so low, they have no fear of ever being called to task. Zero accountability means no personal commitment to each customer’s satisfaction. That’s unconscionable.
- The quality of the connection on hold and during conversations with customer service representatives is terrible. Static, background noise, flanging effects and other line noise make communicating with a representative — and being clearly understood — very difficult. Add to the mix a representative for whom English is not their native tongue and Verizon’s ability to deliver excellent customer service is reduced almost beyond the point of redemption.
Mister Seidenberg, as you can tell, the experience of last week has upset me.
Do you know what ten and a half hours of my time is worth?
I’m a freelance new media and social networking consultant. If you were my client, ten and a half hours would set you back almost $850.00. In fact, I fell behind in my responsibilities for a client because my work depends on reliable high speed Internet and I was on the phone with your company for… say it with me… ten and a half hours. I’m not even considering the other freelance work I could have sought and contracted in those ten and a half hours.
According to Forbes, you make $11.5 million dollars a year. Assuming a forty hour work week, ten and a half hours of your time is worth $58,052 and change. Would losing that hurt you? I don’t know. I do know that the time I lost hurt me. Think about that. I hope it matters to you.
Ivan, you not only lost a customer, your company provided such poor customer service and operated in such an inept, disconnected (ha ha) and disorganized fashion I’m sharing my grief with the world. This letter includes the words “Verizon” and “customer service” so often, I’m confident it will appear high in the results at all the major search engines.
I’m putting a Creative Commons license on this so people are encouraged to re-post it and spread it around. I’ll be posting it on Twitter and encouraging my 1,000 followers there to spread it around to their connections. I’ll post it to the 650+ friends I have on Facebook. And of course there’s the five thousand or so people who read my blog every month.
Maybe, just maybe, the result will be that fewer people choose Verizon for their telecommunication needs. Perhaps… just perhaps… another result will be that you will read this and instigate a sweeping reform of Verizon’s customer service operation. Maybe. Frankly, I’ll take either one.
Am I being vindictive, Ivan? You might think so. Here’s my perspective: Before my career in information services, I spent twenty years as a customer service specialist in a retail setting. All that time has made me a strong advocate of the importance of excellent customer service. I know what it takes to do it right. Therefore, I have very little tolerance when it is done wrong… especially when a company with the resources and depth of experience Verizon possesses gets it wrong.
Honestly, there’s no excuse.
Make it right. It’s your job.
Best,
Matthew Wayne Selznick
Update: On Friday, December 5, 2008, I received a call on my cell phone from the Verizon Customer Advocate. My open letter to Verizon CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg got their attention. The Advocate apologized for my customer service experience and let me know they were working on the situation. She asked if there was anything they could do for me to make it right.
I told her there was nothing they could do to get me back as a customer. I let her know that I appreciated the call, but the best thing they could do was fix it — that the attention this post has received and the comments it has generated point to the fact that my experience was not uncommon, and that it struck a chord.
I suggested that, while the private call to me was appreciated, it may be more effective for Mister Seidenberg himself to respond in public — either in the comments section of this blog post, or on a Verizon blog with a link back to this post. If I heard from Mister Seidenberg personally — and more importantly, if he made a public commitment to reform Verizon’s customer service department with specific steps to take and a timeline for execution — that would send a real message to Verizon customers past and present. It might also reassure folks who were considering Verizon but changed their mind after reading about my experience.
As soon as I made this suggestion (possibly as soon as I told her they would not get me back as a customer) the Customer Advocate seemed like she was in a hurry to end the call. She assured me that she would pass on my comments, but did not specifically state that she would tell Mister Seidenberg directly. So that’s what I’m doing here with this update.
Let’s hear from you, Ivan Seidenberg. What are you going to do, personally, to make sure the customer service at Verizon is radically improved?
Everyone else, if you’d like to contact the Customer Advocate department and urge them to have Ivan respond with a commitment and concrete, executable plans for improvement, the number they used to call me is 1-972-399-5913. (Turns out that number has been disconnected as of 12-11-2009) If you’re a Verizon customer, let them know how you feel.
An Open Letter To Verizon CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg by Matthew Wayne Selznick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
You are encouraged to re-print and distribute this blog post far and wide so long as you do not change it, provide attribution, and do not profit from it. The illustration accompanying this work is not covered by this license. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.mattselznick.com/contact/.
Possibly related posts:
- Not Prosperous
- A Free and Open Source New Year (mostly)
- It’s Happening Again
- Changes, Shifts, New Horizons
Man, that does suck. It’s not an uncommon story. I won’t go into our long story, but summer of 2006, we had no internet for 10wks, and interment landline service. We were told that the lines were too old and to get FIOS. We were then told FIOS wasn’t available in our area. The same thing happened this fall, right when Tom started his job search. Around here, we can’t get rid of Verizon, so waiting for FIOS is our only option.
Oh goodness, so maybe switching cell service to Verizon is not a good idea after all…
Can you hear me now? nope
I’m sure this was an unneeded stressor over your holiday. I’ve never been a customer of Verizon, and after reading this, it would take one hell of a deal to get me.
I would love to read the response if you receive one from Ivan.
Sorry to hear you have had these ‘issues’. I’ve always had great service with Verizon as a cell provider, but I had the option of visiting the store and talking to someone in person. But I’m getting an iPhone ASAP.
This is a serious issue that plagues a great number of large industries. Sadly, I’ve never had an overwhelmingly positive experience with any telecommunications provider I’ve had to call or work with. It just seems to get worse and worse.
I often wonder if the dogfooding solution that developers use would work with customer service. If the people deciding what their policies were had to act like a customer and use their own service consistently, would the problem exist as much?
Oh my lord, can I relate. Your story is almost identical to mine. I detest Verizon, and hope that they lose enough business to finally figure out just how wretched their customer service system is.
I would love to see Ivan call his customer support with a problem, just to see the frustration that we the people have to go through, only then do I think he would truly understand.
I hope all of their shareholders read this letter.
There is a big difference between Verizon Wireless (the cell phone company with their “network”) and Verizon (the phone company that runs the legacy services from the old “Baby Bells” in the Northeastern United States and the former GTE phone systems).
Verizon Wireless has a 40% minority stake by major European mobile provider Vodafone. Therefore, it is run significantly different than the rest of Verizon, since they have to impress their European partner.
Matthew’s problems are with Verizon and not Verizon Wireless.
This really is getting some coverage, you can find it on a few sites gaining popularity, such as DIGG.com
( http://digg.com/tech_news/An_Open_Letter_To_Verizon_CEO_Ivan_G_Seidenberg )
Personally i know a few people that have gone through this and my own dealings with Verizon service has demonstrated how disjointed and ultimately pointless it is and that it is better to just cut the losses of time spent (I lost 7.5 hours on the phone on a single problem myself) and switch services.
Verizon Customer Service? ppfffffffft!
i’m having a problem with them at the present time…..this is a second go round…i’m a glunten., for punishment…..everything you said is true….their trying to make pay them for switching to another company…they said i terminated my contract early and they want 276.00 for switching…by the way they can’t show me any written contract? they called and said it was made verbally…..this was after i asked for a copy of the signed contract…..they have turned this bill over to attorneys solomon & SOLOMON in albany , n.y. to collect the money or they are going to proscute me….is this how big business handles a loyal customer for over 30 years…..by the way, i have 2 home phones with them and 4 cell phones at present time…..if the keep it up, their going to lose them also….this is so stupid….the phones that i switched at my business, i saved over 150.00 per month….after switching, they call up and wanted to give me a sweetier deal…..why didn’t they do that when i was a nieve customer?…i just wanted to share this with your viewers…..by the way mr.seidenberg is getting a letter also……bigdaddy
I would love to know if you get a reply…..HAHAHA I happen to know from experience that the DSL and the telephone are actually seperate companies at Verizon. In addition, one thing that Vonage does not tell you is that the DSL switch to “dryloop” has to be included on the order to port your number. It usually is not because there is another company in the middle that handles a portion of the port. The other thing that you don’t get told is that you have to pay for the Verizon DSL with a credit card after you switch to “dry loop.”
I will omit most of the gory details, but I have been trying to get a
Verizon land line since October. I have been sent around and around in circles
and even hung up on. I explained to them in Oct. that they needed to
extend the line up the road about 800 feet from the neighbor. I finally filed
a complaint with the Pennslyvania Public Utility Commission. That has been about 10 days.
Still no phone, no indication of when I will get a phone, no indication of if
I will get a phone. They did manage to bill me for a dial tone plus one month of service.
I have recently experienced the most hideous customer service from DIRECTV that I am left scratching my head wondering, did that really just happen? Can these companies really get away with this? and how can “we” have any power? I searched the internet and found you among many dissatisfied consumers of cable and satelite TV. I love your open letter and feel slightly impowered by it. I am grateful the internet gives “us” a voice. Thank you.
Here’s my rant:
We have been customers of DIRECTV since 1998. We have always had amazing customer service and loved the company so much that when we relocated from FL to MA we decided to keep our account current with them because we didn’t want to loose our package that they no longer offer. Selling our home in FL and purchasing a new one in MA took longer than expected and we managed to keep our account current for 1 year. Bear in mind, we loved DIRECTV so much that we payed for service we didn’t have for 1 year just to keep our package.
That was our first mistake. In hindsight it was not one of our finest decisions. When we called to have DIRECTV set up in our new home the CS rep told us they could offer us a free upgrade (a new DVR and receiver) as our equipment from FL was out dated. Great, thank you was our response and we waited a month before we could get someone out here to set us up.
So on November 19, 2008 the two men came 5 hours late, caused damage to my home and never finished the installation. We promptly called DIRECTV to let them know what happened and we were told WE needed to contact the installers ourselves and work it out. WHAT? After about a 3 hour conversation we still didn’t have a resolution to our problem. Since then I have logged 25+ hours to customer service.
Our house is still damaged with a drilled hole from the outside of the house to the inside. They used the wrong cable. They wired the cord through the heating system, cut off the ground to a coaxial cable, drilled through our wood floor, etc. etc. Customer service tells us we have to write a letter with pictures and have a professional estimate included. Once again passing the task on to the consumer. They set up to send out a manager (Dec. 13)to complete the installation and when he came he said he works on commission and couldn’t do the job. He would send out a supervisor the next day as the supervisor gets flat rate pay. That never happened.
So segue to Dec. 29, 2008 our bill arrives and it prompts me to call and fix it along with more hours of trying to get some satisfaction to solve the current issues. It was 7 hours worth of calling. Yes, 7 hours. I finally was fed up and told them to come and get their equipment I was done with DIRECTV and their response was we signed a 24 month contract. I asked them to produce this contract and 4 hours later I find out this is just a verbal contract. I was given faulty 800 numbers and switched from 9 different CS agents. Apparently there is absolutely NO WAY OUT OF THIS SUPPOSED CONTRACT that we were never told about and never signed.
Believe me, there are far more details than I care to put anyone through. At one point my friend came over for a 3 hour visit and the whole time was spent on the phone with DIRECTV CS. She witnessed a CRG agent named Chris, bully, belittle and insult me.
I have found out through much research that DIRECTV subcontracts the work out and the subcontracters, subcontract the work out to non union workers. When they came to our house for the initial install they didn’t complete the installation because they didn’t have the proper wire, cords, and equipment. They did a horrible job and I am still in fear of my house catching fire because of the cable that is run along my heating pipe.
So after much ado, it is left that we have yet ANOTHER date set up for them to come and fix our issues, this will be the third visit. We have a damage claim report out there, and we are locked into a 2 year contract with them. So we set up to have all our boxes but one sent back to DIRECTV. More than likely we will not hear from anyone on damages because we haven’t since November and more than likely no one will ever come out to our house and DIRECTV has our money for 2 years because they can.
Only one TV gets reception so all that for a whole lot of crap!!!!!! DON’T EVER LET DIRECTV UPGRADE YOUR EQUIPMENT THEY WILL LOCK YOU INTO A 2 YEAR DEAL. STAY CLEAR OF DIRECTV! So now I am left with a problem. Who do I get for my TV service? I’ve heard similar strories from COMCAST and Verizon.
Thank you so much! Even if you didn’t read my rant it felt good to put it out there. Thanks for the forum. Any advise to expose this company would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Laura Maxwell
Laura — happy to provide you with an outlet… looks like you needed one! You might also post your letter to http://www.consumerist.com — they’re a blog that’s focused on bad customer service.
By the way, for the record — the post you commented on is about my trials with Verizon, specifically their land-line telephone and DSL service. So far, I have no complaints about my satellite television service, which was originally with Dish Network and is now with DirectTV.
Cheers,
Matt
i want to let everyone know what an awful experience my parents had with verizon. they were trying to switch back from cable,my father is 70 with heart problems and my mothers 94 year old father lives with them, my mom is 63. they told verizon that they would need the hook up right away.they were tired of being without a phone whenever their digital phone would go out with cable. so instead of verizon leaving the phone on through cable they disconnected their phone service. leaving them with no phone. they live in the middle of no where. no cell service either. when my sister and i would call we would be lied to and given story after story. they have been with no phone for 6 days now.and we are still waiting for them to come. one of the things they told us was they couldnt come out because they tried to call and couldnt get in touch with anyone. HELLO they are the ones who shut off their phone!!!! then they lied and said that someone came to the house and spoke to my father and that they needed a special line and had to come back to dig a ditch for them????my mom was the only one home all day that day. my father was at the doctors with my grandfather. no one ever came out. when i spoke with a manager they told me i could file a complaint but it wouldnt do any good because he is the regional manager for the entire east coast. his name was anthony ratuis. i have tried everything and this will be day 7 with no phone can anyone help me to file a complaint. they cant go back to cable because their phone has not been activated and verizon has all legal ownership over their phone number…… amyt5051@aol.com help
Verizon Is the worst in terms of dealing with them on the phone. This is largely due to the actual outsourcing of services.
Canada is great to deal with, but not the others. This is not because of prejudices but due to the fact that they do not understand my MEANING or my english, though they speak it albeit barely.
I subscribe to PREMIUM service, so I am getting the BETTER ones!!!!!!
God help the poor old woman who calls and needs to change something on her bill or has a question.
Terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They have had people I have spoken to on hold for over an hour!!!!
And if you don’t wait, they will switch you around all over again to get to the correct “dept”.
Rediculous.
We want our operators and our job base back.
If any one out there is thinking about starting a phone company, now is a great time!!!
You would automatically fill your customer base simply by advertising the best customer service and no more than a 12 minute wait on the phone , with your service!
If you hire people from this country, your customers will be happy too!
Heaven knows we need the jobs HERE.
thank you and I wish you all well
Systems Rule!! Mr. Siedenberg has a problem with his systems. Those perfectly lovely Verizon people are instructed by their systems to never admit that people at Verizon make mistakes. The alternative, that I the customer is stupid, is also denied, but when forced to pick, the systems rule. And no-one, but no-one is allowed to make a credit. Not even Mr. Seidenberg? The systems assume that if it isn’t in the system it isn’t true. I feel like I am being called a liar or worse, stupid, when I tell the 5th person that is what happened last month, that the billing people’s notes say I was transferred to residential and that the conversation really did exist and that’s why I paid $29.99 rather than $41.99 last month. Well, no I didn’t apparently.
I am a Verizon lifer – Wireless, Landline, Internet and I’ll be a FIOS user when it arrives. I even went with Verizon VOIP, but that was a disaster, so I switched back. I just t spent more than an hour on the phone trying to get a $24 credit – the credit they agreed to last month. It didn’t happen, because the system says it didn’t. So now, I am resolved that $24 will sit on my account forever.
I would move but I can’t go to ATT, because 4 years ago Cingular passed on “my” bad debt to a collections house. The debt did not exist. I was faced with hurting my credit or paying $200+. There was no way to get it credited – Cingular could not access the old AT&T account and their systems had no record of their agreement to credit my account – it got lost in the takeover somewhere. So we don’t do business there.
As a European in America, I wander why we take this stuff. It upsets me most beacuse it’s a poor business approach to take to your customers – somehow they need to:
a)see the difference between me, the good customer with a real issue, and the people their systems are designed to protect Mr Seidenberg’s company from.
b)put in a sensible escalation system that does allow for mistakes to be made at Verizon
Hell and yes, i’ve had so many similar experiences with verizon, verizon hsi and verizonwireless. go figure a bundle of …
well, anyways, I was wondering if you were successful in retreiving Ivan’s cell/home number and or his actual email/snail-mail address.
If you have, please share. thanks.
Sincerely,
Arthur
p.s. have you ever experienced that one employee who actually believes that “they” aren’t going to mess with her 401k, yet, she actually believes verizon is going to reward her for harrassing the customer instead of helping them? yes, i’ve gone around the world twice, just trying to call the office in new york city.
Thanks for the comment, Arthur. As far as Seidenberg’s contact information, the closest you can come to is Verizon’s corporate offices:
Verizon Corporate Headquarters
140 West St.
New York, NY 10007
Phone: 212-395-1000
Fax: 212-571-1897
Toll Free: 800-621-9900
I called in about a week ago, very dissatisfied with the service I received with the internet service your company provides. When I was at the store and the sales person told me that getting internet with Verizon was easy and simple and would be fine for home use, I decided to go with it. Never was it explained to me that, I could go over my usage time on the internet and rack up an additional 200.00 on top of the 50.00 fee I already pay for the internet. 250.00 for internet is insane! When I called in to inquire why my bill was so high, the woman I spoke to informed me that Verizon internet service is more for people on the go and NOT day to day usage at home. Well, if I had been explained this at the Verizon store I would have never purchased this service from you. I was just trying to keep life simple and have fewer bills to worry about. However, why in the world would I get Verizon internet for my home PC when I can go with any other company and have unlimited internet for a set monthly price. On top of all this, now I am getting charged a cancellation fee from you on top of the almost 300.00 bill just for internet. I have been with Verizon for a very long time and I have been dissatisfied many times with you, but this is the worst! I can’t believe that you would rather lose a longtime customer rather than at least waive the cancellation fee for the stupid internet. Especially since the sales associate was only interested in selling and not looking out for the best interest of “the customer”!!! I understand I signed a contract, but this is crazy! After telling the woman on the phone the situation, she could care less if I was going to cancel all 4 phones with Verizon, no, she made sure to inform me of all the cancellation fee’s I will receive. This is not customer service! My bill is almost 1000.00 because of this and now my phones have been shut off! I know I’m not the greatest paying customer, but are you so big know that you don’t care about pissing customers off?
Alex Perkins
Prescott, AZ 86303
Dissatisfied Customer, want to know if anyone in Verizon still cares
Alexandra — thanks for posting your comment here. However, you might have better luck directly addressing Verizon directly or posting to one of the consumer advocate websites out there. It’s not known for sure that anyone at Verizon is watching this blog post or that they will respond.
Of course, I appreciate your sharing your experience — I just don’t want you to expect that posting it here will bring resolution.
Hi Matt -
I feel really stupid, because two weeks ago I ordered Verizon DSL service for our new Manhattan office. This feeling comes from not remembering all the agida I went through 6 years ago when my (then) company started DSL service on Long Island. It took 5 months to get a good installation.
What was I thinking back on January 6th?! The Sales Rep was wonderful, and really seems to believe in her products. But as soon as we committed to a two year contract, it all fell apart. Installation did not happen, no one called, we arrived with our people and furniture —– and had to send it all back to our (thank heavens, not yet re-leased) old offices. No one called to let us know they had not installed; no one has any explanation as to why the ‘technician’ wrote ‘not ready’ on the installation work order. No one can tell me why _I_ have to keep calling to find out when they are going to attempt another installation.
Talk about economic failure – the days and hours of work lost to ‘errors’ by Verizon, just in my tiny part of the world, amount to substantial dollars.
Hi Matt -
I just emailed my Sales Rep and copied “ivan.g.Seidenberg@verizon.com” – surmising his address from my sales rep’s address and it was delivered!
Just wanted to let everyone know – we’ll see if I get any response, ha!
Thanks so much for posting your open letter to him, so I know his name.
Catherine
Within 10 minutes of copying that email address “ivan.g.seidenberg@verizon.com”, I got a call from the VP of the NYC region, who promised immediate resolution to my problem. Subsequently, I got calls from several other people at Verizon, on a “reach out” basis (their word) asking what had happened. The installation was scheduled and accomplished the next day.
This was a business install, so personal accounts may not have the same success, but it’s worth trying!
Congratulations, Catherine! Me, I’m waiting for a bill for “early cancellation” of my DSL service — you know, the service Verizon wasn’t able to provide and never followed up on.
I’ll keep everyone posted..!
Catherine, I can’t get them to fix my phone and DSL. I sent an email to ivan.g.seidenberg…etc. Did you say that you also copied a local Verizon mailbox?
Dear Matt,
Could you tell me where can I get the email address for Mr. Ivan Seidenberg? I tried googling it but could only get a street address. I’ve been having problems with Verizon since May 2008. Partially my fault since I didn’t drop them sooner. My latest issue is that I just received a bill from a collection agency informing me I owe Verison money for services I dropped back in November. Disgusted is not to word for it. If you have it, please send info to email listed above. Thank you.
Patti, scroll through the comments on the post — the corporate office address is there.
Matt,
I just wanted to thank you for this post! Today is February 19, 2009 and I just spent 3 hours on the phone. At first I was trying to get my user name and password to my land line / DSL account. After being transfered 8 TIMES, sometimes back and forth between different departments I am still not able to access my online account. I was trying to access my land line/DSL account because I wanted to look at and pay my bill. I had signed up for One Bill, combining my DSL, land line and cell phone bills into one bill. I noticed on my Wireless account it showed my current bill as being paid and refered me to my One Bill account which I couldn’t access because I didn’t know my user name or password. After 3 hours I gave up. I then called Verizon back and asked to be unenrolled form the One Bill program only to be told I wasn’t enrolled! I asked if I wasn’t enrolled, how come the Wireless account says to go to my One Bill to pay??? Finally I called the Verizon Wireless and they were able to unenroll me, but now I still don’t know the true balance of my previous One Bill! I am so going to email Ivan to get answers. Maybe if everyone emailed Ivan, he’d get off his butt and do something about his company’s crappy customer service!
Another example of how Verizon’s various departments don’t talk to each other… and how their website is next to useless. Thanks for the comment, Christine!
I had two recent experiences with Verizon:
1. I am using FIOS (great!) for internet and Vonage phone service to which a wireless base station is connected to serve all other wireless phones in the house. Because my house is old, I had a lot of unused old-style twisted pair connections for wired phones which I wanted to disable. All I needed was a Verizon technician to come to my house to advise what I could remove without affecting my FIOS/Internet/VoIP service. I called the FIOS service number and it took me a total of about 30 minutes of being passed from one place to another, and every time I was passed I had to again repeat my phone number (which because of Vonage) Verizon didn’t know, name, address etc. before I could say send me a technician to my house. I didn’t count, but I think I spoke to at least 6 or 7 different agents. Finally someone took my message and passed it to a dispatch center who called me back in the evening. A technician came the next day (expected before 10am, actually at about 4.30pm).
2. Now that I had cut all the dead wiring, I needed someone to relocate the FIOS Power Supply Unit (PSU) and its Battery Backup Unit. Again I called the FIOS Service Number and the passing game started anew. I counted, and spoke to seven different people, and every time I had to repeat my phone number (not known to Verizon), Name, Address and my request to send a technician to relocate the the PSU and BBU. Finally, my request was noted and a ticket has been issued and forwarded to the Dispatch Center. I requested to be called between 12noon and 2pm today. It’s 1pm and nobody has contacted me yet. Stay tuned.
My 5 cents to Mr Seidenberg:
Ivan, your operation would fit a third world country (maybe that’s where your support staff are located). I shudder to think about a situation where essential telephone/internet service is inoperable and I need to get support in an emergency. Matt, the author of this blog, shared with us that 10.5 hours of your time is worth about $58,000. This comes to about $552 per hour. I am a little guy, and my time is worth only $55 per hour. Given my trouble, I should be given credit on my account for the lost time. Fair?
Update:
I was promised to be called yesterday between 12 and 2, and alternatively 7am to 9am today. No calls received. Why does Ivan make all that money if he can’t even get his service organization it good shape.
I have to agree with the posters on this site. Verizon is HORRIBLE at customer service. I have just today wasted two hours of my life, trying to do the simplest of things. Pay my Bill.
Overall, I have wasted likely a bit more than 20 hours of my life on the phone with Verizon. As soon as our service contract is up, we are canceling our phone, internet,and digital TV service. Verizon should be put out of its misery and simply go out of business.
The icing on the cake is this, the Billing collections department HAS NO SUPERVISORS. Or Managers. Thats coming straight from a Supervisor named Becky in Customer service. You call the Collections department and you have ZERO recourse if you are hung up on, mistransferred, misinformed or otherwise mistreated, all of which I have experienced with Verizon. And I am just trying to pay my bill, which Verizon keeps screwing up! I get confirmation emails saying that I have a payment agreement, with amounts, dates, account numbers and confirmation codes, and then they do not withdraw the funds. I have paid by phone, to have that payment never leave my bank and never enter my Verizon account, but they waived the 3.50$ fee at the time I did it! Uh hua, and an hour and a half of my time in Feb just somehow slipped out of the space time continuum, though my husband does not report any missing time. And of course, there is no entry into any log on my account on that phone call….. well series of phone calls because the system hung up on me twice on that particular day.
Verizon is hands down the worst company I have dealt with in my 40 years. They make me wish for the better service you get with the IRS.
NEVER EVER sign up for Verizon. Any Verizon product or service will not be worth what you will have to go through.
I too have had HORRIBLE service from Verizon. Dealing with Verizon customer service, billing and other departments has been an expensive and time consuming process. I have written letters to the current CEO and President Lowell McAdam. My concerns go unheard and are dismissed. It is in my opinion best to NOT DO BUSINESS with Verizon Wireless.
I wish there wasn’t a club to welcome you to, Lauren… but welcome to the club!
Verizon simply has the worst customer service ever. I’ll save you the frustration of my problems and sum it up with:
3 hours on hold (in a row) for a grand total of 7 hours on hold to get my internet fixed.
Multiple calls back and technician visits (which are near impossible to get) that never came. They simply never called back, never visited, and erased/lost/never entered records of anything.
Can you hear me now? Go f*** yourself
UGH!! I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START WITH OUT SOUNDING AS CRAZY AS I HAVE BECOME FROM DEALING WITH THEM…. When I started questioning my bill and getting angry about my service..I too said I was going to write about this in my blog! GUESS WHAT? They dissconnected my HDTV service and downgraded my package and told me I had to pay a 400.00 deposit for TV and order new internet service by paying 39.00. mind you I had Just paid a bill of 222.00 for a month of service that I had no service to begin with because I have a contract for all three internet hdtv and phone because thats what I had had with TWC before I got slammed by VERIZON. No 400 dollar deposit either… I don’t owe them any money…I actually over paid 222.00 with them that they decided to breach because I complained. intially…I’m in a rediculous situation. I WAS with TWC and Verizon came and slammed me… Now they are the only company that I can use for HDTV or just get basic analog service. So they are saying now that you have threatened us you have to pay extra to get our service. VERIZON TERRORIZIN’ thats my new slogan. THEY AREN’T EQUIPT TO SUCK THEY JUST LIE. i signed in to my new account as a prettypissed off customer if no one uses them then they will do things right THIS IS THE ONLY WAY. IF YOU HAVE THEM ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME TIL THIS IS YOU! I WAS HAPPY WITH THE SERVICE ITS THE DOUBLE BILLING AND BS WITH YOUR CONTRACT THATS NOT SO GREAT. DON’T LET THEM FOOL YOU. THEY WILL AND CAN REVOKE ANY CONTRACT AT ANY TIME AND REVOKE YOUR SERVICE. THE ONLY REASON YOU CAN DIAL 911 IS BECAUSE IT THE LAW!! SO BE WARNED AND BEFORE YOU SIGN UP FOR VERIZON GOOGLE THEIR COORPORATE HISTORY. THEY ARE THE ONES THAT SOLD OUT MILLIONS OF AMERICANS AND THEN GUESS WHAT LIED… THE HAVE A RECORD FOR THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR DON’T USE THEM. THEY ARE ARROGANT ENOUGH TO SAY 400 DOLLARS IS NOTHING TO THEM BUT IN A RECESSION IT IS TOO US…. OUR DOLLARS ARE TOOOO HARD TO COME BY THESE DAYS. I BELIEVE YOUR MONEY IS WAY BETTER WELL SPENT WITH A COMPANY THAT ACTUALLY VALUES YOUR HARD EARNED AMERICAN DOLLARS. HONESTLY.
DONT FEED BIG BANKS? DON’T FEED VERIZON EITHER!THEY ARE ALREADY FULL OF SH*T!
Oh and BTW I Have on good record th email format has changed for Verizon to Ivan.G.Seidenberg@one.verizon.com
Rapedcustomer2
Has anyone tried filing a complaint with the BBB?
I’m not sure, Christine. However, if you contact the BBB, they’ll let you know Verizon’s rating with them, which is influenced by customer comments and complaints as I understand it.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your blog. I too have been through the wringer for 1 month reference a FIOS TV install. The “Ivan.G.Seidenberg@verizon.com” is no longer valid, but the “Ivan.G.Seidenberg@one.verizon.com” did go thru. I haven’t gotten a response but I’ll let you know if I do.
Thanks again for your blog
Thanks for the e-mail information, Jesse, and by all means, let us know if you get any response or satisfaction from Verizon. Good luck!
Hi Matt,
An update on my Apr 7th email. While waiting to hear from corporate I requested a repair ticket and set up an appointment for a certain day. Dispatch sent the tech a day early and since no one was home, the ticket was dropped. I called Customer Service when I got home and everyone stated they would have someone call but no one did. Fortunately the tech had left his phone number and I called him. He went the extra mile and had himself put back on the ticket the next day, came out and trouble shot the install until it was right.
A day later, a Ms Gonzalez called, identified herself as part of the corporate team, and stated she was calling because of my email to the CEO. She was given all the information about the faulty install, the extra mile taken by the tech, and also my concerns about a pending rebate. She was made aware of a credit on our bill for a DVR that we were charge for but did not have so there would be no confusion about it being the rebate. She stated she would look into my concerns and get back to me. A few days later I received a call from one of her assistants who confirmed that they had the tech come out and that a credit had been put on my bill as compensation for the rebate.
I let the “they sent the tech out” slide but I called and emailed Ms Gonzalez to notify her that the assistant had confused the credit for the rebate. Ms Gonzalez replied back that she would look into it and get back to me no later then close of business on Apr 17th. I still haven’t heard from her even though I have sent her multiple emails and phone calls. Rest assure, come May 2010 Verizon will have one less customer.
I worked for Verizon. I used to be called technical support agent. Your story (and all the others) are very common. I heard them every day. There is a huge problem within Verizon that is (as unbelieable as it sounds) “communications”. There is no way know by anyone in my office to fix the above problem. We have detailed instructions on what to do – but we know it doesn’t work. Most sections except Tech Support don’t document their calls and get this – Those that do – do it in a data base that is not open to other sections. If you are not talking to the same office – they have no record of your call. I transfered to FiOS. FiOS has so many software issues that are a result on “NEW-IMPROVED” software that most issues are not reolvable and that the official Verizon Tech Documents list for resolution: “Apologize to the customer.” Guess what – its April 2009 and the DATA BASE is not readable within this office. I cannot access my previous notes on the same case. This has been going on six weeks. The advanced TV equipmet has only two tuners – what garbage; worst of any carrier; the hi-speed modem-router- also runs the TV-data and is underpowered losing schedules, guide information and Multiroom DVR. Customers with no DVR get charged for MRDVR, and never get the channels they ordered- Operators are ordered to automatically add Voice mail and caller id to Tel service.; and the Verizon Internet Security Suite slows internet rate and causes more problems than imaginable for which there is no fix except nuke the computer and start over. I have 11 minutes per call – to fix everything — or if I don’t – then get the customer to hang up by promising everything-anything. – - -I now work for elsewhere.
Wow, Robert! Thanks so much for the inside view… it’s very enlightening, but not all that surprising, I’m afraid!
Glad to hear you’ve moved on. I hope you’re working for a better company these days!
I agree with your letter. Add me as another former Verizon customer who has had a very similar experience, except it is with their FIOS service. I strongly recommend any person think twice about being a customer of Verizon if there is an alternative. Even if the alternative is a bit more expensive.
I ordered FIOS a few weeks ago online since it they just turned it up in my neighborhood. I thought I was all set after getting a confirmation email and install date. A few days after that I wanted to verify the install date. Somehow my order was canceled. I started the process again and placed another order. After a couple of days of thinking about it and seeing so many people having difficulty with new FIOS installs, I decided to cancel the order.
You know the routine from there. Several calls and hours on working through their completely useless speech recognition phone tree before speaking with a human who said they couldn’t cancel my order and then put me back into the phone tree. Having my call dropped after waiting on hold for 45 minutes, etc. Finally I got to customer retention and canceled my order.
Several days letter I got emails and letters asking me to confirm my install date. Then several phone calls asking me to confirm the date. A total of four times I spoke with Customer Service reps and asked for my order to be canceled and was told that it was.
Today Verizon starts digging up my yard and calls again to confirm the install. Doh! I totally relate to your letter. I finally got through to their corporate office and executive customer service. Too late. I have already dropped Verizon and will never be a customer of theirs again if there is an alternative. Nor will my children.
Imagine the number of life units that Verizon has cost people by wasting their time with inefficient and / or incompetent system and / or employees.
Maybe they shouldn’t pay the darn CEO so much and cut back on their profits and put the money into hiring qualified people to do the job right the first time. From what I could tell, most of the people I spoke with were uneducated and could care less if I was serviced properly. Only when the executive customer service called me back did I speak with someone who was articulate and at least acted like they cared.
I’m inclined to believe — especially after reading Robert Hoops’ comment — that Verizon’s strategy is to exhaust the customer into submission. It’s a hell of a way to run a company. They ought to be ashamed.
One other thing. The only way for Verizon to get the message is for it to hurt their pocketbook. Sadly that seems to be the only way to get these corporate behemoths to change.
If I am on hold for hours in dealing with a simple problem and i experience hours of frustration working with their phone tree, there are untold thousands of others who experience it too.
I am certain that Verizon tracks these metrics (hold time), etc. Does anyone know if a class action suit is possible to punish Verizon for the amount of time they have cost their customers by not having adequate customer service for even the simplest of issues?
It’s like dealing with the IRS. Verizon is right (according to them) unless you can somehow spend 20 hours working through the issue with 15 different people to get a satisfactory resolution.
That’s an interesting thought — when you’re paying for a service, when does time spent as a customer trying to get that service to work count against your own wages or potential income? I’m not litigious, but I would seriously considered joining a class if such a lawsuit was brought forward. Verizon’s behavior is reprehensible.
everytime I get my verizon bill its a 2 hour conversation on data charges which there should not be any from all the blocks I have just as soon as my contract is up its good bye verizon
This sounds typical of Verizon. My wife and I moved to a new location and decided on Verizons TV, Telephone and DSL package. The first problem was the tech that installed the jacks in the house never ran the drop cable to the box outside. After calling Verizon using my cell, they ran tests on the line, daying that the test came back fine, so I was transferred to another department. In which they ran a test on the line as well, which passed, so again I was transferred to another department where the rep was going to run a test on the line. I became furious and told the rep that a test has been run twice in the last 15 mins. I tried to tell her that the line was not hot, there was no connection to the box outside. After arguing with her for 20 mins, she said she would have a tech come out the next day to check the line for any problems on our end. Again I told her what the problem was.
The tech arrives the next day, and he looks at the line, and I swear to God, he says- “Your line isn’t hooked up.” He gets me up and running.
Now the DSL wasn’t ready yet, we were given a service ready date….thats bs…but thats a different rant. We get an email and a phone call telling us that our DSL is ready to use. So I take the self install kit and hook everything up accordingly…step by step..and Viola!!! NO INTERNET. I call Verizon again. After sitting on the phone with some idiot who had me turning my modem on and off the whole time…he said he was transferring me to dispatch to get someone out to the house. I can hardly hear these people because the connection is so bad, the dispatch department tells me that a tech will be out the next day (today) between 6am and 5pm. Okay good…..right? WRONG!!
I get another call from Verizon today..saying they are calling to schedule a tech to come out tomorrow..and get this….the tech will call me to let me know when he will be here…….LMAO!!
So we are sitting here 4 weeks without internet……
Dump ‘em, Jody. If you can use any alternate company for your phone, TV and Internet, run to them — even if it costs a little more. Verizon will only change their practices if customers stop giving them their business.
Best of luck dealing with them… I hope you aren’t driven too crazy..!
Oh my gosh, this is giving me some comfort. They have taken hours of my time thanks to this “dry-loop.” I got dry-loop DSL and had them tie my cell phone with ONE-BILL – huge mistake! I can’t pay anything On-line and I’m a constant traveler – it always errors when I try to sign up for any On-line service because of the dry-loop number. They can’t even look up my account in Verizon home/cell stores. I canceled DSL when I moved recently and I’ve yet to receive my final invoice even though they have my new address, I asked them to cancel ONE-BILL and they said they did but here I see today on verizonwireless.com (you can’t pay your ONE-BILL through that unless you link your accounts which you can’t do with a dry-loop!) that the ONE-BILL system paid my wireless bill again! Who knows where these bills are going?! I’m just trying to pay! I can’t even pay in a store! I called customer service for Internet and they gave me to a financial land-line department which didn’t work because dry-loop wasn’t the same as home service so they transferred me again to a closed department.
I’m so frustrated. I just want to give them my money.
I’m glad you can take some comfort from this post and from the folks who have shared their similar experiences, Alica! I sure wish you could get some satisfaction from Verizon, though!
This one blog post that I wrote to get Ivan G. Seidenberg’s attention after my own abominable customer service experience with Verizon has generated more user comments than anything else I’ve written on this site in almost six years. That’s… sad. I think everyone who reads this and shares their experience should get a personal apology from Seidenberg, as well as compensation for the hours wasted. As it is, though, I’ve yet to hear a peep from Ivan directly. That kind of apparent contempt for the customer is almost criminal.
It’s a wonder there hasn’t been a nation-wide class action suit. I’m not litigious, but that’s one I’d be sorely tempted to join.
I just got completely duped by a verizon FIOS door-to-door sales rep. Got hosed with a bill 3x the size of what he advertised. Verizon CS hides behind and outsources their marketing to crooked 3rd party advertisers. BEWARE , you have been warned!
If it seems to good to be true…then it is a lie when it comes to verizon fios.
I HATE VERIZON and hope they all BURN!
Someone has anyone’s email address in management…and I don’t mean the stupid monkeys they use up to the VP level…I mean someone with a SVP or C in front of their title, please send it here and post it here!!!
Ahhh Verizon.
I actually had a fabulous time with Verizon FIOS for 3 years – no problems, no outages, nada! Loved it so much I switched to FIOS TV & Phone plus told all my friends to as well. In Aug. of 2008, though, we ended up moving and had to to leave FIOS behind. I called to disconnect my service and verified what pieces of equipment I needed to return. The woman I talked to (Mrs. White) listed them all off but didn’t mention any of our internet equipment. I was very surprised by this and asked her specifically if I needed to return any of it. She said no, it was ours to keep. I was not that surprised because I had DSL before and had not been required to return any of that equipment either. So that was the end of that, right? I thought so, especially after I received a credit back for overpayment and was sent a check about 6 weeks after my cancellation date.
However, in Nov. 2008 I received a bill – much to my shock – for about $86. It did not say what the charge was for and I was very confused. There was also a comment on the bottom of the bill about this being a final notice and reminding me that they reported to credit agencies. I had just had a baby, so I was a little behind with the mail and all of that, but I managed to call Verizon during the first week of December. I was tossed around quite a bit before I was told that it was an unreturned equipment charge and that I could either pay the fee or return the equipment. What equipment? Why a wireless router for internet service! I explained to the service tech that I had moved 3000 miles across the country, almost all of my belongings were in storage, I had just had a baby, and I was told I did not need to return any of my internet equipment in August so please just credit my account because it was their mistake to begin with. This initial agent had the nerve to tell me I should go dig through my storage unit and find it and send it back when I had just had a baby 3 weeks earlier. I gave up with him (he wouldn’t escalate my call) and decided to call back the next day. I spent all of my baby’s nap on the phone when, quite frankly, I should have been asleep, too!
The next day I called again, was tossed around again, and finally found someone willing to admit that the mistake was Verizon’s and they would credit my account. I even got a confirmation number! Fabulous!
Until February when we started getting phone calls and letters from a collections agency.
So I called again. Did the same song and dance. Got another promise of a credit. Believed them (again).
By the first week of May I had enough. I called demanding to speak to supervisors and managers and was finally escalated to a Mr. Hayes. He had me on hold for quite a while but promised me that the credit was made, that a confirmation was in the mail, and then gave me his direct line and said to call him if I experienced any more problems.
Earlier this week my husband and I had cause to pull up his credit report because we were confused with a problem we had encountered. What was staring us in the face? A charge from Verizon with the following phrase: Written off as Bad Debt.
Yes, I called again. I was hung up on more than twice and finally was put through to a man named Robert in the Virginia offices. In all of my experience calling Verizon over what has now been 10 months, he was by far the rudest character I came across. He all but told me to shut up, informed me that all of the credits had eventually been denied by another department and I only had two choices – pay the bill or return the equipment. Any time I tried to explain why that would not be happening, he cut me off. He was rude, disrespectful, and refused to be of any kind of assistance. In disgust, I left my name and number with him so a “specialist” could call me “tomorrow” (ha – it’s Saturday tomorrow). I ended up calling back about an hour later and spoke to a lovely gentleman (Erin O’Conner) who was VERY helpful, kind, patient, and anything but rude. He did everything he could to make my account balance $0, made sure I had his first and last name, and gave me instructions on how I could get a copy of my bill. Maybe I’m naive, but I’m hoping it all works out.
Unfortunately for Verizon, Mr. O’Conner’s kindness was late in coming. I won’t be going back to Verizon if/when their service is available in my area. I also will be spreading the word about this horrible experience.
Thank you for putting this site out here, Matt, and for opening it up to all of the others who have been treated so poorly by Verizon. I worked in Customer Service (at a phone company, no less) and never would have treated our customers the way Verizon has treated not only me, but many others.
I’ll be writing a letter to corporate as well.
Thanks again!
A nasty experience, ladyshanae… but I can’t say I’m surprised. All we can do is continue to air Verizon’s dirty laundry in as public a way as possible!
Yes – as expected, I did NOT get a call on Saturday morning (not that I really expected it), nor have I received one at all. I did spend a good portion of my Monday on the phone with them. No one could guarantee me anything, but I was promised someone would follow up and send me a letter that said Paid In Full when my account went to $0 according to the accounting/financial department. I wrote a note on my calendar to make another phone call in a few weeks to remind them. So tired of this! And spreading the word!
I didn’t read your whole letter. Why? Because I know how it went.
My story is that Verizon will let people use your telephone account like a credit card (I had credit card counseling charges charged to my account, as well as a voice mail service). These charges were the final straw – it took me maybe 3 hours to get them removed from my account.
So on April 25 I pulled the plug. Switched my phone service to Vonage and my DSL to Comcast saving about $60 / month in the process. But cancelling Verizon just cannot be done, it seems. Comcast Had me handled in a couple days (I was already a TV customer) and same for Vonage.
But cancelling Verizon is just a never ending process -
- I called to cancel, but they told me no need – it will cancel automatically
– The Customer Service guy (ha, ha) refused to take my cancellation order
- They then called me to tell me if I didn’t use my DSL it would cancel automatically
- Two weeks later, they sent me a bill
– Now, because I cancelled my phone my DSL service went from $22/month to $38/month
- I called again to cancel
– Oh, they can’t just cancel they need to be sure I really meant it when I wanted to cancel
Then yesterday, I received another bill – early termination fee. What?? I had Verizon DSL for 7 or 8 or nine years ago. Another 30 minutes. All in all, I’ve got maybe 6 hours into this. Unbelievable. And they could have kept my business if they had just not let people use my account like a credit card account.
Two years ago, I had telephone, DSL and wireless all with Verizon. But their ineptness has driven me to move everything away from them and it will (the wireless is a whole ‘nother story – because when I said to the Customer Rep in the Verizon store “Do you know there is a T-mobile store right next door?” the rep just shrugged her shoulders.
I have never seen a Company with such an uncanny ability to infuriate customers.
I hear ya, Phil. I did pretty much the same thing — moved to Vonage and Charter Cable. Painless, quick, and so far absolutely no complaints.
Man.. I am going through the same trouble now. I just got off a call with the Verizon department as they have sent my account to collections.
I have been talking to the customer representatives from various departments and everybody say..there is no amount due on my account.
Still everybody agree, the account is in collections. I searched to reach out to CEO of Verizon and got to this page.
Please be away from Verizon…they can destroy your credit score as well..as no body inside Verizon knows what he/she is doing.
I would just like to add my 2 cents about Verizon being horrible. I didn’t have a problem while I had DSL, but as soon as I switched to FIOS, billing problems started. First they unbundled my package and way overcharged me. I had to call them 3 months in a row to have it corrected. I signed up for their Internet security suite and they billed me for it 4 times. I called to have it corrected and rather than just remove the extra charges, they also cancelled my security suite. The following month, they had charged me 4 times again.
At Verizon, the right hand doesn’t seem to know what the left hand is doing. Same problem – communicate your problem to one department, they transfer you, and you have to explain it all over again. I get cut off, transferred and cut off again, the menu options are ridiculous, and I am waiting the day that I can cancel service without any fees. I don’t even know how many hours I have spent on the phone with them trying to fix their problems. Why should I be locked into a contract that they aren’t keeping their end of?
I would like to file a class action lawsuit against them, actually. All businesses should be accountable for the way they treat their customers. We should get what we paid for and shouldn’t have to spend inordinate amounts of time fixing simple errors.
I’m with Matthew, Ivan. Fix the problem! It shouldn’t be hard to remove extra charges from a person’s account. Everything he described above is true.
Sarah L.
Matt, I wanted to add a link to my blog where I complained months ago about my Verizon experiences. Since then, there have been a lot more. They are driving me nuts and after my contract is over, I am afraid they will still be charging me even after I cancel. I don’t want to deal with issues that could possibly affect my credit. If they do, I will seriously consider getting a lawyer. In fact, I was reading that it’s rather easy to take a big company to small claims court. Don’t know if it’s true, but you might consider taking Verizon to small claims for your time. They will probably offer you a settlement, but that would require your silence.
http://consumercommentary.blogspot.com/2009/01/verizon-customer-support.html
There it is if you want to read it, but I’m sure you have no shortage of complaints to read. They are ridiculous! Multiple people I have talked to in my town are very unhappy with them too, so these aren’t just samplings of unhappy customers all over the Internet. It is a major problem.
Sarah L.
Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah, but the amount of negative attention my blog post has given Verizon is more than enough compensation. I simply urge everyone considering Verizon for their home telecom needs to think about using a different company… but not AT&T if you have any concern at all about net neutrality..!
Another enjoyable fact:
If you call Verizon’s billing on a Saturday, it won’t say, “Please call during our business hours.” It will let you go through the menu options until you are cut off. I didn’t realize they were closed because their tech support is there 24 hours. I try to be as polite as I can to their reps because I know it’s not their fault alone, but I seriously want to scream at someone – whoever is responsible for this sorry excuse for customer service. Thank you Matthew for a forum to vent our frustrations! I have 4 children who are all home for the summer. Every time I have to call Verizon, it is a huge inconvenience and I have much better things to do. My kids are 9, 6, 5, and 10 months.
Hazardous Dangerous Conditions Verizon has caused us to be living in.
Message: Sunday July 26th at 3pm I tried to go out only to find that the telephone pole was laying across the road and blocking it. No one could/can get in or out in a vehicle. I immediately went back to the house and called Verizon Repair. I was assured that the pole would be moved within the next 4 hours. At 7:15pm, I called back as no one had showed up. I spoke to a second person. They informed me that the first person had put it in the computer to be removed by 7pm on July 27th.
This is and was not acceptable. I asked to speak to a supervisor. A supervisor could only be reached through e-mail and a supervisor was needed to process the removal. A supervisor would call me withing the next 2 hours I demanded no more than 10 minutes. Around 8pm, I called again, getting a third person. She informed me that there was a 24 hour hold on my ticket. She did not know why and again I was told this is a hazardous condition that should have been addressed within 4 hours of my original call. The best she could do was put it back in the system and have it removed by noon on July 27th. There were no supervisors on duty.
Today July 27th at approximately 9:20 I called the Customer Resolutions line. She said she would call local. I then called the Office of the CEO and they got someone from Dispatch to call me. I was notified at that time that my ticket had been cancelled at 6:18 am. No one knows why. Back and forth with Customer Service and Dispatch they are sending someone out right away. At 11:50 the repair person calls to get directions and informs me he is only coming to look at it then he will let his supervisor know. I was not happy – I then called Customer Relations back and they told me You have called 4 times this morning and there is nothing else we can do. and hung up. I called the Local Paper and notified them. They are also looking into it. Then I called Corporate Headquarters they in turn sent me to the Presidents Hotline who then switched me to Customer Advocacy. They in turn spoke with Dispatch and then transferred me to Dispatch. Dispatch again informed me the order had been cancelled at 6:18am and it was done from another office. They also explained that due to safety precautions someone had to look and assess before they sent anyone out to do the work and that hopefully it will be moved by close of business today. At 12:25 they came out and assessed the pole. It is now 3:25pm over 24 hours after the initial call and the pole is still there. I was also told it could take longer.
Emergency Services cannot get to us if we need them – this is a highly dangerous situation. The only way in and out is on foot. We are a half mile up a hollow with no neighbors close by and have no vehicle access in or out. If we move the pole ourselves or have anyone else do it and damage is done Verizon will bill us for damaging their property.
No one has been able to tell me why we did not get service yesterday, why the ticket was put on a 24 hour hold, or why it was cancelled early this morning. Nor can they say exactly when they will have it removed from the road.
In regards to Complaint for ….
Yes, I lost my temper. Most definitely. I also told them that they need to do some retraining and the Corporate Office did ask if anyone had told me a supervisor would contact me this morning. My response was that I had not been told that. At the time I initially talked with Corporate they also said that I should have already received a call. l
also told them that I didnot appreciate being lied to by the two Customer Service Reps and then I changed it to being given misinformation.
I have not been able to lodge a formal complaint with Verizon itself. I have notified BBB yesterday and now need to add to my complaint.
I have been a long time customer of Verizon both land and cell phone. I also threatened a lawsuit.
Based on the above information and the fact that Verizon has not handled this matter in a timely fashion and as a result placed our lives in jeopardy should an emergency arrive I am requestiing free phone service both all landline and cell phone.
It is 28 and a half hours since I placed my first call. The pole is still across the road. I do not think that Ivan G. Seidenberg cares one bit about his customers or that fact that his agents misrepresent and do not do their jobs. It is virtually impossible to contact him directly.
This is more than an inconvenience Mr. Seidenberg this is a highly dangerous possibly volatile situation! That pole should have been removed yesterday. But due to the incompetence of the Agents nothing was done yesterday. So we are having to spend another night hoping and praying we do not need the fire department or emergency medical services. You see they would have to walk a quarter of a mile up a pitch dark hollow in the mountains of West Virginia with bear and other large game prowling around. If there is a fire there is nothing that can be done. The fire department won’t be able to help us. What do you care- you have your high throne you are sitting on with little regard for the ordinary people who pay your large salary and for all your perks.
I have been a loyal customer for many years. I am awaiting an appropriate response and compensation as today and tomorrow I will not be able to go to my place of business since you have me baracaded up my road!
Thank you again for putting my family’s lives in danger for another 24 hours.
Wow, good luck with that situation, Phyllis! There’s little chance that anyone connected with Verizon will see your comment here, but I appreciate your sharing it with the folks who read this blog. I hope you get a resolution soon.
I can relate to your frustration! This week I came across a wonderful website, which I felt I should share: it is called hellopeter.com
This website is amazing because not only does it allow for customers to write reports free of charge and about any company, but it provides a space for companies responsible to reply: and let me tell you, companies do respond, either from embarrassment or sincere concern. So I suggest you write your report there, on hellopeter.com
Kindest wishes
Claudio
Thanks for the suggestion, Claudio.
I M SICK I VE HAD VERIZON SINCE THE BEGINNING & HAVE ALWAYS HAD TO CONNECT TO MY NEIGHBOR’S INTERNET TO GET SERVICE. I VE TRIED TO GET HELP & THE PROBLEM HAS NEVER BEEN RESOLVED. I NEED HELP. THIS HAS CAUSED ME SO MUCH STRESS I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO EVEN DEAL WITH ANOTHER LOOSE LOOSE SITUATION. WHAT CAN I DO?
You could do what I have done for home telephone and Internet access — Vonage for the phone and your local cable provider for Internet. Vonage works flawlessly and I’ve had 99%+ uptime with Charter Cable’s online service.
You’re not a prisoner to Verizon. Drop ‘em.
Go to the Your State County Court House and file a Civil Complaint against Mr. Sidenburg personally. Thereafter arrange to serve him a Summons. His attorney will settle with you,
if you are reasonable.
That’s an interesting thought, Peter, and it might be worthwhile for some of the folks who’ve commented on this over the last ten or eleven months. Me, I’ve moved on. Verizon will never get another dime of my money — that’s good enough for me.
Verizon is just another example of a company that could run a whole lot more effectively and better serve customers if they didn’t try to bite off more than they can chew just to impress investors and “get ahead” in their market field. They seem to think that problems with customers will just “smooth themselves out” over time but these kinds of problems usually just result in a steady decline of sales as people start to catch on. CEOs don’t want to hear that the better way of doing business sometimes doesn’t involve the quick, easy and cheap method or that sometimes keeping customers happy and having enough employees to keep services stable and quality high is more important than edging up that profit margin. Sometimes I wonder how some of these big companies manage to stay in business for so long… but as they say “too big to fail”, I guess. Seidenberg should know better though, considering he’s seen the bottom side of the industry firt hand and has watched the telecommunications industry grow over the years. Then again, he was also an engineer at AT&T if that tells you anything. As Verizon starts to lose customers due to the ways they continue to mishandle customers, services, and rates, however, we’ll see how well the new business model works out for them.
People need to understand that, even when it comes to local phone services, they do have other options such as Mr. Selznick’s decision to use VOIP. That’s part of the reason that terrible companies such as Charter Communications and Verizon DO perform so well… They have a customer base that thinks they’re the only game in town. There’s always an alternative no matter (at least in most cases) where you live. You might have to pay a little more money (sometimes at least) or maybe the service isn’t just tip-top of the line… but you have to ask yourself a few questions: “Am I getting treated better as a customer? Does the company actually seem receptive to what I have to say and fill any requests that I may make? Do they treat their employees and/or customers well and ethically? Do I get what I need done without hassle and headache?” If you can answer yes to all of those questions, then stick with them. If not, then it’s time to look for alternatives because you, as a customer, have every right to do so and to use a service that CAN provide all of those things. The big guys might not seem to give a rat’s at first… but eventually, they’re going to start to get the message.
It doesn’t take an entire boardroom of highly paid execs to tell you that pissing off the customer base is not a good idea. So why do companies like Verizon seem to be so good at it and yet survive? hmmm… I wonder… Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have no idea what goes on at the lower levels of the company or with their customers? Something along the lines of viewing everything through the lens of statistics, demographics and marketing analysis? Speaking of Marketing, Verizon just had their chops busted by the FCC back in Feb. for shady marketing tactics… Go figure. Search it online if you haven’t heard about it. They claim (of course) that everyone does it and it’s okay because they really weren’t doing anything wrong and that it will be the customer’s loss (yeah, okay…). Charter Communications has also been caught doing similar things and has even been recently investigated for cooking their books in order to drum up better numbers to lure in more investors. They did it at the expense and frustration at the expense of their customers by reporting claims of unpaid and overdue bills and even going so far as to turn some people in for collections that had never missed a payment. “How they are still in business”, you might ask? I don’t have a clue… Maybe being owned by one of the richest men in America has something to do with it. Yes, too many big businesses behave in this manner, and yes, everyone DOES do it… but does that make it right? None of the investors care as long as they see an increase in their returns, right? Right?! I, for one, do care… A lot of people DO CARE about not doing business or being associated with companies who run with shady business practices.
The point is though… be careful about who you do business with. Know who you’re getting in bed with before you make investments or sign up for their services. The great thing about capitalism, (even though it’s given a bad name by cooperate greed-mongers like Verizon and Charter), is that there is ALWAYS a choice. Even if sometimes that choice is to do without. I like money and I like business but I do not, however, like unethical business practices. Educate yourself about a company beforehand and forgo the woe that comes with realizing that you’re getting ripped off.
Thanks for the info – I have had a very BAD experience myself with verizon and cell phone! And I hope they call me or they will lose a customer for life!
Good luck, Sherry. If I were you, I’d get ready to line up a new provider..!
i to have a had a problem with Verizon. i was with Unicel until Verizon bought them out. i am grandfathered with a plan of $37.00 a month unlimited incoming and outgoing and free texting as long as area code was 541. Now they tell me i can not upgrade my phone or anything unless I give up my plan. they have charged me roaming fee and I never had roaming fees with Unicel.I called Verizon 2 times today (11-25-09) about my roaming fees and stated that I was not in Klamathfalls area because I do not drive.Both times I was called a lair but when I called them a lair they hung up on me. I had more coverage area with Unicel than Verizon!!!!!!! Where do these people come from. So if you are thinking Verizon be prepared for lies, extra charges and rude customer service.
I am one of the many who have also had a run in with the inept support. I even had to get my bank involved because I made an online payment which was credited to the wrong account. Even with the help of my bank it took two weeks and at least 4 different reps at Verizon to final solve the problem. It just happened that in a three way call with my bank, myself and Verizon I happened to be helped by one of the few knowledgeable support people.
I wrote the company and email to let them know that about my experience, if I do get a response I’ll post again.
The number you posted is disconnected. I have a terrible experience with Verizon customer service too. High Speed Wireless is supposed to be its own department but isn’t. The “different” numbers they post on their bills are THE EXACT SAME NUMBER! What the hell is going on with this company, its so excruciatingly bad when it comes to customer service. I feel like I’m jumping through hoops just to speak with a real person and when I finally get to they transfer me back to the automated voice messaging system! When I try to learn about charges on my bill I’m told to speak to someone from Hawaiian TelCom and when I do call them I am told that if I am calling about an ISP other than Hawaiian Tel that I should hang up and call my ISP directly. How can such a large company get away with being so terrible, its just not right.
Thanks for the update on the phone number, Danielti! I’ll make a note in the body of the blog post.
Please tell me how you contacted Ivan Seidenberg, I am infuriated and need to get to the top! Thank you in advance for your help.
I haven’t contacted Ivan, Cathy — that’s why I posted this open letter, for all to see (including, if he chooses, Ivan.) All I know is that Verizon is aware of it, since they contacted me and tried to get my business back, as I wrote in the post.
The best way to send a message to Ivan is to stop using Verizon.
We have used Verizon for our business. They were okay, until I had a problem with a bill. It was all down hill form there. After doing some searching and finding a better packaged deal, we switched. Since then we receive a phone call about once every week to two weeks asking us if we would be interested in switching providers.
I have tried as nicely as I can now for nearly a year and a half to tell these folks to stop calling me. If I was ever interested in switching back to Verizon these incessant phone calls would only keep me away.
No luck, they keep calling. Makes me wish I never used Verizon.
Fortunately, they stopped bothering me after I talked to their “customer recovery” agent, or whatever they were called. I think they get that for anything they offer me, my reply is going to be “suck it until Seidenberg personally responds to my complaints.”
I hope your new provider operates at an acceptable level of evil…
I am on my 3rd week trying to resolve a landline problem with Verizon at my 97 year old grandfather’s house. When I told them that they needed to be sensitive to the fact that you need a landline for 911 purposes when you have a 97 year old resident – there was no response – dead silence on the other end of ALL the conversations I have had with the endless amount of supposed CSR people who have PROMISED that I would be called by a manager within an hour! I have never had a manager call me. Verizon – SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!! Phones are an integral part of a safety system especially for the elderly. The lack of concern ALL of your CSR people have shown is appalling to me – just today I had one SCREAM at me and when I asked to speak to her supervisor, she hung up the phone. When I called back, once again was promised a manager would call me within an hour …. it’s been 8 hours. Three weeks, no resolution, no humanity. Verizon… you are why corporations have such an ugly stereo-type!
I am currently having the EXACT SAME problem. Here’s the email I just sent Verizon:
To whom it may concern:
My account is current and paid in full, yet you have disconnected my service for non payment. I have DSL through a dry loop. I had my Verizon land line cancelled and the number assigned to my Verizon Wireless phone approximately one year ago. Everything was fine for approximately twelve months, but last month you disconnected my service for nonpayment, even though you had automatically drafted my account and your web site showed my bill paid on time and in full. I called your company and after over two hours on the phone finally got my service reconnected. This month the exact same thing has happened. I called this morning and your representative told me, again, that there was a billing error and that my service would be reconnected in thirty minutes. This evening I still have no service. I called your call center this evening and they told me they could not help me. I spent over thirty minutes on my Verizon Wireless account being charged by your company by the minute to correct a problem your company continues to make and cannot seem to correct. I was told there was no one who could be contacted this evening to help and that I would have to wait until tomorrow. My DSL service and access to email has been disconnected now for over twenty-four hours.
I expect to be compensated by your company for what has now been almost eight hours of frustration on the phone last month and this month trying to get you to correct your error. I also expect to be compensated for the 30 minute phone call I had to make on my Verizon Wireless account this evening. I think credit for three months of DSL service would be a good start towards making things right.
Obviously, you won’t be able to respond via email because you’ve disconnected my service. You may contact me via my personal Verizon cellular number at 979-775-5596 between 6:00pm and 7:00am cdt or my business Verizon cellular number at 979-220-1630 any other time. Don’t bother calling unless it’s to tell me you’ve fixed the problem and reconnected my service; I don’t want to be put on hold for another several hours.
I am sending copies of this correspondence to upper management at Verizon including but not limited to the following individuals:
Ivan G. Seidenberg –
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Verizon Communications
Dennis F. Strigl -
President and Chief Operating Officer
Verizon Communications
Robert Mudge -
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer – Consumer and Mass Business Operations
Virginia P. Ruesterholz -
President
Verizon Services Operations
Also, please visit http://www.mattselznick.com/scribtotum/2008/12/02/an-open-letter-to-verizon-ceo-ivan-g-seidenberg/ for a story similar to my own and what one individual did in response. I’m giving you the opportunity to keep from adding me to his ranks.
Markel Simmons
Bryan, Texas
Good luck, Markel! Let us know what happens!
One Verizon call cost me $615.
On January 02, 2010 my wife and myself were impressed upon by a Verizon FIOS salesman to buy FIOS which would in effect combine the capabilities of my DSL and my Verizon telephone service into one package. The agreement over the phone was made around December 15, 2009. I was told the transfer would be smooth, a technician would come in and seamlessly install the new hardware and the old DSL would end and FIOS would take over immediately. I was told at the most I would be out of service for a few hours. As it happened the communication between the Verizon FIOS salesman and Verizon Technical Services was unclear and I was left without internet for 2 weeks. This was the first glitch.
The second glitch is as follows. Prior to obtaining FIOS Verizon, I had Verizon only for Local calls. I had no long distance service through Verizon. For all my long distance calls I went through a calling card number which I mandatorily had to dial because Verizon long distance was unavailable to me. When I changed to FIOS Verizon, we were told that long distance would be free. This was not particularly a big deal, because through my OneSuite.com calling card access number I could call India at 10 Cents per minute and my wife could call China at a cost as low as 2 cents per minute.
On February 16, 2010, I made a long distance 90 minute call to India. This was the first long distance international call I made after purchasing FIOS only 45 days earlier. Since we were told that FIOS Verizon had no long distance charges as the package deal included free long distance I did not expect that this call would be charged $615.16. In fact it was. Particularly because through my calling card a 90 minute call would have cost me a maximum amount of $ 9.00 (10 cents/ minute). After FIOS had told me and my wife that long distance was free, we were SHOCKED to note that they had charged us $615.16 for just this one call. This long distance International call cost me $6.83 cents per minute ($615/90 = 6.80 per minute).
I told Verizon customer service that the FIOS deal was not correctly explained to me, and that me making this call through Verizon was inadvertent, under a miscommunication on the part of the salesman. THEY REFUSED TO REMOVE THIS COST OFF MY BILL.
Sooner or later RIPOFFS like these will come to haunt Verizon I believe as they pursue fast cash at the cost of customer service. We all know how TOYOTA has been hurt by being less than honest with their product. RIPOFFS like these will turn to haunt VERIZON.
Im trying to find information on how to contact the vp of customer service at Verizon. As you already know getting answers with billing problems is a joke. Basically my dad’s computer crashed so he contacted Verizon stating that this had occured and that he needed to put his Verizon wireless card account on a temperary hold. A customer service rep told him that they can do that for him and when his computer was back up and running to let them know(either by phone or at a Verizon store) and they will turn it back on. When his comp was up and running again he contacted Verizon to turn his wireless card back on, they told him they can’t because he was past due on his bill (for the 3 months he was told his card/account could be temp suspended). Everytime he contacted Verizon NO ONE could help him. I steped in because my dad is on social services and he depends on his computer for outside/basic comunication. The man has no phone or tv so Im doing all the leg work to try and help him. Not one person has helped me in this situation so now I have no choice but to write my own letter to the vp of customer service so I can resolve this for my dad! If you have any info on how I can find and contact the vp of customer service it would be much appricated! Thank You!
Sorry for your troubles, Zara, but as you’ll read in the rest of the comments, I don’t have any special information on how to contact anyone at Verizon. You might try the Consumerist website.
Verizon is THE DEVIL INCARNATE. I cancelled service with them in 2007 because their CSR’s refused to send help, kept saying I needed to bring my computer in to be checked (which cost me several hundred to find out nothing was wrong), and continuing to pay for services I didn’t receive. Do you to this DAY they are coming after me with collections people and lawyers? Each time I tell them the story, they have no answers. It’s affected my credit, I can’t get resolution myself. and now trying to go through BBB, but not hopeful about that either. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!!!!!!
Matt: I too have had so many problems with Verizon. The issue: my dad had a business phone in his house. He also had a residential phone. When he wanted to cancel his business phone (and just use his cell phone) he got a call from Verizon offering him a deal…put BOTH phones as business phones and it would cost less. He didn’t totally understand this (being in his late 70′s at the time) but when he did, he tried unsuccessfully to get Verizon to change the residential phone back. No one ever called him back when they said they would. Never. Fast forward to March 2009. My dad passes away. I cancel his business line but leave the residential (now considered a business phone) for my mom. There is no long distance service (I live in a different area code, my mom has some health issues so it is critical for her to be able to contact me.) Now, I start my fight with Verizon. I called, they told me that they would take care of switching the phone (of course, there will be charges) and they would call me back. Never happened. I tried to change to Time Warner – couldn’t do it because they phone was business, not residential. Called Verizon again. And again. Finally (April 7th 2010) I got a wonderful customer service person who said she’d stay on the line while I talked to the residential people. As soon as she “got off the line to give me privacy” the residential woman’s attitude changed. She told me that it would take a few weeks to get everything changed over. I waited a few weeks and today, called them back. The only thing in their notes was that I had “inquired” about residential service!!?!?!? I am now waiting on a Mrs. Johnson who said she would call back in the next 1/2 hour and it would be taken care of. I’ve heard that before. Is there any way to actually get out of this horrible service situation without just canceling and going with another carrier? My mom doesn’t want a new number, she’s familiar with one she has and, at 82, and in this day and age, shouldn’t have to go through so much trouble to get her phone to work. I am so frustrated and, seeing that I’m not the only one, wanted to get my story told as well.
Read this site with bemusement – as our experience has been the same.
We’ve had fios for 3-4 years now, and while I have always found verizon’s outside plant guys to be very capable, their marketing department and to a lesser extent, their support department encourage one to run away.
Few years back, I spent 8 months getting verizon to remove a double billed video on demand. Lasting result – we no longer use video on demand.
More recently, I’ve had problems with verizon’s email system bouncing messages sent to our address, because we process them through the excellent doemail whitelist system (Stanford kids). Verizon’s email server decides they are spam and bounces them – even after a year of effort to get them to flag the doemail domain as safe. Finally had enough – and wrote the Texas PUC – again.
These people must watch the three stooges daily – as they certainly have gone native. Would flee them instantly if other fiber options were available.
The nightmare continues: Update – May 18th – Got another Mrs. Johnson when I called today. First contacted the business office, they said that the change was just sitting there in the system. Then the business office switched me to the Residential office. They Mrs. Johnson (#2) said that there is nothing in their system to show that I put in a change, and that we would have to start over with all the information. Mom’s phone number, date of birth, SS#, etc. When I asked how come the business office knew that there had been a change, she said that she didn’t know what screen that woman was looking at. I asked for a supervisor. Got a Mrs. Femnella (I was afraid it would be another “Mrs. Johnson”) She assured me that it would be taken care of today. Even gave me her direct line to make sure that I could call her back….I must be an idiot to trust these guys again….but my mom has Alzheimer’s and won’t understand if the phone number she’s known all her life is no longer the correct number. I really am at my wit’s end if this doesn’t work.
After six years of being a Verizon customer and watching my bill increase month after month I decided to switch to AT&T. AT&T took care of switching my number over and closing my Verizon account. The problem began when I received another Verizon bill. I eventually got Verizon to understand that I was no longer a customer and the account should be closed. They did finally close the account but insisted that I pay $461 for two additional months even though there were no contract issues and they conceded that there had been no use of their service. Their logic was that AT&T had closed the main number on the account but not two inactive numbers. After refusing to pay for service that I did not use, my reward from Verizon for having been a customer for six years was, first, they had a collections agency hound me and finally they reported to one of the credit bureaus. Verizon is an evil company.
Folks, after a year and a half and six dozen comments from folks who have had bad experiences with Verizon, I’ve decided to close comments on this post. I wish every one luck, and hope you’ll take some time to check out my writing, music and other creative endeavors and services… and if you like what you find, please compensate me for the efforts and the experience!
I recommend folks try a site like Consumerist for complaints against Verizon and other badly behaving corporations.
Best,
Matthew Wayne Selznick