My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

On Wednesday afternoon I called Verizon to find out how much I need to restore service.

A male agent told me I needed 230 dollars.  I told him there must be a mistake, and that I had just paid 150 less than a week ago. He said ‘No, you need 230’  I told him there must be something wrong, that I’d never had to pay that much to get service restored, and I asked him to please see what he could do.  He was rude and very short with me.  He didn’t want to hear what I had to say.  He told me in NO UNCERTAIN terms, repeatedly, that I’d need the 230 to be restored.  I asked him to connect me with a supervisor. ((((I’d like to know if my asking for a supervisor was also noted on my account.  Why on EARTH would I ask to speak to a supervisor if he told me I only needed the partial payment of 109 and not the full 230?)))  After arguing with me about it he said ‘Sure if you want to wait fifty minutes?’  I said ‘no problem’.  He connected me to a busy signal which was followed by a dial tone.

At this point in my day I had 150 dollars in my bank account. I would have called right back, but I had to go to work.  My sister called me there with an emergency; she needed to borrow some money until Friday. Knowing I wouldn’t have the 230 for the cable bill until Sat anyway, I lent her the money.

When I got home late that Wednesday evening, I opened my computer to see the Verizon page.  It said I needed 109 dollars to restore service!!  You can understand my frustration at that point because I no longer had 109 dollars.  I thought to myself ‘boy, that agent really messed up.  Not only was he rude, he was dead wrong. As I went to sleep that night I assumed a call the next day to a Verizon Supervisor would be helpful.  I was sure that when I told a CUSTOMER SERVICE SUPERVISOR about the tone of the short spoken agent and drastic misinformation I was given the day before, he or she would be at the very LEAST apologetic; and I had hoped he’d be willing to work with what I had to restore service after considering the circumstances that were the FAULT of the VERIZON agent that he SUPERVISES.  BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!

The next day I called back to Verizon.  This time the agent was female.  After giving her my information I immediately asked to be connected to a supervisor.  She told me I needed to explain why before she could connect me.  I told her about the horrible customer service call the day before, the misinformation I received, and the dilemma I was left in because of it.  She told me there was nothing that could be done about it.  She DIDN’T apologize, and she said she could not connect me to a supervisor.  I WAS FLOORED!!!  She said, ‘You can give me your phone number and a super will call you back in twenty minutes.’  I, now very irritated, explained to her (even though she should have known) that my phone was off due to my service interruption.  She then HAD THE NERVE to say to me “Well most people have a cell phone we can call.” WELL I’m not ‘most’ people, and I do not have a cell phone.  That conversation went NO WHERE, she was zero help, and she also was rude. 

 

I hung up, and called right back.  The next female agent listened to me, was VERY polite, and was happy to get me the supervisor on the line.  I thanked her wholeheartedly for her EXCELLENT SERVICE.  The male supervisor was on the line shortly after.

I immediately asked him to forgive my tone and explained that I was very frustrated at that point, and I explained the situation.  I told him about the 2 agents whose customer service was nil.  He told me that the first agent I talked to told me I needed to pay 109, and he had noted that he told me that in my account.  I was outraged that he was insinuating that I was lying and told him so.  He went on and on very long winded about how he doent insinuate things and how he says what he means.  He interrupted me EVERY TIME I tried to reply to what he was saying and then accused me of not letting him talk.  He told me that I must have just misunderstood the first agent. 

AGAIN, I’M FLOORED!!!  Now he is insinuating that I’m not capable of understanding plain English.  I couldn’t believe that instead of being apologetic to me he was basically calling me a stupid liar.  I could not believe how much arguing he was doing with me. 


At one point I tried to put the conversation on a lighter note and actually complemented him on his eloquent speaking skills.  It did no good.  He was NOT listening to a word I was saying and I was soon laughing… but not from anything funny.  I was laughing because I could see the conversation was going nowhere and he was the third Verizon employee that I’d dealt with who ABSOLUTELY does not deserve the title ‘customer service agent’.

 I knew what I was asking for (I offered to pay 50 that day, and could pay the remainder in 3 days on Sunday) was a bit of a stretch but I’m pretty sure it was doable.  EVEN if it wasn’t, the VERY LEAST he could have done was apologize for the mishap or offer me a free movie or ANYTHING to make up for the mistake…instead he (in a roundabout way) accused me of lying and not being able to comprehend the simple difference between the numbers 230 and 109.

 The last part of the conversation went EXACTLY like this….

ME:  I’m soo done with Verizon.

Him:  So you want the service disconnected then?

ME:  I’m just done with it.

Him: Ma’am, are you saying you want me to disconnect the service?

ME: ‘CLICK’

NO!!!  I didn’t want the service disconnected just yet, and that’s why I didn’t answer his question.  I have 2 teenagers who use the internet almost every day for their school work so I knew I’d need my service on until I could make other arrangements.  I paid the 110 Thursday night at 730 p.m.  It’s now 2:30 a.m., and still, no service. 

While the supervisor I spoke with displayed great speaking skills he lacked something that is far more important in the world of customer service (as did his employees) and that’s LISTENING. 

I admit I was probably a little difficult to deal with, but had ANYONE listened to me and/or assumed any responsibility for the first Verizon agents gross mistake, they would have understood my frustrations. A simple, genuine I’m sorry would have gone a looong way to ease my tension. 

I would like the names of all four of the representatives that I spoke with.  I would also like to discuss the issue pertaining to the bold faced lie I was dealt.  One of your representatives flat out lied, in what seemed like an effort to make it look like I was either lying or sub intelligent.  Either way, it’s BEYOND wrong, and leaves a VERY bad taste in the mouths of anyone who can understand the deliberately shady tactics used by Verizon employees to undermine their customers.

The above portion of this letter was written a week ago and was sent through Verizon’s web page email.  I received a reply to my Hotmail account that said I need to go to myverizon and view the profile and would see a notification of the reply.  I did that, there is nothing there. 

In continuation of my Verizon experience:

At 730 pm Thursday the automated telephone service had no problem finding my account and taking my 110 dollar payment.  It assured me that my service would be restored in up to four hours.

At 930 pm I walked to a friend’s house to call and check on the restore.  I don’t really remember what was said but I think it was along the line of ‘wait out the 4 hours’.

 

At about 12 am I used my emergency minute cell phone to put a call in to a tech to see if they could send out my signal.  I was only able to stay on the phone for about 5 minutes and that wasn’t even long enough for the agent to find and pull up my account.  (I think he couldn’t find it because it was cancelled at that point)

The next morning around 1030 am my son walked to a phone and called Verizon.  He told me I had to call because the agent couldn’t find our account.

At 11 am I AGAIN walked to a friend’s house to phone Verizon.  This time, my friend had my 3 year old and I as her company for the next 4 hours while I tied up her phone line the whole time.

The first agent told me my service wasn’t restored because I had requested to discontinue my services.  I then explained the entire situation to her and described the call with the supervisor.  She told me there was nothing she could do for me, and I needed to sign up for new service.  I asked to speak to her supervisor.

The supervisor got on the line, and I AGAIN gave her a detailed description of ALL of the events leading up to that point.  She said the same thing!!  “There isn’t really anything I can do for you.  You’re accounts gone.  Once it’s gone, it’s gone.   You’ll have to sign up as a new customer. At this point I was mentally broken and crying.  I asked to talk to her supervisor.  She said one would call me back in twenty minutes.

She did call back in about 20 minutes.  I EXPLAINED THIS LONG story to her, and she said there was nothing she could do and asked me if I’d like to be connected to the sales department to start up new service!  I could not believe my ears!  I was talking to a Verizon customer service agent’s supervisor’s supervisor…  I told her of the numerous phone calls, the misinformation, the rude attitudes, the accusations, the blatantly malicious disconnection of my service by a supervisor and all she could do was TRANSFER ME TO SALES????

I was almost livid at this point and delirious with confusion and exhaustion, I asked to speak to her supervisor.  She told me they would call me back in 20 minutes.   That call back never did come.

After waiting for 30 minutes, I was running out of time, so I called back.  I work very long hours all week end and DID NOT want to leave my kids home with no phone to contact me in an emergency.  So I decided to try to sign up for new service and deal with the issues later.

This kind agent informed me new service would be no problem after I come up with a 250 dollar deposit because now I’m a credit risk with an outstanding balance due($120).  I explained the whole situation to him and he tried like heck to do what he could for me.  He was getting on and off the line talking to another department trying to help me out but in the end the best he could do was put my phone service on the following Saturday.

On Sunday I was told by my children that a Verizon computer had called, so I called back to find out why.  I ended up on the line with Linda the agent who set up the rest of the service.   The security deposit requirement had been lifted.  And I went ahead with the process of new service.  She said she couldn’t restore my service that day and eventually convinced me to get all new equipment that I didn’t really need.  It was a huge hassle, and the 100 dollar gift card she assured me would be in with the equipment is nowhere to be found.  I told her I wanted everything back to the way it was, but I don’t think that’s what happened.  She did talk me into upgrading my internet speed for ten bucks a month, and honestly, I see ZERO difference, I don’t think I needed it.  I don’t have all the channels I used to have.

 

I called back again to see if my ALL of my activation fees had been waved, and I was told they were.  I guess I will see.  I also asked about my dvr staying free for life like before, and it is.

AND lastly, I had to call 2 more times to tech support to get my newly installed tiny boxes working….

I am a proud restaurant server.  After twenty years in my business I can perform my job almost flawlessly, mostly because I listen to my customers.  Everyone makes mistakes, when I make a mistake I do everything in my power to make sure my customers are happy and treated fairly.  When things go south, I go tell my boss myself!!  My customers NEVER have to ask to speak to a manager because I make it my business to make sure each customer’s service is a success.  I make sure they are addressed by my superior because I don’t want my mistake to look like a refection our normal day to day business.

  

I strongly believe your corporation needs to take a long hard look into its entire customer service system.  While most of the telephone reps I have dealt with over the last couple of weeks have performed at a level far beneath what I would consider polite and informed, there were a few who did a great job.  It seemed to me, though, that even those few good reps had hands that were VERY tied which made it difficult for them to do their jobs correctly.  I would bet if the people in charge of the customer service agents and their procedures would take the time to LISTEN to the few agents who know what they are doing, they could probably work together to come up with some solutions to this fiasco you call Verizon customer service.

Now as I’m sure you probably cannot tell, I’m no fan of typing complaint letters nor is it easy for me.  The second portion of this letter has taken me over five hours to type.  It’s taken me that long because I have a loose battery cord on this old laptop and I lost almost the whole thing two hours in and had to start over.  I also have carpal tunnel syndrome and my wrist is swollen up like a balloon at this point, but I refuse to call there again.  I’m done talking to these reps, but I feel I need to be compensated.  After almost 2 weeks of dozens of phone calls, being misled, being lied to, being accused of lying, being made to repeat myself over and over, being made to feel like an idiot, being reduced to crying, uninstalling and reinstalling equipment, boxing and returning equipment,  the hours and hours of my precious time wasted quite literal hours and hours of pain and suffering (in the end).  ALL for that cord coming out of the wall?  A service that I pay more for than any other utility I have ever had.

 So you know what I want?  I want a new TV or computer to stick that cord into!  Why not, right?  I want to join everyone else this century and replace this 150 pound box with a flat screen, or have a laptop that doesn’t randomly shut off if you bump it.  I know that may sound crazy, but it’s what I feel I deserve and after what I’ve been through, I’m not afraid or ashamed to ask.  This goes for broke approach isn’t normal for my character, I’m actually quite reasonable.

 Any compensation that displays that careful consideration was given to this fiasco of a situation that has been my life for the last 2 weeks and is still ongoing would probably satisfy me.  Please make sure my plan is put back the way it was.  Please make sure I am not being billed for ANY of the different activation fees.    A sincere apology, my TV channel plan and price returned to its original state or LOWERED, my promised self-install 100 dollar gift card, and MOST OF ALL access to my email account to retrieve my address and a few important emails that NO ONE there seems to want to admit is possible.

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
somegirl
Champion - Level 3

1. This is a peer-to-peer support forum. If you want to get a message to Verizon, you should contact them directly via one of the options on their Contact Us page.

2. I'm honestly not surprised that the supervisor disconnected your service. If you say "I'm done with Verizon." then don't answer when asked if you want your service disconnected except to repeat that you're done and hang up, that's what a reasonable person would infer that you wanted.

3. Sorry things have been so difficult for you, and I hope it all works out!

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

Do you mean the place where you can't use

Apostrophes, colons, semi colons, and parentheses??   hmm yea no thanks 🙂  Unless of course you know of a better way?

 

Really?  After hours of dealing with rude incompetent agents you think a customer who is clearly upset saying, im done with Verizon, THEN NOT answering the prime question 'do you want me to disconnect service?' AND then not being offered any of the protocol follow up questions to the disconnection process should equate in the mind of a VERIZON representative that 'it's PROBABLY a safe bet she wanted service disconnected...  im going to just ahead and do that" ????  Wow, lol you funny tell that to your CEO...

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
somegirl
Champion - Level 3

@beckaflecka wrote:

Do you mean the place where you can't use

Apostrophes, colons, semi colons, and parentheses??   hmm yea no thanks 🙂  Unless of course you know of a better way?

 

Really?  After hours of dealing with rude incompetent agents you think a customer who is clearly upset saying, im done with Verizon, THEN NOT answering the prime question 'do you want me to disconnect service?' AND then not being offered any of the protocol follow up questions to the disconnection process should equate in the mind of a VERIZON representative that 'it's PROBABLY a safe bet she wanted service disconnected...  im going to just ahead and do that" ????  Wow, lol you funny tell that to your CEO...


AGAIN, this is a peer-to-peer support board, since you seem to have missed that. I'm not a Verizon employee, just an end user like you.

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

2300 posts?  Yea, i caught that you weren't an employee after the post.  I felt so much better about your clueless customer service response after that!!    It's okay I already sent my letter USmail to corporate, but if you know of a way to remove all of those pesky apostrophes please be sure and let me know.   You're not an employee...Smiley LOL

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!! P.S.
IDamian
Enthusiast - Level 2

I also don't own a cell phone!  Which means you are in good company!!

Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!! P.S.
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

LOL  Yes, not to mention our head aren't full of what ever the invisible dangerous crap is that pours out of those 'smart' telephones!!  

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

I just want to add something here.  I sent the OP to customersupport@verizon.net, this is the reply I recieved:

Dear R. HOLT,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. I have received your email dated 01/28/2013 regarding some concerns with your Verizon account, and I can certainly understand wanting to have these issue resolved quickly as possible.

We apologize for the delay in our response and regret any inconvenience to you.

According to our records, it appears that your inquiry was addressed by our Consumer Sales and Service department on January 29, 2013. We show that your services have been placed in a new bundle.

If your original request has been resolved, please disregard this message. If you require further assistance with your account, please feel free to respond to this email and we will be happy to assist you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.
 
HERE IS WHAT I REPLIED:
 
 
I'm glad you 'received' my email dated 1-28-13 regarding my 2 week long fiasco of time wasting, pain causing, emotionally draining Verizon customer service; yet, your reply has left me wondering if you thoroughly 'read' the email.  
 
Your records are correct, my plan was changed on the 29th.
 
That was just another day of me waiting for someone from Verizon to contact me in regards to the reimbursement that remains unsettled, when I saw Verizon on the caller I.D. I assumed it was that call.  It wasn't; in fact, it was a Verizon agent calling me to find out who was providing my cable and internet service asking me if I would like to sign up for service with Verizon. 
 
After hanging up annoyed with yet more incompetence,  I decided against my better judgment to call back in.  I wanted to find out when I would be getting my 100 dollar gift card.  She asked me if I'd received an email in regards to my GC.  I told her i hadn't, The agent said I would receive an email in 9 days.  I guess I will see...
 
I also told the agent that my television still wasn't getting some of the stations we had before your Verizon rep (maliciously, without my consent or request), disconnected and trashed my old account.  I asked her to please pull up my old account for reference and set up my new one the same exact way.  I assume by her tone throughout the conversation( that I URGE you to listen to in the recordings) that this wasn't easy for her, at one point in the conversation I actually had to ask her why she was talking to me in said tone and asked her to please stop.  I have ZERO confidence that she actually accomplished this simple request correctly because the underhanded agent tried to trick me into a contract, and almost succeeded.  After that scam you can understand my reluctance to assume she made my account the same as before, IF NOT WORSE.  ( I had intended to address getting back into my old email account to retrieve my address and a few VERY meaningful irreplaceable emails but was so disgusted by her tactics that i just let it go to end the call)
 
Now, that being said, you should be able to see where my confusion lies concerning your reply to my previous email (that I will place at the end of this for your convenience).  It frankly appeared to me as further dodging of the issue accompanied by more shiftiness.  I don't see how you can read that email, then look at my account, and find ANYTHING there that would indicate to you that my 'inquiry' (as you have described it) has been addressed and/or resolved.
 
I thank you for your empty reply, and hope that the letters that I sent to the Presidential Complaints Department and the Corporate Office will be followed up by a representative more willing to genuinely address the email accounts of the nightmare that has been my Verizon experience.

Sincerely, Rebecca
 
The previous email is below:

 

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Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
22Becca22
Contributor - Level 3

Apologies in advance for this message to you, Rebecca, but the sentiments expressed below are from personal opinion:

1) As with any other company, when a statement is received, it encompasses services rendered by the provider and then the subsequent financial obligation by the recipient to pay bills when they are due.

2) As a Verizon customer, if you have difficulty making payments and to avoid having the service interrupted, you can set-up payment arrangement(s) by calling Customer Service or Financial Services. You can now even do this on your own via myverizon.com. 

3) Evidently, your service was interrupted and the recourse to have the service restored was to pay the past due amount.

Unfortunately, (and very likely the main mistake was that) you may have been provided the amount that is currently due on the account (past due + new charges = current balance) as opposed to just what may be necessary to have the service put back on (past due).  We don't know how the conversation transpired between you and the Verizon representative, but nonetheless, the amount you were quoted initially was more than the required for restoration.  Was this mistake deliberate or accidental? Perhaps there was a misunderstanding.  Perhaps you heard differently.  Either way, we can't tell, but nonetheless, it happened, and on your end it was perceived as a mistake.  

4) On the company's part, representatives should be more cautious when providing this type of information to customers. Usually, Financial Services is the department that could provide more detailed and accurate information relating to payments and amounts due.  Customer Service has review capability, but perhaps if the customer's account is on a financially 'suspended' status, then there could be a more definitive way of determining in big bold print which actual amount is needed to restore the service, other than transferring the customer to Financial Services which could cause undue anxiety for the customer of being placed on hold once more. Besides, Financial Services is only open on regular business days.  Also, if the customer has a current payment arrangement in place and was not able to fulfill the required amount on the promised date, this makes matters more complex.

5) After knowing (via logging online) as to the actual amount required to restore your service... and I am guessing that although whatever residential services with Verizon were suspended already then (tv, internet and/or phone) that your own access to the internet was not impacted on that day (either you have a mobile wifi data plan with wireless, or had checked this information on a PC other than home, or you have a different provider for internet service), you decided to call Verizon:

not to confirm the amount, nor to make a payment or have a payment arrangement made, but to speak with a Dept Supervisor to lodge a complaint about the mistake made by the representative who quoted you the incorrect amount and their apparent rudeness. It is understood and very apparent that you had to passionately make this grievance known and it was your first priority.

6) Due to your absolute anger and exasperation about the situation, the Dept Supervisor comprehended that as a go ahead signal to cancel the services.  At that particular point in time, how could the Supervisor help you further other than discuss matters with his representative?  The Supervisor cannot restore your service as a payment was still necessary.  

If you had wanted to request some sort of arrangement for the payments, you could have stated such and the supervisor could have reviewed this, and then checked with Financial Services directly if need be.  This is the part that is not clear -- your expectations from the supervisor and what you wanted done at that point.  Perhaps all you needed was for him to listen?  

7) However, the main issue that still lingered was making the necessary payments to have the service restored.

You did do so on Thurs evening, but it was too late; likely the order to disconnect the service was already in place.

😎 When placing a call to check on the status of an account (at any company), it is always good to have the account number on hand, or the phone number; otherwise, it'll take longer for any agents to search for the account through another method, or worse not be able to find it.

9) The only method to get a service back that has been disconnected (even if accidental) is to establish new service once more.  You did get the service set-up but needed to go through the necessary process, especially of reactivating your equipment.

10) I sincerely believe your situation was not too bad in the beginning when there was a misunderstanding on what amount was needed to be paid to restore your service.

It seems the scenario was severely exacerbated not truly by how the other representatives and supervisor handled your follow-up calls, but by how you reacted to the entire situation. We can certainly grasp and acknowledge your frustration for getting an incorrect amount, especially if you didn't have the available monetary resources.

There are people in financially-strapped situations or have experienced dilemmas in their lives. These folks, though, contact the company, put in their requests and make sincere attempts to have arrangements made to get their service back.

However, the anger and indignance displayed with the uncompromising attitude of your letter and reaction to the entire matter is something to behold, and makes me want to shake my head in disbelief.

It is apparent that your prime concern here was not to get your service restored but to prove that the other person did indeed make an error and there should be some retribution as a result of it.  It was not something the representative had done out of spite nor did it display any biased or unfair treatment.  It likely was an honest mistake.

It was through a series of actions/reactions that the simple mistake became a nightmare. This was something you could have avoided or controlled, especially the emotional aggravation.  There's no need to be this angry.

I really feel bad for you.  Alas, the situation got exceedingly worse after each encounter you made and your decision to manifest your ire as opposed to tending to what's more vital --- service restoration.

11) If it were up to me, I'd say wait for your first bill and then if you see any charges on there that you'd like to dispute, then you can call Customer Service to get it resolved.  At that point, it might behoove you to be a tad nicer and calmer to get what you want. 😉

Good luck and may you have inner peace/resolve.

Re: My ongoing Verizon nightmare, someone help me!!
beckaflecka
Enthusiast - Level 1

HEY Verizon called me today!!!  LOL they only wanted their equipment back 😞

I told the rep i hadn't returned it yet because I'd been busy and didn't get a chance to find out where my closest UPS store was. She said "oh you can just take it to the post office"  I questioned "are you sure?  The lable says UPS"  She said she was sure and i was glad.

 I carried the heavy equipment down the street to my vechical, and dragged it into my local post office.  I waited in line with my rambuctious three year old for nearly twenty minutes... OF COURSE (LOL) They wouldn't take it!!    Back home we went...dragging the expensive eqipment back in....  

Later on after lunch we did the same thing all over again...Off to the UPS store!!  It's so much fun being jerked around!!  

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