Today, I am an extremely unhappy Verizon customer. Last Friday morning, my phone, internet, and cable service cut out, so I followed the instructions on the television screen, called customer service, entered the codes, and was transferred to an agent to troubleshoot the problem. The agent asked me to fiddle with the back up battery system, and after that didn't work, he subsequently informed me that I would have to wait FOUR DAYS for someone to come in and fix the problem. To make matters worse, he initially informed me that I would most likely have to pay a fee when the agent fixes the problem.
Needless to say, I found this to be totally unacceptable. My wife does the bulk of her work from home and needs the internet to access important information to do her job. After chatting with dispatch, calling dispatch, being transferred me to "escalation" department, and eventually the cancellation department, I ended the day the way I started it, being forced to wait FOUR DAYS for someone to come fix the problem, then possibly ask for a fee.
As all of this was going on, my wife called Cablevision, who offered to pay our cancellation fee, a $250 gift card, all movie channels and sports packages (more than I have currently), free multi room DVR, 2 free tickets to clearview cinemas on Tuesdays, and NO CONTRACT for precisely what I pay Verizon now. I communicated this to Verizon and told them exactly what I was thinking, which was you don't have to match Cable's offer, but I do expect you to come close for no other reason than to feel like I'm wanted. After several follow up conversations, all they had to offer was a credit for service lost, a $10/month discount for one year, and a one year discount on an HBO/Cinemax package (ONLY IF I SIGN FOR ONE MORE ADDITIONAL YEAR WITH A CANCELLATION FEE).
Here's the kicker: the next day, the service came back on out of nowhere. A Verizon agent comes to my house and asks if we lost service. Turns out that the house behind us also lost their service, and since we were connected to the same line, he came to check on us. Wish I had his name since he seemed to be the only Verizon employee that seemed to care about his customers. I immediately called Verizon and asked why the person behind me was able to get an appointment the next day while I was asked to wait four days? Needless to say, they couldn't give me an answer.
As it stands, I asked Verizon this morning to keep me on my current plan, no new contract, with the $10/month credit so I can mull things over. But at this point, I am absolutely leaning towards switching to Cablevision. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS EVERYTHING. I want to know that my $300/month for Verizon services are appreciated. Right now, I'm not so sure.
PLEAE GIVE ME INFORMATION ON HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT WITH MANAGEMENT SINCE NOBODY SEEMS WILLING TO GIVE ME THAT INFORMATION OVER THE PHONE OR ON THE WEBSITE, NOR DOES ANYONE SEEM WILLING TO PUT THE CUSTOMER'S CONCERNS FIRST. Thanks for your help.
