AWFUL Verizon Support Experience

[bjb203]

The reason for my post today is two-fold.

1. To see if anybody else has had a similar experience and what they did to resolve?

2. To see if anybody from Verizon actually cares enough to notice/respond to  negative reviews on their community pages. 

So my issue started when a contractor working at my house severed the fiber line on a Saturday afternoon. You may think well that's really the contractors fault, but Verizon had the line buried only about 3 inches under ground and it was completely exposed(no conduit like Comcast uses).  I called Verizon support and while they could not come out the same day, I was okay with waiting until Sunday to have my service restored. I was given the the good 'ol 8am - 12pm window for  a technician to arrive at my home to correct the issue. So, 12 PM rolls around Sunday afternoon, and of course no technician. I call Verizon support to find out what's going on and after waiting 15 minutes for a representative, I finally get to talk to a completely rude and unhelpful service rep.  After I explain the issue to her, she basically tells me nobody can come out today. I explained that Verizon committed to the window today, and I had changed my whole schedule around to accommodate. She could have cared less, and basically said the ticket in her system said Monday was their commitment date and there were no notes on the service ticket that indicated they would be out Sunday. That infuriated me since I was verbally told that somebody would be out Sunday.  So, I asked to speak with her supervisor or manager because I wanted an explanation as to what happened, and wanted to know if they could pull the recorded service call that had the detail of my conversation with the service rep on Saturday telling me somebody would be out on Sunday. She put me on hold 3 separate times, and then I am completely convinced that she hung up on me after I waited 45 minutes on the line!  There is no direct line to speak with a supervisor or manager, so when I called back I was basically put back into the "queue", and I gave up which I'm convinced is what Verizon Support actually wants.  You would think that if the service rep really cared about "providing service" she would have called me back since they ask for a mobile number in the event of disconnection, but I received no such call.  

Anyway, what a terrible experience. I felt like this was a complete stall tactic on Verizon Support's part and I'm wondering if anybody else has had similar experiences with tech support.  Maybe if enough people raise similar concerns they will eventually take notice and provide us with better support options. 

- Brian B.

[geezplaya]

I have recently encountered some terrible tech support and repair issues in trying to help a friend with a non working DSL. Generally the support I've had when it comes to FIOS has been quite good, and not difficult to reach. However, the issue I was dealing with is far too complicated to relate in detail here, but suffice it say, that I was put on hold countless times, hung up on, given mis-information, and had one visit from a team of tech experts who blamed the problem on the central office. I spent 3 separate days waiting for technicians to show up, one never did and never called. Finally when I was ready to tell my friend to cancel Verizon and just get a basic cable modem, a tech person came and actually found the problem quickly and corrected it very simply. The fact is, Verizon is simply too large. This same friend because he wanted to switch his 30 year old NY telephone number to his cell phone, and his cell phone to his land line, created a  monster of a problem that began last November and continued to this month. I haven't found this to be the case with FIOS but with just the regular Verizon, everyone passes the buck. There is a lot of "not my job" and no one follows through to resolve a problem. There is no longer in NYC a telephone office where one could go and sit down and say, this is a complicated problem that needs one person working to solve the problem as we sit here and not a different person every day. There is a huge problem with communication between departments including people who unfortunately though they try have accents far too thick to be in English speaking public service, Each call produces a different person who has to be completely re-informed of your problem, requiring enormous patience to re explain everything you've said already a million times. For these reasons, when it comes to a simple DSL and a landline, I would recommend, at least in NYC, that people seek another carrier if they don't have FIOS available. As for your own problems, I can only say rest assured as you are most certainly not alone in your anger and frustration. 

[db909]

---

@bjb203 wrote:

The reason for my post today is two-fold.

1. To see if anybody else has had a similar experience and what they did to resolve?

2. To see if anybody from Verizon actually cares enough to notice/respond to  negative reviews on their community pages. 

So my issue started when a contractor working at my house severed the fiber line on a Saturday afternoon. You may think well that's really the contractors fault, but Verizon had the line buried only about 3 inches under ground and it was completely exposed(no conduit like Comcast uses).  I called Verizon support and while they could not come out the same day, I was okay with waiting until Sunday to have my service restored. I was given the the good 'ol 8am - 12pm window for  a technician to arrive at my home to correct the issue. So, 12 PM rolls around Sunday afternoon, and of course no technician. I call Verizon support to find out what's going on and after waiting 15 minutes for a representative, I finally get to talk to a completely rude and unhelpful service rep.  After I explain the issue to her, she basically tells me nobody can come out today. I explained that Verizon committed to the window today, and I had changed my whole schedule around to accommodate. She could have cared less, and basically said the ticket in her system said Monday was their commitment date and there were no notes on the service ticket that indicated they would be out Sunday. That infuriated me since I was verbally told that somebody would be out Sunday.  So, I asked to speak with her supervisor or manager because I wanted an explanation as to what happened, and wanted to know if they could pull the recorded service call that had the detail of my conversation with the service rep on Saturday telling me somebody would be out on Sunday. She put me on hold 3 separate times, and then I am completely convinced that she hung up on me after I waited 45 minutes on the line!  There is no direct line to speak with a supervisor or manager, so when I called back I was basically put back into the "queue", and I gave up which I'm convinced is what Verizon Support actually wants.  You would think that if the service rep really cared about "providing service" she would have called me back since they ask for a mobile number in the event of disconnection, but I received no such call.  

Anyway, what a terrible experience. I felt like this was a complete stall tactic on Verizon Support's part and I'm wondering if anybody else has had similar experiences with tech support.  Maybe if enough people raise similar concerns they will eventually take notice and provide us with better support options. 

- Brian B.

---

A long story, but this sounds like you cut your own line on a Saturday afternoon and are indignant that it could not be fixed it until Monday.  I worked in a call center in a prior life and  was amazed at what people would say over the phone to a CSR.

My advice to you next time is a) be as sweet as pie, especially when you created the problem.  b)  don't sit on hold for 45 minutes, after about 5 minutes, hang up and call back.  Explain (briefly) to the next CSR what transpired and since you got parked on hold with the prior CSR, ask to speak to a supervisor.  Get names, all the while continuing to be sweet as pie.  Remember, the goal here is to get FIOS to fix something you broke as quickly as possible.