Re: This is not a rant, but it's close.
jamesk16
Enthusiast - Level 2

It took  me 3 weeks to get a technician to come out. The customer service center kept saying they will be there and no one showed up.  Finally the technician showed up and had the issue resolved in 10 minutes. I thanked the technician but Verizon customer service is awful. Broken promises, lies, etc.

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Re: This is not a rant, but it's close.
aquapop
Enthusiast - Level 3

Unacceptable!!

They never showed up for the appointment!

Internet has been down the whole time.

The time slot was between 10am and 2pm for the Verizon tech to arrive.  I started calling around 1:45 to see what was going on, after nobody showed.

I was on hold forever.  Finally, "Oh, the appointment was cancelled when your trouble was attached to an outage." 

Just nonchalant and matter of fact.  What's the big deal????

I left work for the appointment, because they told me I needed to be at home.  Then, they just don't show up.

I'm sickened by this pathetic performance.

The tech left me a voicemail, after I returned to work. "There is something wrong with our equipment that is affecting about six users, that's why we cancelled the visit to your home."

That would have been palatable, if he called BEFORE I was out of work for more than four hours!

Meanwhile, I am lucky my internet came up long enough for me to post this.

I'm sure, once again, the "outage" will be over, and they'll say it's just me again.  Then, the waiting for internet will continue.

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Re: This is not a rant, but it's close.
aquapop
Enthusiast - Level 3

As of Saturday afternoon, it was fixed.  I wanted to wait until it was up solid for a couple days, before making the call.

The tech who works in my neighborhood was finally able to call me directly and let me know what was done, and he reassured me that it was fixed.

He sounded like a reasonable person.  I knew all along, once I could break through the levels of corporate bureaucracy and ineptness, the problem could finally be corrected.

I still don't forgive the company for the 2 weeks of blundering and wild goose chases.  I don't forgive them for having me come home from work for an appointment that they cancelled without notifying me.

So, Verizon's actions turned this into a rant, after all.

Re: This is not a rant, but it's close.
pat110
Newbie

@aquapop wrote:

I will be careful not to rant, but I must summon the strength.

Instead, I want to continue to share my ongoing nightmare difficulties with Verizon HSI, Verizon customer service, and Tech Support.

For the previous two years, I was blissfully using Verizon HSI at the 7mb tier with no problems.  I won't go into how it had a messy start (wrong pricing, web offer hand doesn't know what the phone offer hand is doing, etc). 

There were some uptime issues due to some bad copper pairs, but overall the past two years were okay.

Little did I know that my move to a house one block away would start me on a path of frustration and despair.

If you are so inclined, you can read about the initial move debacle here.

To summarize, I needed to move my service to a different home in the same subdivision, but was forced to go through the entire application process for the new home, as if I was a new customer.  After spending more than an hour on the phone the first try, all I (unknowingly) ended up with was a disconnect order for the old service.  I called back a second time and finally got an install order, but the install was to be several days after the promised date from the first (failed) call.  Customer reps on this forum were not able to expedite the second install order, though I appreciated the attempt.

This background info is important for a couple reasons.  First and foremost, I gave my credit card info over the phone to Verizon reps for both install attempts.  I gave them a credit card I rarely use.  Coincidentally(?), within a couple days, the card was being used for fraudulent purchases at Itunes and Walmart.com.  Luckily, the card company was able to recognize the fraud early, and cut it off.  Now, I know that is a serious accusation to make, but I stand by it.  That card was tucked safely away for years, with no problems.  Then, within a couple days of giving the number to two Verizon reps over the phone, it starts being used fraudulently.  Not cool, obviously.  I'll let the reader decide if I'm being paranoid.

Now, that's not where the fun ends.  Since the install, my internet service has been absolutely horrible.  The DSL connection to the Verizon Central Office has been beautifully solid, but my internet keeps dropping intermittently.  (Let me sneak in a complaint that Verizon will only give me the 3mb tier at the new house, though it is only a block away from the old house that had the new 10mb tier available).

I put a trouble ticket in the second day after the install complaining about slow service and the dropouts.  I must have dialed the magical support number, because I spoke to an American who immediately accepted my complaint and filed the ticket.  I say that, because I got a diffent call center, when I call later.   While the speed issue improved, the dropouts did not, and I was going to have to call again.  As a tech myself, I know how difficult it is to troubleshoot an intermittent problem.

So....two days ago, it went down hard, and would not come back up.  Remember, the DSL connection is solid, it's the internet that is gone. 

Since I have a dryloop with VOIP, and I don't get cell service at the house, I had to walk a block to a public phone to call in my trouble ticket.  Unfortunately, I ended up getting the call center in the Philippines.  I have no ill will toward hardworking folks in any country, but foreign call centers are so tightly beholden to the scripts, that is virtually impossible to reason with them, person to person.  He insisted I go call him from my house, so he could trouble shoot the modem.  I explained that I had done the common sense reboots, I had removed the router from the equation, and the DSL connection was solid; there was nothing I could do from my end.  He refused to escalate my complaint, because I wouldn't  (and couldn't from the pay phone), log in to the modem, to "check the settings".   I explained the my settings were fine, because everything was working, before the dropouts.  Common sense dictated that the problem was not on my end.  Even the copper pair was good, because the DSL connection was solid.

Anyway, he ended up promising to transfer me, but just kept me on hold, indefinitely, until I hung up.

So, I walked back to my house, borrowed the neighbor's cell phone (with a different carrier that has coverage in my house), and dialed back.  His cell is  a prepaid phone, that I ended up using an hour's worth of time on hold, and pushing through the worthless steps that proved what I already told them.

Finally, I was transferred to stateside support, where they transferred me to an actual technician.  He quickly realized I knew what I was talking about, so quickly asked if he could work it from his end and called me back.  Much can be said for sharing a culture with your tech rep.  Things are more easily understood through nuance.  I happily agreed to wait for a call, and had to hold my neighbor's cell hostage for a while longer.

He called back to state that while troubleshooting, he found that I was the victim of a router outage, and he was just learning that others were affected.  He said techs should have it up and running in four hours.  By now, this is almost the whole day, with no internet, a week after installation, in addition to the frequent intermittent outages.  He apologized, but I was relieved that my complaint was validated, and seemed to be on the road to correction.

The connection did come up within a few hours, and everything seemed fine.  Then, the next afternoon (yesterday), it went down hard again.  DSL connection was still solid.   I grabbed the neighbor's cell, and received an automated message stating my complaint was ongoing.  I opted to speak to a Philippines rep, anyway.  He told me  (for the first time) that a tech was scheduled to see me the next day (which is now today, Saturday).   It was an "all day" appointment, which meant I have to be here all day.  I was dumbfounded.  How can a bad router at Verizon's Central Office require a visit to my home?  I hung up confused, but relieved my ticket was still open.

This morning, the internet is back, though I don't know for how long.  I've been copying and pasting this complaint to wordpad as I go, so it's not lost, if my internet drops.

I have a very different IP than I've ever had before, so I suspect I won't see a tech at my door anytime soon.  No doubt it was a router that HOPEFULLY has been replaced.

I am really spent.  I have dim hopes this long winded story can do some good, because I know big companies can be way too clumsy to make positive changes quickly.

I hope my internet connection stays up.  One more debacle, and I'll just have to switch to Comcast.  I mean, how much does one customer have to put up with?

It's not supposed to be this difficult.

I've had the identical problem going on since April 8th. My only difference is I haven't moved.  I have talked to so many people I cant even tell you. I also had a tech at the house for 3 hours, and I think my 10 year old knew more than he did. I have had no problems whatsoever for the 8 years I've had Verizon. This just came on all of a sudden. The best part was, when they called me 11 days after I started reporting this problem and tell me I'm part of a group outage. They then call 5 days after that to tell me it's fixed and problem is solved. I was back on the phone opening another ticket within the hour because it wasn't. Needless to say I'm done.. Road Runner Turbo will be installed today between Noon and 2. Verizon thinks they're going to charge me a $79 EARLY TERMINATION FEE! I wish them all the luck in the world with that. 30 days with intermittent service, numerous phone calls, technician visit, remote access from verizon and still no solution.


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