Hi all - I'm new to this forum. After speaking with customer service today, it was suggested that I log my concerns here. In the hopes that someone, anyone will elevate my complaint up the Verizon food chain.
Late last week, following months of incessant and intrusive telemarketer calls, I opted to change our long-standing home phone #. I was given a new number and all was fine--for a few hours. The very next day, yup, I started receiving bill collector and telemarketer calls for the individual who previously had our number. Come to find out that our "new" number was disconnected ONLY TWO WEEKS BEFORE it was roled out to me. Oh, and I was charged for the change in number, btw. I work from home. Receiving telemarketer calls all day long is disruptive to my business.
Come on Verizon, there's no way to vet your phone numbers before releasing to new customers? What about this: disable the disconnected numbers for, say, one month. That's four weeks. Let the bill collectors and telemarketers figure out Plan B if they can't reach their victims by phone within a month. Then release the new numbers to new, unsuspecting victims after a reasonable time frame. But two weeks? Come on. All that does is **bleep** off the collection agencies and makes them call more!
This experience really leaves me clamoring for an alternative. A 21st century provider who really cares about customer service. Instead, I'm now stuck calling the losers' bill collectors and trying to convince them she can't be reached at my home.
Thanks for the extra work, Verizon. Boo.
After reading through a few posts, I've seen some replies from Verizon admistrators. Hopefully I'll get one as well...
Welcome to the forums. This is a place where customers help other customers. Sometimes the Verizon moderators escalate issues to the elite support team. If that happens to your issue, be sure to follow their instructions on the use of the private message system.
As far as you issue goes, you've run into a very common problem. Phone numbers simply aren't put "out-of-service" for very long these days. It's especially true in metropolitan areas that don't have a lot of free numbers available.
If you have FiOS, you can use nomorobo.com to filter out a lot of telemarketers, although it won't screen collection agents.
I, too, recently got a 2nd line on FiOS. It was initially flooded with telemarketers, collection agents and people calling the bank that had the number a couple of years ago. nomorobo.com took care of most of the telemarketers. A polite "you've got an old phone book" has cut down on folks calling for the bank, although some random web sites still have it listed. For the collection agents, I find that telling them I recently got the number, I don't know the dead-beat, and do not call again takes care of most of them. If you follow these steps, you should see a reduction in calls over a week or two.
Good Luck
I have experienced that problem every time I have changed numbers or phone companies. It is an industry wide problem. gs0b's suggestions are your best way of reducing unwanted calls. I would add to that: be polite when asking the caller to remove your number from their call list. The person talking to you isn't responsible. But if you make it personal and attack them, they may ignore your request.
If you have Fios Digital Voice service you can block upto 10 numbers which should help abit with some of the annoy calls.
Hey, Thank you for writing this post. The same thing happened to me, back in 2010, but I didn't know there was a term for it. Bill collectors claimed that they had spoken to previous owners of the phone number just two weeks earlier. I finally had to disconnect the home line, and rely on cell phones only. Had I known other customers were having the same trauma, I would have demanded to be compensated for my misery, and still not being able to have a home telephone.
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