Verzion Customer Service Department - Complaint

[darkiya]

Who am I?

I'm a software engineer with over 10 years experience in the IT field.  I'm not your grandma next door who is computer illiterate -- I would say I have pretty good knowledge in telecommunications and systems. 

I only call technical support when it becomes something out of my hands to correct.  The two times I've had to have a technition out to the house it was for line work that caused an interruption in service.  All other interruptions in service I've mitigated on my own through the obvious steps (reset the router, reset the box, etc etc).   I would say that I'm 99.9% satisfied with technical support because usually in just a few minutes of talking to someone on the phone I can schedule a tech to come out and every tech I've had out has seemed skillful and intelligent in his trade.  My issue is not about the technitions.  It's about the people behind the phone lines.

What my original problem was.

I noticed on my bill an erroneous charge for an extra phone line that hasn't been in service for over a year.  I had called last June to have it removed (while re-doing my bundle).  The bundle was redone but apparently the phone line was never removed.  This was the 2nd time I'd called to remove that line and I was promised it was all going to be fixed within 48 hours of my "order" being placed.  I trusted the guy on the phone and continued with life.  My bill had gone down with the re-bundle so I didn't think twice when paying it.  This past week I went online to review my bill that I do from time to time I noticed an erroneous line on there.

Addl Phone Line -- $9.99

I have no active additional line and noticing the oversite and rather annoyed by it I called up Verizon to have this fixed.

My expectation was that I wanted a credit for the amount I had been over-paying for the line that was not removed when requested and I wanted the additional line removed to prevent this from occuring again.

VERIZON PHONE CALL #1

I called up Verizon and spoke to a nice woman who offered me 2 months credit and to remove the line.  I explained that I wanted the entirety of the erroneous charge returned and she told me she could not do this.  I asked to speak to a supervisor and she requested to put me on hold while she connected me to an "escalation specialist".

VERIZON PHONE CALL #1 PART 2

Connected with the "escalation specialist" I explained that I wanted the extra phone line removed and a refund for the full amount.  She told me what she would do is put in an order to have the extra line removed and place a credit on my account for the extra line charges received since last June.  This met my service expectations so I thanked her for her assistance and believed everything would be okay.  My Expectation: To see a credit on my account and the extra phone line removed.

THE NEXT DAY

The next day I received a text-message from my partner stating that our house line was disconnected.  After my knee-jerk face palm I pretty much was certain I knew what had happened.  The "escalation specialist" had disconnected our main line instead of our alternate line and totally borked the entire account.

VERIZON PHONE CALL #2

I called Verizon and entered my primary number.  We'll say my primary number is 5555 for now.  So I entered into the prompts 5555 and the system "claimed" it found me.  Great.  Give me an agent.  After 3 minutes of arguing with the robot it finally put me in the que for a real human being.

A gentleman came on the line and I started to explain my situation but unfortunately he couldn't find my account by the 5555 number.  Okay--what about my home address?  Nope--different name listed at my address (for some reason) perhaps the former owners.  What about my name?  Yes! Bingo.  He found my information however because the order originated in billing he redirected me from Verizon Tech Support to Billing.

VERIZON PHONE CALL #2 PART 2

A new agent came on the phone.  He asked me for my information again but couldn't find it.  I explained the last guy had found it... he told me based on the 5555 number he couldn't find it and suggested perhaps it had been disconnected due to non-payment.  I was very offended at this notion and explained to him no I am an individual who always pays her bills but rather this was a **bleep** on Verizon's side and explained that the last guy had found me just fine.  He was unable to find my record however so I told him nevermind I'd call again when I got my account number since it was too difficult to find my information by anything other than the number that his gracious co-worker had disconnected incorrectly.

VERIZON PHONE CALL #3

When I got home later that afternoon I looked up my information online and called again.  I got on the line a  woman who seemed a little challenged in her listening comprehension.  She pulled up my account just fine but when I told her what had happened she misunderstood me.  It took her a couple tries to understand the number 5555.  I told her I wanted the old line and the 5555 number re-instated and the 1234 number, my alternate number to be gone.  She told me okay but it would take 2 hours to take effect.  I thanked her for her time and hoped that was it.

VERIZON PHONE CALL #4

12 hours later my phone line was still not up. It was the middle of the night and after trying several times throughout the day to check it the 2 hours the lady had quoted me were long gone.  I called Verizon Technical support.  A nice woman got on the phone with me and I explained the entire escapade to her.  She was very apologetic for all the issues I had been having and got on the phone with billing.  They stated the order was complete that my phone line should be operational but I had dead air.  No dial tone, no busy signal--dead air.

The woman on the phone began to go down the troubleshooting issues with me.  I went along and an hour (and several diagnostic code lines sent by her) still no success.  She then wanted me to go crawl outside, in the muddy dark to try the lines outside.  She told me that would tell her if it was the lines that were bad because she could communicate with the box just fine.

I told her no, I was not going out in the dark cold rain in the middle of the night for something I was pretty certain was not the case.  I told her what I believed happened was that when Agent from Call #1 Part 2 disconnected the line it made my alternate line the primary and then when Agent from Call #3 tried to fix it instead of re-instating the original line, putting the new number on that line and disconnecting the other line she just... made line 2 the 5555 number and called it a day in spite the fact that once you get into the house that's not the physical line that's used.

The agent suggested maybe she had done it correctly and it just needed until midnight to reset but just in case that didn't work she would set up an appointment to have a technition come in and fix it.  I agreed because I'd always had good experience with the technitions.  End of phone call 4.

VERIZON TECHNITION VISIT

I had to wait until Monday to get a tech out to check the phone line.  This means I went the entire weekend without a home line.  When the tech gets there?  After a few diagnostic checks he goes outside, opens the box, unplugs the line from one and plugs it into the other.  Basically making my physical line plug into where my alternate line was.  He physically countered what the folks on the phone refused to understand that I was telling them.

There is 0 reason why we needed a technition to be sent out for something that they could have fixed in the computer system.

I'm glad he fixed it, I'm glad to have my phone service back but it took 4 days to fix something that began as a BILLING issue that should have been resolved a year ago.

I am extremely upset at the problems I've encountered with customer support and billing the past few weeks.  After having to wait 5 days for a tech to come out and fix our box for internet because the box itself "had gone bad" due to a "known issue" with the 1st generation boxes to now having to wait 4 days to have our phone service restored due to human error on account of an "escalation specialist" I'm seriously reconsidering my loyalty to the Verizon company.

Verizon either needs to reach out and do something right by me or else the next time I am forced to call Verizon over an issue with their service I'm just as likely to cancel and find a different vendor.  I've already priced out a few alternatives that all are cheaper--until now it has only been your customer service & support that has kept me loyal but if that's out the door now I may as well be too.

[LawrenceC]

Hi darkiya,

Please go to your profile page for the forum by clicking on your name, and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Private Support Cases".  There you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

[Verizon_Support]

Hi darkiya,

We haven't received your form or heard back form you here on your Private Support Case.

Should you need further assistance, feel free to make a new post here in the forums, and we can be sure to look into it. We're available around the clock for support.

Thanks,

Ali Adam