Let's try this and see if I can get help.

[hmskoolmom]

This is an image of the actual conversation I had today with someone on your facebook. I am currently on the phone with someone who cannot speak English, who I cannot hear and who refuses to connect me to a manager or someone in charge. This is ridiculous. Abslolutely ridiculous.

I've been on with Wireless who told me to contact FIOS who wanted me to connect to chat who wanted me to try and solve my problem via Facebook private message (!) who then connected me to someone who had a very thick Hispanic accent and who did not seem to understand that I could not hear them because the person next to them was too busy being loud  who then connected me to your phone tree to get someone who then connected me to another person with a thick heavy accent and this person is STILL refusing to connect me to a manager!!

You must want us to leave you. I guess I will be calling Brighthouse. This is disgusting. Since I am on hold (again), my next call will be to 8 on your side.  Especially after reading this forum. Is it so difficult to connect me to a human being who does not have a thick accent and for whom I do not have to "press 1 to conect" for.

Oh wait! They hung up on me on the cell phone and called me on the land line. And it was someone with a thick accent again! Are you serious? You cannot connect me to a manager? 

{edited for privacy}

[hmskoolmom]

I have no ended a two ans half hour phone call because your "manager" Hazeem felt he could help me. No, he still has an accent that cannot be understood and I could still hear your other "support" in the background. Someone from the OFFICE, without a thick accent, needs to call me to fix this problem.

[hmskoolmom]

And Hazeem calls me back??? Wow.... Oh and look, I call back and get someone else with a thick accent who I cannot understand nor hear because everything in the background is too loud. I asked for a Supervisor, way up at this point, I am on hold, AGAIN. I've been on hold since this morning!

Someone needs to contact me regarding this. You have my CELL phone (do NOT call my house phone! It does not work well! My cell ends in 0518. Call that.), to call me by.

[LawrenceC]

Hi hmskoolmom,

Can you please tell us what issue you are having with your product or service?

[hmskoolmom]

Sure, you asked for it. I've already written the reigonal President over this. Of course, if the image was not deleted, you would have this information.

Mr. xxx,
**redacted to due relevance**

Third, let me state that instead of doing school work that is due at the end of this month, I got to spend upwards of 4 hours today on the phone with just about everyone I could be (mis) connected to.

Fourth, this situation has been going on for over a year and a half. Let me explain. Back then, we tried to shave a few dollars off as many bills as we could and since we do not ever use our landline, that was the first thing to go. Except, no one at Verizon told us that if we ended our phone line, our package would be unbundled, we would be charge a LOT more and that we would be spending almost 2 years, calling every month, to have our bill fixed. I wish I were exaggerating.

1. The shortfall VLD charge. It started as only 6.99, and this month, it is 9.99; with 1.25 and .75 in taxes. Why do we have this? Oh, because according to Billing, it was because we do not use our phone enough so you guys charge us to make up for what we do not use. Every month, Sir, every month I call to have this removed. I do not use our landline because the only reason we have it is to keep our bill under $300 a month! If I knew I could cut my phone AND not have to call every month to avoid this charge AND keep my bill way down, I would.

2. Our little dance over a year ago resulted in us getting two phone numbers. Somehow, tech support thinks my phone is disconnected --even though they called me back on this phone! They claim that's why my internet is messed up. If my phone is disconnected, then how are you calling me?

3. Our internet is not working. Period. I paid $40 to Verizon for a Verizon modem/router that was supposed to be "much better" than the Verizon one we had. I PAID for just barely better than dial up speed and the honor of having to reset the modem every day because the internet just quits working. But, I also had the privilege of sitting on hold for "Jacob" to tell me what I was experiencing was "not possible" but that "our phone is disconnected" and they are showing "amazing speed at 6.15 mps!" But, when I ran the test using the same website they told me to, I got a speed a lot lower than that--on a wired connection! So I tried my laptop --wireless--and I got a speed that was just a few tenths higher--6.25 mps. But, I had "amazing speed!"

4. It should be noted that at this point, we paid for the highest internet tier you had. Yet, 6.15 mps is amazing speed because it is registering above the "5.0" tech support thinks is wonderful.

5. My neighbor, on Brighthouse (I just threw up typing that word), gets 7.0 and above. I cannot stress how much I abhor Brighthouse, Comcast, Knology, and Hughesnet. It should be noted that her front door is literally 200 ft away from mine. It should also be noted that her back door is 200 ft from a street that gets FIOS. Currently, there are no plans to bring FIOS just 400 ft away from the current line. Nice.

6. I contacted Verizon via Facebook, thinking that other companies do this via Facebook and twitter and people get excellent resolution that way. I chose the Verizon Wireless page because I do not have FIOS (and because your standard Verizon page takes you to a "get to know us" page and not the real page) . I was told by them to contact the FIOS page. I did. FIOS wanted to conduct technical support via private message. Then, when I explained everything and that I would be much happier speaking to someone, they connected me via live chat, to a person who had no clue what was going on.

7. That started the ordeal that leads me to contacting you. I spent all day on the phone with people who call themselves "Jacob" but have thick accents--thick enough that you cannot understand them. I can also hear other "Jacobs" in the background--loudly. I ask to speak to someone who does not have such a thick accent and who is a supervisor. I get another person, this time a Hazeem, whose accent is thicker than the one before. Listen, I'm Cuban. I get it. But people can understand me. This was ridiculous. I could not get a single person who did not have a thick, hard to understand accent. Why was this so difficult?

8. One of your techs had me go into the modem homepage and reset the FCC Channel so that it was set at the highest it could go. Since I had to reset the modem twice after doing this, I've had to reset this as well.

I have a fairly higher than average understand of computers. I worked for AOL tech support forever ago. I know what I am doing and how to do it. I started writing computer programs on a Tandy xIIe, using cassette tapes! But I cannot get a simple piece of equipment, that is supposed to deliver "high speed internet", to do the job I am paying it to do.

I do NOT want any of the companies I listed. I want to keep my Verizon. However, I cannot keep calling every month, despite the "guarantee", to have this fixed. Your billing specialist swore that it would be off for good after this but, get this: it tried to BILL ME TWICE while she was trying to remove the charge! That's right--as your specialist was "fixing" the issue, the system decided to attempt to bill me for the very thing she tried to remove.

My bill is almost $250 every month. For basic DirecTv, basic phone service (NO long distance), and high speed internet. I am really this close to calling Brighthouse (ugh). I do not want Brighthouse internet nor their cable. But if I am going to pay that much money, I might as well get something for it. Their slowest internet is still faster than your "high speed". And on theirs, I can still get a decent speed with having so many devices connected. On yours, my wired computer and one laptop seems to max out the speed. Any more connects and forget it. I've got to reset the modem, again, in order to get any kind of speed going.

Please tell me how to fix this? Please get that shortfall charge permanently removed from my bill. Please get me the internet speed I am paying for. Please help me with this.

You can contact me at the above number. Yes, I do realize that is an AT&T cell phone number, but my house phone is "disconnected". However, in order to look up the account, that number is xxxxxxxxxxx.

Thank you for any help you can provide. If I do not hear from you by the end of the week, I will be calling the corporate number and faxing this same letter to corporate. Someone has got to know how to fix this.

Sincerely,

[LawrenceC · Accepted solution]

Hi hmskoolmom,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. The title of your post is the link. 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. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.