There is one word that I try hard to never use in my vocabulary. That word is “HATE”. I’ll walk away from something or someone before I get to that point. I believe that I am a person who carries a great deal of empathy for those that are not like me, or travel to a different drummer. But when it comes to Verizon, they have made me cross that line. I HATE Verizon. Let me share my story.
Eleven years ago, when we moved to our present home, we paid Verizon over $300.00 to install some extra phone lines into the house. Our computers needed them. Our television needed them. And with Pat’s illness, I needed access to a phone in multiple rooms. Over time, the phone line began to act up. Every time a Verizon technician showed up, they one by one dismantled all the phone lines that we paid to install, saying that the lines were soaking up moisture and that was what was causing the static in the line. By the end of that particular journey, we ended up with just one working phone line and a new satellite phone system.
In the mean time, when the internet line was affected, that too became dismantled and instead of replacing the line under the house, Verizon technicians ran a line outside, laying it on the ground next to the house, drilled a hole in the back wall and ran it through the wall. Now I questioned this and was upset that they treated my home like trailer trash, but to no avail. Only after I got crazy with them on the phone, did they come and hook the line every couple of feet onto the side of the house, getting it off the ground. I know you are asking, but laying outside in all the weather….this too wouldn’t absorb the moisture? Yea, I asked that too with no answer.
Eight years later into this saga, my husband died. So began the attempt at getting the account turned over to my name. Sweet talking voices on the other line, said sure, we can do that, but bill after bill would continue to come in with my husband’s name. So recently, after my frustration level with the DSL of Verizon, I decided to end all my services with Verizon except for my wireless which I have six months before I can change that service. This decision ended my “One Bill” program where my wireless, my home phone, my internet and my Direct TV were billed in one bill.
The morning brought an email that said, my account was ending and that I would have a credit of $68.95. The same day, the mail came with a bill, showing I owed $99.99, indicating my wireless bill of $60 and an internet service of $39.99. So I called to clear up the matter and undo the confusion of having a credit, now owning $99 and making sure the internet service was taken off as that was one of the services I canceled, and yet making sure I paid for the wireless part that I was keeping. (You confused yet?) While trying to get through to a voice, I get the message that my account is closed and that I owe $0 on a bill. Now all this is happening in the same day!!! Is it a credit? Is it $99.99? Or is it $0? At this point, your guess is as good as mine
After waiting 40 minutes online for a real human to speak with, I ask them to look into the question of the internet service and making sure I do pay for my wireless…and oh yes can’t the credit be applied? And by the way, can I now get my name on the account? Oh sure, said the voice on the other end. So after waiting, and waiting, I was told all was taken care of, no internet, only wireless, and finally an account in my name. I hung up the phone expecting to receive a confirmation of the $60.00 I owed for my wireless.
Soon I get an email, confirming all the changes and showing me that I now owe $83.59 for my wireless. $83.59??????? What happened to the $60? So once again I get back on the phone, another long wait, I finally get a voice and I ask why am I paying almost $25 more for what I was paying $60.00 for? By this time, I am not being nice. I told them “I will not pay any more than the $60.00 that I….yes I…signed up for. So fix it!” Well, some song and dance about the account change the closest they could get me was the $60, plus some taxes making it almost $70.00 a month. Tired, and frustrated by this point I gave in. I was told the credit check would arrive separately.
You know the old saying “To ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME? Well, I assumed the check would come in my name…I mean after all we talked about Pat being dead. I could not be more wrong. A few days later, the check arrived, in my dead husband’s name. Now he is gone going on 4 years now, so there is no way to cash this check.
Once again, I call. I wait. When getting a voice, I say, "I need to speak to your supervisor as they will be the only one who can help." (I am hoping.) They refuse to pass me through until he has a chance to help me. I proceed to tell him the long tale. He asks me, “Have you not tried to put the account in your name before this?”
To say I lost it on the guy is an understatement. I am not proud of how crazy I got. I am pissed that Verizon and their poor customer service took me to this point, but after some screaming and yelling and demanding and scolding, and yelling some more, the man finally, after another 30-minute wait, put on a supervisor.
Once again, I went through, with teeth gritting, the whole story from the beginning of my frustrations to the moment I was on the phone with this supervisor and how now I am just asking that the check is rewritten in my name. Once again, I was asked, “Had you not tried to put the account in your name before this?”
Yelling firmly but loudly, “I DID TRY AT LEAST ONCE EVERY MONTH FOR THE FIRST SIX MONTHS AFTER PAT DIED, THEN A COUPLE OF TIMES AFTER THAT, ONLY TO GIVE UP UNTIL THIS MOMENT WHEN I DECIDED I DID NOT WANT THE SERVICES ANY LONGER EXCEPT FOR THE WIRELESS. CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT ELSE I COULD HAVE DONE? I OFFERED UP A DEATH CERTIFICATE! I WAS TOLD IT WAS NOT NECESSARY. I TRIED AGAIN AND AGAIN. CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT IT IS THAT I COULD HAVE DONE AND DIDN’T IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN?"
It was quiet on the other end of the line for a couple of minutes. I gathered my breath and waited. I finally said to her, “You know the stupid part of this whole thing, is that if I did nothing, eventually the check would show up in unclaimed property of Pennsylvania and I would only need to send a death certificate and fill out a form and the check would be released to me. Can’t we do this now so I can get back MY money?”
Finally, she says, "yes, send me a death certificate and the check." “Oh no”, I said. “I’ll send you the death certificate, a copy of the check and a copy of my crazy bill, and you can rewrite the check, or credit my new account….I don’t care. I will send the original check made out to my husband once I get the replacement in my name. If I send this check to you I will have no record of it. You are not getting it until I get what I want!”
She agreed. So here I sit, waiting for the mail to come with the reissued check. I am not holding my breath.
I find myself asking, “What ever happened to real customer service, where you are made to feel important, and listened to?" These big companies have lost their way. I get the bottom line in life. But the cost to us as customers leaves us wanting. It is why I tend to shop as local as I can, where good customer service means a happy customer and repeat business.
Oh, remember good ole Bell Telephone? Now those were the good ole days!!!!
