I'm Back. Verizon Sucks! [L]

Hello Everybody! I'm trying to catch up but Verizon didn't make it easy!

All We wanted Was To Transfer Our Service.

This is a tale of complete incompetence, starting in September and ending Yesterday. This tale encompasses screw ups on the National and Regional Level. Some of this is second hand from Dani. In the final days we often handed off the call to the supervisor out of frustration. In fact, I think we both talked to just about every one.

And Let me clarify one more thing: We could have gone to WiFi as soon as we moved. Two things made us hesitate: 1) The laptop is not ours and we would have to buy an adapter. B) We did not want to pay a penalty fee (~$100 maybe?) to end our DSL contract early.


August
Disconnect Verizon landline. We have two Sprint cells and don't really use the landline. They set up the number as a “Dry Loop” for our DSL and assure us it will be a seamless. Transfer. I won’t go into details on that but it didn’t seem “seamless” to us.

September
Inform Verizon we are moving. Need DSL transferred to new apt (apt address provided.

We are Informed we will have service no later than October 2nd (from billing) and the transfer will be "seamless".

After that deadline passes we call. Told they can’t hook us up until October 12th. They need to “test the line”. Seems someone made a mistake somewhere. We are slightly annoyed. They give us our new dry loop number.

October 10th
Dani Receives an email stating DSL up. Mistake. Order still “pending” according to tech support.

October 11th
Receives an automated phone call that DSL is up. Ignored

October 12th
No DSL. Call to tech support, run tests. Their system show we have DSL. I assure them we do not. Our modem DSL light is flashing green and we have no internet light. Troubleshooting on my end shows everything is connected properly but we are not connecting to any network. I assume their diagnostics say something similar, minus the connectivity. Of course I learn quickly that assuming anything like this with Verizon is a mistake. They tell us a tech will call us on the 13th

October 13th
Miss call from local tech. The caller leaves a message to call the 1-800 number. I immediately call back. Tech support confused. Sees that we have two accounts: The old number & the new number. Tells me I have to call Billing and straighten it out. In the meantime since I missed the call they have to start a new “ticket” and I have to call back after 6PM to start the process all over. I respond: 'WTF?'. he says its 'Corporate Policy'.

Nice to know I should take my phone to the crapper with me.

I reply in a not so pleasant tone:

‘We will not start the process from scratch. This is Bull#&%!$. We could get WiFi and certainly refuse payment for Verizon internet this month since we haven’t had access and we can certainly refuse to pay any early disconnect penalty since you can’t provide us with the service. And I’ll be sure to send all this info to the BBB. Let me speak to your supervisor’

After 15 minutes or so on hold I get a supervisor. I relay all the above History and repeat my my little speech. I then add: ‘I’m the nice one. My Wife is gonna be Livid when she gets home.’ My tone seems to be much worse. He asks me if anyone had discussed the possibility that a tech would have to come to our house and when I could time would be. I said no. nor did anyone tell us that we needed to answer the phone. Seems something was incorrect on the “Ticket”

#&%!$ing incompetence on every level.

All he can do is send a ticket ASAP but we probably won’t be seeing anyone today since their schedules are probably already set and the techs are on the road. He’ll send the ticket for Saturday but he’s not sure that our regional office works on Saturday.

Great. Thanks. He then says what becomes an infuriating line to hear from them: "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Saturday, we hear nothing. We aren’t surprised.

October 16th
Verizon calls in the Morning to inform me someone will be stopping in before 7PM. This is the important call I missed on Friday? They call me to tell me someone will be coming by? They need to hear my #&%!$ing voice the day the work is scheduled? What kind of #&%!$ing bull#&%!$ is that??????


Of course, No one shows up. After 7PM Dani calls verizon to ask: What the #&%!$?”. Verizon informs us the tech who was scheduled to stop by was calling the dry loop number all day trying to get a hold of us.

Calling the dry loop number? How incompetent is that? They’ve called my cell number twice to set up a visit and the tech calls the dry loop number? All day, mind you. Call the number and you get an automated message saying the number isn’t in service. Complete moron.

Dani asks to speak to the Supervisor. After waiting for about 10 minutes she gets disconnected. I call back and wait. I get connected and go through the spiel again. But I tell him we will discontinue service. Then Dani takes over.

Good Cop Bad Cop

Complete incompetence.

The Supervisor assures Dani 3 times that we will have service on Tuesday, October 17th. He will Flag the ticket. I’m so done but Dani wants to try.

October 17th.
I get a call from Verizon dispatch supervisor: ‘Due to inclement weather and a problem with our system your ticket was misplaced and a tech will not be out today. Would tomorrow be acceptable?’

Me: No

Her: What time this week would be acceptable?

Me: No time is acceptable

Her: How about Saturday?

Me: I’m sorry, you don’t understand. I’m done with your incompetence. One of your techs tries to get a hold of us through our dry loop number and now you screw up another ticket that was flagged? What kind of morons work for you? I want a tech here today or we cancel our service.

Moron: I understand and am sorry, Sir, but I can’t guarantee a tech for today.

Me: That’s a surprise. Then I want to cancel.

Dani: Give me the phone.

Dani: Ma’am, we were assured by a supervisor that a tech would be here today. The ticket was flagged.

Moron: I understand. But as I explained to your Husband, Blah blah blah.

Dani: Well then I agree with my Husband, you’re all completely incompetent. I wish to cancel my Service.

Moron: I’ll transfer you to Billing.

Dani gets on the phone with billing and tells our story for the umpteenth time. Billing is looking at our records and is “appalled”. She credits our account 3 months and transfers us to Customer Solutions.

Customer “Solutions”?

Customer Solutions is looking at our record, including, I believe, all the phone calls and is quite unhappy. She puts Dani on hold while she contacts our local Tech “Support”. She gets back telling us she had to go through 3 supervisors before one told her: ‘The Ticket is open. Someone will be there today’. She seemed a bit frustrated, also.

She makes us a deal. If someone doesn’t stop by today we can cancel our service tomorrow and they will waive the penalty fee for ending the contract early. What the Hell. We’ve got a couple of hours to go and we don’t need to hold our breaths. Fine.

The Hours pass and nothing happens, as expected.

October 18th. 0827
Someone calls Dani’s number. I ignore it but am hopeful because at this point it’s comical. Dani checks her voicemail on speaker phone.

You might be able to guess who called but I’ll bet anything you’ll never guess what the message said……..





Are you ready?






Here goes:


‘Welcome to Verizon DSL Service. We hope you received your Kit. If you have any questions feel free to call us at 1-800-whatever.’



ROFLMFAO! No #&%!$ing joke! Or maybe it was? Anyway, later that day Dani completed the cut. At Noon I bought a wireless adapter.

We have all the names and employ ID’s of the Supervisors we talked to. We have confirmation numbers for our credit and the waiver for the cancellation fee.

Verizon will be getting some mail from us. Along with a record of our minutes on the phone with them. Ever been on hold waiting for a Supervisor? I think they have a minimum time to keep you on hold in hopes of making you go away. God Bless speaker phone! And Whiskey! Still, I lost track of how many times we did that. Suffice to say, we are done with them.

All we wanted was a transfer of our service.