I want to say upfront, in no uncertain terms, I am officially declaring war on Verizon.
Having been warned their customer service was legendary in its ineffectiveness, I started 3 weeks ago trying to establish internet service at our new address.
We are moving to a less-than-urban area, let's say.
In fact, to my horror I just discovered today we are not going to have the same power company we have had since the beginning of time, but rather, will be getting our power from an electric co-op. Okay, not a big deal, except, oh, wait, I have to MAIL in our application for service.
Yes, you heard me. MAIL in our application. No online application, no faxed application. Mail.
Daggone it, do we even HAVE any stamps in this house?
But back to Verizon. As I mentioned, it's a less populated area where we are going and when the owners of the house we are buying built the house, they had Verizon run a DSL line from the paved road to their house, which was approximately a quarter mile from the "blacktop."
Not only do the owners have DSL service now, but we have BEEN THERE with our laptops, checking out the speed to be sure we could, indeed, move to the area and have sufficient internet speed since we both work from home.
(Imagine my surprise when their DSL service turned out to be blazing fast compared to the Comcast "high speed" internet we are paying big bucks for now. Huh!)
Anyway, when I called Verizon the first time to arrange service, I was told there WAS no internet service available at that address. I went a few rounds with the rep, but gave up in exasperation.
The next time I had a few spare minutes and felt feisty, I called them again. Same story. I didn't prolong the battle, simply said, "forget it" and hung up.
The third time I called, a very accommodating young lady entered the order in no time flat and gave me an order number. Hurray! Just needed to talk to the right person, apparently.
Something didn't seem right, though, it had gone too smoothly, so I called today under the pretext of finding out how we would get our modem. Surprise! The order number was a fake, as was the rep's name.
This time, I did get hold of someone who sounded as if she was sober and awake, which was an improvement. She even sounded as if she may have an inkling as to what she was doing. She put in the order, told me she would monitor to see IF it was going to be accepted.
HUH? What do you mean? I gave you the current residents' phone number and account number, which they gave us when we explained our difficulties. They were no strangers to the wonderful weird world that is Verizon Customer Service.
She said that while the current owners did have an account and did have internet service, she couldn't guarantee we would have that service because that area does not have internet service. I asked if it would help if I emailed her a photo of the Verizon box attached to the house, but she said that wouldn't be necessary.
I don't understand a business model where you instruct your customer service folks to simply repeat the same nonsense over and over, even as it defies all logic, as if the customer had never spoken a word, but I guess when you have a monopoly, it's a wonderful thing not to have to worry about serving your customer.
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