Verizon Sucks Pt. 1
I have to call Verizon every two or three weeks due to connectivity issues. Sometimes my downstream rates, according to their own website, are closer to dialup than they are to the pitifully low speed I'm paying for (768kbits). Other times, I have no connection at all. Each time I have a problem like this, I have to call them three or four times because their woefully unqualified tech support staff insist that the problem is on my end. On the fourth call, I always manage to convince the representative to get a network technician on the phone who, whoops, finds out that something was wrong and fixes it. Until the next time...
Karen and I have had verizon DSL since February. Ironically, every time we move to a better neighborhood, our service worsens. In Bed-Stuy, we had OptimumOnline at the blistering speed of about 5mbits(!!) per second and I never once had connectivity issues. In Greenpoint, Time-Warner fed us a regular throughput of 3mbits(!) a second, and we had to call once when the wiring outside was shorting. Since we started Verizon DSL, we have downgraded from 1.5mbits to 768kbits at the suggestion of a network technician for the sake of "connection stability." We have called Verizon no fewer than fifteen times with problems on our connection. Now, the problem has spread.
Last weekend, Karen looked at her bank account and recieved quite a shock. Verizon had withdrawn $216.79 from her bank account. Curious as to why our internet costs had gone up 1000% in the last month, I reviewed our bills online. An outstanding balance, $159.04, had been carried over from April, even though we had paid it. Surely I would only have to call them and point out their error and the mistake would be quickly corrected. After waiting until Monday to call since the office was closed all weekend, the conversation went something like this.
"Hi there. Yeah, we got hit for $216.79 this month because you carried over a charge that had been paid on... let's see... April 21st... for $159.04. So just fix it and I'll be on my way."
"There is no record of you having paid the monies you describe last month."
"I beg to differ. There is a bank statement I'm looking at right now with just such a record."
"I'm sorry, you have to prove that you paid it in order for us to refund the money."
After all the time I spent on hold, and even having to call in the first place as a result of their mistake, I was a little irked.
"Excuse me? I'm not sure you heard me right. Your billing department made a mistake. I'm wasting my free hours during the day pointing out the mistake. This is the part where you fix your mistake and make good on my wasted time."
"Let me get a supervisor."
"Thank you."
After a good twenty minutes waiting on hold for a supervisor, I finally got one on the line. She wanted the same thing - proof. So I knuckled under and e-mailed her a pdf copy of the bank transaction history. Which she didn't get even after several minutes of waiting and double-checking her e-mail address. So I posted it on this web server space during one of the times she put me on hold.
But it turns out that the people that work at Verizon - even supervisors - have restricted internet access and cannot view the web. Verizon had succeeded in making my life even more difficult by infantilizing their workers. So, after some more waiting and pushing and shoving, she got the pdf file. It had just taken a while.
All set! I thought to myself. The nightmare is finally over.
Until she told me that she would have to now "research" the problem and get back to me. But she promised she would call me back later that day.
I still have not recieved a call from her, and my calls to Verizon have yielded no fruit. Though I know her full name, including middle initial, no one, not even other supervisors, will allow me to talk to her and claim ignorance about the status of my problem.
"The notes say it's being researched," they say.
"But I was told I would get a call today and no one will let me speak to the person researching my problem."
"Sorry, sir."
"So, what? Am I just supposed to wait? Until when? I'm just supposed to kick back and take it easy while *you* decide if you've stole anything from me or not?"
"Wait to hear back from her, sir. That's all I can tell you."
So I had the operator transfer me to whoever could cancel my subscription. Once there I spoke to a woman who asked me why I was cancelling my service. Tired of explaining all the issues to the 13th faceless telephone operator, I gave her a brief.
"Though there are no alternatives for internet access in my neighborhood, I would rather go without service than face another day of merciless incompetence at the hands of the army of yahoos Verizon employs and attempts to pass off as tech support and customer service."
I actually said this. I had been saving it up.
She prodded me for more information, claiming that Verizon was unable to fix the problems I had encountered unless they knew what they were. I urged her to consult the notes on my account, but she insisted I explain it to her.
She interrupted me over and over again, but without any decorum left intact in my telephone soul, I merely spoke louder whenever she interrupted me. Until finally,
"How am I supposed to say anything when you keep interrupting me?"
I was dumbstruck. If I am speaking, and she interrupts, and I fail to yield conversational control, am I interrupting?
"Anyway. If you want, I can give you a month of free service. Instead of cancelling today, give us a month for us to work out your problems. You won't pay anything while we try to make it right."
Defeated, I agreed. I still have Verizon DSL service, and Verizon still has $159.04 of undeserved money from Karen's bank account.
And that is how I spent Monday afternoon.
pharmacy technician
thnk goodness there r other people out there who know of verizons scams to get money,heres my story,our home burnt to the ground in jan 05,we went to start service up w/verizon well they did,i use there speed pay option w/password,ok everything fine there so i thought,payd three month to what i thought was my account,it is done automatically apply to your account in speeed pay so i thought,well after 4 month i wake up to call my 78 year old ma,not well the phones r dead,go to mas to call verizon,what the hell is going on,they say they have not recieved a payment from us in 4 month,i say bs,but they show a credit of 800.00 dollers to acct.ending in 108,they ask is theres a phone at r address ,of course there is ,well what happen is obviuos,speedpay was applying it to the acct, that r home was burn down on,it get worse,i tell them to just apply the money to new acct.,sorry mame cant do that,when can we get your billed pay,iwas furious,i have been paying ,your stupid system aplied it to an old acct.called the better business,bureo in wi,they did NOTHING,NOTHING,basically no help,well verizon would not move until they got 800.00 bucks b.s,to this day they refuse to remove the old acct.so this doesnt happen again,refuse,thank god for cells,we payd the 800.00 they inturn sent us a check for 800.00,dah,charge us to reinstate our phones,basically got away with it,like the b.b of wi,did nothing against verizon talk about an monopoly,mary
Just wait till Verizon puts the fios in your neighborhood they hire all Mexicans with working visa's (Not Union Workers) and they destroy your yards and bust water mains left and right . Not including your comcast lines they look for that orange cable so they can cut you off. This is the one reason I will never Go to Verizon,They have torn my yard up so many times it is getting old. Our whole neighborhood looks like a mud pit, along with the washed out roads from busted water mains.AND NONE OF THEIR WORKERS SPEAK ENGLISH
Newark DE.19713
Scottfield
This is in response to Mad as Hell. Our community is going through the same thing in PA outside Philadelphia, same workers, Mexicans w/visas, they rolled their digger up on our newly finished driveway completely torn up and proceeded to ruin it,we are very upset. The Verizon contractor told me he would reseal it I said no way. It was completely redone with gravel and stone. Very expensive, we are going to take him to small claims court to get the money over $1000 to redo it again. Oh and FIOS is not as good as the HD and everything Comcast offers, not to mention what technology with large ugly plates in front of everyones house?
Mad as hell II and not going to take it anymore from the FIOS Creeps Verizon.
This is in response to Mad as Hell. Our community is going through the same thing in PA outside Philadelphia, same workers, Mexicans w/visas, they rolled their digger up on our newly finished driveway completely torn up and proceeded to ruin it,we are very upset. The Verizon contractor told me he would reseal it I said no way. It was completely redone with gravel and stone. Very expensive, we are going to take him to small claims court to get the money over $1000 to redo it again. Oh and FIOS is not as good as the HD and everything Comcast offers, not to mention what technology with large ugly plates in front of everyones house?
Mad as hell II and not going to take it anymore from the FIOS Creeps Verizon.
You are completely right. It's obvious that good old American workers would have done a much better job than those "legal" Mexicans. Somebody should do something about those Mexicans. I mean, they don't even speak English, for Chrissake! But don't worry... I'll take care of them.