Verizon DSL Customer Service Complaints - page 2

After being a customer for years, and after being quite willing to commit to continuing, they kept jacking the price up, and on my last call to them they said "There's nothing we can do" in terms of finding me a better deal. Then after putting me on hold for a bit I was told that I could get FIOS for $1 a month less than what they were charging. After looking it over (and not liking what I was seeing) and doing a bit of research, I switched to DSLExtreme, and Verizon dragged their feet in terms of allowing the change, more than a week went by before I could make the change. I'll be looking at switching my voice phone service over to another provider as well. They do NOT want to communicate, which is pretty funny as the company is supposed to be in the communications business...

I have called Verizon since July about an intermittent issue. This is now Oct. I have to go through the first line to even get to the Central Office where the problem is located. I have been told by several employees at that level that it is an equipment issues and that they are currently working on it. That has been over 3 weeks. I have spent over 20hours on the phone and all I get is we are sorry you experiencing this problem. Here is a little math equation even the techs that they have that do not speak English can understand. BTW I am a U.S citizen born, raised and defended this country.

I Apologize = IA
IA = 0
20 hours of my time on the phone trying to get a hold of someone that is knowledgeable = 0

42 X IA = 0
Overall rating 0

I have Verizon DSL. Had it for almost 2 years now. Since late last year, I have never been able to pay my bill online. When I try to do it, the website says it's down or broken or whatever. The point is, the website is basically saying "EFF OFF. We don't want you to pay your bill. Higher chance you'll forget and then we get to charge you late fees."

That's actually happened a few times. Imagine the *burn* when you realize the service is cut off and then you think back on all the times you tried to actually pay. And calling isn't an option (for the smart alecks reading this smirking "Just call them! duh!")

Weeks ago, I thought maybe I'll upgrade to FiOS because of my new usage pattern. I put in my zip at the FiOS sales page and clicked, "I am a customer". The system went to process to find the best deals for me, then the site said, "Whoops! HAHA! We're broken again! ROFL!"

Ok, it doesn't say that explicitly, but you get the point.

I'll be changing providers. Also, I have Verizon Wireless. They suck, too. But what sucks the stupidest is that all the Verizon companies are separate. You call as a customer hoping to just call one dept to take care of a thing and ask to transfer to the other dept to take care of the other thing, they get all confused like their cubicle is low on oxygen. And they wont' tell you the companies are separate. You have to go a long period of time being pissed off why calling the company sucks until you figure it out on your own.

I've actually called Verizon and while I'm first starting the call, I'm already getting pissed thinking about all the previous times of being run around and thinking, "It's going to happen again! I just know it!" And the CSR are all too happy to keep the cesspit feeling of calling them alive and well, creating more angry customers. You know, instead of cultivating an atmosphere of "I am here to assist! If you're pissed, I understand it's not at me personally because I do good work."

And lastly, despite my DSL situation, I DO pay (or attempt to pay) all my Verizon bills on time. Most of my issues have been with technical difficulties on THEIR end. Then I have to see at websites (elsewhere) where Verizon reps posting anonymously taunt all complaints saying, "The only people who complain are deadbeats who don't pay their bills. They are mad because they cant' have free service! Pay your bill, deadbeat!"

I've seen complaints by people where you read them you instantly see the frustrating complaint (nothing to do with money) and then an anonymous Verizon rep comments, "Only deadbeats who don't pay complain!"

Verizon sucks.

And I never mentioned the phone options when you call, it goes to the extension it gave you as an option (or a rep transfers you there), but it rings and rings and rings and rings and rings and--cuts off! Call ended! No option to go back, gotta start the call all over again and get back in queue.

And what gives me whiplash is that it all depends on where in the country the rep picks up in. If it says the call is being answered by a rep in GA, I advise you hang up and try again. Try to get someone from Denver if they're open. GA has Sassy McSassalot working there.

If someone picks up and it's a man with a personality-less voice. Hang up. He's stupid. He won't listen, he doesn't care, he won't respond in full sentences, he will misunderstand what your question is.

If by some stroke of rare luck you get a regular accent voice woman who speaks in a clear voice, complete sentences and sounds like she has two brain cells to rub together, try to get her to stick with you as long as possible. Because I am here to tell you, she is the rarity.

We have been a Verizon DSL customer for over 10 yrs. One day in May our service just disappeared. I have since talked with over 30 service reps, spent countless hours on hold, been told I would get set up with a new account, would be called back, etc....and none of it happened. I have just gotten off the phone with the last customer service supv to discuss what I learned a few weeks ago and have been addressing. Our service was cut off because we used too much of it (they allow 18,000 and we used 18,800). We were NEVER advised to back down our usage, given notice of ANY KIND, nothing. Just POOF!! I was even told by one rep to go buy a new router and see if that helped. That was $90 and the time spent getting it, trying for hours to hook up differently, taking it back,.... My job is home based and this is affecting me in a very bad way. My children need internet for school projects. No other internet is available in my rural area and I will be required to purchase a 'Hot Spot' and pay MUCH MORE $$$$ for less (ie..$30 vs. $130 per month). I am beyond disturbed at the unethical treatment by a monopoly company that obviously doesn't care how they treat their customers. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had the same experience.

Trying to get technical support I was subjected to tweny minutes of your Robot automatic record. Then later "Hold for the next etc"Going on your web site did not help,if you want to Chat for help.You must only have one sentence.Great.
How you treat customers,shows how little you care.When I last spoke to a person at Verizon about the slow DSL he said I should upgrade.More money,less service seems to be very user's complaint at one time or another.By the way I hung up and never got the "error" erased on my email acct.

HORRIBLE. IT TOOK AT LEAST 20 MINUTES TO FIND MY ACCOUNT. THEN THEY TRANSFERRED ME, THEN ANOTHER 10 MINUTES. AND THEN I HUNG UP. AND THEN I GOT MAD. AND THEN I CAME HERE. AND THEN I WRITE THIS. JUST GET FIOS, DSL IS USELESS. FIOS SERVICE IS BETTER, EVEN THOUGH IT IS THE SAME COMPANY. I AM SORRY FOR USING ALL CAPS, BUT IT EXPRESSES MY ANGER. HAVE A PLEASANT DAY!

CUSTOMER SERVICE WORST IN THE WORLD! VERIZON.
Simple new home phone order turned into week long nightmare, rude zombie like customer service reps could care less, transfer after transfer.I made repeated calls for missed appointments, service still not connected, (but I sure have received numerous letters welcoming me) with no resolve in sight. I make the appointment leave work early (missed money for me) and wait and wait and they never show up, and then have the NERVE to send me a TEXT message on my cell phone sorry they missed me???? FIELD REP ID# FL2115 lied and said he placed a tag on my door, NO tag here as he never bothered to come out. Another BIG GREEDY COMPANY whom has total disregard for customers, appointments, and my valuable time. Sup Steven ID# 43402 refused to give me his supv contact info, just said call Shelia, no id, no direct# but gave me a call center number 800-567-6789 . I'd like to see the group ANONYMOUS take VERIZON SERVICES down A FEW NOTCHES!

Verizon Customer Abuse: A Complaint and Cautionary Tale
by DJ Arnoldo

I was a Verizon (VZ) customer from 1996 through 2011 (15 years!), and I paid every VZ bill in full immediately as I received it. Although there’s never much to like about the phone company, when things went wrong VZ always made things right one way or another. About a year or two ago, I noticed a significant decline in VZ customer service generally. In September 2011 my service bundle fee went up by $15 without warning, and I called VZ several times to try to get back the rate I had. Failing in that, on September 17, 2011, I called to disconnect my phone service, but keep my Internet service. Little did I know that would start a four month nightmare. After dozens of phone calls and dozens of wasted hours on the phone trying to resolve the same problems over and over, problems that never should have occurred in the first place, I ended my VZ services completely. But that did not end my VZ nightmare...

The Internet consumer complaint boards (see below) are full of complaints by thousands of customers ranting about the horrific abuses they suffered across all VZ businesses. My experience is echoed again and again in nearly every post, so I won’t recount my personal VZ nightmare in detail here. The question is, why does a company with $110B in annual revenue and 200,000 employees treat customers so poorly? I will attempt to answer this by sharing what I learned about VZ during countless infuriating encounters.

-- VZ accounting systems are a mess, with multiple account numbers for one customer. Despite the much touted “OneBill” and “My Verizon”, VZ systems do not communicate with one other. Neither is the “My Verizon” (verizon.net) website connected to VZ’s phone, Internet, and wireless billing and payment systems. Repeatedly I made payments online but would not get credit even though I could see my payment and confirmation number on the website. I kept getting billed for the same amount, and when I called, the conversation typically went like this: “I made that payment two weeks ago, here is the confirmation number”. “I’m sorry, I don’t see that payment.” “I can see it on Verizon.net, why cant you?” “We have a different system.” “That’s not my problem, how are you going to fix this so I get credit for my payments?” “Click.” Back I went into the phone queue.

-- VZ phone answerers (they provide no “service” or “support”) are generally poorly trained, apathetic, and hostile; some even lack basic phone skills like getting your ten digit account number right within three tries. And every now and then you will get a real thug (see below).

-- When you call VZ, the phone answerers either don’t bother to write detailed case notes, or can’t see case notes of others. Therefore calling VZ means transferring around two, three, or four times, telling your story from the beginning each time.

-- Hang-ups are the preferred way VZ phone answerers resolve problems; a question they cannot answer, or a customer who says the wrong thing the wrong way, will get hung up on and sent back into the queue.

-- The VZ billing and payments department is only open until 6 PM weekdays, and never on weekends. I frequently had to waste valuable time at work trying to resolve problems that never should have occurred. They hang up the phone at exactly 6 PM, even if you had been working with them for 30 minutes to resolve a problem. On several occasions I had to speak to three phone answerers before finally getting transferred to a payments specialist who could solve my problem. After spending 15 minutes with her, and making some progress, the phone went dead

-- at exactly 6 PM. The next day I had to start all over with a new crop of idiots. If you try to call the payments department directly, you either wind up with a phone answerer, and then spend 15 minutes on hold, or payments doesn’t pick up the phone at all.

-- VZ supervisors and managers never answer their direct line with customers, do not return phone calls, and never do what they promised they would do. Asking to “speak with a supervisor” is a complete waste of time and will not get you satisfaction any quicker than battling VZ’s legions of idiot phone answerers.

-- VZ doesn’t feel obligated to provide service at the price they agree to on the phone, and they will change the amount you owe on a whim. On several occasions, after I paid a bill in full and had a zero balance due on the website, I would get another bill with a new balance due because “the price went up”. Funny how the price went up twice in the three months I had my VZ Internet.

-- VZ uses an undecipherable hodgepodge of charges and “adjustments” to make it impossible for you to understand your bill and how your balance was corrected, and they can recalculate or reverse these adjustments retroactively at any time. This is their preferred method of charging you again for a period for which you already made payment, or reneging on a concession made by a VZ "supervisor" on the phone.

-- If you call and select the phone menu “Disconnect” option for a VZ service, you will get transferred around in the phone menu ether until you invariably arrive at a dead line or the recording “No one is available to take your call, please try again later ... click”.

-- If you tell the phone answerer you want to disconnect your service, they will transfer you to a thug who will try to lie and intimidate and strong-arm you into keeping the service. If that fails, he will attempt to pry information from you like your cell phone number or what other services you have before he dumps you back into the phone queue.

-- Etc. etc. etc.

Fast forward to December 19, 2011. After three months of calling VZ two or three times a week, I finally managed to clear or pay off the last of the billing problems and have the last of my VZ services disconnected. Just when I thought my VZ problems were finally over, during the week of January 6, 2012 I received three more VZ bills, one each with a balance due of $15.50 (which I had paid months earlier and had straightened out several times), zero, and a credit balance of $7.50. I had to call back another three times to get this resolved. Finally, I begged the VZ idiot in billing, “Look, keep the $7.50, just zero everything out, close all the accounts that used to be in my name, and leave me the f--- alone!” We’ll see if it worked; I may yet get another bill from that horrible company, if not in reality, then in my worst nightmare.

By the way, on December 16, 2011, I called Cox and inquired about High Speed Internet. Young, polite, and well trained, the Cox customer service guy explained the service tiers and promotions. He told me which package was most popular, and which would be the best deal for me. He told me about equipment options and pricing, and gave me deals on the installation and wireless router. And the cable guy would be there tomorrow between 1 and 3 PM to hook everything up. Wow, I thought, I’ll believe it when I see it. Sure enough, the Cox cable guy showed up when he was supposed to: “We’re going to have your high speed Internet up and running before I leave today.” About 45 minutes later, everything was set up and working as advertised. For the same price that Verizon tried to extort from me, I now had fifteen times the speed (46 Mbps vs. 3 Mbps). Pingtest.com confirmed that I now had an A- quality connection with Cox, compared to the D- quality third-world connection I had with Verizon. And my first Cox bill? Exactly what the guy said it would be. And only one account number. Verizon – it feels so good when it stops.

Read thousands of other Verizon customer abuse horror stories on the consumer websites below. On the home page search for ‘Verizon’. If that doesn’t work, Google ‘Verizon’ and the site name (e.g., “Verizon complaintsboard”). The number of Verizon complaints posted is shown for the most popular websites.

www.complaints.com (2,210)
www.my3cents.com (1,267)
verizon.pissedconsumer.com (663)
www.measuredup.com (450)
www.complaintsboard.com (hundreds)
complaintreviews.com (hundreds)
verizonpathetic.com (links to many VZ complaint websites, lawsuits, and articles)
www.yelp.com (17 for ‘Verizon Communications Headquarters’ in NY)
hissingkitty.com (small but excellent new site)
www.customerservicescoreboard.com
complaintwire.org