Thursday, June 09, 2011

Total Service Interruption + Red Tape

Told to wait by the mobile phone and computer all day Wednesday. Was ready to deal with problem all day and got no call.

Upon calling back the next day (today) during daytime hours, a day when I had schoolwork, major housework and doctor's appointment that included two-hour round trip drive, was told I could not even transfer to a number where anyone could help me; would & could not get a refund until problem was fixed; that there was no estimated date for restoration of high-speed Internet service, and that no one could or would schedule a callback. My choices were to escalate to a supervisor or talk to tech support, with whom I've spoken repeatedly, to no satisfaction -- with time I simply did not have. All this after giving them more than eight hours of my time the day before.

Whatever happened to customer service? I know people who'd want to invoice that company if it stole that much of their time. Isn't Verizon regulated at some level as a public utility? All this comes after Verizon hooked me up and used me as the thin edge if the wedge to market their higher end services in what used to be a Comcast-only condo community. Their extraordinarily aggressive marketing techniques -- including harassing an 80+-year-old woman after both she and I both asked them politely, then told them sternly, not to knock on the door -- were just beyond the pale.

I used to be excited about Verizon, now I am angry, very tired and, frankly, disgusted by the whole situation.

What's to be done? Does one have to be clever enough to write something like "United Breaks Guitars" to get this company to behave responsibly?

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