Verizon Provides the Worst Customer Service of All-Time

I don't use my blog anymore (as I podcast weekly at www.seniordiscountmusic.com ). I'm posting this so there's a public place to see it. This is my story from ordering Verizon for my new house. It is insane.

4/16 - Monday - I order Verizon DSL service online. It has exactly one question when it comes to installation. It says something along the lines of "Do you have a phone jack in your house?". I checked "Yes". When I finished the order, it said "You do not need to be home when our technician comes on Friday, 4/20 to install your DSL". Since I knew that I had two phone lines in the house, and needed Verizon to connect to the correct phone line, I made it a point to call them the next day and let them know I needed to show the technician the correct phone line.

4/17 - Tuesday - I call Verizon and let them know the situation. The woman on the phone says that she can not tell me the exact time they'll be coming, but that it would be between 11 AM and 6 PM, and that if I'm home during that time, I'll be able to talk to the Verizon technician and show him the right phone line to connect to.

4/20 - Friday - I wake up at 10:30 AM. I took the day off of work to be home for Verizon. I look at my phone and I had recieved an email at 8:48 AM saying my internet is all set. I am furious at Verizon's first mistake: they came two and a half hours early. I then go check my computer, and I'm even more upset at Verizon's second mistake: they connected to the wrong phone-line, even though I called them three days early and told them specifically that I needed to talk to them when they came. I call Verizon and am on the phone for almost an hour. They tell me they can't send anyone out, and schedule to come out the next day (Saturday, 4/21) between 11 AM - 12 PM. I then say I want to speak to a manager, and after minutes of searching for one, I'm told all the managers are too busy, and one will call me back as soon as they are no longer busy. Verizon's third mistake: The manager never called me back.

4/21 - Saturday - My girlfriend was going to be the one home when the technician comes, as I was in Boston that day. She works at the hospital and got home at 4:00 AM on Friday night, expecting to sleep until around 10:45 to wait for the technician. Verizon's fourth mistake: AGAIN - Verizon shows up two and a half hours early at 8:30 AM, calling her and waking her up. She waits as he works on the house (after she shows him which line to use). After about 45 minutes, she calls me and tells me he left, and the internet is not working. I call Verizon to complain, and they say the ticket is still open, and he must still be there. I call my girlfriend back, and tell her what Verizon told me. Eventually, the technician returns. He left and came back without telling her. She goes back to sleep and he leaves. That afternoon, she sets up the internet.
Still upset with the terrible, terrible treatment, I call Verizon on the way home from Boston at around 6:30 PM. I talk to a man who takes my call-back number and start telling him the story. We get disconnected and he calls me back. He says he's going to transfer me to a customer service rep and we get disconnected. He does not call me back. I call again and start over with a new guy and he tells me there's no way to find the previous guy I was talking to. I explain the entire thing again, and he says he's going to transfer me to a customer service rep and we get disconnected AGAIN. I call for the THIRD time, and explain it for the THIRD time to a THIRD person. This woman is extremely nice, and says she is going to credit me one month free, and waive the installation fee. This totals about $59.99. But she can't believe my treatment, and tells me to call again on Monday to talk to someone from dispatch (because they were closed at the time) and try to get further compensation. I tell her I will, thank her, and hang up.
I get home and my internet speed is terrible. I call Verizon at around 10:30 PM nd talk to a guy who tells me he's going to upgrade my speed from (I believe) 1.5mbps to "3mbps - 7mbps". He tells me it will take three or four hours to change speed.

4/22 - Sunday - I wake up around 11:30 AM (13 hours after talking to the previous Verizon rep) and my internet speed has not changed at all. I was busy all day Sunday so I could not spend a third consecutive day repeatedly calling Verizon.

4/23 - Monday - I wake up around 11:30 AM and call Verizon. I have two separate issues at this point. One was my terrible treatment, and one is my slow internet. I call first about my speed problem. I talk to a woman and tell her about the man I talked to on Saturday night who upgraded my speed. She says she has no record of my phone call or the upgrade.
She upgrades my speed for me, and says it will take four hours. I ask for a confirmation number and she gives me "RI00137287334". I thank her.
Then I wanted to deal with my terrible treatment up to this point. I explain what happened, and am transferred to another woman. I explain the entire thing to her (including the promised credit) and she says there is no record of my promised "first month free" and "Activation fee waived", but she says she will put this through. I tell her I can't believe how much unaccountability there is, and how I can't trust that any time I talk to anyone, there is a record of it, so she gives me her name and location (Lohr - Taunton, MA) and a confirmation number for this future credit (RIHM765649). I tell her I was told to talk to dispatch for further compensation. Lohr was extremely pleasant and helpful.
I am forwarded to dispatch, and I explain it all again. The dispatch guy seems unhelpful and disinterested. After another lengthy explanation, he checks his facts with me repeatedly, and says "Okay, someone will be reprimanded for this. Is that all?" I respond to this saying "I'm not looking for someone to get reprimanded, I'm looking for compensation" and he says I'll have to speak to a manager. He tells me (just like Friday) that all the managers are busy, and that one will call me within the hour. About an hour later, he calls me back, saying it will take a little longer, and that it will be another hour before the manager calls me. I never recieve a phone call for the rest of the night. I'm in disbelief that this this company acts this way.

4/24 - Tuesday - I get home from work and go online to check my speed to see if it's been upgraded. It is awful (1.4 mbps). I go online to live chat with Verizon. I get a guy named "Avtar". I'm on chat with him for over an hour.
We start by doing a speed test. We get “1.5 mbps”. He connects to my computer during this time for over 20 minutes and changes many settings. My speed does not increase, but he bizarrely says "Your speed has increased" and I get extremely frustrated with his incorrect response. He tells me to restart my computer, and since I just had done so before the conversation, I tell him I believe it won't help. I tell him I want to continue talking to him (not someone new) after I restart. He tells me at 9:17 PM that he will call me in ten minutes, after I restart.
I restart and I am correct. It does not help. I wait for an unbelievable 35 minutes. Avtar never calls me back, which I am now used to, when dealing with the liars at Verizon. By the way, "liars" is not an opinion, but is a factual description at this point. I go on live chat again at 9:54 PM, and start my conversation with Mahesh. We do a speed test and it is the same (1.5 mbps). He tells me a Verizon rep is going to call me, as was the original plan at 9:17. I don't get a call until 11:14 PM, almost two hours after I was told I'd get a call in "ten minutes".
Brijesh is the name of the guy who called me. He said “What speed are you getting?” I ran a speed test for him (this was the third Verizon rep that I ran a speed test for this evening). I told him “1.5 mbps” and he said he’d have someone call me the next day. I was furious that I had to deal with Verizon over two hours at this point (the majority of the time waiting for this phone call) and all I got was “We’ll call you tomorrow”.
Then, Brijesh said they’d get me up to “2.5 mbps”. I corrected him, and told him I upgraded the day before to speeds between “3.1 mbps – 7.0 mbps”, but he insisted that that never happened. So I told him I had a confirmation number for my upgrade and gave it to him. The guy came back and told me I was wrong. My speed was not upgraded. I asked him what the confirmation number was for, and he said “I don’t know.” I asked repeatedly why I was given a confirmation number that meant nothing to the people at Verizon. He could not give me a reason.
I was immensely upset at all of this. I expressed to him numerous times that I knew what conversation I had the day before, and that either he is wrong, or the person the day before had lied to me.
I was at my peak of anger so far in this debacle.
He told me someone would call the next day between 11 AM – 12 PM. I asked for a confirmation number for this (as I had been lied to so many times about specific times and call-backs) and he said it was take 5 – 7 minutes to generate a confirmation number. He said he’d call me back when it was generated. This was at 11:54 PM. He called back at 12:12 AM. My confirmation number: RIHM768305. He assured me the Verizon technician would call between 11 AM and 12 PM.

4/25 – Wednesday – I was up at 11 AM. I waited for an hour and forty minutes and received no phone call. Which is what I expected from Verizon at this point. I went outside to get my mail and received a flyer from Cox High Speed Internet. Right then, I decided that if Verizon would not fix my internet today (over five days after the initial install, over 48 hours since I changed my speed and it hasn’t worked) then I was dropping Verizon and going to Cox.
I called Verizon tech support and got a guy who said the same thin as Brijesh. He said I did not have the “3.0 mbps – 7.0 mbps” speed. I did not upgrade to that. He transferred me to a customer service representative. Katie Riley. She confirmed that I do have 3.0 mpbs – 7.0 mbps, and that it’s been over 48 hours since I upgraded my internet. I informed her I was going to cancel my service if the internet wasn’t fixed by the end of the day.
Katie Riley, the customer service agent said she would transfer me back to technical support. I told her I wanted her to explain to them that I did have the “3.0 – 7.0” tier of speed, because the last two technicians told me I was wrong when I told them that. Katie Riley from customer service, told me she’d transfer me over and explain it to the person with all three of us on the line. After a couple minutes of waiting, I got a technician. Katie Riley did not stay on the call, and I was forced to start the entire process over again, 40 minutes after the phone call began.
I was livid.
As I explained the situation, I got an email from Verizon. I read it. It said I was upgraded to “3.0 – 7.0 mbps”, it would be active on THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY, and I would be charged AN ADDITIONAL FIVE DOLLARS A MONTH.
I was done at this point. I had talked to someone on Sunday who said my “3.0 – 7.0 mbps” service would be available after four hours, and would not cost me any extra a month. Now, after an additional 7 – 8 phone calls, and hours dedicated to this problem, I’m being told it will be an extra five days, and cost me more monthly on top of that?
I told the woman on the phone I had just received the email and I was done with Verizon. This was it for me. I’m switching to Cox. She told me a manager would call me.
A manager did end up calling me. I told him I was done with Verizon, and brought up the extra $5 a month. He said he couldn’t help me and would transfer me to someone. I told him I’m done with the holding and the transferring and lies, and that I’d call back to cancel my service later in the week. He said “Is there anything other than this that I can help you with?”. No.
Right now, to keep me a customer, my speed would have to be actually be 7.0 mbps, and for this harrowing bullshit, I'd need the first year of Verizon 100% free. That is the type of huge compensation they'd need to do to balance out this kind of unbelievable treatment.