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But you already knew that. Google the phrase "Verizon sucks" and have fun reading the results. But perhaps the best place in all the web to read about Verizon nightmares (it's compelling and addictive sometimes!), is Scott Manning's page, To Hell With Verizon DSL. It's a buffet of horror stories. AUGUST 5, 2005 NOTE: Since I originally posted my Verizon tale here, SO much has happened with Verizon, none of it good. We've subsequently completely severed ties with them, since they do not maintain their equipment in our neighborhood. We lost our DSL service after receiving three free months (read the story below for details on that); their billing department thought we were delinquent and simply shut off the service. By that time we were using cable internet as a back-up anyway, so we just made that our primary way to connect. After that, we lost phone service three times over the course of the next five months; the lines here in Trenton are old, and according to the repairmen we've talked to, Verizon will not replace them. DSL, of course, relies on working phone lines, which we didn't have for any length of time. Our most recent headache: we lost phone service for 17 days in July 2005, because of a blown fuse in the locked "Phone Company Only" part of the box on the side of the house. We ordered Vonage ("Don't," said the Verizon repairman, "If the power goes out, you won't have phones." I can't imagine losing electric for 17 days, jerk), and got a pair of cell phones. Below is the beginning of our woes. I hope to expand this soon. In the meantime... I called Verizon and spoke with Ms. Kern on August 20, 2004 to have my phone and DSL services transferred from my old address in Merchantville, NJ, to the new address in Trenton. Because I had trouble moving my service two years ago (a story for another time), I asked Ms. Kern to please verify that everything would be okay: that my Merchantville phone service would indeed be disconnected; that my DSL email address - which I use for my home business - would not be terminated; and that both my phone and internet services would not be interrupted as I moved from the old place to the new. Ms. Kern assured me that everything would go as I needed: my new phone and DSL service would start on August 30 in the Trenton house, and the services would terminate in Merchantville on September 2.
On August 23, I was disconnected from DSL in Merchantville,
one week before we were scheduled to move. I am a graphic artist working from home,
so the inability to conveniently meet my deadlines is a huge problem.
I called Verizon several times to try to rectify the situation:
I spoke with Brent, Paul, Tina, and Laverne; all of them gave me the impression
that my DSL service would simply be switched on in the Trenton location immediately.
Believing that they were telling the truth, and because I was very close to deadline
on a number of my projects, I moved my home office a week ahead of schedule.
After these efforts, DSL was NOT on in Trenton.
Two more days went by, and we still did not have DSL. I started to panic,
so I began burning my proofs to CD, and my boyfriend, Glen,
sent them out to my clients for me from his office in Philadelphia.
He is extremely busy at his own job, but we were in the middle of a move,
and I was in the thick of deadlines, so it was our best option.
Because he, too, was worried about whether I could retain my clients without
the ability to email them directly, he did some research from work and found
some high-ranking contacts at Verizon. A few days later,
Vera Gonzalez called him back and told him that she would cancel
the existing DSL order, and resubmit an expedited order. By August 31,
we still hadn't heard anything back, and we still had no internet connection.
We called the order status number, and it told us our DSL was scheduled to turn on September 1,
9 days after my Merchantville connection was erroneously disconnected by Verizon;
and two days after the original verified start date of 8/30.
I spoke with Vera several times on August 31, and each time she told me that a technician
would call me shortly. I never received a phone call from a tech; and around mid-day,
when we checked our order status, the recorded message said that my service would start on
September 9. I was floored, exasperated, very worried for my job.
The person who was "helping" me, screwed me over horribly. I'm not sure why Vera didn't
check our order status: I'm certain she cancelled our order the day the service was FINALLY scheduled
to commence.
By this point, I had received numerous calls from my frustrated clients,
and Glen is busy enough at work without taking care of my job as well.
I tried to get Vera back on the phone, calling both her office number and her voice mail number,
but she didn't return my calls. I called the general Verizon DSL number and wound up sobbing to a
sympathetic man named Terry. The sobbing is not normal for me, and even though he works for a company
as lame as Verizon, I think it was not normal for Terry to be on the receiving end of such a call. He stayed on the line while he
transferred me to Mr. LaGuerra in consumer relations. Mr. LaGuerra told me that I should have
kept my dial-up modem (Why? I've been a DSL customer for 2 full years), that I never should
have placed the terminate and the transfer order in the same phone call (what?!?),
that I should take my work to the local library (come on! Do you think a library is going to
a. have Adobe Photoshop and Quark Xpress for me to use and, b. allow me to bring in my own
disks and CDs? Not a reality). Does he tell distressed phone customers to string some
line and some soup cans between locations? I simply want the service I ordered.
He transferred me to Betty White, who is in a department above him. She said she would place
an expedite message on my order, which would still take 3-4 business days; she noted that
because of my circumstances and because it was Verizon's error, that I may have service sooner,
but she could make no guarantees.
I again left a number of messages for Vera Gonzalez, believing she had some power to undo her
cancel request, but again, did not hear back from her. Please note, she uses an old
"I'm sorry, the number you've reached is an invalid BellAtlantic number..." message for her
answering machine. She gives that number out to people, and does, in fact, periodically,
answer that phone, and also, to the best of my knowledge, BellAtlantic has been gone
(at least from this region) for three years.
I waited about an hour for someone to call me back, and when that didn't happen,
and at my absolute wit's end, I called the State Board of Utilities to see if they
might be able to help in this situation. The woman was very nice, but said that her agency
only handles phone -- not internet -- complaints for Verizon.
Despite the inability to get involved, she said she'd call Verizon to see
if anything could be done for me.
Vera Gonzalez called back about a half an hour later to tell me that I should have service within 3-4
business days, but since the State Board was involved, she could no longer follow-up with me.
I explained that the State Board called Verizon as a simple courtesy for me, since they couldn't
get involved with internet complaints. Vera said, "Oh they're involved, okay? Have a good day,
goodbye."
Turns out, during that 3-4 business days (right before the Labor Day holiday weekend), I received ANOTHER DSL modem from Verizon
(our third), despite the fact that we've told them we had all of our hardware.
My service was finally available to me on Friday, September 3. No courtesy follow-up call from anyone at Verizon. Just flipped the switch for me. Why the F couldn't
they have done that earlier?!
During my two week hell with Verizon, I talked to so many Verizon reps: many of whom are very kind and helpful,
but unfortunately, no one has any accountability; none of the employees is able to see the big picture of any particular
account because of lack of access to all of the information. Despite this, many of Verizon's employees assured me that my DSL
would be on "tomorrow" or "any time now." Why on earth would they give such blatantly erroneous information? And WHY on earth does NO ONE
in that company (with the exception of "Betty White") ever give his/her full name?
Note: The contact info for the State Board of Public Utilities
is in the front pages of your phone book; In NJ, dial 1-800-624-0241.
They seem to have some pull with Verizon.
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