Thursday, September 30, 2010

Customer Service, Where Did You Go? (Talkin' to You, Verizon!)

I had planned on blogging about my Blessings Unlimited party today, but something popped up that I had to write about before my head explodes and gets my laptop all gunky and then you'd never get to read about the party anyways.

At the very beginning of the month, T contacted Verizon to order a new DVR to replace the one he stole from me to watch football in HDTV. I guess seeing football players' sweat is pretty important to some guys. A week turned into two weeks, and still no DVR.

I've been living with regular old cable like some sort of cavewoman for the entire month now.

Each time (out of the 5 or 6 times T or I have called), we get placed on hold for 45 minutes or more. Last night, I cooked dinner for our family of 4, sat down and ate with them, washed all the dishes, and looked through a circular from the Christian bookstore...all in the hour + that I was on hold.

The elevator music was very nice.

At one point, I realized that the "Thank you for calling. We appreciate your patience" messages that run continuously were in Spanish. I read Spanish much better than I can speak it, but after you listen to the same message 3 or 87 times, you begin to pick things up. It was almost like taking a trip to a foreign country.

My Spanish skills were so vigorously renewed that when the Verizon rep took me off hold and greeted me in a barrage of Spanish, I was able to ask in fluent Spanish, "Do you speak English?"

He promised to send me "directly" to a supervisor. I guess to Verizon, "directly" means "make her wait another 30 minutes." But that's okay. It gave me time to notice that they had erroneously billed us $23.00 for HBO that we are no longer receiving. Excellent.

At the end of the day, the supervisor assured me that our DVR box is maybe kind of we think probably definitely on its way and should arrive at our place of residence no later than Tuesday.

Uh huh.

And I have fabulous oceanfront property in Missouri to sell you. In other words, I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm completely flabbergasted as to why it has taken a huge corporation a month to send us a simple DVR box. I could have made my own at this point....It would of course be compiled of cardboard, hot glue, and maybe some rhinestones, but it's better than what Verizon has sent us, which is nothing.

So if you are disappointed that today's post didn't recap my super cute and fun party, you should blame Verizon and their miserable customer service skills. A band of monkeys could have driven my DVR down to the 'Burg by now.

{Have you had any awful customer service experiences?}

So I don't leave you completely out of the loop with fun stuff, I am hosting Weekend Bloggy Reading tomorrow. Please come by and link up your best post of the week to share! Please add my party button (code below) or a link to me within your post. Hope to see you tomorrow!
Weekend Bloggy Reading


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25 comments:

  1. Oh, you sweet woman. There aren't many things more infuriating than being placed on what I call "eternal hold"--especially when it's with a company you're PAYING your hard-earned money to provide you with service!

    One time I received such incredibly, over-the-top bad service at a children's store (where I was trying to make a simple exchange of an 18-month size outfit for the same outfit in a 24-month size) that I finally left the store, went home, and wrote a letter to the president of the company--and included the outfit with the letter. I said, "If my experience is representative of the kind of company you wish to run, I will not defile my child by having him wear a product of yours." I was so mad. But boy, was their national customer service coordinator nice when she called me!! And she did send me a new outfit, along with a letter of apology.

    Take care of yourself and don't be letting your head explode. Your hair's too pretty to have all those brains and stuff mixed into it.

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  2. sorry you're having so many problems with verizon but thanks for the laugh this morning! i hate being on hold and you have way more patience than me-i usually end up getting so mad i hang up which accomplishes nothing! good luck getting your dvr (from one cavewoman to another i'm jealous of your cable tv!) maybe calling and threatening to change services would make them move a bit faster??

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  3. Ugh. Verizon is awful with customer service. They installed Fios in our last house and left a huge hole in our yard with wires exposed. I scheduled an appointment to come fix it and they day of the appointment they were running VERY late (several hours) so I called. The woman on the phone transferred me to the driver who promised me he was on his was. Yeah, they didn't even show up until a week later! ummmm...no thanks. Now we have Dish Network.

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  4. Haha! Oh my gosh, I don't mean to laugh but you tell the story so well :-) I completely know what you mean though. I actually went through something recently with a Dr.'s office, first they put me on hold for 35 minutes (which felt like hours since I was sick) & then when they tried to make my appt, they couldn't see me until a WEEK later!!! I would have probably gotten better by then so I told them, I'd find another Dr. & went to the Urget care center instead. I hope you get your dvr soon & I'm excited to hear about your blessings unlimited party! :-)

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  5. You're a hoot! But sorry it's such a mess.
    I've always thought it bad service that the cable companies and that type of thing can only schedule an appt within a 2-4 hour window. The rest of the world doesn't get to do that.
    My bad service story involves Southern Living, but it's too long to write here....

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  6. You are so funny. YES, I've had horrible costumer service experiences before. Being put on hold is so frustrating. Now that I have two little ones running around though, I find I often have to ask customer service to please hold as I help one of my two kiddos, he, he, he...

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  7. I hate bad customer service, and I hate waiting on the phone! I have learned that if the business answers their phones on Sundays, tha tis the best time to call. Very little waiting and usually someone who speaks English pretty well too:)
    I have issues with my mail order pharmacy people. They call my house to remind me to refill and say that I can talk to a customer service person if it convenient....then they put me on hold for 20 minutes! And they were the ones that called me!

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  8. It seems more and more every day customer service has gone out the window. More so when you go into a retail store and all the employees are standing around chatting and not one acknowledges you. Good for you for sticking with it, I don't know if I would of been so patient.

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  9. That really stinks. We have Verizon cell phones, and we've actually experienced really good customer service with them, but last week I needed to cancel one of our lines because the contract expired and we didn't want the line anymore. I called in, gave them all the verification "I'm really who I say I am" info, and they wouldn't let me cancel the line because my name isn't on the account; it's in my husband's name. I can recite my husband's DOB, SSN, grandpa's full name, shoe size, etc. but it didn't matter because I am not listed on the account. I felt more like my husband's child than his wife!!

    Anyway, I hope that you get your DVR soon. If you continue to have problems, you might consider submitting your story to consumerist.com - they post user-submitted consumer issues and sometimes that's the swift kick in the pants a large company needs to get issues resolved (since they don't want the bad press).

    Hannah

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  10. I've said it before and I will say it again - AT&T Uverse is the best cable/internet I've ever had...and you know i"ve tried them all since I move all the time. GET AT&T and you will never have a problem! I hope you get your DVR soon - it's really miserable to be fighting to get something that should be so easy.

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  11. Verizon customer service is BAD all around! We only use them for our cell phones and have always problems.

    About a month or so ago, we went into one of the stores to talk to them about my husband's phone. There were A TON of people there, like 20 something people waiting for customer service with only 1 guy working back there. We had waited for over an hour... which at one point a guy that didn't check in b/c he only needed a new battery got helped right before us and it took him like 30 mins alone because he didn't just need a new battery...UGH! So our turn is up and what happens- the one guy working back there goes to lunch and no one else comes out to help and there are over 20 people on the list to be helped!

    We were not pleased. My husband found the manager to complain. He told him he has been here waiting for over an hour and this and that and the guy actually had the nerve to tell my husband "I've been here since 10:00." To which my husband replied "Good for you... YOU WORK HERE!!"

    After a little bit of help and leaving with the same broken phone, Needless to say we have talked about switching services!

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  12. I agree with Richella....glad you didn't mess up your hair!
    Don't even get me started.......
    a call to the Royal highness of Verizon would be in order, if you knew you had that long to wait!

    Suzanne

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  13. We didn't get action from Verizon until we sent a certified letter to the Attorney General in our state. No joke!

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  14. Write a letter to Verizon's CEO detailing your complaint and cc your state's attorney general, your local BBB and the FCC. You will get action. Works for me!

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  15. Uuhgg Verizon. So difficult to deal with. It doesn't matter what the issue is, billing, adding a phone, dropping a phone, turning on an upgraded phone.. I have had endless problems with them. I think my favorite was when we were billed for web use when none of us use our phones for that. Even though we denied it and asked for proof of what links were used, they wouldn't give them to us because of "privacy" of the actual phone user. Which is a 12 year old boy. MY 12 year old boy, on MY account. None of it made sense... still doesn't. We eventually had to PAY to block web use..
    My son denied ever using anything (and I know I am biased but he is a very sweet and honest guy). It turns out that if you accidentally hit a shortcut button it can connect you... which we are responsible for all charges.
    They're douchbags.

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  16. I hear your frustration. Completely. There is so little good customer service with the advent of the automated answering system. Sometimes I spend what feels like hours trying to get a real person on the other end. But on the bright side it does give you funny material to write about!

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  17. I know it wasn't/isn't funny to you...but I had tears in my eyes laughing!

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  18. You poor thing. There is nothing closer to my version of hell than being on hold with a company.

    I typically "lose my sh*t" when I am forced to stay on hold. I'm impressed you can keep it together. The last time it happened (oh yeah, it happens a lot), I had been calling AT&T for days trying to get my Internet reconnected. (Take the Web from a blogger, and things get crazy.) Long story short, someone had placed a passcode on my account with my favorite singer. I"m convinced it wasn't me, tried guessing every singer I could think of. Finally, I broke down completely, started balling and rambling on about how I can't go without the Internet for the entire weekend! The lady finally just gave me the password - meme. MEME????? What the heck kinda password is meme for a favorite singer?

    Okay, that story is really more about how I don't handle losing Internet well. But, since then, Internet has been smooth sailing.

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  19. Oh my! I have heard that they have horrible customer service before... :/

    I think my worst customer service experience was when I was pregnant (I was as big as a house and definitely LOOKED pregnant too) and went to pottery barn kids with my in laws.

    First the sales lady completely ignored me, which I was ok with, she was the only person there, it wasn't busy (we were the only people in there) but she could have otehr stuff to do, no big deal... until a couple of guys came into the store, she helped them, and when they bumped me into a crib and glared at me she actually told me to move out of the way because those guys were looking at that crib. I began bawling (I blame the horomones) which completely sent my former marine FIL off, he chewed out the guys, chewed out the lady AND asked for the manager (who was at lunch)... while we were waiting the lady made a snarky comment about teenagers having babies and their parents being all overprotective and I realized she meant me! I know I look young, but I was no were near teenaged and I was married!!

    Apparently my FIL heard too, because he told the manager EVERYTHING that was said, and well... lets just say, they are REALLY nice to me everytime I go in now... and that lady doesn't work there anymore.

    LOL OMGosh sorry for writing you a novel! I still feel the injustice of it all can you tell? lol

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  20. So so sorry, that is awful and just wrong.

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  21. I generally don't call customer service.... anywhere. Since I work in customer service, I can't stand to be on the phone any longer than the beginning of my shift to the end of my shift.

    But I've had plenty of bad experiences while working. :-P I know it's not the same thing though.

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  22. Oh I am so with you on this! I bought a Kia THREE months ago and they are still calling me to have me come down there and fill out paperwork that they admitadly LOST. The first time they had me fill out the wrong stuff, they have now lost my title for my trade in 3 times and when they call us they claim we never dropped it off. I am ready to write a looooooong letter to someone! Three months later? I would just give the car back if I could! Hope you get your DVR!

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  23. Oh I am so with you on this! I bought a Kia THREE months ago and they are still calling me to have me come down there and fill out paperwork that they admitadly LOST. The first time they had me fill out the wrong stuff, they have now lost my title for my trade in 3 times and when they call us they claim we never dropped it off. I am ready to write a looooooong letter to someone! Three months later? I would just give the car back if I could! Hope you get your DVR!

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  24. I on the other hand have had good experience with Verizon customer service. But that is my phone..not my DVR. Quick to answer phone and took care of my problem with little or no hassle!!
    Sorry you are having to go through this. That sucks
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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