WARNING, WARNING keep away ~ far away ~ from Verizon wireless phone company!
Written: Jul 15 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Glad I switched!
Cons: Passed from person to person to person to person
The Bottom Line: I had problems all through our contract and I am STILL having them months after dropping them!
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| 2buzy's Full Review: General Reviews of Verizon Customer Service |
In my original review on Verizon, I recommended their service. I have since changed that review and thought I'd share my customer service ~ well lack of it ~ to explain my rating a bit more.
IN THE BEGINNING
Ah, the first part of a relationship where you turn the other way to the few flaws and figure they will smooth out over time!
At least that is what I thought would happen! We could not get ANY service once we were about a mile onto the Island. I was told they would working on the whole area and within a couple of weeks ~ a month at most that would not be a problem. Well when we changed providers TWO YEARS later there had been NO changes!! We learned to just accept that and other than inquiring about the service a couple of times, we let that go.
It was the problems with our bills that brought me to first deal with their so called customer service. We continually would be charged for long distance. I would have to call up, go through 3 or 4 people to get it cleared up and this was happened at least every other month!
There was also charges for numbers we didn't call and one time we were even charged for our mobile to mobile calls. It got old REAL fast. The WORSE part was when I upped our minutes it didn't get recored and so we were charged a TON of money for the "over" minutes. This happened 2 months in a row and finally took a fax to get it the ONE month credited! We were stuck with the other one!
THEN THE PROBLEM WITH THE PHONES THEMSELVES STARTED
We had chosen to get three phones when we signed up ~ there were a couple of FREE choices. Well, a few months into our service, one of our FREE ones just stopped working.
I took it in and they looked at it and figured it was either the phone OR the battery! This after I spend 15 minutes just waiting for my turn! Geez, my dog could have came up with those two choices! Anyway, I could buy a new phone or a new battery but since they had no way of knowing what I really needed they really couldn't tell me which one to get! AMAZING!
I asked him if I could just exchange it for another FREE one and he said "oh, those are only FREE when you sign up, now they will cost you $100." I ask him if I can turn it in for an upgrade, like their sign says. "Oh, that is only AFTER your contract is over and you are signing up again."
So.......... not being in the mood for any of this I asked to talk to his supervisor and this was a man who knew better than to push an over tired mother of five and backs up A BIT by offering me the replacement for 1/2 off. Now what if this one is a piece of crap too I ask and he throws in a free car charger. I am still not a real happy camper when I leave.
BUT this got even better when a couple of months later the dog thinks the phone is hers and takes it out to who knows where. We THINK we will find it by calling it which of course freaks the dog out and she "kills it"! This time they are out of the cheaper phones and try to charge me over $100! I go to 7 Verizon's before I can get one for $30. I then THREATENED the family with lose of EVERY possible privilege if they so much as drop them, let along break one!
SKIPPING TO THE LASTEST PROBLEM
Well, time moves on and our Verizon problems continue and so we move on over to T-Mobile! Seemed easy enough ~ and it was, at least on the T-Mobile side!
I called Verizon and told them I wanted to cancel in 3 days. We had already started the T-Mobile service a week earlier and had the new number on the old voice mail. I was told I could NOT cancel until the 20th! I explained my contract was well over and she knew that (shock) BUT my billing cycle ended on the 20th and so I would need to wait! I am amazed that they want me to pay for 25 days of service I don't need! It was then explained that if I canceled before then, they would have to charge me at a different rate and for the few days of calls already made it would be over $200!!!
So, I ask her what is the cheapest way to do this and am told she will drop me down to the lowest amount of minutes available and then my bill would only be $49. (or something close) which once the last bill was paid would make my final bill zero. Fine, I pay the last bill and ask her if we can use them for those minutes EXACTLY like before and was told that there would be no changes, just less minutes.
So, to make a long story short (ok a bit shorter) I am charged close to $80 for long distance and roaming since our new plan for the last month didn't include those! EVEN though I was told the ONLY change would be the amount of minutes!
So.......... I have spent the last 4 months trying to get this straightened out. I have been promised over and over it will be taken care of and yet it has not. I have talked to person after person only to be transfered or sent to another only to have to start over each time! Sunday I stood in life for 10 minutes only to be told that since the account was closed, I needed to go over to the customer service line. Another 17 minutes in line gave me Ryan who after 5 minutes on the computer looks at me and says "this account is closed" only after listening to me state that before giving him the number! He of course couldn't help me and gave me an 800 number to call on Monday as they didn't work on Sunday ~ gee what a surprise!
Today I call the 800 number go through my story only to be transfered to "someone who can help" who guess what ~ didn't! He did agree to take of the $12 something in long distance but just didn't know what to do about the other roaming and long distance charges! This of course was not what I was told every other time but I had to go as I was going to be late for my dentist appointment ~ which even though it was for a painful cracked tooth was a lot more enjoyable than dealing with Verizon!
On a positive note, we have yet had any problems with T-mobile ~ which I would have wrote a review of if there was a place for it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): too much
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Epinions.com ID:
2buzy
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Location: In front of the computer!
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"I'm for a stronger death penalty." - President George Bush
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