Hey Verizon, Can You Hear Me Now?

I've been a loyal Verizon Wireless customer for about 20 years. I've been using palm phones and now treos for as long as I can remember. for the last 3 or so years I've been dealing with the treo 700p. the p stands for piece of you know what. I've had the phone replaced at least 5 times and still it gives me fits. So, when blackberry announced the arrival of the storm, I was finally ready to ditch my beloved palm technology and move into a new system.

Knowing that the phone was going to be hard to get, I learned that, if you were qualified for an upgrade, you could preorder the storm. You simply called a special verizon number and they took down the info and, on the 21st they would place the order and ship your phone, guaranteed to arrive on Tuesday. So, I called the number. I was told by Verizon that this was a far better means of obtaining the phone as the lines at the stores would be insane, the systems would be crashing as a result of the overload of new phone activations and that I wasn't guaranteed a phone if I waited on line at a store. sounded good to me. I can wait another 4 days for the phone. I can survive another 4 days of my crappy treo. I place my order on the 18th.

On the 21st, I hit a few Verizon stores, seeing if I could get the phone sooner. Lines everywhere and I saw no reason to wait since I would get one in a few days anyway. I did pick up the car charger for the storm, using the VIP discount they told me I am always entitled to. Then I went back to my office to await the email confirmation of my shipment.

It never came.

Then my treo goes unrecognized by the cradle usb link. I figure it isn't worth dealing with since I'm replacing the phone from hell in a few days anyway. Then my emails stop hitting my phone. Figures. I try verizon's pathetic wireless sync site to see if I can figure out what the current issue is. the site won't let me in. I figure the new phone has been processed and something resulted in wireless sync halting the email retrievals. I was actually happy.

At 6, still no email confirming the shipment. Now I'm worried.

I go to a verizon store and watch as people get their storms and I wait, and wait, and wait and wait and wait until someone decides to help a customer with a non-storm related issue. They check my account, see that nothing has changed and tell me the system should show the shipment on Saturday.

I go home and call customer support. The nice girl on the phone says she sees my order but doesn't see the shipping info but, again, it will update by Saturday so I should check back tomorrow (today). Then she transfers me to tech support to deal with the email issue. 2 hours on the phone with an extremely nice guy, who called me back twice since I was calling from my cell, resulted in the emails working again. During the call, he mostly spoke about how much better the storm is, how much happier I am going to be, how freaking cool the phone is, how my treo is outdated and clunky and prone to issues.

Saturday comes. No email. So, again, I call customer support. I get a woman on the phone who says there's no sign of the order but there's a note to order it when it becomes available. Blackberry has already announced that the phones are all sold out and won't be available until December 15th so, she says, I should receive mine two days after the 15th. I tell her I was told I was avoiding this mess by ordering in advance thru verizon. she says I was but, thanks to system crashes, my order couldn't be placed. I tell her that, if that were the case, my phone would have been accounted for and, when the systems went back up, my phone should have been shipped. She then says "wait, your order just went thru." So I ask if that means I should get my phone in two days and she says no, when it becomes available it will be shipped. Some time in December.

I start to fume.

I ask her why my order, which was held up as a result of system failure, didn't get done until today. I ask if the system has been down from yesterday until now and she says no, it was working on and off all day and has been fine today. So I ask how my phone, which didn't get processed because of system failure, was sold to someone else once the system when back online. she tells me that the person who handled my call didn't show up for work yesterday so it wasn't processed. She says he must have been sick, or injured or dead. I swear to god, she pulled the dead employee excuse. I said "my sympathies for your loss. does the deceased employee handle the orders, the packing, the billing and the shipping?" She says he doesn't so I say, did they all die? She says "people get hurt and people die, you know."

I am now irate. I tell her that I was told on the 18th that my phone would ship with a guaranty delivery date of this coming Tuesday. I tell her that I was told Friday night that my phone was ordered and shipped and I would get my shipping info today and now she's telling me the entire verizon system shuts down when one phone operator calls in sick. "he might be dead" she tells me.

I am now shouting at her. "He's not dead. My order just went through. He must have resurrected." Then I ask if we can actually get Jesus on the line to discuss the problem. She tells me that's not his name and I tell her it must be if he died and came back to life to place my order.

I start railing about how I have an audience of over a million and a half people and how I will tall on them, every day, to speak out about the lies verizon tells its customers to protect their inept staff. How the public is going to learn about the dead employee excuse and how I won't stop until I get my phone or, at the very least, get some kind of compensation that makes me forget the stupidity of Verizon.

She asks if there's anything else she can do for me. I tell her, yes, send me a phone. she says, it will ship as soon as it is available, probably on the 15th. I tell her that will result in the phone arriving when I am on vacation and, as a result of this, I won't get the phone until January. She says, we can ship it anywhere and I tell her that I clearly can't rely on them to ship it at all. She asks if there's anything else they can do and I ask for a supervisor for about the tenth time. She says it might be a 30 minute wait and I tell her I have all the time in the world. 3 minutes go by and she comes back on the line, offering me $25 bucks for my trouble. I say fine, give me the money and put a supervisor on the phone. she tells me the supervisor authorized that amount. I ask her if she told the supervisor that she used the dead employee excuse and she says the supervisor knows about the problem. I ask again for the supervisor and, finally, she says ok.

So the supervisor gets on the phone and I run thru the littany of lies told to me since the 18th. The supervisor tells me the system was down, otherwise my phone would have shipped and that nobody got theirs shipped yesterday. I tell her I can give her the names of at least 30 people who did since they all told me they got their shipping confirmation. she says theirs must have been processed before the systems crashed and mine was ready to be processed when the system went down. Again, I ask the same question. "If that's the case, it was accounted for and it should have shipped to me when they got the system back up and running."

I tell her about the dead employee and the attempt at making me feel guilty. she says that was wrong and I tell her it was worse than wrong. It was a lie and it was deplorable. She offers me $100. I tell her I'll take it and I want my phone. She says there are none. I tell her it is one thing to make a mistake and screw up an order. It is an entirely different beast when you lay down lie after lie to cover the mistake. I tell her that the customer deserves better than this. Simply admit to screwing up and offer up some form of compensation. She says "we did." I said no, you didn't. Not until 5 different people lied to me, making up 5 different excuses for my phone not being ordered. she says "it was ordered this morning" and then I go ballistic. Ordered and shipped are two different things and now I am stuck waiting until January for the phone. she says there's nothing else they can do and I tell her she will never move beyond phone jockey if she can't figure out how to placate an irate customer of 20 years.

Of course, within seconds of getting off the call, my cruddy Treo automatically restarts, resulting in me nearly throwing thru a window.

reply to post by Crakeur


Wow.

You handled that much better than I would have.

I've had a Palm Centro for about 4 months, but my service is from Sprint. It's not that bad except for having to charge it about once everyday.

I hope your phone is intact and functional when you get it..

Originally posted by wisefoolishness

You handled that much better than I would have.

I left out the unsavory language. I was actually scaring my kids. Of course, when my son would remind me that I said a bad word, it took a lot to not laugh into the phone.

I'd love to email verizon wireless execs and research in motion execs or anyone above the phone support system but I've been unable to find any addresses. Plenty of phone numbers. Perhaps I'll call them and record it for ATS Mix. I'd love to get a copy of the transcript where the support lady tells me the employee died.

If anyone does have those emails, do not post them here but, feel free to u2u me.

Originally posted by Crakeur
If anyone does have those emails, do not post them here but, feel free to u2u me.

Actually, after doing a quick Google search, I think I might have found something to help you out.

It's a web page, I can u2u you the URL if you'd like.

HOLY FREAKIN WOW!
Do they record customer service calls?
Somebody deserves a pink slip.

reply to post by wisefoolishness


by all means, any information would be appreciated. I was supposed to be in Disney all week so I have nothing on the schedule. the free time will be spent emailing people until someone responds with an apology that actually seems real.

and I'm going to be looking for a new phone. I doubt if I can deal with the treo for another month.

thanks to the aforementioned link, I blasted out emails to every exec on the list. Verizon execs, not the wireless division and the list was almost 2 years old but, I figured, at least one of them must still be around.

several emails bounced back as undeliverable.

I got an email from Verizon Customer Advocacy yesterday, asking me to call them and to provide them with my address and cell phone number so they could look into the matter. Then I got an email from Kevin C. Tillyer
Verizon Wireless, HQ Executive Relations Coordinator asking form my cell or account number and a number where he could contact me.

So, wisefoolishness, while I thanked you in the u2u, let me again thank you here.

Since I originally posted this, I have learned a few things.

According to www.engadget.com, the o/s of the storm was a bit buggy so they downgraded it to a previous version before shipping. What this meant was that the stores had less phones than anticipated (probably good as the limited number they had caused system wide issues) and the folks shipping them to customers like me had to downgrade the phones before shipping. So, many simply didn't go out.

If they had told me this on Friday, I'd have said "I understand" and I would have moved on. Instead, I was told it definitely shipped. Then I was told it can't ship until it's in stock and then I was told my order went thru while I was on the phone and I figured that meant it shipped since orders can't go thru unless the phone is in stock.

then I got the dead employee excuse.

I cannot wait to hear what the higher ups think of this. I know they can't get me the phone and I'm fine with that but I want to hear what they have to say about the way their customer support team handles their supposed VIP customers (yes, I apparently have VIP status, go figure).

Figured I'd update this since I just received a call from Verizon's executive offices. The woman who called was most pleasant. She apologized profusely for the treatment I received and then she asked me to walk her thru the events leading up to the claim that a dead employee was the reason I didn't get my phone.

I explained it all to her and she said that she completely understood my frustrations and she will personally be monitoring my account to ensure that the phone is delivered to me as soon as it is available and she will personally call me to let me know the tracking number and she will personally call me to ensure that the activation was handled efficiently and she then mentioned that the woman who made the dead employee claim and her supervisor who did nothing but offer me a hundred dollar bandaid would be coached in their handling of customers.

She then did exactly what I wanted in the first place. She gave me the truth.

She told me that they were overwhelmed by the activations and the shipping etc and anyone who's order was not processed by 3PM on the 21st was not going to get their phone shipped on the 21st and I should have been told this. She also said they never, ever should have told me that my phone shipped, they never, ever should have told me the order was processed and they never, ever should have mentioned an employee's well being as the reason why my phone didn't ship. She said "we have plenty of people working here and if one person calls in sick or doesn't show up, we have someone to fill in for them."

She apologized repeatedly.

I am now content.

and my treo still sucks and I will be stuck with it for up to 3 more weeks but, she said, they're hoping they will get phones out to those who didn't get their order placed sooner.

I just read your rant and I just about rolled on the floor laughing so hard. I am sorry for your frustration, but my god did that make me laugh. If I even need someone to handle my cell phone company I am going to call you. LOL You really need to teach a class on how to handle cell phone companies.

reply to post by silverflame


thanks, glad you kind find humor in my pathetic existence. No, seriously. I'll be sure and take pictures when I get run over by a bus. I'll post them for you so you can laugh laugh laugh.

the way I see it, customer support are there to help us, not lie to us, not make us feel unimportant. The key thing they should know is how to say no to us without using the word no. the formber branch manager at the bank I use once told me that the first thing they learned in their employee training classes, and this was something everyone who works there learns, never use the word no. there are a few other things they are never allowed to say but he told me this and then he said, watch, I'll stand next to you and you ask the teller some questions that will be answerable with the word no. I forget what I asked but the teller never said the word no. It was impressive.

the point is, the only thing customer support is supposed to do is support the customer, not treat us like nuisances. Getting upset never works. If you aren't getting the response you want, ask for the next person up the food chain. I did that and didn't like the response I got so decided to start at the top and work my way down. I'm not sure if it matters much as the phone will be delivered when it is delivered but the two women who strayed from the meaning of support will learn, again, what not to say to a customer. fortunately, they won't get terminated. I'd hate for that to happen. Especially with the need to hire a replacement for the dead employee.

For the record, the woman I was dealing with did not find much humor in my request for a mailing address so I could send flowers.

reply to post by Crakeur


Thanks for the words of advice, even if at the expense of your bad experience.
Iam about to tackle a cell phone company over the massive overcharge on a bill mailed to my son.
They have refused to even tell him what the charge is for, just demand that he pay it.
Holy hell or high water will they get one red cent more than he owes.
Wish me luck!

reply to post by Crakeur


I'm glad I could help.

I'm also glad a few of those numbers/e-mails still work. I wasn't smart enough to check and see how old that was. :shk:

I wouldn't stop now.... keep going, you can get a free phone out of this mess, and maybe some free service.

Go Crak, Go....

reply to post by elevatedone


let's see, the phone sells for $600 without a contract. Mine is an upgradeable deal with a rebate, bringing the cost down to $150 and they gave me a $100 credit on my account so it's costing me $50. hardly worth fighting for more.

I will need to get the docking station so it can rest comfortably on my desk but that's $30 before my vip discount (30%). again not worth the fight.

my original game plan was to abuse my position at ats by going on the mix and requesting the listeners call verizon and ask how the employee is doing or send flowers to his mourning coworkers.

I do think that might have created a bit of press for everyone involved if the listeners actually did it.

Sounds like a miserable experience but one most of us have experienced with one company or another. I have an account with AT&T and although we have had issues they were kind enough to eventually credit us with $600 due to my daughter going over our minutes. Don't even ask what happened to daughter, but she is still alive...barely.

Good luck getting the Blackberry, I have one (a Curve) and love it. The email is a breeze and all the options are great.

Wow and I thought Sprints customer service blew. They have used some crappy excuses to rape me in the mouth but man never used DEATH! After hearing this I think Ill be glad getting gouged by Sprint. BTW is there really any good cell phone company out there? I havent found one yet.

reply to post by mybigunit


other than this fiasco, verizon wireless has been rather good. Truth is, they've constantly replaced my p.o.s. treo and given me upgrades before it was allowed. never, ever had a problem and the only time I've ever had a reception issue (other than in elevators and subways) was at gililand ranch. I did glean a bit of an issue from an AT&T wireless employee this summer. He told me that verizon wireless does have the fewest dead spots in the country but the downside to this is that the batteries on their phones are drained quicker. something to do with all the extra relay points or something.

This is what happens when the boat is overloaded with useless cargo.

It sinks.

I see no reason to have everything and the kitchen sink in a cell phone. Its all just useless junk that takes away people's brain ability and the ability to use the brain.

Cant remember when your appointment is?...Well what makes you think your going to remember to punch that in on your 300 buck phone!!

Cant find your way here or there? Well you should have learned and paid attention in grade school on how to read a map or ask for directions!

Cant wipe your behind after a visit to the restroom? Well...maybe someday your cell phone will help you with that too!!!!



Cheers!!!!



Mod Edit: Advertising removed. Please see Terms and Conditions of Use section 4) Advertising. Thank you - Jak



[edit on 26/11/08 by JAK]

OH MAN!!!!

I have been with Alltel for years and years and just found out they have been bought by.. Guess Who?

Correct: Verizon

So this is what I have to expect come Jan..

yet another update. the website said shipping no later than the 15th. then they cut that to the 8th. Yesterday I ordered the sync cradle from the local store and today an email came, giving me the tracking number for my phone. Monday delivery.

Oddly enough, the woman from the executive office never called.