stupid Verizon customer service tricks

[jrtom]

fdmts, this one's for you.



(I've left out the original email, but it should be clear from context what was being discussed.)

On 10 Jan 2006, at 14:20, VZW Customer Service SW wrote:

I thank you for your suggestion regarding the blank pages. The pages are used to clearly separate sections of the bill and to avoid confusion that may occur if the sections were not separated. I apologize for any inconvenience the additional pages may cause.

Verizon is the only organization that I have ever encountered that considers the section separation to be a problem (including carriers that put both long distance and wireless billing on the same bill). The separation seems clear enough to me without requiring blank pages.

Regarding the missing text on page two of the bill, it appears the text in question is the last letter of a few words of text. If you are unable to discern a word due to the missing letter, simply use the text function in your PDF reader to copy the page two text and copy it to a word processor document. The full text is there, it is simply covered by the page border and/or scroll bar function.

This does work in some PDF readers, although not all of them. (It is not related to the scroll bar position, although it's a good guess that when the PDF was generated, the margins were set incorrectly with respect to the page size.)

However, I consider it odd that in your previous paragraph you stated that Verizon was going so far as to place multiple blank pages so as to make your bills more clear...and yet when I bring up an issue in which there the current document creation process has an easily correctable bug which results in reduced clarity, your response is to suggest that I work around it, rather than suggesting that Verizon will fix the problem.

I would not characterize your response as being customer-service-oriented.

Finally, you can rest assured the 'Usage Type' field is properly identifying all call usage types. Call Forwarding coverers a much broader range than simply forwarding your number to another number. Call Forwarding is involved in voicemail calls, incoming calls, and out of area calls. I apologize for any confusion, however there is nothing to worry about with the 'F' rated calls.

This may be partially true, although it is certainly the case that not all voicemail-related, or incoming, calls have the 'F' tag. Nevertheless, it simply confirms my assertion that using the phrase "Call Forwarding"--which is also used to describe a specific service provided by Verizon as well as other carriers--for this purpose is a bad idea: it's confusing and misleading. The best evidence that I have for this may be had by listening to the recording of my customer service call from yesterday, in which I attempted to get an answer to this question; it took about 10-15 minutes for a Verizon employee, in consultation with a colleague, to come up with the _wrong answer_ (assuming that your answer is correct).

In short, if Verizon customer service employees can't even figure this out, it's a bad idea to use this convention. I don't imagine that it would be hard to come up with an appropriate non-conflicting phrase.

Comments

VIAC!

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

Let me know if that gets a better response (which would equate to "any" response) than my usual approach: scream and leap.

Re: VIAC!

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

"...I found your challenge verbose. In challenging a kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap."

*grin*

(My problem is that I can't fit my shoulders through the phone, otherwise I might try your technique. I suppose I could just find a local Verizon shop and scream at/leap on them, but somehow that seems unsporting.)

Re: VIAC!

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

I suppose I could just find a local Verizon shop and scream at/leap on them, but somehow that seems unsporting.

"Your brethren have offended me, and I take your blood in their place. Defend yourself."

You might be surprised though. I recently went to a Verizon store armed for the proverbial bear, and walked away with all my questions answered, all my issues resolved, and a new phone to boot.

Re: VIAC!

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I agree that for the kinds of issues that can be solved by a single customer service employee, going to a Verizon store and talking face-to-face is often best; I do remember that recent story of yours.

The customer service folks in the stores and on the phone can't actually fix this kind of thing, though; all they can do is forward my request up the line...and I don't think that they'd be better listened to than I, or as good at expressing my points. So in terms of results, this is probably my best shot.

Re: VIAC!

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

FYI, this is the response I just got:

Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless through our website. I apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused you. My name is Rosalba, and I am happy to assist you.

I appreciate your taking the time to let us know your comments and suggestions.

Verizon Wireless is always looking for ways to enhance our way of doing business to better meet the needs of our customers. Your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate department for review and consideration. Your feedback provides us with the perfect opportunity to hear exactly what you think, and often leads to improvements you will see in the future.

We appreciate your business. Thank you for using Verizon Wireless products and services.

Sincerely,

Yeah. Uh-huh. That is to say, "I got tagged to respond to your email, but I don't want to give you the impression that I've actually read it or anything. And, you know, don't get too excited--just because Verizon employs people that can cut-and-paste platitudes doesn't necessarily mean that we plan to go so far as to fix the problems you pointed out."

"We never stop working for you!"

Quite possibly because you never _started_.

Re: VIAC!

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

Rosalba

Oh come on ... she just made up a name there.

Fine. Google says that it's a common name throughout the world ... but I would have had more faith in it if she had said "Hi I'm Jenny!"

Re: VIAC!

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I would have seen it the other way around, had I thought to consider the possibility of a fabricated name: "Jenny" is sufficiently common at this point that it seems a more likely fabrication. (I'm pretty sure I've seen the name Rosalba before.)

Anyway, why stop there--why assume that the respondent was female? ;)

Re: VIAC!

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

Anyway, why stop there--why assume that the respondent was female? ;)

Or human at all ...

DUM DUM DUM!

Apropo...

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

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