Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Verizon Freedom Haunts Me Again*
*Side note--> the use of the word "haunts" is appropriate because tracking real-time sales metrics for this package was actually one of my last responsibilities at VZ and I remember having to do a manual workaround for two weeks, updating the site every thirty minutes for 12 hours a day until the second part of the process was ironed out. Ugh, not an experience I'd want to repeat.
My ex-company has pissed me off yet again! Last Thursday I ordered the Verizon Freedom (unlimited ld) package, something I was ineligible for as an employee. This was spurred by the loss of my concession benefits and the tripling of my phone bill!! Ugh. Living in ruralia can really suck sometimes, we are not eligible for DSL, so we need two phone lines for our trusty dial-up service. And since my cell phone doesn't work at home, i really needed another alternative to have a lower long distance bill. The order was supposed to complete on April 9th, the next day and I was assured that I would know of the switch because I could type '00' on my telephone and I would hear a verizon message. Well, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday it STILL said MCI. So I called customer service and explained that it still told me MCI even though the order was listed as completed. I explained that when I had called Thursday they remarked that my account was already flagged with VZ service even though I had been using MCI for over a year, so I had a feeling that they never even worked/verified that part of the order. I was willing to bet money. She said she didn't think that was the case and that there was probably just some delay with the "automated system". She said "you know how those automated systems can be...." like she would say to some 80 year old customer that blames every problem in the world on this black whole blanketly labeled "automated systems." ...as if I didn't work at this place for 6.5 years and see the screwups day in and day out... She assured me that they would reimburse for any calls billed by MCI if there was some kind of error.
Well, I really like to avoid trying to get reimbursed for things. I am not a good money collector. I would rather just not pay out in the first place, it's easier that way. So I didn't make any long distance calls for 6 days. Today, I called again and explained the same scenario that I did on Monday, but this time was transferred to a repair person. After about 20 minutes on the phone waiting, the repair rep did a quick check and sure enough the order never switched me to VZ - it was still on MCI. She switched it in less than a minute. Less than a minute would have saved me 6 days of inconvenience, three phone calls and customer dissatisfaction. And if i had made calls it would have saved me endless time trying to get reimbursed for what would have amounted to a few dollars, but it's the principle, dammit. :-)
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*Side note--> the use of the word "haunts" is appropriate because tracking real-time sales metrics for this package was actually one of my last responsibilities at VZ and I remember having to do a manual workaround for two weeks, updating the site every thirty minutes for 12 hours a day until the second part of the process was ironed out. Ugh, not an experience I'd want to repeat.
My ex-company has pissed me off yet again! Last Thursday I ordered the Verizon Freedom (unlimited ld) package, something I was ineligible for as an employee. This was spurred by the loss of my concession benefits and the tripling of my phone bill!! Ugh. Living in ruralia can really suck sometimes, we are not eligible for DSL, so we need two phone lines for our trusty dial-up service. And since my cell phone doesn't work at home, i really needed another alternative to have a lower long distance bill. The order was supposed to complete on April 9th, the next day and I was assured that I would know of the switch because I could type '00' on my telephone and I would hear a verizon message. Well, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday it STILL said MCI. So I called customer service and explained that it still told me MCI even though the order was listed as completed. I explained that when I had called Thursday they remarked that my account was already flagged with VZ service even though I had been using MCI for over a year, so I had a feeling that they never even worked/verified that part of the order. I was willing to bet money. She said she didn't think that was the case and that there was probably just some delay with the "automated system". She said "you know how those automated systems can be...." like she would say to some 80 year old customer that blames every problem in the world on this black whole blanketly labeled "automated systems." ...as if I didn't work at this place for 6.5 years and see the screwups day in and day out... She assured me that they would reimburse for any calls billed by MCI if there was some kind of error.
Well, I really like to avoid trying to get reimbursed for things. I am not a good money collector. I would rather just not pay out in the first place, it's easier that way. So I didn't make any long distance calls for 6 days. Today, I called again and explained the same scenario that I did on Monday, but this time was transferred to a repair person. After about 20 minutes on the phone waiting, the repair rep did a quick check and sure enough the order never switched me to VZ - it was still on MCI. She switched it in less than a minute. Less than a minute would have saved me 6 days of inconvenience, three phone calls and customer dissatisfaction. And if i had made calls it would have saved me endless time trying to get reimbursed for what would have amounted to a few dollars, but it's the principle, dammit. :-)
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