Back story:
Let me preface this by saying I love Verizon. I've been a Verizon wireless customer for 8 and a half years, which is pretty damn long in the cell phone game. I remember I chose them because they were the only company that had coverage in the three areas of Northern California I was in commonly, and they had this sexy Samsung Flip phone.
And all my family is on ATT, but I always stuck with Verizon because they were good to me. They have, BY FAR, the best customer service of any large company I've ever dealt with (I just dealt with Logitech, and they were insanely good, but they're much smaller).
So that's how I'm coming in to this...8.5 years of happiness.
The story:
I get a really big cell phone bill. I figured it'd be bigger because I'd used a lot of minutes (almost to my quota) but I called and upgrade to a bigger plan, so no biggie (Verizon is nice enough to call you AND text you if you're coming up to your quota). So the nice lady on the phone got me my bigger plan (at a cost of $20 extra), and for the last 10 days of my cycle, didn't have to worry about minutes.
So I call to make sure this huge bill is for 2 months. The lady says, no, it's for one. I said, um, how could I have overages? I upgraded my plan. She then explains to me that what they did is instead of just giving me the bigger plan, they took my old plan, shortened it to a 20-day cycle (instead of 30), and then prorated the minutes I'd used (i.e. divided 450 minutes by 20). So I had one cycle with my normal minutes that was 20 days, and one that was 10 days that had 900 minutes. Or thereabouts.
The result? I incurred HUGE overages for that first cycle, because I'd used 425 of my 450 minutes (this is why I called in the first damn place). So for that 20 day cycle, I was "allowed" like 340 minutes, and I used 425.
Strangely enough, that's not my issue. I KNEW Verizon would fix it. So that's not the problem.
After the CSR told me this, I was a little nonplussed and a tad upset. I just didn't understand how Verizon could just decide that I only get 450 / 30 minutes "per day". If I want to use them all on day one, fine. All on day 30, fine. Who the hell were they to decide? And why did they brag about being able to switch your plan to avoid overages? I mean, I could have turned my phone off for 10 days (actually 7, a couple of the days were weekends) and not paid a cent. And I STILL had 25 minutes to play with for emergencies.
So I said to the CSR "Thats [effing -- using the real word] insane"
Note, I didn't say "YOU'RE effing insane", or "Eff you", or "You're effing stupid" or anything else aggressive or abusive.
She loses her shit. Starts telling me "Sir, I don't have to put up with that sort of language from you or anyone else"
I tell her, calmly, "Look, I know this isn't YOUR fault. YOu don't sit on the board at Verizon and make these decisions. But I'm upset. So transfer me to your manager, or to retentions [I'm in the process of switching to an iPhone family share plan on ATT. I'm the only Verizon holdout]." She says something, and I start telling her the story I told above -- about how much I love Verizon customer service, and how I've NEVER had a problem. I don't know how much of that story she heard.
Why?
Because she hung up on me.
THAT'S the issue.
I don't tolerate that from people I know, much less some stranger who exists to try and make MY life easier.
Could not BELIEVE she did that.
So, there's the question: How angry should I be?
(The epilogue is I called back, calmly talked to another CSR, explained to her everything, she told me the person who switched my plan upwards was retarded, didn't backdate it correctly, and "fixed" it. I put that in quotes because I got a credit, which isn't acceptable to me, because it's more than one month's bill and I don't know if I want to be a verizon customer for another 2 months after all of this BS. So now I have to go make them put it back on my credit card. And as an added bonus, they can back-date switches to bigger plans, but of course, they can't do that for switches to smaller plans. So I'm out the fee for 22 days of my "upgraded" plan. Which is like $16 for 450 minutes I'll never use. I'm only at 300 minutes this time. Ironically enough, the reason I used so many minutes LAST time was talking to....drum roll..LOGITECH TECH SUPPORT. And we've come full circle).
Cliffs:
1. Needed more minutes on my cell phone
2. Called, upgraded plan.
3. Got HUGE cell phone bill
4. CSR explained to me what happed
5. Dropped an F bomb, but not "at" the CSR
6. CSR HUNG UP ON ME
7. Called back, figured out it was all their fault in the first place
8. How angry should I be?
Let me preface this by saying I love Verizon. I've been a Verizon wireless customer for 8 and a half years, which is pretty damn long in the cell phone game. I remember I chose them because they were the only company that had coverage in the three areas of Northern California I was in commonly, and they had this sexy Samsung Flip phone.
And all my family is on ATT, but I always stuck with Verizon because they were good to me. They have, BY FAR, the best customer service of any large company I've ever dealt with (I just dealt with Logitech, and they were insanely good, but they're much smaller).
So that's how I'm coming in to this...8.5 years of happiness.
The story:
I get a really big cell phone bill. I figured it'd be bigger because I'd used a lot of minutes (almost to my quota) but I called and upgrade to a bigger plan, so no biggie (Verizon is nice enough to call you AND text you if you're coming up to your quota). So the nice lady on the phone got me my bigger plan (at a cost of $20 extra), and for the last 10 days of my cycle, didn't have to worry about minutes.
So I call to make sure this huge bill is for 2 months. The lady says, no, it's for one. I said, um, how could I have overages? I upgraded my plan. She then explains to me that what they did is instead of just giving me the bigger plan, they took my old plan, shortened it to a 20-day cycle (instead of 30), and then prorated the minutes I'd used (i.e. divided 450 minutes by 20). So I had one cycle with my normal minutes that was 20 days, and one that was 10 days that had 900 minutes. Or thereabouts.
The result? I incurred HUGE overages for that first cycle, because I'd used 425 of my 450 minutes (this is why I called in the first damn place). So for that 20 day cycle, I was "allowed" like 340 minutes, and I used 425.
Strangely enough, that's not my issue. I KNEW Verizon would fix it. So that's not the problem.
After the CSR told me this, I was a little nonplussed and a tad upset. I just didn't understand how Verizon could just decide that I only get 450 / 30 minutes "per day". If I want to use them all on day one, fine. All on day 30, fine. Who the hell were they to decide? And why did they brag about being able to switch your plan to avoid overages? I mean, I could have turned my phone off for 10 days (actually 7, a couple of the days were weekends) and not paid a cent. And I STILL had 25 minutes to play with for emergencies.
So I said to the CSR "Thats [effing -- using the real word] insane"
Note, I didn't say "YOU'RE effing insane", or "Eff you", or "You're effing stupid" or anything else aggressive or abusive.
She loses her shit. Starts telling me "Sir, I don't have to put up with that sort of language from you or anyone else"
I tell her, calmly, "Look, I know this isn't YOUR fault. YOu don't sit on the board at Verizon and make these decisions. But I'm upset. So transfer me to your manager, or to retentions [I'm in the process of switching to an iPhone family share plan on ATT. I'm the only Verizon holdout]." She says something, and I start telling her the story I told above -- about how much I love Verizon customer service, and how I've NEVER had a problem. I don't know how much of that story she heard.
Why?
Because she hung up on me.
THAT'S the issue.
I don't tolerate that from people I know, much less some stranger who exists to try and make MY life easier.
Could not BELIEVE she did that.
So, there's the question: How angry should I be?
(The epilogue is I called back, calmly talked to another CSR, explained to her everything, she told me the person who switched my plan upwards was retarded, didn't backdate it correctly, and "fixed" it. I put that in quotes because I got a credit, which isn't acceptable to me, because it's more than one month's bill and I don't know if I want to be a verizon customer for another 2 months after all of this BS. So now I have to go make them put it back on my credit card. And as an added bonus, they can back-date switches to bigger plans, but of course, they can't do that for switches to smaller plans. So I'm out the fee for 22 days of my "upgraded" plan. Which is like $16 for 450 minutes I'll never use. I'm only at 300 minutes this time. Ironically enough, the reason I used so many minutes LAST time was talking to....drum roll..LOGITECH TECH SUPPORT. And we've come full circle).
Cliffs:
1. Needed more minutes on my cell phone
2. Called, upgraded plan.
3. Got HUGE cell phone bill
4. CSR explained to me what happed
5. Dropped an F bomb, but not "at" the CSR
6. CSR HUNG UP ON ME
7. Called back, figured out it was all their fault in the first place
8. How angry should I be?
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