I've been dealing with Verizon Business for years, and knowing most of the tricks in their book, I've started recording all calls to and from them as they simply lie and try to charge you for services you never asked for, and agreements you never agreed to.
My latest order with them is just another example of the never ending headaches involved when dealing with these crooks. As everything is sold in bundles or packages, I ordered 3 phone lines, 1 with DSL on it, and a few other services for discounted international calling and such. I needed a static IP which bumped the price of a 7mb line up $50 or so, so I took the lowest package available with a static IP which is 5mb. She tells me the price will be locked in for 2 years with no increase. Great. She then comes back and quickly reviews what I agreed to, adding that I agreed to a 2 year commitment. Nope.. no I didn't. "Oh, OK. Then the price will be $5 more each month." Fine. This was actually the first time they even mentioned the 2 year agreement. They usually just tell you about it when you call to terminate the service, which involves more wasted time convincing them to take their early termination fees and shoving them where the sun don't shine. That's a major reason in my recording all calls with them now.
Fast forward a few weeks, almost 2 weeks after the scheduled install date for the DSL service (i.e. a tech showing up with a modem, plugging it in, and running a basic test, and giving us the IP's), I finally grabbed a spare DSL modem and headed to the site to get this up and running myself. 2 days later and 5 hours on the phone with different people in India and I have service... 1.5mb/s. Another 3 hours on the phone with a few people in India and I now have 3mb/s. I was told their provisioning system only shows an order for 3mb/s, but the sales system has an order for 5mb/s, but they would figure it out and get things running.
Call in to Verizon a week later as nothing was done, and I was being told that the previous people were wrong and the switch doesn't support 5mb, only 3 and 7.
Lifted: "So why do you sell 5 if you can't offer it?".
VZ: "It's just something with that switch, but we can offer you 7mb for $50 more on a 2 year contract, or you can keep paying for 5mb and you'll continue to receive 3mb."
Lifted: "Why 2 years? I'm paying $10 more each month now as I'm on a month-to-month plan."
VZ: "No you're not. It says here you have a 2 year contract."
I give up at this point, after a total of 10 or 15 hours on the phone with these people over getting DSL service up and running, and tell them I'll just contact the sales rep I was emailing while placing the order (I think they are sales reps actually, as they're always pushing you to buy more... even tech support).
The email to the sales rep asking her what's going on with our service, and why I was told records show a 2 year agreement, has gone unanswered for a week now. She was responding to me within minutes while getting the order placed. And now? Silence.
We use consultants for dealing with Verizon on larger projects as you need a degree in red tape to get these accomplished in under a year, but for these smaller orders we work with them directly and it's always a complete nightmare. Has anyone here had any different experience working directly with Verizon Business, or know any tricks to avoiding the endless incompetence and "we won't help you, but we'll gladly take even more of your money each month" attitude?
My latest order with them is just another example of the never ending headaches involved when dealing with these crooks. As everything is sold in bundles or packages, I ordered 3 phone lines, 1 with DSL on it, and a few other services for discounted international calling and such. I needed a static IP which bumped the price of a 7mb line up $50 or so, so I took the lowest package available with a static IP which is 5mb. She tells me the price will be locked in for 2 years with no increase. Great. She then comes back and quickly reviews what I agreed to, adding that I agreed to a 2 year commitment. Nope.. no I didn't. "Oh, OK. Then the price will be $5 more each month." Fine. This was actually the first time they even mentioned the 2 year agreement. They usually just tell you about it when you call to terminate the service, which involves more wasted time convincing them to take their early termination fees and shoving them where the sun don't shine. That's a major reason in my recording all calls with them now.
Fast forward a few weeks, almost 2 weeks after the scheduled install date for the DSL service (i.e. a tech showing up with a modem, plugging it in, and running a basic test, and giving us the IP's), I finally grabbed a spare DSL modem and headed to the site to get this up and running myself. 2 days later and 5 hours on the phone with different people in India and I have service... 1.5mb/s. Another 3 hours on the phone with a few people in India and I now have 3mb/s. I was told their provisioning system only shows an order for 3mb/s, but the sales system has an order for 5mb/s, but they would figure it out and get things running.
Call in to Verizon a week later as nothing was done, and I was being told that the previous people were wrong and the switch doesn't support 5mb, only 3 and 7.
Lifted: "So why do you sell 5 if you can't offer it?".
VZ: "It's just something with that switch, but we can offer you 7mb for $50 more on a 2 year contract, or you can keep paying for 5mb and you'll continue to receive 3mb."
Lifted: "Why 2 years? I'm paying $10 more each month now as I'm on a month-to-month plan."
VZ: "No you're not. It says here you have a 2 year contract."
I give up at this point, after a total of 10 or 15 hours on the phone with these people over getting DSL service up and running, and tell them I'll just contact the sales rep I was emailing while placing the order (I think they are sales reps actually, as they're always pushing you to buy more... even tech support).
The email to the sales rep asking her what's going on with our service, and why I was told records show a 2 year agreement, has gone unanswered for a week now. She was responding to me within minutes while getting the order placed. And now? Silence.
We use consultants for dealing with Verizon on larger projects as you need a degree in red tape to get these accomplished in under a year, but for these smaller orders we work with them directly and it's always a complete nightmare. Has anyone here had any different experience working directly with Verizon Business, or know any tricks to avoiding the endless incompetence and "we won't help you, but we'll gladly take even more of your money each month" attitude?
Facebook
Twitter