Unbelievable! "We don't have a repair number" Verizon tells me!

[mreilly]

My company has a couple of different branches, one of which has a dead phone line. Unfortunately, Verizon is our phone provider - not to mention a provider of ulcers, headaches, and frustration. So I called the business repair line we had for them and repeatedly got an nonsensical error ("If you'd like to make a call, dial...") I took a deep breath and checked their website, wanting nothing but to find the right phone number to call for business repair.

Anyone who has investigated the Verizon site looking for contact information can attest as to what a disaster it is. The website is constructed to provide lots and lots of sales/product information to get you to be a customer, but absolutely nothing of value if you are already in the cesspool and need assistance from Verizon. After wading down numerous dead ends I concluded that it was impossible to get the repair number from the malfunctioning Verizon site (script errors when running certain functions to indicate my location, for instance - what a quality site!)

So in desperation I grabbed any number I could find from the website, called it, sat on hold and told the attendant I needed to talk to business repair for a voice line. He transferred me to another department, and I asked for the telephone number to call for business repair. The guy on the other end literally told me there was no such phone number; it didn't exist. After a few seconds of stunned silence I said "So, what do I do when my business phone line needs fixing? Pray?" An argument ensued, and he grabbed the first number he could to get rid of me (a Verizon DSL repair number several states away). I called them, they transferred me to the repair number for my state, I sat on hold fifteen minutes then they told me "That isn't our phone number, sorry. Some other company handles it but we don't know who."

This is not the first outrage I've seen from Verizon; I once had a problem on my home phone line whereby calls kept randomly disconnecting. I called up home repair, they came out and "found nothing wrong" (the problem stopped right after that) and then tried to charge me $80 for the repair visit, claiming that since there was no problem I had to cough up a visitation fee. I told them I wasn't paying a cent, period, and they backed down saying "We'll waive the fee just this once." My impression was they had a policy of huckstering people to see if they would take it, for if so Verizon would be ahead eighty bucks.

The reason Verizon gets away with this garbage is because they are a monopoly and they can thumb their nose at their customers. If we let businesses do whatever the hell they want after stomping out all the competition, they will all be like this - this is the world the "anti-regulation" Republicans want us to live in; one in which the corporations call the shots and the customer suffers.

[ShaneGR]

1. Note to mreilly, Verizon repair workers are on STRIKE

Seriously, effective 12AM Monday.

[mreilly]

3. Yup, I'm aware of that

This could be part of the scheme; make service even worse than usual so the public will start rumbling for Verizon to make concessions...

[BlueJazz]

2. How right you are...

...I got "verizon broadband" a few months ago and had some problems with it.
After spending a disgusting amount of time trying to find some sort of help on their website I finally gave up.
They also gave me an E-mail box and a few other things that even after 3 months, haven't the slightest idea how to get to it!
Their webmaster (or whoever) needs to go back to school.

Oh, almost forgot....They did give me an URL to see what my billing info is and what it would be each month....It hasn't worked ONE time in 3 months...AAAGGGG!!

[Sven77]

4. my phone line is down for 2 weeks

i just went to there (verizon.com) website and then to customer service. typed in the phone # and the 3 digits on the bill. they will have a rep come to the house in 3 days supposedly. good luck getting them on the phone its impossible, also the verizon strike has been postponed so get those repairs done quick.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi Sven77!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mitchtv]

go CWA

.

[mitchtv]

5. go CWA

.

[HungryLoser]

6. Sounds like same type of quality service from COMCAST...

.. They're Chicago's ONLY cable TV and internet provider in the area. When they swallowed up ATT Broadband my service went down and my bill went up. When they first took it over I didn't recieve a statement of changes that they were required to provide, I also didn't recieve a bill for 2 months.
When I called they said it was in the mail.. I waited .. waited some more. Called again.. still in the mail (they were updating their system). Finally I recieved a notice in the mail telling me they were turning off my service... and my bill went up from $45 a month to $65?! (No notice of a rate hike?!) plus two months late fee. :-0
I called them again to ask why the screw up and lack of notice of an increase. After playing phone-tag.. and a consideable wait between tags, the call-center operator told me.. my mail-carrier lost it! That made as much sense as telling me the dog ate it! (I know my mail carrier by name.. good hard-working guy)
When I talked to the supervisor it told her what the operator told me and she actually laughed! Then she addmitted Comcast screwed up and would take the late fees off, that's all she could do.
That week I canceled my service, I now have no cable TV, but I'm too angry to give in to them. I now use dial-up internet, slow but really cheap, works fine for me as I'm the patient type.
This is all probably my own fault because I won't pay my bills on-line