Just when you think stress will bypass you – bam. There it is in the form of an unexpected, weird little thing. Mine’s called Verizon.
More than 3 years ago I added a little feature called Distinctive Ring to my service. That’s my separate number for my fax machine. I got a note from a client yesterday saying he tried several times to fax an agreement to me with no luck. I called Verizon. I knew before I called, but it’s just fun to listen to them try to explain what happened –
After a five-minute wait, Anna gets on the phone.
Me: Hi, Anna. I’m calling because I have a distinctive ring service on my account, but a client just called and said he couldn’t reach my fax number.
Anna: Hmmm. That’s strange. Let me look into it.
She typed around for a few minutes.
Anna: It seems you haven’t had it since August when you upgraded to our bundled service.
Me: That’s weird. Why would that be taken off?
Anna: Yes, it is. I really don’t know why. But let me put that back on for you. (Anna’s a rare Verizon employee – she doesn’t try making excuses or guessing her way through it – she sees the problem, admits to her own limitations, and moves to correct it)
Type, type, type she goes. Then the typing stops.
Anna: I apologize. Our systems are still down. (This is disturbing on so many levels. Here’s my phone company, cable company, and Internet provider and they can’t keep their own system running.) However, we’re open until 8 p.m. Let me make a note in your file exactly what you want so when you call back you won’t have to explain it again. (wanna bet, Anna?)
Me: Thank you, Anna. I’ll call back later.
I waited 2 hours and tried again. Once I selected my way again through the menu choices, I sat on hold (and through an acoustic version of Through the Years, among others) for 11 minutes. Luckily, Carli is another star Verizon employee, for she managed to get my fax number back and explain why on earth the damned thing disappeared in the first place. “When we sell bundled services, your current package is replaced and you lose all your added services unless we notice and add them back on for you. It was our mistake for not catching that.”
AMEN. An honest employee who didn’t try to make it sound like I should’ve caught this on my bill ages ago and shame on me. She actually said, “I apologize” and fixed it.
This time, I stressed out for little reason, though I’m still ticked that it inconvenienced me at all. It’s so much nicer to receive customer service that actually helps you instead of service that makes you feel worn out from trying to get a straight answer. For that, I may actually forgive Verizon its past sins.
That is unusual. I decided not to bundle my three services with the same service, because I’m so unimpressed with both Verizon and Cablevision. And bundling won’t save me enough money to make it worthwhile.
It isn’t going to get any better at Verizon, I’m afraid. A friend of mine is an independent telecom consultant and helps small businesses get their systems up and running, etc. She is tearing her hair out this week because in recent months, Verizon keeps screwing up more and providing less and less service. She has to untangle all their messes for her clients, with no additional compensation. Apparently, Verizon is retiring all their experienced people to save money, and the new hires don’t know how to solve customer problems. It is so bad that my friend is thinking about getting out of the business altogether.