Verizon DSL Service

This is a letter that I sent to Verizon for their terrible customer service.

Verizon

P.O. Box 1100

Albany, NY 12250-0001

I placed an order on 9/5/06 to receive basic local service and wireless DSL service in my home. I made an appointment for a technician to come to my home on 9/22/06. I was given a window of time from 8:00am to 12:00pm. At 10:00am I called the office to verify that a tech was coming to my house and was given confirmation that someone would be coming out to my home.

At 12:00pm I called again to find out if someone was still coming out and was told that a technician was already out to my home and was told that I was not ready for him to proceed. I had not left my house since the previous evening and had not received a visit from a Verizon tech. I explained this to a customer service representative and was then told that someone would look into the situation and contact me with further information.

At 12:24 a representative called me back and I was told that the technician never came to the house, however did call me and stated that I changed the appointment with him to 9/26/06. I explained to her that I never received a call from anyone, which is why I called the office in the first place. The customer service rep kept questioning me as to whether I was sure I didn’t speak to anyone or if anyone in the house may have spoken to a technician. I answered her that I was the only one home and that I assured her I had not spoken to anyone.

I was then transferred to another department specifically for DSL, waited on hold for 26 minutes and then hung up. At 1:03pm I called 914-890-1550 and spoke to a supervisor named Ms. Brosnan (the spelling may be incorrect.) She explained to me that the reach number on my order was incorrect and that the number on the order was the one the technician called. After 22 minutes on the phone with her, she said that she would try to get in touch with the technician and call me back within 15 minutes. I never received a call back from her.

At 3:28pm I called again. This time the customer service rep told me what happen was the person who had taken my original order also took an order from someone else and wrote her reach number on my order. The technician spoke to this customer, did not verify that it was me, and allowed this customer to change my appointment. I was then transferred to Mr. Brown who is a manager at your company. Basically, he informed me that he could not have a technician come out to my house this afternoon because it was too late and that I could keep the appointment on 9/26/06 if I wanted. That he would try to see if he could send someone out on Monday but that it was unlikely he could do so. His attitude was very complacent. After about 20 minutes on the phone with him I asked him to cancel my order please and he did so. I then asked for an address to file a complaint.

Verizon made an error, clearly understandable. What I find hard to comprehend is the irresponsible and unresponsive actions to rectify this matter. Both supervisors should have taken the initiative to come up with a solution other than I have to accept an appointment on Verizon’s terms. The fact that I had to call back so many times is unacceptable. The first call I placed was right at noon – enough time to have a tech dispatched to come out to my house. However, there isn’t much of an option for me by the time the last call at 3:30pm was made. Mr. Brown should have had more compassion than he did. I believe the office closes around 4:30 – 5:00pm and I am sure that given it is a Friday afternoon; everyone is waiting for the weekend to begin. However, that should not mean that I should be treated less because Mr. Brown wants to go home. Further, instead of cancelling my order he should have taken steps to help remedy matter better than he did.

I understand that I am only one customer and that the service I was asking for was not large, monetarily speaking. Nevertheless, I feel that I should have been given a little more consideration with my situation and somehow your managers should have been able to correct the situation, other than me having to accept the appointment of someone else and give up another day of work to stay at home and hope that a technician would come out again. I am 8 &