Verizon Online DSL / Tech. Support

Verizon Online DSL / Tech. Support

Melissa A. R

Rockland, Ma. 02370

March 14, 2005

To Whom It Concern, During the last week of February 2005, one of my telephone lines was disconnected due to non-payment, which also disconnected my Verizon DSL service. I called Verizon to pay the bill and get service restored. My telephone service was restored the same day and I was told that my DSL service would take 24-48hrs to be restored. After the 48hrs, my Verizon.net email accounts were working but my DSL connection through my modem did not. In addition, my webspace websites were missing. At this time, I called Verizon DSL Technical Support for help with this problem. The man I spoke to asked me what kind of modem and what kind of operating system I had, and asked what lights on the modem were working correctly. He also had me check the wiring to make sure they were connected correctly. I explained to him the situation of having the service shut off because of non-payment and that I did not think the problem was due to my modem or wiring. He checked to see if my account had been reactivated and he said that it was. He told me he did not know what the problem was and that someone would call me back from Verizon to make an appointment with me to come out and check my modem and wiring. The following evening a person from Verizon called me to set up the appointment for Friday, March 4, 2005. He asked me if I preferred the am or pm on that day. I told him that the am would be best so he made my appointment for 8am-12pm. On the day of the appointment, I waited until 12:30pm and no one showed up so I called Verizon. I spoke to a woman who told me that he was probably just running behind and to wait a little longer. I waited until 2:30pm and still no one had shown up, so I called Verizon again. I was told that it was not Verizon’s policy to make appointments from 8am-12pm and that my appointment was probably from 8am-5pm and to wait until then. At 5:30pm, still no one had shown up. I called Verizon again and was told something went wrong with my "ticket" and I would need to make another appointment. I told them I had just waited at home the entire day when initially I had thought I would only have to be home until 12pm and that missing another entire day from work to wait would be unacceptable. I asked if there was anything they could do to troubleshoot the problem over the phone because I did not think the problem was with my modem or wiring and they assured me there was not and I would have to make another appointment.

I asked for an appointment for the next day, Saturday, or for Sunday, but I was told that it is Verizon’s policy to wait 48 hours between appointments and that they could send someone out on Monday, March 7, 2005. I asked for reassurance that someone would definitely come this time and was told that they would. My appointment was then made for the 7th between 1pm-5pm, even though I had been previously told that it was not Verizon’s policy to make appointments between those times. On Sunday, March 6, 2005, I called tech. support to see if someone there would troubleshoot over the phone because I still did not think the problem was my modem or wiring and I did not want to wait until Monday and miss more time away from work. The woman I spoke to would not troubleshoot with me because she said I had a trouble ticket already open so I asked her to confirm my appointment for Monday 1pm-5pm. She told me that she had my appointment for 8am-12pm; I told her this was incorrect and she said she would make a note of it. On Monday March 7th, no one showed up for my 1pm-5pm appointment.

At 5:15, I called Verizon and spoke to Holly. I was told that they stop seeing appointments at 5pm and that no one was coming. I explained the entire situation to her and she apologized and told me there was nothing she could do except make me another appointment. I then asked to speak to a supervisor and he told me there was nothing they could do for me. At this point I told him I was extremely unhappy with the service I was getting from Tech. support and I did not know if another appointment was necessary as I might want to go with another provider and I did not know if I could, or wanted to, miss a 3rd day of work to be home for tech. support that may not show up. He offered to connect me with the cancellation dept. or to make me another appointment for Thursday, March 10, 2005. I again asked for troubleshooting over the phone because Thursday was 3 days away and I did not want to take off another day of work but was denied. I told him I had to think about what I wanted to do and would call back. On Tuesday the 8th, I called Verizon and made a third appointment for someone to come out on March 11th from 8am-5pm. On the 11th, a technician finally showed up. When he came in and checked my line he told me that the problem was not with my modem or wiring, it was that they did not reconnect me back into the service. He left at about 3:30pm and told me he would go back to the office and reconnect me and then call me in an hour to let me know I was reconnected. At about 6:30pm I received a called from a man named Justin to tell me that my service would not be reconnected for about a week to a week &#189 because they had to restart my service. I expressed my dissatisfaction and said that this was unacceptable. His response was "you were turned off because of non-payment". I told him I understood that but it is still unacceptable for me to have had to take off work for 3 days or to not receive phone calls from Verizon canceling any of the appointments they did not show up for.

I asked to speak to a supervisor numerous times but was not connected with one. I was offered one month free of DSL service, which hardly makes up for the money I would have made had I not had to stay at home for 3 days waiting for a support person to show up. Nor does it make up for the frustration I have had trying to deal with the Tech. support people. I believe if someone re-troubleshooted over the telephone with me on one of the many times I had asked, someone would have seen that the problem was not with my modem or wiring and my time would not have been wasted for 2 weeks. When I got off the phone with Justin I realized I had received a voice mail message just after Justin called, it was an automated message from Verizon stating that my DSL issue had been resolved and to contact Technical support for any future problems. Now today, Sunday, March 13, 2005 I tried to sign on to my Verizon email account, that had been previously working, and I am unable to sign on because my account has been deactivated. So now, not only can I not connect, I have no email or website service and this was not mentioned to me during my phone call with Justin. Up until this point, I was very happy with the Verizon DSL service and all that it comes with, webspace, multiple emails, etc. In the past, I had referred many family, friends, and business associates to Verizon for DSL service. I also have a separate business account with Verizon that includes 10+ telephone accounts, DSL and website services.

At this point, I do not know if it is safe to have my business depend on Verizon & its Tech. Support dept. if I were to have a problem with any of these other accounts because they cannot even handle one simple residential DSL account. It is my impression that the right hand there does not know what the left hand is doing, and that your Tech. Support Dept. is really just secretaries making appointments. I am completely appalled at the service I have received and I think Verizon should seriously re-evaluate its Technical Support Dept. And now I get a notice saying that I will have to pay more for Verizon DSL. I highly doubt that I am the only customer that has had to endure such bad customer service and I highly doubt that I am the only one who is not willing to pay more money for it. Sincerely,

Melissa A. R Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: Email User Consumer

Comment On This

COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE WEBSITE IS TO REACTIVATE YOUR VERIZON ACCOUNT AFTER YOU RESET YOUR MODEM!!. I have called once before and I spoke with a woman and she gave me this website to go to and all I had to do was click one simple "connect" button, but now that i've reset my modem again by accident; I can no longer remember the address.

Comment On This

I was a DSL Technician for Verizon for a year, and I feel your pain. A lot of idiots worked there, and I was constantly having to fix others mistakes.

The best thing to do always, is to immediately speak to a supervisor. If they refuse hang up and try again.

If that doesn't work- simply ask to cancel your service. The retention department can pull strings that I was never able to. Demand 3 months free DSL and you'll probaly get it.

Best advice though, just don't get Verizon. This coming from a verizon rep.