Verizon Customer Service
540 Broad Street
Newark, NJ 07101

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in response to the poor service I received when I was a Verizon Wireless customer from September 2008-2009. For the first 8 or so months of service, the internet service was okay. There were some instances in which the internet was not working or extremely slow, but the issue was able to be resolved through a phone call to Technical Support. This 30-45 minute phone call was an inconvenience, but I was glad the issue was able to be resolved nonetheless.

From the period of July 3rd, 2009 to August 24th, 2009, a technician had to come to my home on four separate occasions to fix my internet. This occurred two weeks in a row, on July 3 and July 10th. On the second visit, the technician recommended that the internet speed be lowered from 7.1 Mbps to 3 Mbps. He said that the connectivity issue stemmed from the distance from Verizon’s server and my apartment and that lowering the speed would actually make the internet go faster. I called Verizon to make this change and was offered a lower monthly rate, but I would only get the lower monthly rate IF I signed another 12 month contract. I declined, saying that I had already experienced poor service and did not want to continue this service any longer than I already had to. This lower rate also irritated me, because when I had first signed up for service, the Verizon employee encouraged me to take the higher speed. Basically, Verizon had been profiting from selling me a higher speed at a higher price when I would have had better service if I would have taken the lower speed that presented less of a profit for Verizon. Furthermore, it was in my opinion that I be given this lower rate because my internet was at a lower speed and because of the many problems I have experienced.

My next internet service outage was from July 29 to August 2. I called Verizon Technical Support as soon as I was aware of the problem, but the problem was not fixed until 5 days later. They said that a technician would be sent Thursday afternoon, which I had to take off work to wait for. The technician never came and the issue was not resolved until the following Sunday. This created an extreme inconvenience, as relied on having internet access at my apartment. I did pay Verizon $35 a month to have to drive over to the public library to use the internet for 30 minutes between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

I also was without internet from August 21 to 24. I called on Friday when I became aware of the issue. They were not able fix the problem over the phone. The Support Technician said that they would be able to send out a technician on Monday. I requested a technician for Saturday, stating that I work full-time and could not take off work. The individual on the phone said that technicians do not work on Saturday. I told that they did indeed work on Saturdays, as one had come to my apartment on a Saturday. She said that one “might” be able to come on Saturday but that she could not guarantee this. I told that I wanted this issue addressed, especially considering that this was the 4th technician that had to come to my apartment in the past 8 weeks. My internet was not fixed until the following Monday.

While I was able to get a small service credit for the time I was without internet, this amount did not compare with the time and inconvenience caused by the lack of internet. Every time a technician had to be called, I had to take off of work. I should not have to take off the greater part of 4 days within 8 weeks because my internet is not working. Furthermore, each time I had to call technical support, the call was at least 45 minutes long (half of this time was spent on hold).

I also did not approve of Verizon’s billing practices. When I initially received the modem, these charges were taken out of my checking account. I did not realize that this automatically authorized Verizon to take the monthly bill out of my account automatically every month. I never signed anything giving Verizon the authority to do so. The first month I had service, I called to request a paper bill. The only bill at that time was an e-mail that I received the day the money was taken out of my account. Even though I requested a paper bill and an e-mail with earlier notice of the billing, I did not receive either. The only paper communication I ever received from Verizon my very last bill stating that my balance was zero.

When I had signed up for internet service, I understood it was a 12 month contract. Ironically, Verizon told me I had to call right before my 12 month service was up to end my service. I also asked for a letter stating that my service with Verizon had ended. She stated that Verizon does not provide paper billing and could only provide me with a confirmation number. Furthermore, when I called to end my service, the woman asked why I was discontinuing my service and tried to discourage me from ending my internet service (even after I explained to her that I had to have a technician come to my apartment four times in eight weeks). This is just another example of Verizon’s aggressive business tactics.

I was very glad once my 12 months of service with Verizon ended. In all of my life I have never experienced such poor internet and customer service. Through my experience I became very aware of Verizon’s prime focus on profit margins and lack of focus on providing quality internet and customer service. I will never again use Verizon internet and will be spreading the message to everyone I know, including the Better Business Bureau and other consumer advocacy groups. I urge you to reconsider the way you treat your customers and the “quality” of service you provide.

Sincerely,


Melissa D.

Signed up for service and received the modem very rapidly, but internet, naturally, didn't work. Contacted Verizon and they insisted I spend 12 hours in my apartment during the week to have a service technician come and fix my internet. After two hours of talking to "customer service" representatives, I finally found one willing to set up an appointment for Saturday (I'm a professional student who is in class from 8AM-5PM every day). Got a call the next day asking me to confirm an appointment for FRIDAY! I figured it was an honest mistake, and spent another two hours to set it up again for Saturday, which was subsequently confirmed by two different departments AND Verizon's automated service an appointment for Saturday (they were to show up some time from 8AM to 8PM). I waited until 5PM Friday, but having not heard anything, I called Verizon to make sure they were still coming. Some idiot had decided to CANCEL my appoint, but DIDN'T CALL ME! Absolutely ridiculous! I tried to speak to managers and was hung up on TWICE by two different customer service representatives (I was polite to everyone, because it's not the call-center person's problem). Finally got to talk to a manager on my third try, who told me that I'd have to skip classes to have someone show up, since no one could help on weekends. I asked to cancel at which he said I'd have to call back and talk to the cancellation department. HE REFUSED. When I insisted he find someone who could cancel my contract, he put me on hold for fifteen minutes before transferring me to the WRONG DEPARTMENT. By the time all of this was done (over two hours), the department to cancel was closed and I was told to call in on Monday. Needless to say, save yourself the trouble. All along, there's the "I don't have that number, " "I can't call that person, " "That isn't my department, " etc etc etc excuses. Save yourself the hassle - boycott Verizon... I will never use ANY of their services again.