Verizon

I've been debating about doing this post for a while now. But I just have to get my thoughts out about the way some customer service works. The one that is on my mind is Verizon.

We've been noticing for a while now that our phone has been staticy. The other weekend it was just way too bad, we didn't have a dial tone half the time. So I tried calling into them. Well I'm going to assume that they were all off on the day that I called, because all I could get was their automated system. It said that it tested the lines and that the problem was outside the house on their system. The best the system could do was tell me that it would be fixed by 715pm on Wednesday night.

So Wednesday came and the phone wasn't fixed, so we figured that would be the day the guy would be out. He was to call my cell phone to tell me he was here, and that he was working on it, and if it was fixed. Well, the next thing I know the phone just started ringing from a blocked number. When I would answer it they would hang up.

Eventually the guy from Verizon knocked on the door. He said that he tested everything outside, and that the problem was with the lines in the house. So he tested out main phone jack, and found that it was somewhere between the box outside, and the main jack. He also insisted that the main jack was wired wrong.

So the guy proceeds to rewire the main jack. Then he said he was going to have to track down the problem, and insisted to me that the line went thought the apartment below us. I knew he was wrong. I told him that if he went out and traced it he would see it runs under the siding.

After he does this he came back to tell me that he found a break in the line that wasn't fixed properly. So he said he would go back out and fix that, and then call me to see if the problem was fixed. So a few minutes later the phone rang, and i answered it, and it was the tech. He said the phone should be fixed, and since I didn't hear any static, I figured it was.

I didn't think to check all the other phone jacks in the apartment. A little while later the phone rang again, and I noticed that the caller ID didn't come up on our TV like it usually does. But I thought maybe it was just a problem with the satellite. So I checked the satellite setting, and everything seemed to be fine.

The next morning I got an error on the TV saying that if we didn't connect a phone line to our satellite receiver we would be charged a monthly fee. So that prompted me to check the phone jack, and what did i find? There was no dial tone. So I checked a few other things, and found that the living room phone jack wasn't working at all. So I called Verizon back.

I told them that if we didn't get the line connected that we would be charged a fee from our satellite provider. I explained that it was their tech's fault that it wasn't working. The lady argued with me that it wasn't an emergency, and didn't need fixed. I finally thought I had her convinced that it did need fixed that day, and she said the guy would be out between 8 and 5.

Even though I didn't want to sit around all day, I figured I had to. Well, I noticed that a Verizon van was across the street working on a house there. I hoped when he was done there he would come here. Well he never did. The day slowly ticked away, and he never showed up.

Well we gave him until exactly 5pm, and then Cathy called this time. What did we find out, the lady in the morning put it into the system as a next day fix, and the guy wouldn't be back out until Friday now. So Cathy argued with them, and tried to get them to come out that day yet, but they couldn't get a free tech to stop by.

So the lady assured us we would be person one or two on Friday, and that if we were second the guy would be here by 10am at the latest. So I had to sit home again on Friday. Well, 10am came and the guy still wasn't here. I had already figured I was only giving them to noon, and then calling to tell him to shove their service and shut it off.

Well at about 1045 the guy finally showed up. He took the jack about to see what was rewired, and looked kind of confused about it. Then he tested the line for our DSL modem and could only get a week signal, and asked to see the living room jack. I showed him that, and he tested there, and got a strong DSL signal. He then went back out to the main jack, and told me that the tech that was there two days ago wired it completely wrong, and he was ever surprised that we had DSL. So he rewired it, and was here and gone in less then 10 minutes.

The only good things that came out of it was the fact that we got a $25 credit for our troubles, and a credit for the week we were with out proper working service. I guess what really bugged me though was the fact that the first guy rewired the jack when it didn't need it, then the lady lied to me about someone coming to fix it that day. I just wish people would do their jobs right, and not lie to people...