Compare this to my dealings with Verizon. I have cable, phone and
internet with them at my "summer" home (not VT). I called Verizon the
end of December to have the cable and phone put on vacation hold while
I'm at Sugarbush skiing.
Because I had serious problems with Verizon last year (January 2010)
when I attempted to put my services on vacation hold, and again when I
got home and tried to re-activate my services, I am on a first-name
basis with The President's Escalation Unit!
So, when I called Verizon in December 2010, it took about four days to
get anything done - three days their computers were down! I finally got
someone, but didn't trust that they would process the order correctly so
I called the PEU. They explained everything that was being done and
reassured me that it would be done properly.
So, I get to Sugarbush, try to log on to my e-mails - and was unable to -
message was to contact Tech Support. So after a one-half hour or so on
hold I was told that the day before someone at Verizon had issued a
disconnect order for all my services - including e-mails. After numerous
calls to the PEU, someone finally returned my call and said she was the
only one in the office because of a storm, and she couldn't do
anything. But it would definitely be taken care of the next day.
Next day, my main e-mail account was working but none of my
sub-accounts. Six days after my cable and phone were supposed to be on
vacation hold, Verizon had not done it. But they did manage to
de-activate all my sub-accounts - as if they had never existed - which
means I lost six days of e-mails on those accounts. After spending
another one-half hour or more on the phone with billing, they said I
needed to talk to Tech - another one-half hour or more and they were
able to find my sub-accounts - they had to disable and re-enable them.
Well, they fixed most of the accounts - except one. So today I spent
another one-half hour or more on the phone with Tech Support. They would
not give me the info I needed to get into the account until they talked
to my husband - whose name is on the account. So, nine days after I was
supposed to get a vacation hold, I have straightened out the mess they
made.
Then I decided I didn't want to "auto pay" my bill any more. I clicked
on the button to stop auto pay, and nothing happened. The Tech guy told
me to call Billing - of course, M-F, 9-5, which will take another
one-half hour or more.
Since January 3, I've left eight messages, spoken to eight people,
couldn't get through four times, not my job three times, received seven
e-mails from them.
Be glad we have personal, friendly, competent service in The Valley and that you don't have to deal with Verizon.
Nancy Wilson lives in Warren and NYC.
