Verizon Customer Service Number Rings A Phone Sex Line
I'm currently on hold with Verizon regarding a rebate for my dad's business DSL account that he never received. While that's not notable in itself, what is notable is that the first number I called about this, which is currently listed on Verizon's website, led me to a phone sex line.
We called the number, naturally, and were offered another number to call. So we called that number. It was a phone sex service that offered us access to "horny students, housewives and working girls." Uhhhhh, no thanks. You can listen to a recording of our slightly NSFW call above.
I called that 866 number, and there was a 15 second recording about 'men and women chatting worldwide' that gave an 800 number and then hung up the call automatically. If you call the 800 number that's spoken by that recorded message, you are greeted as a 'sexy guy', and then the menu system proceeds to tell you about horny women that want to talk to you.I eventually hunted down a second 800 number on Verizon's website to call, which actually got me to Verizon support - however the rebate department, which I have been on hold for almost a half hour now to speak to, is not listed, and the tech rep whom I spoke to when the call was answered said that they do not give the number out, so they had to transfer me.
I guess if you didn't get your rebate from Verizon, the phone sex number is listed to help you cope with the $250 you won't be getting back?
UPDATE: One of our friends at Verizon writes in to let us know that the number has been corrected on their website.
"thanks to your post this morning, this issue was called to our attention. Sorry if anyone was offended. The correct number now appears at tithe link you provided. PS: the correct number is: 800-483-5000."
Broadband Rewards [Verizon]
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I'm usually greeted as a "sexy guy" when I call Verizon.
You aren't?
@myotheralt: Yeah, I seem to remember a previous thread about this. Too lazy to go search to prove myself right though.
I don't see what the difference between the two is. They're both f**king you over. With the phone-sex line, you might be luck enough to get a virtual reach-around, but that's about it.
@FLConsumer: Wow, that is exactly what I was going to say.
Verizon, Screwing You Figuratively AND Literally!
I for one welcome our new horny student overlords.
You are a naughty phone company. Well, $250 Naughtier more than most phone companies.
Didn't you call for the other kind of DSL?
I'm an a-typical Verizon customer, in that I always get straight through to a human when I call, and my issues are always dealt with quickly and without a lot of fuss.
This last time was hellish, though, with multiple disconnects, redirects, being asked to call another number (than what I was told to call IN THE LETTER THEY SENT), etc.
Next I got the sex line. Twice.
At least when I finally got through to someone who could help me, they were profusely apologetic about the runaround and the sex line detour. Then the CSR laughed and said "I can't believe I just said that." This was two weeks ago, so I'd assumed it was fixed by now.
I had a semi-similar problem with Comcast. They had increased their rates and sent out a letter saying what they were doing and why. But oddly they had 2 different 1-888 numbers on the letter. And NONE of those numbers worked. The letter even had 3 typos, and listed an email address as blah@comcastcom without the dot. It was like they didn't even want you to contact them. Anyways I sent out a scathing letter to their main office as I managed to track down the 'real' email of a person who would have been responsible for such mailings. I actually got a decent response back but I thought it was very very sloppy of them to send out an email with so many glaring errors on it.
What do you mean "No Thanks"?
I'm a cellphone salesperson at a Wal-Mart and I can tell you that it's not just the customer service numbers that have this issue.
When we need to make a call to AT&T for activations, credit checks, etc., the number starts with an 866 prefix. If you're not paying attention and dial 800 instead, you are greeted with some heavy breathing and moaning.
We had the same 800/866 problem here for a internal assist number. Some of our numbers were 800, and some were 866, so it was easy to confuse them and end up being asked for your credit card info to be talked dirty to.
Is there any guarantee that you will get LESS progress on your Verizon problem from the Sexy Guy Recording than from any actual level 1 Verizon Tech? I think either call will end in the same result, except you might actually enjoy speaking to sexy coeds and horny housewives.
1-800-ibm-help was the same thing was well.
I work for a regional cell phone company, and we had a similar problem, except that it was just people giving out the wrong number, or dialing incorrectly. Dial our 877 number, and you get us. Dial the same number, but with 888, instead of 877, and you get a sex line.
Haha.. it's gone :)
An perfect example of bate and switch... Bait and switch. Oh, never mind.
Similar issue last year -- called a toll-free number listed on one of BMW's sites only to be greeted by a very enthusiastic gentleman pitching a gay phone sex number. "Hey MAN!... Looking for a GOOD TIME...?" etc.
My thinking on the Verizon snafu is that they're hoping you'll be so distracted by the phone sex line you'll forget why you were calling Verizon.
Funnily enough, just about 5 minutes before I went to do my daily blog reading, I called a number on a piece of paper I had received from FIA Card Services, which holds my credit card account with B of A.
I had gotten my deposit check back from them a while ago, but when I inserted it into the automatic B of A check reader thing, it ripped it in half. So, I lost the piece of paper that told me who it was from and who to call for customer service, but found it last night.
Today, I called up the number on the paper from my work line and a sultry female voice tells me as sexily as possible that I should call such and such 800 number to have a fun time with live chat. I hung up quickly because it was on speaker phone. Hopefully no one except my office mate heard anything.
So I looked up a number for FIA Card Services online, and told them about it.
Well it's not as exciting as a sex line, but the number for Customer Support on the back of my Bank of America VISA does not go to BofA. It goes to some other company. Apparently BofA printed the wrong number on the entire run of cards.
I'd imagine FIA Credit Services, since that's what my B of A Visa uses. Just don't call the number on any letters they send you.
Maybe the rebates can be exchanged for beautiful women??
What's the difference between a sex line and a Verizon customer service line?
On one, you get the shaft; on the other, you just talk about it.
Yeah, they fixed this problem last year when I signed up (hi, I'm the 6-month-to-install guy you featured last April) and the phone sex number keeps popping up on the site every time they change content. It looks like the number is locked away in some source content somewhere and it keeps getting published out.
Yay Verizon!
I actually have had the opposite happen to me once. I work for a company that does car parts sales over the phone, and one guy who called in started giving me his credit card number right after I picked up. My response was "I'll just get that when we're finished." He paused, then asked what number he dialed. I receive calls from about 30 different numbers, so that didn't help.
A quick, yet painfully awkward exchange did help, however. When he realized I was not a phone sex operator, nor was I going to entertain him, he went to (presumably) double-check that number.
At least with the phone sex number there is a chance of satisfaction.
I thought Verizon had this problem about 6 months ago, and they had taken care of it then? Could it be that someone hacked (although I hear it wouldnt take leet skills these days) the site and put the number up as a joke?