<![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> Today I was shown how poorly trained Verizon DSL TSR were. I called to help diagnose a problem where my connection would go from 2mb to 120kb for no reason. After five minutes, it would shoot back up. Then it would go back down.

The first TSR was an exotic Middle Eastern accent in a very loud room. It took me a few times to understand what she wanted me to do. She told me to turn of anti-virus. The problems persisted. She concluded it was the anti-virus. I hung up.

The second TSR was better. Took time to run line checks, speed checks, and asked to check their speed test. At that point he was smart enough to conclude that it will be noted, but from information at hand it could be anything. He recommend running antivirus, antispyware, and other tools. This was not part of the script. The kicker... he was in Canada.

So call back, you may get lucky.

Oh. My problem still exists on an Apple Powerbook and Lenovo ThinkPad.

Alexander

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> I feel very lucky! I have used Verizon for DSL for two years, and it actually works most of the time. Five or six times, though, I have been unable to reach the internet, and then Verizon's awesomely incompetent technical support helps greatly to aggravate me. On 9 serious problem occasions Tech Support has helped me 4 times, usually after repeated calls and hours of trying useless analyses and changes in my settings. 5 times I've given up in disgust; in 2 of these times Linksys tech support has solved the problem, in one I spent $100 on a local techncian who eventually solved the problem, and in one I eventually solved it myself. Now I dread having to call 1-800-567-6789, knowing I'll probably connect to a tech with a delightfully exotic accent who has been trained like Pavlov's dogs to respond inflexibly and who cannot dare answer a question. The silver lining? My problem solving skills have made great strides!

EJMurphy414

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> Phone dies before contaact does.

I purchased a cell from Verizon in Mar, 2004. Battery dies in Oct, 2006. Verizon doesn't carry that phone anymore so can't come up with a new battery...only recourse is to purchase a new phone.I asked if it would be advisable to also purchase several extra batteries for new phone and was asked " why would you want to do that?"

rogerlvv

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> In defense of Verizon CSRs and TSRs (I was a TSR), a lot of them are very poorly trained in terms of technical knowledge. The trainers tell them outright that the tools they are given in order to troubleshoot the problem should handle everything end-to-end, but anyone with real technical abilities knows immediately that you can NEVER rely entirely on tools, scripts, and someone else's written walkthroughs to solve every problem. It requires real manual expertise in the field, or at least in dealing with Windows or Macs. I've seen some TSRs literally leave the center crying from not being able to intuit the solution to a problem, and only receiving beratement from both the customer and the Tier 3 technicians for their lack of knowledge.

The biggest problem with working in most of these outsourced centers is that the company that runs the call center is usually operating at cross purposes from the client, in that the client (In this case Verizon Online) wants top-notch customer service, attention to detail, retention, and TSRs that can solve every problem, which isn't really that tall of an order. The company that owns the center, however, wants the highest possible call turnover, because more calls equals more money they can charge on the contract to Verizon. More calls means that the average call time must be shorter, which means forcing the TSR to make shortcuts, excuses, and sometimes just outright BS the customer to end the call faster because their supervisor is leaning over their shoulder wondering why the call didn't end ten minutes ago. No wonder the poor girl in the Mac scenario sounded scared. She probably was about to lose her job. If anyone is wondering about anything else, I can field some other questions or provide comments.

soiltriad

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> You can add me to the list also. I work for a major homebuilder in Florida and was trying to get our DSL line repaired. Because I was not at the construction trailer where the service was down and the construction manager there rebooted the modem to try and get it up. Well first I spoke with a tech who would not send out a tech with me rebooting the modem again. So, I asked for his supervisor. After being put on hold for about 5 minutes, he came back on the line and said "I'm transferring you to Adam and he's going to tell you the same thing I did." And he was right, Adam refused to send out a tech until I got to the trailer which was 30 miles away. I asked for Adams supervisor and he told me that he answered to Lorin in HR and Lorin only had an internal line. He didn't have an outside line. HELLO!? You work for a phone company and your HR department has no outside lines? How stupid is that? I told him I did not appreciate being lied to and I was going to find out who he really answered to. So, I am going to send a copy of this post to Verizon executives and make some phones calls on Monday. Apparently the guys in the DSL department would rather have a power struggle with large business customers than provide them quality service and make sure customers get what they are paying for.

Gracie

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> I've heard similar problems with other DSL providers. I have cable and I've rarely had problems, and even when I did, they were aware of the problem and were already fixing it. I recommend cable to people even though it costs more. The additional cost includes a wider bandwidth.

Tim Thein

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> What's amazing is that Verizon spends lots of time trying to get people to switch from their DSL to Verizon. I use a reseller of Verizon DSL, and playing with my phone service is something of a stretch with the customer service people attempting to change my DSL service.

Moonshine Mike

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> Verizon should run with this. Educating CSR's is the EASY part. Getting CSR's to be friendly is HAAAARD. All they need to do is properly train them and they could be the shining star of telecom.

homerjay- Smiling politely

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> Add me to the list of people who've found Verizon's CSRs to be very nice, but very clueless. It's been a few years since I've dealt with them, but that was my impression at the time as well.

JLam4911

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> I have also noticed this about Verizon; friendly eager to please CSR's with almost no technical skill. The last time the DSL went out the woman on the phone was incredibly nice, but also incapable of any assistance outside the most basic troubleshooting. She kept saying, in a voice literally QUIVERING, "I...I..am..so..sorry, please bear with me....I never really trouble shoot macs..." And while the system was not really an issue here, and her admittance of ineptitude scared me, the fearful sound in her voice broke my heart.

gwai lo

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> I went through much the same process, ended up not only with NO DSL but since I refuse to do business with companies of this caliber I terminated (without penalty) my wife's and mine Verizon cell phone and switched to a different carrier for our landline. Bottom Line: Bad Customer service costs them $150 a month. I have a cable modem now that is faster, T-Mobile never drops my calls like Verizon did and our local service is way cheaper. I am happy it happened ... I am in a better place as a result. P.S. The best thing to do is share your story with everyone who is thinking of Verizopn DSL. I know I have cost them 7 customers.

minnock

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> Verizon makes me alternately insane and pleased. On the one hand, their customer service, though very friendly, is absolutely useless when it comes to fixing a problem. The last time my DSL went out, I spent two hours on the phone with them, and in the end I still had to fix the damn thing myself. On the other hand, the actual service is incredibly stable (especially when compared to cable; I think I've had one serious outage in the last two years, as opposed to my friends with Optimum Online, who lose their service for a day or two at least once a month), and it's a pretty good deal price-wise. Verizon DSL is, basically, the lesser evil.

44 in a Row

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> This person should be given some kind of award for being so patient. Never in my life would I have been able to say "gee, I'll just wait a day or two and *then* call and ask about it" so many times. Once, maybe twice, sure. But this? Insanity.
I wonder, had he been a jerk would they have fixed things faster or slower?

kerry

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> All I had to see was "Verizon" and "DSL" in the post header and my blood began to boil. I won't go into the specifics of my own tortuous, drawn-out ordeal with Verizon DSL about a year ago. A brief synopsis: DSL never worked, called cust. service a dozen times, they refused every time to send someone to my house to because they thought they could troubleshoot it over the phone. I finally cancelled my service without every actually using it; the day after I cancelled I get a call from a Verizon tech ready to stop by my house to see what the problem was.

Just thinking about makes me want to break something.

JackieTreehorn

]]> <![CDATA[Verizon Happy Happy Joy Joy DSL]]> I wish I had half as much patience as Scott. I'd be a much better person.

Verizon DSL is very strange to deal with. When I first signed up with them, I was moving into my first apartment and needed both DSL and telephone service, so I gave them my cell phone number in case they needed to contact me before installation. The setup etc actually went very well, but after about a month our DSL stopped working for no reason.

After going through several CSRs, it turned out that Verizon had decided to bill the DSL to my cell phone number (which was AT&T) instead of my new land-line that I had set up in conjunction with the internet. When the billing cycle ended and the number was found to be unbillable, my service got suspended without anyone ever contacting me. It was weird, but they gave me an extra month free to compensate.

Verizon reps in general are the most friendly ones I've encountered by far. I had a nice chat with a woman from Verizon wireless yesterday about text-messages-per-month records (30,000 in her experience).

jlou

]]>