Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb - Consumerist Comments

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

thylacine222 — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:44:01 EDT

I once was able to get Microsoft to authenticate my Office install by acting like I was a grandmother and rambling about how my "precious son just loves to work with these new fangled computers" and how he installed them for me.

thylacine222

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Xkeeper — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:31:28 EDT

@Rectilinear Propagation: Nope, I came up with it myself at whatever odd hour in the morning I read this.

Though it could've always been inspired by something, who knows.

Xkeeper

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

ScramDiggyBooBoo — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:43:42 EDT

I've done something like this a lot with Microsoft. Whenever i use the same copy of XP on a computer, i just call them up and act retarded and tell them i dont know why the code on the bottom of my computer wont work, and then they are like, oh here, punch in this new key! Shablam! Registered legal copy of Windows. Gotta love them outsourced Indian guys!

ScramDiggyBooBoo

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Wasabe — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:22:50 EDT

It always helps when you can speak their language.

Wasabe

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

rickhamilton620 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:54:19 EDT

@Rectilinear Propagation: I so loved Daria, sniffle sniffle

rickhamilton620

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

MercuryPDX — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:32:26 EDT

@JustAGuy2: I always thought it was QED ("quod erat demonstrandum" = "which was to be demonstrated").

@BrockBrockman: Seconded.

MercuryPDX

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

magic8ball — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:16:12 EDT

@Major-General: Actually in French it would be "quoi." /language snob

magic8ball

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

ManiacDan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:22:13 EDT

Hey guys, Dan here (the original poster). Unfortunately I'm still set up for automatic bill payments through Verizon. I called twice more today and no one could figure out how they were charging me. The charges to my credit card don't show up on my account. My card gets billed $150, and the "account balance" on my account goes DOWN by $150, but there's nothing in the "payments" log. According to my bill, I am enrolled in "Verizon's Direct Payment Option," which seems to be the thing that's charging me, but that's not what they call their automatic bill paying service. That's either "One-Bill" or "automatic bill pay." No one seems to know what "Direct Payment Option" means. I'm going to cancel my credit card tomorrow I think, unless someone can tell me how to turn off "Direct Payment Option".

Also, Verizon's website takes more than 15 seconds to load between clicks. You'd think that the largest provider of high-speed internet service in the country would have a website that responds in normal amounts of time. It took me half an hour on the phone with the CSR just to pull up all my bills for the last 3 months.

ManiacDan

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

BrockBrockman — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:30:22 EDT

Just a note - it only works to play dumb when it's only playing. Actually being dumb doesn't work the same way. So, being dumb won't get you as far in life as playing dumb when, in fact, you are not dumb.

BrockBrockman

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

warf0x0r — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:24:03 EDT

LMAO!

warf0x0r

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

b612markt — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:27:41 EDT

Whenever I have a questionable return to make, know I'm going to exceed the bounds of their policies or ask too much of customer service, I ALWAYS play dumb and super nice. It always, without fail, works.

b612markt

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Major-General — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:37:05 EDT

@JustAGuy2: Actually, it's quam: Latin, 1st person, accusitive, singular for "what".

Grammatically speaking, quod may be a better choice. Or in French, simply qua.

/geek

Major-General

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

jaredutah — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:33:46 EDT

It seems more than just playing dumb, you have to make resolving your concern a profit center for the CSR. Now, obviously, just the fact that they are a Customer SERVICE Representative should be enough, but sadly, we all know how that go sometimes. In this case, the CSR who helped him probably gets paid by how many technical issues he/she can get resolved in a time period. The former CSR's maybe get paid by how many customers they can string up and hang out to dry. Who knows, maybe the CSR who helped in the end really cares about their job. Unfortunately in today's world, you have to make it about "what's in it for me"...and then exploit that.

jaredutah

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Major-General — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:29:52 EDT

Sadly, it makes sense for Verizon.

Major-General

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

mtaylor924 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:12:44 EDT

@Buran: It seems like often enough, there are stories on Consumerist that knock Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Dish Network, and all the other providers out there. In a majority of locations, there is usually only one traditional phone company (Verizon, AT&T, etc), and one traditional cable company (Comcast, TW, Cablevision, etc.) to choose from - at least everywhere I have lived in the past 5 years. Recently, they started offering competing products (FIOS TV and internet, cable phones, etc) - but they still basically have pseudo-monopolies over their method of distribution (phone lines, coax cable, etc).

If someone wants to watch anything on TV beside OTA channels, or wants a home phone, or wants internet access - they have to do business with at least one of these companies. People *have* to give these companies money to get the services they want.

Unfortunately, it seems that voting with your dollars won't work anymore. These companies no longer strive to provide great customer service. They basically just have to keep from screwing up too badly so the government won't step in - and with all their lobbying money, it would take a lot more than what we see on the Consumerist for the government to do anything useful for the little people.

mtaylor924

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

JustAGuy2 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:01:46 EDT

FYI, it's "true QAM," not "quam."

QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

/nerd

JustAGuy2

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Rectilinear Propagation — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:54:30 EDT

@Xkeeper: Is that a song lyric? If it isn't it should be and it should be in the theme song for "Sick, Sad World".

Rectilinear Propagation

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Buran — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:42:34 EDT

I still can't understand why people willingly give Verizon money -- especially people on sites like this one who are constantly exposed to Verizon stupidity stories.

Buran

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

karmaghost — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:39:31 EDT

@mdkiff: Exactly what I was thinking. I'm glad he was able to get his account access back, but I'm a little pissed (at Verizon) that he was able to do it in this way.

karmaghost

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Toof_75_75 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:28:02 EDT

@ShadowArmor:

HAHA Awesome!

Toof_75_75

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Xkeeper — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:24:41 EDT

You know you live in a fucked up world when being smart tells you to be dumb.

Xkeeper

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Leia Oragan Solo — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:19:49 EDT

@mdkiff: wow, I didn't even think about that. Good thing I don't have Verizon.

Leia Oragan Solo

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

swalve — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:18:28 EDT

Heckuva job, Brownie!

swalve

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Leia Oragan Solo — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:18:27 EDT

It's so stupid that you should have to even put up with asshole CSRs like this. Fucking do your job!

Congrats though on finally getting the info that you needed subby, even if you had to work your ass off to get it.

Leia Oragan Solo

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

mdkiff — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:10:04 EDT

Good to know that all he needed was an address to get them to give him complete access to his account. That isn't a security problem or anything...

mdkiff

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

Rectilinear Propagation — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:08:47 EDT

Quam?

Was he able to stop them from charging that credit card once he was able to view his account?

Rectilinear Propagation

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

ShadowArmor — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:06:02 EDT

Someone once told me that he was able to get tech support to give him free help by telling them that the cup holder on the front of his computer wasn't strong enough to hold his cup.

ShadowArmor

Man Fixes Unfixable FiOs Account Error By Playing Dumb

technotica — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:02:43 EDT

Hah I love it. Pretending to be dumb and affable will always get you places.

technotica