When he placed the order back on Nov. 7th, he authorized Verizon to 'capture' his phone number that at the time had been through Vonage. Verizon captured his number, and was then informed by the installation team that the consumer had canceled the order for his phone service; if the porting had already occurred, wouldn't that cancellation actually be discontinuing his phone service that was now being provided by Verizon?

That having been said, Verizon did have an order from a customer that they acted upon despite the fact that the customer requested that the order be canceled.

LostTime

p.s. they can't find an order without any type of reference, trust me, I've dealt with their security policy and it's not fun. You actually have to prove to them you are who you are before they will give you any info, even if it's to tell you there is or is no order! Too much fraud; too much phishing, and too much social engineering for them NOT to be cautious.

I also have to agree with TMURPHY. For a communications company they themselves are very bad at communicating!

notyourmom

Ask them to install as quickly as possible. They seem to like to respond opposite to your will.

I have to wonder how communication companies can be so bad at, well, communication. While it is no surprise given the reality that has been present for years, it still makes no sense. They have me convinced they must use "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" to find their employees.

TMurphy

Stan LS

elf6c

darkclawsofchaos

FLConsumer

Buran

Thanks for the support.

mattmcl1

goller321

goller321

niteflytes

I did ignore their attempts to "contact" me. Those attempts were purely to get me to place ANOTHER order which I decided not to do at that time. They were not calling about my original order - and Verizon's own sales reps verified this while their Customer Service department was closed.

mattmcl1

chiieddy

My company-paid cellphone contract was up, and my IT department went about the business of replacing my phone with a new one. Accidentally, one of our IT guys, looking in the company directory, gave the Verizon Wireless rep my home phone number as the current cellphone number instead of the cell phone number I already had on the account, and they never verified that. I knew nothing about what was going on behind the scenes until my home phone went dead. I filed an online repair ticket with Verizon (landline) to report the outage; first they sent me back a reply that said 'sorry we can't help, but we're not your phone company!' (that bounced when I replied to it) and after some further gyrations someone from Verizon landline called me to say that I had authorized that number to be ported to a cellphone somewhere... whaaaat??

I figured out what happened when someone rang my original cellphone (which hadn't been deactivated yet), and told me they had dialed my home number, not my cell number. I talked to Verizon Wireless and they told me that they were powerless to port my home number back, that I'd have to go scream at Verizon (landline) to have them get it back for me. Which I did. I played it that I did not own the cellphone that they ported my number out to (which technically I did not), and they had no authorization from me to port it out, and that if they didn't get my home number back on my landline phone in 12 hours that I'd file complaints with our state Dept. of Public Utilities and possibly a file lawsuit too (nice having an attorney brother in times like this). And so they did. Without even an apology from either side.

scoosdad

You don't "try" to order service with Verizon; you either do or you don't. There is no grey area.

Notyourmom... c'mon... what's going on? You've got a bunch of pro-Verizon hyperbole strewn in amongst the valid points in your post ("a full-blown communications company"! whew!) and significant knowledge of the process that Matt couldn't reasonably be expected to have when making his own determination of whether a successful order was in place. Clearly you've got a connection of some sort to Verizon and we would all LOVE to know what it is!

Charles Duffy

Verizon (or more accurately their contractors) did dig up my yard - perhaps it was to install the conduit - I wasn't looking that closely. They left the trench nicely covered with hay.

I absolutely did order service. I did go through 3rd-party verification. (As stated in my blog) But when they couldn't find my order a week later (when I called to try and find out when the install was going to be) - they didn't let me cancel because they claimed I didn't order.

The people trying to contact me were the Sales department following up to get me to reorder when Customer Service couldn't find my original order. I confirmed this with them on the night of the 16th. They were not calling regarding anything with my original order - they were just following up on a sales lead.

I remain very willing to talk with Verizon but the only people that will talk to me are in the department that will investigate my slamming claim. They would not let me call them - I have to wait for them to call me and for my phone to be turned back on.

I have no grudge against Verizon. I very much want FiOS TV because people tell me how much better the HD picture is than Comcast. I want the reliable bandwidth of FTTH (especially the upload speed to upload my pictures). Despite my frustration the geek in me still wants their services if only they could get it right. I just need someone to contact me.

mattmcl1

sleze69

Verizon also does not dig up personal property; not to install a copper line nor for FiOS service. Either you had an aerial drop from the street providing your service or underground service provided via a pedestal at the street level which runs through a conduit underground to your premise. An electrician must have a pull-string in place for Verizon to install your service thru the conduit; if the Verizon /FiOS tech comes out and sees the conduit not prepped he's clearly going to let you know there's no installation unless you take care of it.

Hmn...this is clearly not making any sense.

You don't "try" to order service with Verizon; you either do or you don't. There is no grey area. Also, Verizon is not "The Phone Company". Verizon is a full-blown communications company and I would prefer to have Verizon over Comcast, as everyone knows Comcast is clearly the Devil. The only reason Verizon attempts to contact the customer is because SOMEONE missed an appointment for something they ordered to be installed! Matt would LOVE for Verizon to contact him but how many times is he going to ignore the fact they've been trying and trying and trying to contact him to no avail? How are they going to contact him if his line is out of service? Probably a postcard. Duh.

Again...Matt...c'mon...what's really going on? Clearly you've got a grudge out for Verizon and we would all LOVE to know what it is!

notyourmom

smiith

This is Matt from the story.

1) The postcard and people calling me were Sales Reps that wanted me to place another FiOS order. They were doing this because they also thought my original order had been lost. I confirmed this on the night of the 17th when I was on the phone with 2 Verizon Sales offices using the reference number on the postcard.

2) I explicitly told the CSR during my call on 11/14 that I wanted to cancel if the order ever was "found" and he insisted he didn't need to do it because no order ever did or would exist and nobody ever would install anything.

I may be acting like a "dick" as you state but when they won't talk to me or help me get my phone number back I don't really know what else I am supposed to do. I certainly do believe in free speech and taking a stand using sites like Consumerist when appropriate.

I also know many friends that have had great experiences with Verizon FiOS installs which I state on the site. This is just my story and as always YMMV.

mattmcl1

SBR249

socalrob

OTOH, despite being a company that I generally loathe, Verizon *business* FiOS was one of the best experiences I've ever had with an Internet provider. They delivered the product on time, the installer was helpful (even worked out in the freezing cold rain), explained to me what was going on, didn't try to push additional services, and was out the door in a lot less time than expected. It's too bad that their consumer install people are (apparently) the opposite.

dodonnell

Buran

Electroqueen

Verizon is in the wrong for entering his property without consent to do so, but are in the right for pulling his number.

xtc46

Buran

warf0x0r

Buran

Had Matt just called Verizon back none of this would be happening. He has not been slammed, her ordered the service.

So in summary, this whole problem can be traced back to 2 thing. 1) The CSR making a mistake when Matt called to check on his order status and 2) Matt acting like a dick ever since.

Hitchcock

Buran

I would have called the cops if they refused to leave, and charged them for digging up my front yard. Hire a good landscaper to fix it, and send them the bill.

Buran

m4ximusprim3

chiieddy

calvinneal

It's funny because dealing with them at work they have always been very helpful and quick to make changes, and I've never had them mess up an order.

officeboy

NightSteel