Nick was able to actually get decent Verizon tech support. But to do it, he had to trick the phone system and select “install problems” instead of “tech support” when he called. He writes:

I live in northwest Pennsylvania, an area formerly held by telecom company GTE (GTE North to be specifically I believe?). This has been particularly troublesome to the folks at Verizon when I’d call for tech support. Over the past few years of getting DSL from Verizon when the need would arise to call tech support I would cringe. I *knew* they wouldn’t be able to find my account, it always happens.

I call, get connected to “Verizon East”, they try to look me up, no worky, they transfer me to “Verizon West”. Verizon West looks me up, doesn’t find me, and attempts to transfer me back to “Verizon East”. This nonsense would continue easily for 20-30 minutes before even getting a tech who knew anything about my account.

This was a major source of aggravation for me each call. Each rep would need my telephone number again, transfers sometimes happened, sometimes disconnected me, etc. Major pain in the ass.

However, just a few days ago I needed to call again due to issues in getting a DHCP lease on my DSL modem. I was dreading it…

Much to my surprise, after a short 15 minute wait on hold for a tech, the guy was able to not only look up my account without routing me through east, west or otherwise but he could also perform a line test while I was on the phone. I was stunned.

I was also mentally preparing for the next round of tomfoolery brought to you by Verizon, namely the scripted troubleshooting I knew was coming next (unplug this, do that, check the wires, etc.).

This tech asked me what was wrong. I said “I’m not getting a DHCP lease on my modem, changed phone lines to test it, rebooted, etc.” While my hands were nearly mid flight into unplugging the router and modem per typical scripted requests he interrupted to tell me he would simply release the IP address on their end for the modem to see if it remedied the issue.

Less than one minute later I had an internet connectivity–he had my quickly check verizon.net and time.gov to ensure I was all good and that was it.

So, to recap, Verizon gets some points from this previously extremely fired up consumer. Here’s how they did it:

1) Apparently cut the crap. The reps can see my account without switching between east, west, south and north.

2) Cut the crap some more. The tech didn’t have to go through the bloody script with me and just solved the problem! Kudos!

Now there are still some issues. When I called support due to connectivity issues the automated system ran a line test, saw nothing was “wrong” with the line and booted me back to the main menu–some tech support. I eventually switched my tactics to selecting “Install problems” instead of connectivity problems and was able to route to a human.

Thus illustrating the importance of, when dealing with customer service, going around and trying to jimmy the side doors if the front door is locked.

(Photo: SkyShaper)

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