Spencer says Verizon has trouble helping new customers who don’t yet have a phone number on their accounts, and the problem led to him being passed around by unhelpful customer service reps until one of them mistakenly gave him a number that connected to a phone sex ad.

He writes:

After seeing your Verizon post today, I figured I’d email you with this amusing interlude to one of the most painful Verizon dealings I’ve ever had.

I’m trying to get FiOS installed at my house. Their phone menu system is screwed up that when you have no phone number on the account (i.e. a new account) they automatically transfer you to the office handling the state you’re calling from (which probably makes sense in a state where you work in, but being from the NYC area, I live in NJ, so this makes my wait time double).

So I decided to use their “Live Chat” to fix an issue with my installation date. My query got transferred 5 times, and in the end they told me to call (800) 837-[XXXX] (the number is free), and it’s an advertisement for a Singles Chat Line. Pretty funny.

Spencer said he tried again and eventually got ahold of people who could help him, and that it took Verizon a week to set up his service. I tried the number Spencer gave me, and it promised “stimulating conversation.” It’s too bad it took Verizon took so long to give the same to Spencer.

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