Well, I've started this blog pretty late in the whole conversation with Verizon, so I'm going to try and get everyone caught up. Below this post I've added a few emails from Verizon - which turns out to be the best way to talk to people who know what is going on.
This all started around January or February when I found out Verizon had the new Samsung Omnia - It had so many cool features that it put my old XV6800 to shame (despite the fact that the xv6800 really is a great phone). Since we were due for a new-every-two upgrade I decided to get the phone for my wife and I - and that's when we ran into problems with this new policy of Verizon's.
It turns out that even the people at Verizon don't really know what they are doing in regards to this new policy (or maybe it's just so new that everyone hasn't been trained yet). At first we tried to order the phones online, but couldn't find find the option for a data block (which is what we've used on our phones in the past) so we called Verizon. Each time I called it seemed like we were told a number of different things. Some told us we could cancel the data plan later, while others told us that all smart phones would be subject to this new mandatory data plan. Many of them even explained that this policy was set down by the manufacturer's and not Verizon.
Most of the Verizon people were very polite and understanding. However, there was one exception, a supervisor named Angela. Not only was she condescending and rude, but everything she said from explaining that the new data phones wouldn't work without a data plan to informing us that, if we renewed our contract, we would be charged a mandatory data plan for our current pdas.
During that conversation I also learned that you can only escalate phone support up one level - to the regular supervisors. Not only do they all refuse to transfer you to their manager, but they flat out tell you that their managers will not call you back, even at their own leisure. This is extremely frustrating, especially when you are dealing with rude supervisors who aren't trained in their own policies. With the customer cut off from anyone above them, these supervisors are free to behave however they want.
I did finally talk to a supervisor who suggested I send an email from their contact page at http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/contact/index.jsp. The email option wasn’t readily apparent to me, even though it was at the top of the page. I also found online a link to a Verizon “How are we doing” type survey at https://www.survey.verizonwireless.com/vzwsurvey/. And, after 3 or 4 postings to each of those links, I finally started getting emails and then phone calls from what is supposedly their executive offices. As I mentioned above, I’ve posted those emails below. However, in an effort to keep open the lines of communication with Verizon, I have removed their email addresses.
No comments:
Post a Comment