Verizon is Messed Up
Colin Here.
Verizon is a seriously deranged and inept bureaucracy in my opinion. Well, really, so is AT&T, but historically Verizon has had a markedly better network and better customer service. It’s all gotten comical at Verizon.
On my Verizon account home page I see this inviting message:
Wow, I wonder what a Smart Reward is? I’m smart, and it sounds exciting that Verizon will reward me. So I click on the link and get this response:
I don’t use “WTF” very often, but this is certainly a WTF moment. First they invite me to join, and they even tell me that I have 54,890 points waiting for me. Then, I get a “Welcome to Verizon Smart Rewards!” message telling me that Unfortunately my account is not eligible. WTF!
This sort of thing is immensely frustrating for customers and it undermines your brand by destroying trust.
This customer indifference is turning into a pattern with Verizon.
I’m eligible for an Employee Discount. My account has been flagged, and Verizon Customer Service has confirmed that I am eligible and that I should be receiving a monthly percentage discount.
But when I look at my bills there is no discount. None. I’m charged the full rate. For a few months Verizon kept telling me it took a month, er, it takes a couple of months, er, it may take a few months for the discount to show up on my bill. Seriously? Why should it take a few months for a discount to show up on a bill once it is properly coded onto the account? Are they just intentionally stalling the effective dates of the discounts (that would be fraud) or why can’t they get the discount to work? Nobody has any answers and there is no escalation path.
Granting a discount and then reneging on the discount does not build trust.
I just ordered an iPhone 6. When I placed the order I was given a delivery commitment date of October 7: (This screen shot is from after I placed the order in the confirmation email I received)
OK, fine. But then a couple of hours later I check on the order and the expected shipping date (not delivery date) has been pushed back to October 14.
WTF. They promise delivery by October 7 and then a few hours they push it back to October 14? That’s pretty close to “Bait and Switch” tactics. Again, this does nothing to build trust between Verizon and the customer.
Could Verizon possibly do anything more to undermine trust and alienate their customers? Well, actually, yes. They could send me this email, accusing me of fraud: (Never mind that I ordered using a password, paid using the same credit card I always pay with, and confirmed where I met my spouse.)
Verizon then cancelled the order for me in a nice email stating that they look forward to future business. Yeah, when Hell freezes over.
Oh, so what did I end up doing? I went over to the Apple Store website and placed an order. You know what? I had a choice of delivery between October 1~6 or I could just go an pick it up on the very first day:
People hate cell phone companies not because they don’t like paying bills. They hate cell phone companies because those companies are difficult to work with, and sometimes are unethical and heavy handed in their dealings.
Verizon used to have great operations and great customer service. Now they are just like AT&T.
We also deal with T-Mobile and I can say that they are consistently more friendly and easier to deal with. Their customer service agents are empowered to fix problems.