Filed a Complaint – PUC & Attorney General

Today I filed complaints with the Public Utility Commission and the Oregon Attorney General. We’ll see if that lights a little more of a fire.

Contest Update

If you’ve read everything below, you know I won a contest from Verizon, and never heard about that either. I swear every single transaction I’ve had with Verizon has been a mess.

Felicia, the agent working on my BBB claim, had me fax her a copy of my email saying I won, and she sent it over to the company who ran the contest, Pierce Promotions. Someone from there contacted me and gave me a couple of prize package options.  He said the packages were supposed to be of a retail value of $80-100. I knew about the $100 from reading the terms, though I found later it says, “approximately,” so I guess that gives them enough wiggle room to go down to $80.

Either way, it seemed since they had forgotten about me and it had been more than two months since I won, they’d want to create a package of at least $100. I emailed them after the phone conversation and basically said that I thought they should give me a package of $100 or more and to let them know that I knew the actual retail value of the Ipod Shuffle that was part of the package. They email me back and tell me they’re sending a package of an $85/value.

I imagine they were shocked that I was complaining about a $15 difference, but I wrote back a strongly worded letter about my course of action if they didn’t fix it. They put together a new package with a $120 retail value.

Another $149 – to Verizon FIOS

Today I had another charge come out of my account for $149. I don’t have the slightest idea what this is for. Originally, I thought it might be for the modem, because when they canceled the service they requested the modem back, even though I was going to use it to turn the service right back on. In looking over the information about that, they said they’d charge me $99 if I didn’t return the modem, so I’m at a loss.

Did I mention they told me they have no other way of billing me for this service. In other words, I must attached a credit card to the service. This is pretty scary considering all of the errors that have happened.

BBB Update #3 – Verizon Customer Service Responds

Today I got the following response from Verizon regarding my BBB claim.  Note: I filed my original claim with the BBB on the 23rd so it took more than two weeks after filing that before Verizon was able or willing to submit this poor counter offer.

On October 10, 2008, the business provided the following information:
Thank you for referring the complaint of Justin McWhirter to our office for review. We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention.

In the complaint, Mr. McWhirter expressed concerns regarding a misapplied payment to his account, being offered FiOS data 20/20 at a reduced rate of $53 per month and enduring a service interruption.

Mr. McWhirter had difficulty confirming the availability for Verizon FiOS data at 15/15 speed. There was a discrepancy with the on-line information and the information provided by the representatives at the kiosk in the mall. Once on-line, the service showed available at the physical address and the customer was able to get the service order entered and service installed.

Our records indicate that a payment was made to Verizon on June 27, 2008 and was posted to Mr. McWhirter’s account in error. The payment in the amount of $3592.81 reflected on the July 2008 billing statement. A refund credit was then applied to the customer’s credit card. Mr. McWhirter advised Verizon that these funds were credited to his account in error. Once Verizon was able to locate the misapplied payment, as well as the account the payment was intended; attempts were made to reverse the credit. Unfortunately, the corrective process was extremely time consuming for both the customer and Verizon. In an attempt to correct the issues, the original account was closed and a new account was established. Due to the interruption of service, there was a reactivation fee charged in the amount of $29.99. This fee was credited back to the account on October 3, 2008 and should post to the billing statement within 1-2 billing cycles.

Mr. McWhirter also advised that there was an event held in his apartment complex where he was informed that he could receive the Verizon FiOS data at 20/20 speed, at a rate of $53 per month. During events, Verizon may have special rates and promotional offers that can not be duplicated by other departments and unfortunately, the representative within the Customer Service and Sales Center was not able to create an order for this service at the quoted rate. Therefore, the upgrade did not occur because there was no order located for this request.

Mr. McWhirter has requested in his desired resolution to be compensated for his time. Verizon policy does not offer compensation for time but we do greatly appreciate the honesty shown by Mr. McWhirter for bringing the credit issue to the forefront. Mr. McWhirter has requested six months of free FiOS service but unfortunately, we can not honor that request. We did credit back the reactivation fee of $29.99, as well as a one time courtesy credit in the amount of $50 to the account.

On October 7, 2008 a Verizon representative spoke with Mr. McWhirter and provided the above information.

Of course I regected this offer and responded with the following…

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I find it hard to believe that no one in all of Verizon has the ability to change the rate plan to a previously offered special rate. I imagine if I was a relative of Ivan Seidenberg, It would get done.

The explanation above talks about the time it took both Verizon and myself to resolve this issue. What it fails to acknowledge is the utter lack of communication from Verizon, until I filed this BBB claim. The lack of participation and communication from Verizon caused me to spend much more time than would have been required if someone would have just picked up the phone and called me.

I understand under normal circumstances a company can’t be responsible for all time used to resolve issues by phone, however from the beginning this has been a comedy of errors. I believe Verizon has been grossly negligent in it’s handling of this whole issue and therefore should provide a more significant resolution.

Additionally, today my card was charged $149 for no apparent reason. The normal bill had come out two weeks ago.

I was told the process of just getting the $29 charge reversed took several trips up the ladder of command so I don’t hold out much hope for getting good customer service. Felicia has been great but it seems that the company doesn’t put a high premium on customer service.

If Verizon is actually unable to change my rate plan, I will accept a credit equivalent to 6 months at the current rate for 20/20 service, with the knowledge I will have to pay $64.99/mo for it after that point. I believe my initial offer was more than fair and if I had planned on negotiation I would have started higher.

Be clear, this is no longer about the money, and it’s certainly not about revenge. I am just 100% committed to helping Verizon do the right thing here, or letting the record show they refused to provide the customer service claimed in their mission. If I can’t get a credit worth at least six months of 20/20 service, I’d rather keep the BBB claim as unresolved, so future potential customers can judge the actions of Verizon.

BBB Update #2

I spoke with a vary nice representative at Verizon, she said that she had to escalate the request for my refund of the activation fee up three levels in order to get it done. This is insane. How much money did they spend reviewing the request for a $30 credit, and that credit is just common sense.

I asked the agent if she new what the mission statement of Verizon is. She said she didn’t know it by heart but knew basically what it was.

Here it is…

Customers First

The Verizon Commitment is to put our customers first by providing excellent service and great communications experiences. This is what we do and this is why we exist… MORE

BBB Update – I got a call!

On the 26th of September I got a call in response to my BBB compaint. The agent left a message and said someone would be contacting me within 24-48 hours. I assumed they meant business hours so expected a call on Tuesday at the latest. I think they did call a couple of times on Wednesday, though they didn’t leave a message.

On Thursday my wife spoke to someone. Basically they said, no. I’m still fighting them on it. They hadn’t even credited back the activation charge that was there only because they shut me off in error.

Complaint with the Better Business Bureau

Today I filed a complaint with the BBB, so I guess we’ll see if that achieves anything.  This also marks the first post that corresponds to the action taken.

Can you guess what happened next?

They finally figured everything out, and took our Verizon account from a positive (we had a credit from that mistake) $3500 to a Negative $3500 and instantly canceled us.

Between my wife and I we spent over 3 hours on the phone with Verizon trying to get them to fix this. Much of this time was spent on hold. After a while they offered me a credit of $25 for my trouble. I told them that is an insulting offer considering the amount of trouble they’d put me through.

We must have our internet on in order to run our business, so we had no choice but to sign up again, and yes for a whole year contract. When they turned us back on they ran a credit check. I’m not sure if they did that originally, but now we have another ding on our credit.

4th-6th attempt to give back the money

Now I’m getting pretty burnt out on this whole situation so we wait another two weeks before my wife calls. She talks to a few people for about 1.5 hours and gets nowhere. Someone was supposed to call back and help us resolve it.

She called again and spent about 45 minutes before getting the same line about how they need to research it and someone would call us back.

The 3rd time she called it took about 45 minutes before she got to someone, and then she spent more than an hour trying to explain the situation. You see it turned out that they had tried to take the money out of the account using the same credit card the account is attached to. That credit card has a daily limit so you can just pull 3500 out of it in one shot.

Here’s the kicker, when they were unable to make that charge, they credited our verizon account for the 3500 thus making everything twice as bad.

The lady on the phone assured us that our account wouldn’t be shut off and we’d have an opportunity to figure this all out. They just needed to call us back after researching it.

Verizon Onsite

Towards the end of July Verizon has an event at my appartment complex. They were having a poker tournament, which turned out to be a rep dealing cards to 4 residents, and they hand sandwiches but nothing to drink. It was a pretty sad “event” when they’d put out at least 500 flyers to promote it.

As often happens they have a special offer. They’re selling a faster service than what I have for about $18/mo less than what I’m spending. I ask if I can be put on the plan and they say yes, and then someone else comes along and tells them no. I guess that’s my fault for signing up too soon.

I tell the rep about all of the issues and he says he’ll figure it out and fix it. I never hear from him again.

At the same time they’re promoting their “Thrillin & Chillin” contest and I win. I never receive the prize.  I do get an email saying someone will contact me soon and tell me what I won. That never happens.

1 & 3rd attempt to give back the money

On or about the 16th of July I submit a support ticket through the Verizon website. 2-3 days later I get an email saying that the issue was transfered over to the billing department, and someone will be in contact soon. Also it contained the phone number in case I wanted to call.

A week goes by without any contact. I finally give up and call. Someone answers immediately, and I feel lucky… until they tell me they need to transfer me. I spend (and I’m not kidding about this) an hour on hold before giving up and emailing them again.

I don’t hear back from them this time.

Verizon Pays Me

My issues with Verizon start on July 11th, when they credit my banking account $3452.29. Now on the surface one could say, “Yay! free money.” Of course if you’ve been around a while, you know that this is just trouble. I need to figure out how to return this too them. As it turns out that’s not as easy as you’d think.