I know I’m [...]]]>

Having recently gone through my own personal quest to get Verizon to repair my landline, I feel compelled to share five tips to get better information and results out of the phone company. Business owners may want to note 3-5 in case they run into problems since they apply equally well.

I know I’m not alone in being frustrated with Verizon and in all honestly I believe the company has either intentionally or unintentionally adapted an “abandon in place” strategy for its landline business, given the number of stories I’ve heard from other people when it comes to landlines.

Every quarter, Verizon announces that they’ve lost thousands upon thousands of landline customers. But why? The company says its because of a migration to wireless services, belt-tightening, and so forth.   They don’t talk about why many customers have, upon going through the rat race of trying to get dial tone fixed, gone to cable providers dial-tone alternatives.

There’s also the not-so-subtle push of FiOS when people call and complain about copper problems. “Well, you won’t have those problems if you get fiber,” says the first-line call center people.  They don’t mention the all-day install it takes to get FiOS turned up.

If you are bound and determined — or have no other alternative — here are the five points I offer if you have to deal with Verizon to get a landline fixed.

1)  “Attendant” is the magic word to get you through the voice recognition maze to a real human being.

After the second or third phone call, the auto-attendant robot just gets in the way.  Attendant cuts through all the crap and routes you to a real human being in a call center.  But don’t expect this to be an advancement.

2) If the first person to answer the phone doesn’t seem to know what’s going on, ask for a supervisor.

Call center people are, by and large, paid to get you off the phone as fast as possible. They’re reading from scripts and sometimes they don’t follow the full script and/or read through the full trouble report on the computer.   I’ve had multiple call center people tell me everything was fine with my line — with a truck outside and no dial-tone on the line — and all I had to do was to unplug everything on the line, wait 5 minutes, and then plug everything back in. By and large, there’s no love lost between the call center people and the line techs who actually fix things.

Supervisors are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neigh-bor-hoood… the people who you might meet each day — not someone in a call center 500 to 2,000 miles away reading from a script.  You should get a straight and coherent answer from one.

If one isn’t available, ask for a supervisor to call you back.  Someone will.

3) Document

If you have to call more than once or twice, start writing down names, dates, times, and who said what.   Promises are sometimes made by call center people and supervisors that don’t happen — and that leaves you with nothing.   If that’s the case, then the next step is to….

4) File a complaint with the state regulatory commission

In the state of Virginia, you can file a complaint against Verizon online with the State Corporate Commission (SCC) Division of Communications.  Under state regs, Verizon has to resolve about 90 percent of phone problems within the first 48 hours of you filing a trouble ticket.  I filed online at around 10 AM, the SCC filed with Verizon by noon, and someone from Verizon was out looking at my line by 5:30 PM.   A SCC complaint sets the clock ticking and Verizon gets serious about clearing the up the problem ASAP.

5) Call the President of Verizon in your state

All Verizon employees know this one.  You won’t get the president, but leave a message that clearly details the problem. It automatically gets flagged as a priority and people start running around trying to fix the problem.   NO, I don’t have the number for Verizon VA, but I know where to get it if I need it.  You should be able to find the number you need to call on the internet.

Meanwhile,  there’s a Verizon truck parked [...]]]>

At 9:48 AM, I received a call from a Verizon call center in Virginia, telling me that my landline service was fixed and if I had any questions or other problems, please feel free to call. This message was read by a human being working through a script.

Meanwhile,  there’s a Verizon truck parked outside,  a backhoe across the street near the above ground distribution box, and a Verizon tech and two contractors plugging in wonderful boxes to locate where exactly the line break is (hopefully not under the asphalt, please). The tech has already worked up a heavy sweat and I don’t envy his labor today.

Note to Verizon: This is the second time where I’ve got a rote call center call TELLING ME THE CIRCUIT IS FIXED WHEN A TECH IS STANDING OUTSIDE TRYING TO REPAIR IT.

Honestly, once may be bad luck and/or human error, twice indicates that the processes and the procedures are broken and need to be fixed.

It would be to laugh, if it wasn’t costing you money and goodwill.

*sigh*

Now we await Miss Utility before the digging starts, I think…

Previous postings in this saga of repair, in chronological order–

Tuesday, July 8

Verizon wireline’s 7 day service window – I’m told that someone might not look at the dead phone line until Monday, July 7

Friday, July 10

Virginia PUC responds faster than Verizon landline repair -  File a complaint only with the Virginia SCC (PUC)

Virginia PUC motivates Verizon repair for landline and other mysteries – Tech comes out, declares line dead, need new copper

Saturday, July 11

Verizon Repair fiasco continues… – Verizon call center droid says service is restored, unplug my phones, plug back in, should have dialtone

Straight talk from a Verizon supervisor… – Tech working on my line calls me back, tells me call center is wrong, didn’t read trouble ticket

More repair activity from Verizon this Saturday – Tech comes out, jury-rig a NID-to-NID connection for dial tone.

Sunday, July 12

Verizon repair Sunday phone call – Richmond supervisor calls to discuss activities

I spent 10 minutes on the phone going over the repair status of my Verizon landline with a Verizon supervisor.  I currently have dial-tone through a temporary jury-rig (hmm, reminds me, must take pictures) between my NIC and my neighbor’s.

The sup was concerned that I didn’t [...]]]>

Verizon supervisors work on Sundays, it appears.

I spent 10 minutes on the phone going over the repair status of my Verizon landline with a Verizon supervisor.  I currently have dial-tone through a temporary jury-rig (hmm, reminds me, must take pictures) between my NIC and my neighbor’s.

The sup was concerned that I didn’t get phone calls from either one of the techs who came out on Friday and Saturday.  I told them I wasn’t as torked off about that so much as the call center person who told me that my line was fix on Saturday, go unplug-and-replug your phones in.  The supervisor noted that, well, the quality of call center people in the technical industry these days…

ANYway, after telling him for my great-great love when I did talk to the techs and how I didn’t understand how Verizon could tell me it could be up to 7 days for someone to even look at the problem, he said I should see a dig crew out on Monday, presuming Miss Utility can get out here and mark the other lines (cable, electrical).

1) The copper is dead between my house and the distribution point, there are no alternatives, Verizon is going to have to [...]]]>

At 11:40 AM, a Verizon supervisor — the second tier guys who actually know what the f*** is going on — called me back and clarified the status of the phone repair–

1) The copper is dead between my house and the distribution point, there are no alternatives, Verizon is going to have to dig and put in new copper.

2) This process may take up to 7 days (worst case), since it is now a weekend, Miss Utility has to be called to mark the lines and then Verizon’s contractor has to come out to dig-dig-dig… *sigh*

3) “Bob” the supervisor noted that if the first-line person who had taken the call had scrolled down the record a bit more, she should have seen that A) Phone line was dead, Jim and B) There was another work order generated for replacing the copper from this morning’s tech assessment.  So, she should have not told me that I had service restored and go through the rote ritual of “unplug the phones, wait 5 minutes, try again, that doesn’t work, call back.”

The supervisor — who I bet installed his share of network when he was younger — did not think kindly of the first line response person. Ya gotta love a guy who doesn’t sugar coat things

*sigh*

The moral of this story should NOT be “I hate Verizon.”   I love the line guys and techs who don’t try to B.S. me, they just tell me what’s going on, like the guy yesterday up from Richmond working through the backlog of repairs.  These are people who care about the customer and have pride in their work and they know that they can make a person’s day because they’ve dealt with some of the back office crap and it doesn’t make them any happier.

I really wish Ivan and the rest of the Verizon senior leadership would stop and take a moment to reassess and repair Verizon’s customer service organization on the landline side.

P.S. Shoutout to Andy Abramson — happy to make you smile!

Much to my surprise, the auto-bot said the trouble ticket had been closed. Once again, using the magic word “Attendant” to cut through the voice recognition robot, I got a live human being [...]]]>

This morning, I called Verizon’s number to see what time a tech would be out to look at my dead landline

Much to my surprise, the auto-bot said the trouble ticket had been closed. Once again, using the magic word “Attendant” to cut through the voice recognition robot, I got a live human being who said that the line had been “fixed” at 9:30 AM.

I expressed my dismay, since 1) The tech hadn’t knocked on the door and 2) how was I supposed know that the line was fixed? Oh and 3) I still did not have dial tone.

So, we went into the rote script of “Unplug all of your phones for five to ten minutes, then plug back in a standard phone and see if you have dial tone” and if that doesn’t work — call back and ask a supervisor.

Did as instructed. No dial tone in the home. Call back. Ask to speak to a supervisor. All supervisors are busy.

“Can I have the name of a supervisor?” “They’re a pool”

“Can I have a direct number so I won’t have to deal with the auto-attendant?” “There’s no direct number.”

Call ends with me asking for a supervisor to call me back at my alternative phone number and being assured someone will call me back today.

Uh huh.

Earlier today, I filed a complaint on the SCC’s website, asking why it would take Verizon up to seven (7) days to come out and restore my dial tone. I subsequently exchanged several emails [...]]]>

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC)’s Division of Communications is my new BFF when it comes to dealing with Verizon.

Earlier today, I filed a complaint on the SCC’s website, asking why it would take Verizon up to seven (7) days to come out and restore my dial tone. I subsequently exchanged several emails with a SCC staff member and by 12:30 PM, I received this note…

“Thanks for your response.  Our office has now filed a complaint on your behalf to (1) assist in getting your telephone service restored as soon as possible, and (2) to get any explanations as to why it quoted such an extended interval on a repair issue.”

As I opened up my garage at 5:45 PM, lo and behold, I see a Verizon van across the street.  The tech wrapped up his phone call and walked over.  He tells me that I have a pair of bad wires between my house and the distribution point around the corner and he has put a ticket in for someone to get out side.  He also tells me that I got bumped to the front of the line for some reason; I tell him that when I called in I got the whole 7 days thing, so finally I got fed up and filed the SCC complaint, nothing personal. He agreed that having to wait up to 7 days for service wasn’t exactly good for the consumer.

Turns out he and a bunch of his coworkers are up from Richmond for the week helping Verizon Repair work through a backlog of trouble tickets.

Later this evening, at about 7 PM, I received a stock auto-bot message from Verizon saying it was sending out a technician tomorrow to our address, “Press 1 to confirm” and someone needs to be around to let the tech inside the house… OK, I’ll ignore the last part, but I want to be around to see if I get dial tone back.

The moral of this story:  If you are in Virginia, the SCC is probably as good as calling up the president of Verizon Virginia to complain about poor service.

The deeper mysteries of this story:

1)  Just what happened to result in a sudden spike/rash of trouble ticket calls for Verizon repair?

2) Does Verizon have adequate staffing on call to meet state regulatory requirements of resolving 95 percent of telephony problems in 48 hours? If the company has to ship techs up from Richmond, the answer might be “No.”  See (2) in italics above.

This isn’t the first time I’ve run into headaches with Verizon landline repair. However, the SCC is purportedly getting complaints about longer service intervals statewide more recently.

Again, why? I’ll be making some more phone calls on Monday to dig a little deeper.