Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)
It doesn't seem possible that a company could be this incompetent, but here's
here is the ugly story (charitably abbreviated):
On Feb. 8, 2004, using telesales, I contracted with Verizon for a new
cellphone account, with two lines, one (phone A) to be ported from a business
landline and the other (phone B) to be assigned a new number. After checking
for portability, they said "no problem."
Phone B worked right away, but the number it was assigned was not in our local
area code. That gave me the priviledge of paying sales and use taxes that
were local to the remote city. A minor issue.
Phone A was not getting ported. It could place but not receive calls. Weeks
passed. Then months. Many calls to Verizon elicited gushing apologies and
promises of porting "real soon now." After four and half months (!), enough
apologies to compensate for Pearl Harbor, and many broken promises to call
back with a status report, they caused the business landline to be
disconnected (from the local telco) without notification. Noticing the
disconnect after some days, we called and were informed that they could not
port the line because they were not "licensed to have a number with that area
code and exchange." They were unwilling to take any action to have their
requested disconnect reconnected.
At some financial penalty but emotional release, I cancelled all service with
Verizon. They claim to have reimbursed our account for the $50 reconnect change.
During this sorry episode, I spoke with 10-15 different Verizon customer
service folk. They were invariably polite and sympathetic (I thought one
exceptionally sympathetic woman was going to offer to come over and bake
brownies) but almost never fulfilled their promise to call back to report on
status. This sorry behavior goes beyond incompetence. Perhaps VP Cheney
could come up with a suitable epithet.
-Larry
Naples, NY
It doesn't seem possible that a company could be this incompetent, but here's
here is the ugly story (charitably abbreviated):
On Feb. 8, 2004, using telesales, I contracted with Verizon for a new
cellphone account, with two lines, one (phone A) to be ported from a business
landline and the other (phone B) to be assigned a new number. After checking
for portability, they said "no problem."
Phone B worked right away, but the number it was assigned was not in our local
area code. That gave me the priviledge of paying sales and use taxes that
were local to the remote city. A minor issue.
Phone A was not getting ported. It could place but not receive calls. Weeks
passed. Then months. Many calls to Verizon elicited gushing apologies and
promises of porting "real soon now." After four and half months (!), enough
apologies to compensate for Pearl Harbor, and many broken promises to call
back with a status report, they caused the business landline to be
disconnected (from the local telco) without notification. Noticing the
disconnect after some days, we called and were informed that they could not
port the line because they were not "licensed to have a number with that area
code and exchange." They were unwilling to take any action to have their
requested disconnect reconnected.
At some financial penalty but emotional release, I cancelled all service with
Verizon. They claim to have reimbursed our account for the $50 reconnect change.
During this sorry episode, I spoke with 10-15 different Verizon customer
service folk. They were invariably polite and sympathetic (I thought one
exceptionally sympathetic woman was going to offer to come over and bake
brownies) but almost never fulfilled their promise to call back to report on
status. This sorry behavior goes beyond incompetence. Perhaps VP Cheney
could come up with a suitable epithet.
-Larry
Naples, NY
/home.att.net/~dwstreeter
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