Verizon Service Fail

Writing these Musings is often cathartic for me, so perhaps putting these complaints "to paper" will be beneficial.

The company I work for is moving into a larger office space. Facilitating that move fell to me. Through the six months of effort, from looking at nearly every commercial office space in Fredericksburg, to negotiating a lease, to buying new furniture, to moving, to dealing with utilities, nothing has been more frustrating that dealing with the cancellation of old phone numbers with Verizon Business.

Wednesday: I call Verizon to cancel our old phone service. No problem I'm told. The helpful rep confirms that Verizon will provide a referral service for 90 days to announce our new number to callers. I am assured the change will be in effect by the close of business today.

Thursday: The old numbers are still ringing through to our old PBX system. I cannot have that system taken off line until the referral message is in place. The Verizon rep says she has to cancel the first request and create a new one. That done, she says the change will happen by the close of business today.

Friday: The old phone number is disconnected. Unfortunately callers are not given the new number. Verizon simply plays that annoying squealing sound effect, says the number has been disconnected and no that further information is available. I place yet another call to Verizon. This rep tells me the changes aren't scheduled to take effect until today, despite what I was told yesterday. I explain that this is not good for business as Verizon has already disconnected the old number. Callers need to know the new number. She is unmoved and refuses to look into the issue or provide any further service. I am told must wait until the close of business today.

As expected the referral message still does not appear by the close of business. Unfortunately, this is Friday. Verizon does not provide customer service on weekends, so I must wait until Monday to call them again.

Monday: I call Verizon, again. After explaining the situation, today's rep says she is going to transfer me to another office. I sit through more annoying "heavier than expected call volume" recordings. Go figure. Now I have to explain the problem AGAIN. The second rep tells me that it appears the referral message did not get activated. Well, no shoot Sherlock, that's what I just explained to you. She says she will create yet another service request. You guessed it, she says the referral message will be in place by the close of business today.

Finally, by the close of business Monday, the referral message is actually in place. There's the old joke that the phone company doesn't care about customer service. There's truth in that only that Verizon acts like they are the only game in town. Fortunately they are not. A communications company that can't communicate with itself doesn't inspire confidence. A business service provider that leaves a business hanging for six days doesn't warrant my business. After my experiences with Verizon Business, I am looking to move my Verizon residential service to another provider as well.