We moved from Riverside to Montclair while our home in Ontario was being finished. Since we'd left PacBell's service area (woe be unto us— they were flawless!) I had to contract w / Verizon for DSL: which we had installed in our townhome while we waited for our house. Signed a year's contract— and then 5 months later moved into the house a few miles away.
At this point, we were told that the phone # could follow us, but the DSL couldn't (something to do with "changing nodes"). To prevent losing my internet connection (I have a home business which relies on it), we decided not to start a new phone at the new address, and to do so six weeks or so ahead of the move, so the techs could have the line up and running the day we moved.
So the nightmare began... The day of the move, we discovered the phone at the new address wasn't working— and indeed didn't work for another NINE days, after two more billed tech calls (for a simple wiring prob, too). Then, when we FINALLY got a dial tone, the DSL didn't work.
After HOURS on the phone, discovered that the service had not been moved to the new service number as requested (and promised) because unbeknownst to the customer service drone I had spoken with, ANY change of node required a new account be initiated— none of which was ever done, and none of which did anyone bother to contact me about.
Waited another ELEVEN days for an "emergency" install, FINALLY got DSL working at the new address, and thought the nightmare was over— but it was still getting started!!! Got the closing bill from the old address (after 5 months)— it included a penalty fee of about $190 for "Early Termination" of the DSL account. This charge I tried vainly to have corrected for the next six months or so, as it was appended to my new phone bill and drawing further penalties.
After more than 8 months, I got fed up with Verizon, and Adelphia Cable had just gotten my area certified for broadband, so I switched and told Verizon to cancel my service. You know what they did? You guessed it: THEY CHARGED THE NEW NUMBER WITH THE SAME EARLY TERMINATION FEE!!! Even though I had paid for the service for MORE than the year contracted, and proved it to them with repeated faxes (which apparently NOBODY ever saw)!
Within another month or so, I was dico'd and in collections— and reported to credit bureaus nationwide!!! I'm still in the same home, and for more than a year have had to use my cell phone exclusively— with no phone at home for emergencies.
Recently, at considerable cost, I got one of those Mafia/Pirate phone companies to give me local service only. I cannot BEGIN to estimate my cost in wasted productivity as I spent literally HOURS AND HOURS on calls that consisted of 20-40 minutes of machine, then 30 seconds of human voice, then several minutes of explanation (for the Nth time), then being "transferred" to some other office, because this person thought the problem should be dealt with by that other office, and the waiting began again.
In one afternoon straight out of Dante's "Inferno", I spoke with NINE people, in SEVEN different offices, in FIVE different states, AND ONE FOREIGN COUNTRY (Canada)— all told, nearly FOUR AND A HALF HOURS STRAIGHT (I vowed this time not to hang up, and yelled at everybody until they transferred me to someone else!). It was UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE, and I almost still don't believe it& and I LIVED it! I will never use Verizon again, as long as I live, and neither will anyone who values my judgement...
0 comments