Customer Service Opportunities (Verizon Fail)
My friend Iqram had a horrible customer service experience with Verizon recently. He doesn’t have a blog, but wanted to share his experience so he asked me to re-post some of his exchange with Verizon here.
It’s a shame American companies can’t do a better job of customer service. I have always thought customer service is as an industry where we should be on top (at least when serving American customers), because we can provide more empathy and give more personal feedback than robots, and we can communicate more efficiently with each other than people who don’t speak English. It appears we can’t even get customer service right, however. [sigh]
Time to go build some customer service bots to take over at Verizon’s call centers!
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Iqram’s email exchange doesn’t seem to capture the anger and frustration he was expressing to me on IM. Too bad there’s no way I can include a 4 hour mp3 of his phone conversation instead. Anyway, here’s some of his rant:
Hi Becky,
My FIOS service was shut off for 3 days because my credit card payment didn’t go through. First of all, I wasn’t notified of this service suspension at all (you have my email address, and you have a phone number on file which is “the best number to reach me at”). The reason my card on file didn’t go through, was because I cancelled it when it was stolen a few weeks ago. On top of shutting off my service without notifying me, once I found out that my service was suspended, every single person I spoke with directed me to a different person and I spent about 4 hours trying to resolve this issue. Furthermore, my Verizon Online Account was not, and still is not, letting me log in. This is probably because my account was suspended. How do you expect me to update my credit card info online if I can’t get into my log in to my account?
All in all, I was incredibly disapointed with the service I received and have no reason to recommend FIOS or Verizon to anyone. I was once pleased with my FIOS service, but from now on, I will refer people to Comcast, and once my contract expires, I will switch to Comcast.
I am now convinced that you treat customers that are trying to sign up for new service far better than you treat customers that are trying to restore service. I don’t tolerate that kind of business practice.
Iqram
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iqram@alumni.upenn.edu
On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 5:48 PM, customersupport <customersupport@verizon.com> wrote:Dear Iqram Magdon-Ismail,
Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. I have received your
email dated 12/19/08 regarding poor customer service. My name is
Becky, and I will be happy to assist you.
I apologize for the delay in my response, and I regret any inconvenience
to you.
I am sorry you are having trouble reaching or getting assistance.
I will be happy to assist you, if you respond back to this email with
the questions or issues you need assistance with.
Once I receive the requested information, I am confident I will be able
to assist you. In the meantime, if you have additional questions, please
let us know. We look forward to serving you.
Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Becky
Verizon eCenter
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Original Message Excluded:
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