Just when you think you've seen the bottom of the barrel, Verizon Fios opens another false bottom. While I have no direct complaints about our "Internet & TV Service" being provided to our home, I do have so so many complaints about the customer service aspect. There is such a disconnect between the phone agents & all their departments to the useless website/chat feature and to the insane Social Media help platform which is gaining momentum (arrgghhh). How do you run a company like this? I switched my Cell service a year ago from Verizon after 14 years with them for this same reason & am going to be switching my home services from them on Monday after 4 years of a consistent downward spiral.
So here is the latest: My mom recently retired and is moving about 50 miles from her home now, to a cottage on our property. She had to do a new install to the cottage which consisted of running a cable from the road through our front, side & backyard to her cottage. Many, many feet of cable snaking through. The install took close to 8 hours on 10/27/15. OK, time well spent, we thought, even though customer service had proved to be frustrating because keeping her old account active while arranging the new one was apparently quite complicated. Then as the install was winding down the installer told us that in a day or 2 they would follow behind to bury the cable.
(cue evil music)
Mom called to arrange this after a couple of days since no one came out or called. The appointment was scheduled for Wed. 11/4/15 and could I be there to meet them on that day between 9am & 9pm she asks me (because mom is not moved in as of yet and I live on the property), so yes, of course. That day would be good as well because we were having a major driveway paving job done on Thurs. & Fri. And the cable needed to go under what was going to be a newly constructed walkway to her cottage. THEY WERE A NO-SHOW! Paving happens while Fios cable is laid out willy-nilly on top of the ground. Mom freaks and calls to find out what the heck happened and as usual NO-ONE knows or seems to care.
Then they set her (me) up for another day to "drop" (code for bury) the cable Saturday 11/7/15 and can I be available between the hours of 9 am to 9 pm?"Um. I guess." So to save me another day of twiddling my thumbs waiting, mom calls Verizon Friday night to see if we can narrow down a window of when they may show up on Sat. They assure her that we are first on the schedule and should be around 8 or 9 am. Great I think… I have to get up early-ish but it will be done and over. At 9:30 I start a chat with Verizon because they are not here yet and I thought it best to just check up. The chat agent ASSURES me they will be there and he sees the work order, "Yup, good to go". At 12:30 I left a post on Facebook asking, "What the heck FIOS?!" To which a prompt reply came asking me to private message to get this figured out. Um… Ok.
She promptly sends me a link to CHAT yet again with another Verizon online rep. This is now so ridiculous. I can't even believe it. I start the chat and he wants me to start from the beginning. Are you kidding me?! I almost lost it. I simply asked, "Where the heck is the 'cable drop' crew!!? I'm waiting here and would like to get on with my life." He has to wait for that outside "cable drop" company to get back to him and 45 minutes into this chat session he announces that they will get back to me on Monday. They don't even work on SATURDAYS. WHAT? I quit. Mom can keep her FIOS if she wants but I am gone… Back to cable with my tail between my legs.
I spent 2 days home waiting & mom & I both spent many hours on the phone trying to get answers to no avail. I could never treat my customers in such a way and still have customers. Apparently if you are big enough, you can just bully people and get away with it.