Nice nightmare story from Consumerist in 2007

This is pretty horrific:

http://con.st/243054

Part 2: My Verizon Nightmare and how it came to be...

As of today, I've called Verizon Wireless more than a dozen times. I've called nine times since March 17, 2011. For a total of almost 3 hours of talk and hold time. That's how it usually goes: talk and hold, talk and hold.

My calls have really taken on sort of a Groundhog Day scenario. I call, ask where my money is, explain that I'm tired of telling the story over and over. Then I tell the story again. I get apologies, promises to follow up (that almost never happen). Meanwhile, I'm still out $119.99 plus all the time I've wasted.

Something kind of good has come out of this. Once during one of my calls, I found out that these CSR's have the power to issue and discretionary $50 credit to your account. The fellow I talked to (in addition to promising me to get all the money I owed back to me) gave me this 'courtesy' credit to my account. You might think 'Hey! He got some of his money back'. Maybe, but I never asked them for this. They volunteered this. I thanked them but all I want is my money back.

This whole thing has show my many things that I already knew but they're much clearer now:

• Companies with billions of dollars have procedures in place to 'wear you down' in lieu of given you a refund.

• You and I think there is disconnect and that things are broken when we have episodes like I'm having. Not true. They are put in place so that the corporation will not have to part with money that is not really theirs.

I can't decide if I want to call them and waste some time tomorrow. Hmm. Maybe not. A guy is supposed to call me next Thursday anyway. We'll see...

My Verizon Nightmare and how it came to be...

I had to start this blog.

I'm going through quite a nightmare with Verizon. Consumerist recommends starting a blog to tell the world about my little story, so here goes:

The company where I work had a special deal with Verizon Wireless to get 20% off on services. My daughter needed a new cell phone so I thought this would be a good fit. We ordered a Pantech Jest feature phone and picked a plan for about $60/month. The phone was 'free' and I had to pay the tax of $22.20. Great.

The phone arrived on Friday, February 18, 2011. On the following Sunday, we discovered one of the buttons didn't function. No problem, right? It's a new phone. Verizon will send me a new one, right?

Monday evening I called Verizon Customer Service. The quite perky customer service rep was very nice but a bit confused by my explanation of our broken phone. He finally got it and explained that we would have to return the phone and wait for the new one. But, I explained, we'd be out the use of the new phone until the new one arrived. He then brought up a 'special program' that would allow us to have them send us a new phone immediately and send back the broken one upon receipt of the new phone. There was a catch, though. And it was my fatal mistake. They would charge my debit card for the price of the phone ($119.99). When the broken phone was received by them, the would then credit my debit card. I thought, no big deal. I've done this with Apple many times.

They sent us the new phone which I received on Wednesday, February 23. We sent the broken phone back on Friday, February 25 and it was received by Verizon in Ft. Worth, TX on Monday, February 28.

So, I called them up on March 1 and asked them when I would see my debit card credited. They explained that it usually took a few days for the return to show up in their system. Sounded reasonable enough to me. So, I called them back on Saturday, March 5. The fellow I talked with was very nice and apologetic for my having to wait so long for my credit. He offered to just credit my account the money that was owed to me. I opted not to go for that since the money was from my bank account and I'd like it put back where I needed it. He said he would have to fill out a 'TOPS request' form which would go to the Verizon Wireless Treasury department so that they could send me my refund. He said it would take about 72 hours for the paperwork to go through and the funds applied to my bank account. So, I watched my account the next week with no new funds from Verizon in it. I called back on the March 12 to ask about my refund. I had to explain the whole situation/story again. The rep I talked to said she would fill out another 'TOPS request' form and this time they would make sure it would go through.

Little did I know I'd be telling my story again and again (including today). More to come in Part 2 of our story...