Robert Safuto

My Verizon bill issue is resolved but it took two phone calls and a lot of insisting to make it happen.

My first phone call was at 8AM and the customer service rep that answered couldn't really give me any information other than the fact that one of my discounts was being revoked. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that they were all busy, "because it's Monday." But it was only 8AM! I was willing to wait but was only offered a 48-hour call back window which I begrudgingly accepted.

In the meantime I posted some play-by-play on my Twitter account and made a post to the official Verizon forums. The Verizon forum post elicited a private message promising that my issue would be "escalated" to someone who would contact me at an undetermined later time. The escalation also made the post disappear which I didn't think was very good form.

I decided to call back later in the afternoon to try my luck again. The next rep I spoke with sounded more amiable from the start. The notes on my account from the previous rep were illegible so I had to explain the issue all over again. The new rep then explained that the sales rep made a mistake when he offered me two discounts and a software bug allowed those discounts to be entered. At that point I informed the rep that it really wasn't my problem and that Verizon should honor the agreement. I also informed the rep that I was willing to wait on the line for a supervisor.

Well it turns out that I really didn't need to "talk" to a supervisor. The rep put me on hold and returned a couple of minutes later. It was explained to me that my second discount was no longer supported but I could get a lump sum credit to make up the difference. So I accepted that option. A few minutes later it was done.

There are a number of lessons to be learned here. Try to get some sort of written or email confirmation of a special deal that you make over the phone. Because you never know when that special deal is going to be voided and attributed to a software glitch. In this case I was lucky because it was noted with the Dec. 2011 expiration date on my bill. Be persistent and don't just accept the anonymous form letter as the final word. So call and know that even if they say that a supervisor is not available that really means they want to move on to the next call. It's probably the way the reps are trained that makes them do that.

Finally, this was a very poor way for Verizon to respond to a combination of mistakes by an employee and their software. Customers that are "valued" should get the benefit of the doubt if Verizon makes a mistake and offers more generous rates than are standard at the time.

So when is a deal not a deal? It appears for the moment that a deal is not a deal when you're dealing with Verizon. I'll give you some background below.

Back in December 2009 I got a promotional letter in the mail offering a deal to switch to Verizon phone and FiOS internet (from Time Warner Cable) for a guaranteed monthly fee of $79.99 a month. It was an attractive offer on the surface considering that my bill for phone, internet and cable from Time Warner was close to $150 a month. A switch to Verizon would still leave me with the cable bill on Time Warner but it would perhaps save me $15-$20 per month on the total for all three services. So I decided to call Verizon and inquire about it.

When I called Verizon the sales rep was aggressive in terms of wanting me to commit to switching my phone and internet service. I didn't think he was going over any line he was just being normally pushy trying to close the deal like a good salesperson. I really took notice when he said that I might be eligible for a pair of discounts that would drop the offer from $79.99 a month to $44.99 a month before taxes and fees. The man explained that there were additional incentives (available for a limited time of course) for switching from Time Warner to Verizon in the Upstate New York area. These incentive credits, he explained, would be applied to my bill for every billing cycle until Dec. 2011. It sounded a little too good a deal so I questioned it but the salesperson insisted it was real and I would see it on my bill. With my monthly savings now considerably higher I decided to switch the phone and the internet to Verizon in December of 2009.

The phone was switched and the internet was installed in the second half of December. Since then I have been happy with the service and the credits promised have appeared on my bill each month. But today I got a letter in the mail. The message in the form letter that starts off with the greeting, "Dear Valued Customer," tells me that there is a discount, "for which you do not qualify." They say that the discount will be removed and, "...the associated monthly credit will no longer be applied." Say again? Yep, they're pulling one (at least) of the discounts. Which one? I don't know because the letter doesn't say what the new bill will be. Then they say that I will, "...see accurate monthly charges for your Verizon services..." Oh really! Accurate in the sense that Verizon will increase their revenue from me. We'll see about that.

I gave Verizon a call about the issue but I missed the 5PM Saturday window that would allow me to discuss it with a representative. So I will have to call back Monday morning to get more details and plead my case. But why should I have to plead my case? A Verizon sales rep enticed me into switching my service with multiple discounts that he said would be valid til the end of 2011. Did he lie to me? If so, who should pay the price for that? I'm sure that Verizon has a record of who sold the account. Is this an honest mistake in the Verizon system that sent me a letter in error? I sure hope so. But if it isn't a technical error and Verizon really means to increase the cost of my service then it is a classic bait and switch with a twist. The twist is that they wait a few months, give you time to get used to the service, and then pull the rug out from under you. Either way, it's wrong.

As I said I am going to fight this and fight it vigorously. Why? Because a couple of hundred dollars that was promised as a discount is at stake. Because if I fight it and others fight these tactics then maybe those who don't have the vigor to argue (like older people and sick people) won't get bamboozled by Verizon and the other corporate telcos. Finally, I'm going to fight it because it's just plain wrong to treat your customers this way. I don't want anything more than to receive the service that I agreed to at the price I agreed to pay. That's called a fair deal. Changing the deal in the middle of the agreement constitutes a breach of the agreement. On the street they would call it a con job. But Verizon isn't a three-card monty dealer in Times Square who can toss his box and his cards and fade into the crowd. If we can't settle this amicably in one phone call I will be sending letters to the New York State Attorney General, The New York Department of Public Service, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications commission. My voice will be heard.

Why write this post? After all we may (and I do hope we can) be able to settle the issue amicably in one phone call. And even if we don't settle it there are a myriad or regulatory authorities who can help. I write the post because we live in a new world today. This letter has become just as important as writing regulatory bodies and other organizations that defend the rights of consumers. You see, Google will slurp up the characters here and when someone gets a letter from Verizon that says, "for which you do not qualify," then perhaps they will type that into Google and see this post. Then they'll know for sure that the bait and switch approach is not an anomaly when Verizon salespeople are enticing customers to switch. When I post the follow up (which I will do after I call Verizon on Monday) then people will find out what Verizon said and if I was able to resolve the situation. I'll let people know how I resolved it if I do. If I can't resolve the situation then I will share my next steps. A link to this post will go to Twitter and Facebook and perhaps amidst all the sharing the post will be re-shared may times. Perhaps people will write blog posts of their own about the topic. All of a sudden the consumer has a lot more power. That's a good thing.

There's one other thing that needs to be pointed out before I close this post out. A company that sends you a letter that doesn't even address you in your own name and then doesn't even sign the letter with a name (my letter is signed, "Sincerely, Verizon") DOES NOT value you as a customer. You're just a phone number. You're an account number in their billing records. That's fine with me. I wish they would just drop the pretense of me (and you) being valued. Even if the letter is a mistake it has the look of a letter that was spit out for thousands of customers as a result of some sort of database query. I know. There was a day when I helped to design form letters like this. If they valued you they would give you the benefit of the doubt and say, "We're going to keep the discount in place for the time being. Please call this person at this phone number as soon as it is convenient to discuss the situation." It's so easy to do something like that. Then the tone of the situation changes. They've given me the benefit of the doubt. They've made sure I won't have to struggle through the automated system to get to a person who can help me. Oh but they didn't do that. So they don't really value me...or you for that matter.

To be continued...