sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Verizon - What to Do???

Last Thursday, the DSL service at one of our remote sites went down. Simple ping testing revealed 20-60% packet loss. So, naturally, we put in a call to Verizon's Business Online call center.

A brief rundown of the circular hell:

- Despite being dialed in AND able to telnet into the Cisco router, Verizon refused to open a ticket since no one was "onsite" to go through their scripted troubleshooting. Apparently, there is no "level 2" tech support, so odds of getting anyone who knows what you are talking about are pretty slim.

- My boss, a corporate director, called and asked to speak with a supervisor. The agent refused to connect him.

- Friday I made several calls and was able to get a trouble ticket opened, but only after having a supervisor (they do exist!) put me on hold and then hang up.

- On one of Friday's calls, I was mistakenly transferred to a Verizon Network Tech, who assuming I was calling from a small ISP, began testing the line. That was an interesting experience, as he walked me through every step, as he telnetted to the terminal device, ran various tests, etc. His initial testing revealed massive CRC errors on the line, and then he actually lost contact with the terminal for a few minutes. He suggested pairs would need to be swapped at the terminal device. At this point, he realized he was speaking with an actual customer and directed me to open a ticket with the call center, and have them note his findings in the ticket.

- I did so, and Verizon maintenance closed the ticket Saturday after the line supposedly tested OK. In this case, I guess "OK" means it was snowy and in the low 20's, so we're not rolling a truck.

- Opened yet another ticket on Monday, and again on Tuesday after driving to the site. I politely asked for the matter to be expedited, as the site had been without service for almost a week, but apparently there is no way for a customer to escalate a problem? Same old response - "24-48 hours" for the network team to evaluate.

Needless to say, I'm not pleased with Verizon at the moment. My question is what recourse do I have? I've got an office that has been unable to function for a week, and I have no way of knowing what is going on, other than calling some clueless call center agent and asking whether any new notes have been added to the ticket.

File formal complaints with the FCC and Mass. Attorney General's office? Verizon has a dispute resolution department, right? Anyone have contact info?

It has gotten so comical that I was status requests while in Rhode Island from our Mass. Regional Manager, who was in one of the Connecticut offices trying to get some work done.

:bang: :bang: :bang:

File your complaint with the New York State Public Service Commission . 1-800-342-3377


You can do it on line . www.DPS.STATE.ny.us
goto file complaint on line.

If you want to go further ,request a hearing.

Since your up in Albany complain to local
state senator and representatives.

They are regulated, file a complaint with your Public Service Commission, or whatever they call the agency in your area.

Too slow again...

Yeah, I was thinking maybe the FCC and PSC or other regulatory bodies. The site is in Springfield, MA.

Thanks guys.

Steve:

You have opened up one of my favorite gripes. These people are completely out of control, yet they are in control. Here's one of my recent rampages:

https://www.sundance-communications.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/22/t/000424.html

It will never end; they have more money than God and control nearly every government. As they are quickly becoming another AT&T, one would think that the monopoly thing would be close to kicking in. Something tells me that this time around, Verizon (I hate fake new names - It's Bell Atlantic) will pay off the federal judges to avoid a ruling. Gotta stop here or I will be going on forever.

Who would have thought years ago Verizon (formally GTE) would start buying up baby bells. Then they would buy up the long hauls. I don't think it will be long before it's just two or maybe three major carriers.

I really have been lucky here. I'm in a rural area and I know and worked with the telco techs many years ago. Most will take my word when I tell them they have a trouble and they are quite helpful when I need them to mediate for my customer and their trouble center.

We are in the process of being sued by Verizon for a $40,000.00 bill due to their error. I may have posted this elsewhere, but here I go again.

Actually, at this point, they have just turned us over to a collection agency. So, grab your box of tissues and listen to my little story.

Three years ago, the only thing close to high speed Internet that we could get at our office was ISDN-BRI. Our server was set to dial up a connection on both channels and we got something close to 128K. This connection stayed live 24/7. We had shopped around, but found the simplest way to handle it was to just get ISDN and ISP services in a packaged bundle from Verizon. We had long distance dialing capability removed from the ISDN circuit because all it would ever need to do would be to dial a local number. We contacted MCI and had long distance completely removed from the line. Can you tell where I am going here?

Verizon gave us a local 10-digit access number for Internet access that our router would dial. Everything around here requires 10-digit dialing. It turns out that the "local" access number they gave us was in one of the few areas where it was actually a toll call, as in charged by the minute. The first month's bill came and it was $9,900.00.

We had no long distance preference on the line; MCI had been removed as our PIC months prior. For some reason, Verizon elected to assign themselves as our default LD carrier. In our minds, calls to this access number shouldn't have been going through if it was long distance number. Based upon this, we made the assumption that the access number was a local call.

Nope. Not only was it a toll number, but since we didn't have a contracted LD rate with them, they charged us tariffed rates (about 4 cents per minute for times two for both channels on the circuit). That's where the mile-high charges came from; 24/7 connection on two channels at 8 cents per minute!

We immediately contacted Verizon and that's when the fun began. They indicated that these charges were not related to our bill from Verizon-Virginia; they were from Verizon-Long Distance. They were just acting as a billing agent for the LD calls and we would have to take this up with Verizon-On Line to get it resolved. Since Verizon On-line gave us the incorrect number to dial, they would have to offset the cost by paying Verizon-Long Distance. Verizon On-Line said hell no, that there is fine print in the front of the telephone directory that clearly defines what is toll and what is not. We should have known to check this (verify what Verizon did was correct). Why do I sound like a broken record here?

The three Verizons (I should say the three stooges) bounced it back and forth amongst themselves for four months. During this time, the $10,000.00 bills continued to come in. We kept calling each time a bill arrived, and kept being told that the matter needed to be handled by an "ISDN specialist". Their policy was that you have to leave them a message and they will respond within two weeks. No calls ever came; we had to keep calling.

After four months, they reached their conclusion. Yes, Verizon On-Line made a mistake, but it was our responsibility as a customer to verify that what they gave us was correct. Therefore, the charges would stand. At this point, Verizon (the single name they use to market their products and services) all of a sudden became separate companies. None was willing to work with the other at all. It was up to us, the old "guilty until proven innocent" thing.

Bear in mind, we were supposed to be getting a bundled $99.00 per month flat-rate package. That's what we signed up for on the single website we used to order this service. We ordered the ISDN line, and the Internet service in one single transaction through one single website, yet now we are being told we actually were dealing with two separate companies. While I understand this, they don't EVER represent themselves as separate companies; it's always one company in the consumer's opinion.

We still paid the agreed (regulated) portion of each month's bill just to keep them from disconnecting us. That was at Verizon-Virginia's direction. I guess that was a good thing.

Like I said, they have turned us over to a collection agency. Even the collection agency agrees that it's a moot case and they don't harass us except to try again every few months. Apparently, they bought the account and still keep trying.

Moral of the story: Verizon is not the single company that they represent themselves to be. They are still operating as separate entities and they have to do this to remain legal. This means that behind the facade, they are still Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and GTE. There are two Verizon dial tone companies in Virgina; Verizon-Virginia which is former Bell Atlantic territories and Verizon-South which is former GTE territories. What really makes it fun is that now their business offices try to handle orders for each other. What a joke!

If this case ever does go to court, I, as the defendant will insist upon a jury trial. Everyone hates Verizon so any jury will side against them. It's worth the court costs just to screw them back for the decades of poor customer service!

Get a good lawyer, I would bet this problem they committed has hurt your business in some way shape or form. A good Lawyer might really be able to help you out.

Maybe even a class action suit? I'd look for someone who specializes in them.

I don't know about your state, but in CA you can sue in Small Claims for $5, 000 without a lawyer.

So upstate should be able to make a case for lost business and ev could probably submit a bill for lawyers fees.

You can also "fire" the collection agency. You can tell them that you will only deal with the original creditor. You can apply for a million dollars credit from some friendly bank, get turned down, and tell Verizon that their error is harming your business and they need to get your credit report cleared before they are sued.

Lots of fun.