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Shoddy service adds to the anguish after a death in the family
First published: Sunday, August 17, 2008
John Robideau is another of the growing legion of readers who have contacted me about the Byzantine customer service he experienced with Verizon. In his case, the Albany resident faced weeks of frustration and hours of being on hold when he was just trying to change the name on his Verizon bill.
Robideau's mother, Ann, died in June and he called the company in July to have her name removed from the bill.
"We all lived in the same household ... I was also an authorized user name for the DSL service," Robideau said. He expected he'd have to provide some documentation, and then he'd be able to get on with his life.
"You would think the most this would take is them asking for a copy of the death certificate and proof that I also resided in my house. But no way."
Here are some highlights from the hassle that unfolded.
He spoke to three different people the first day, each one putting him on hold for about 20 minutes. He was told, finally, that in order to do this his DSL service would have to be disconnected for a week, and then he'd have to reorder the service. Meanwhile, the customer service representative tried to sell him an upgrade that he did not want.
The next day he found out his phone had been disconnected, except for 911 service. He could also access Verizon customer service, so he spent another 2 hours on the phone getting his service back.
Day 3. He began calling at 11 a.m. and this time he was put on hold only for about 15 minutes between customer service representatives, instead of 20, while each one reviewed his case. Robideau reported progress this time. "I finally get a woman that seems to know what she is talking about." He was told his phone service would be back immediately and his DSL service would return, in his name, in less than a week.
Less than an hour after this call ended, at 12:45, he received a call. It was an automated message that said his phone service was "terminated."
This turned out to be an automated call placed in error. His phone service was restored later that day.
But wait, that's not all.
He called the next week to check on his DSL service and discovered that since he was ordering new service, he would no longer be eligible for the price he had been paying for the last three years, $19.99 a month. The new price would be $39.99.
Meanwhile, he checked online and noticed, for all his wasted time, that the name on the bill was still Ann Robideau.
"It's totally absurd to think that every family with someone that has an obituary ... has to put up with such BS," Robideau wrote to me.
Robideau points out he is current on his bill payments. He's kept up his end of the bargain. What's Verizon's problem?
I contacted John Bonomo, a Verizon spokesman based in New York City, and he replied promptly. He investigated Robideau's complaint and here is what he said:
"The experience that Mr. Robideau encountered is not indicative of the millions of superior customer service experiences that Verizon provides to its customers each day. The changes to his account could have and should have been handled in a more efficient manner, especially during his difficult personal time. His account has now been changed to his own name, and we are happy that he has elected to continue his telephone ervice with Verizon."
Bonomo is right about one thing: Verizon has millions of customers and most of the time the company does its job. And I would add that with millions of customers, even a small percentage of glitches would seem inevitable. But Verizon's problem isn't in the percentages. It's at the individual level.
Here's an example where it doesn't matter that millions of other people have had "superior" customer service with Verizon. What matters is that a man with better things to do and bigger problems to worry about was treated like just another faceless account number.
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