Well folks,
Verizon is at it again. Some of you remember all the trouble I had
getting a foreign residential listing with them.
They've had me listed with directory assistance for a year. They've
never properly billed me and I was calling back monthly asking where
the bill was. I told them that I was concerned that if I wasn't
properly billed and paid that bill that my listing my not show up in
the June phone book. Of course, I got transfered from department to
department until someone finally decided to pull up my account (each
time I called).
They kept telling me a month or two. When I'd call again in a month
or two, it was 'a month or two', which happened a few more times.
Then they told me I would get a year's bill in March. March came
without a bill. I called them to ask where the bill was. They hadn't
a clue why someone had told me March. I was told I'd be billed in
June when the directory came out. I told them that if we waited for
that, there was a strong possibility that my listing would not be
included in the directory. They insisted there was no way that could
happen.
Well, June came, the bill came (a year's bill, by the way), and the
directory came out. My name and number were *not* in it.
Well, some of you remember how much trouble I was having with the VOIP
company (Voicepulse) that was providing me with that number. Besides
all the quality problems that their CSRs were not interested in
addressing and the fact that there was no one to escalate to except
the CEO of the company (whom they would not let you talk to, by the
way), they wouldn't allow me to port my number away from them. I had
been paying for a Carolina Net line so the number could be transfered
all that time. I only held onto Voicepulse because that number was to
be listed in the telephone directory and I couldn't port it elsewhere.
I had filed a complaint with the FCC but after many months the FCC
told me that they couldn't do anything about it because they were a
VOIP provider (they can require them to provide E911 but they can't
require them to port numbers? Strange).
I talked with Verizon Executive complaints. They were just as shocked
as I was (like they didn't know how much trouble I've been having with
their customer service). They wanted to issue me a credit for the
listing but I don't want them to do that and told them so. I felt
that if I didn't pay that bill, there was a danger that this would
happen next year. Instead, we neogiated them providing me a forwarded
local number that I could later port to Carolina Net. That number is
up and running now. You dial my Verizon number and get forwarded to
my Carolina Net line. I am waiting on the first bill for the
forwarding (which Verizon is paying for me in settlement of this major
foulup) until I can get a copy of the bill to Carolina Net and have
the line ported to them.
So, I put in a change order on my foreign residential listing with the
new Verizon Number. Since it is going to be ported away from Verizon,
I needed it as a foreign listing so it would still be given out by
directory assistance and appear in the 2007 book.
I went to the local Radio Shack last week and paid my Verizon bill for
the foreign listing. The check cleared my bank account this morning.
I called Verizon and the residential department still denied that they
had responsibility for the account (even though the executive
complaints department said that they had confirrmed that the
residential department should be handling foreign listings). I had to
call back and got someone else. I had to tell her how to pull up the
account with the account number (not the phone number). After talking
with her supervisor, she managed to pull it up.
She told me that they had indeed received my check. That the payment
had indeed been applied to my account. But also a credit in the
amount of my payment had been applied and they were refunding me the
payment and they had closed the account against my explicit
instructions.
Verizon Executive Complaints is furious and is looking into what
happened. I've involved the NC Utilities Commission and sent a FAXed
letter to Verizon's Executive Offices in New York to describe all of
this incompentent account support.
Will let you know what happens.
And they call this a telephone company?
Regards,
Fred Atkinson
Fred Atkinson (fatkinson@mishmash.com)