How do you get a RESPONSE from Verizon?

Question

How does one get a response from Verizon?  Here's my situation...
Given the amount of trouble that I have had with a recent order, you would think that I was trying to land a 747 jet on my roof.  In reality, all I was aiming to do was to cancel the $19.99 per month phone service that I never used.  I do not even own a phone, for that matter.  I also had enhanced high speed Internet, and I wanted to retain the high speed Internet.  A few days before January 13, 2012, I called Verizon and spoke to the 1st sales representative, who ensured me that it was no problem to cancel the phone service and yet retain the high speed Internet for the same monthly price.  24 hours later, my high speed DSL service was no longer functioning.  I will try to briefly explain the disastrous customer service that ensued. 
The first several phone calls to Verizon were not productive as I was transferred to the wrong department, and then at least one of my phone calls was dropped by the Verizon server.  The representative did not call me back.  I finally got in touch with a technical support representative, the 2nd Verizon representative, who informed me that the high speed Internet had been turned off and that I had to speak to a sales representative to solve the issue.  Another sales representative, the 3rd Verizon representative, informed me that the 1st representative had cancelled my phone line, and thus cancelled all of my services.  Great.  The 3rd representative informed me that he was absolutely capable of handling the problem and that he would simply add a new order for high speed Internet, which was to be activated the next morning.  The next morning came and went, and guess what?  No Internet.  I called again.  The 4th Verizon representative told me that everything that had been done previously was incorrect and that the sales department is not capable of making such changes.  She told me that she could not help me and that my claim had to be submitted to a different department, which has the authority to un-do all of the previous changes.  She told me that I would receive a call back the same day to resolve the issue.  Given my previous experiences with Verizon, I was confident that I would not, in fact, receive a call back and so I asked her how I could get transferred to this department, if I needed to call again.  She said that I could not be transferred.  Okay.  So then I asked her what to ask for so that next time I called, I could be transferred to the correct department without dealing with yet another sales representative who gives me yet a different story.  She informed me that she could not provide that information to customers.  The Department That Shall Not Be Named (and that I cannot contact) did not call me, and I was not surprised.  Unfortunately, I did not know how to go about contacting them, because, as I was told, customers aren’t allowed to do that. 
The 6th phone call to Verizon was dropped by the Verizon server.  The 7th phone call to Verizon went to the 5th Verizon representative, a sales associate who placed us on hold for the first 15 minutes only to inform us that she could not find any record of our Internet service.  What the heck was she doing, checking her Facebook account?  She finally returns, puts us on another extended hold, and then adamantly tells us that we need to speak with technical support, which, if you recall, was the first Verizon party that I spoke at the beginning of this debacle.  The 5th  representative transfers me again to technical support.  Of course, the technical support personnel, the 6th Verizon representative said what the first one did, that the account was inactive and that we needed to talk to the sales department.  My husband was on the phone at this point because I was DONE.  When the 6th technical support representative tried to transfer him back to the sales department, my husband insisted that the 6th technical support representative remain on the line while we spoke to yet another sales representative, the 7th Verizon representative.  The 6th technical support representative patiently waited with us while we sat in yet another long queue to speak with a member of the sales department. 
The 7th sale representative, from the retention department based out of New Jersey, found that all previous orders had been set up erroneously.  She cancelled the old orders and reinstated a completely new order.  The DSL began working a few days later.  MAGIC.  She then left me a voicemail message saying that she would eliminate the activation and shipping fee (duh) as I never canceled the account to begin with and as I already had the equipment.  She also applied a coupon to reduce the price to around $30 per month, assured for the next 2 years.  I was relieved. 
You can imagine our frustration then when we received the bill for $79 on February 6, 2012, which included a much higher monthly rate (around $45) and the shipping and activation fee of $19.99 that we were assured we would not pay. Again, nothing was shipped to us because we already had the equipment.
Our next phone call to Verizon landed us with a guy, the 8th Verizon representative, who had no intention of helping us.  According to him, there was no record of these wrongs, and despite the fact that we had an old account number and three order numbers that were screwed up, he did not deem that there was enough evidence to change our monthly bill.  (Unfortunately, the 7th Verizon representative did not make notes or appropriately document the situation on the new account.)  The 8th Verizon representative then had the audacity to comment that we could be lying to him, yet he was unwilling to view the evidence that we could have presented.  Instead, he suggested that we call tech support again and try to go through the same process to get connected to the mysterious “retention department” which he knew nothing about. 
At this point, I was beyond fed up.  The attitude of the 8th Verizon representative put me over the edge.  I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an abbreviated version of this story.  I did not file the complaint to get back at Verizon.  Instead, I filed the complaint because I knew that another phone call to Verizon would be useless.  I’ve been dealing with this issue for over a month, and I’m sick of it.  I have better things to do with my time, believe it or not, and this situation has resulted in a significantly waste of my time over what, in my opinion, was a very simple issue to resolve. 
The BBB processed the complaint and I was contacted last Friday afternoon by a Verizon representative (the 9th) who said that she was looking into the matter and that she would respond to me within two to three business days.  Well, it’s almost the end of the week, and I have received no response.  Again, after all of this, how could I be surprised? 
I have been a Verizon customer, wireless and residential, for as long as I can remember, but I am reaching the point of outrage.  This situation is truly unacceptable. 
You would think that, in 2012, with all of the technology available to us and the fact that Verizon is a COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, that at least Verizon employees would be able to make a basic change to an existing order and that at least one out of 9 Verizon representatives would be able to solve this issue in a span of over four weeks.  Think again. 
How does one get a response from Verizon? 

Answer 1

dougiedc wrote:
It boggles the mind.  The Verizon store on L Street downtown Washington, D.C. cannot access my Verizon account.  They can only sell cellphones then it's up to me to contact Verizon on my own to get the hook up. I even asked "Are you Verizon employes?  Is this a vendor store or is it really a Verizon owned and operated store?"  The answer "Yes, we are Verizon employes, yes this is a Verizon owned and operated store" ...
Yes, it indeed boggles the mind.  I'm of course referring to the fact that your post concerns Verizon Wireless products and services.  This forum is dedicated exclusively to Verizon Communications services.   As you probably know, Verizon Wireless and Verizon Communications operate as separate companies.
If you need help for a Verizon wireless product or service, it's best to direct questions to the Verizon Wireless forums.  You can reach them by clicking on "Wireless" (either here or at the top of the page).
Good luck and I sincerely hope you get your issue resolved.