How to file a Complaint with Verizon

Question

I don’t know how to file a complaint with, or about, Verizon customer service.  After calling Verizon I was shuffled between departments, supervisors, and finally directed to “verizon.com/contactus”.  After spending an hour browsing the “contact us” section of the website, it became abundantly clear that I would not be able to find what I was looking for on the website. 
A month ago I was in the middle of the moving process and was dreading the seemingly inevitable process of setting up the internet/television/phone, a process that I had to do many times before.  My son had informed me of Verizon’s transfer service, also known as “Moving with Verizon”.  As we were only moving 3 miles down the road, I figured that I would visit my local Verizon store as this would continue to be the store I turn to if I chose to stay with Verizon.  I had several concerns that I wanted to have addressed, chief among them were:
- I have built up a significant number of movie titles in my digital library.  If I stay with Verizon, will I be able to keep the movies that I had purchased? 
- Each time I move I am inconvenienced with having to distribute my new phone number to my friends and family.   Will I be able to keep my current phone number if I stay with Verizon?
- When I first started with Verizon I had significantly less credit with Video on Demand than I do now.  If I stay with Verizon, will I have to go through the grueling process of building up my credit again?
The sales associate was very kind and willing to help.  I was assured that
-          I should be able to retain my purchases with Video On Demand
-          I can bring my phone number from my previous address
-          My Video on Demand credit could possibly be reset after the transfer, but a single phone call to customer service could set my credit back to normal with minimal effort
Throughout my questioning I was assured that my current services would transfer uninterrupted by the time of the move.  As you could imagine I was ecstatic.  We scheduled a technician to show up to the new house, when I asked the representative on the phone “What should I do with my current cable boxes and internet router while I wait for the technician?”  I was told that the technician would handle it. 
The technician arrived two weeks ago, we were given a box and instructed to package the previous equipment and drop it off at our local Verizon store.  The technician gave us our new number, when we asked him about our previous number he appeared to not know what we were talking about.   He was apologetic about the mix up and gave us a phone number that we could contact.  Shortly after the technician left, my family noticed that our digital library was completely empty.  The next day I went back to the Verizon store, was apologized to, and then instructed to only place one order in at a time, because multiple orders on a single account tend to slow each other down.  We decided to resolve the issues one at a time starting with the phone.
My wife called and was told to wait a day or two.  After waiting two days, my wife informed me that she was bounced between different departments over the course of several days, but was assured that the issue was resolved.  I told my wife that I would handle the future endeavors with Verizon as she appeared to be a little flustered by the experience.  I later received a courtesy call from Verizon confirming that our phone number was restored.  I asked the lady whom I was talking to whether she could help me with my VoD service or transfer me to someone who could.  She assured me that she could help and asked me whether or not we had received new set-top boxes for our televisions. After I informed her of the new boxes, she apologized to me and informed me that due to copyright infringement laws that our digital library was lost and that we could not receive any kind of compensation.  I decided to call customer service, and after talking to representative for almost half an hour I was placed on hold and then told that there was nothing that could be done at this time and that I was going to be disconnected, before I could respond I was hung up on.
Three nights ago I took my concern back to the Verizon store as I dropped off our previous equipment.  I was given several new phone numbers.  That evening I spent over 2 ½ hours on hold waiting for a representative.  After explaining my situation I was transferred to another representative who worked with me and put in a work order to have our digital library restored.  I was quoted 48 hours, but the issue was resolved that evening. 
Not intending to cause any more issues with Verizon until our digital library issue was resolved, my family abstained from renting or purchasing any movies from Video on Demand.  I had promised my son and grandson that if the movies were restored, I would add the new Star Trek movie to our library so that we could watch it together. I was slightly irked to realize that when I tried to add a new title to my library an error message would pop up.  I called the number on the message and entered the error code.  I was placed on hold for almost an hour.  When I finally reached a representative, he informed me that the problem was that my credit had been reset during the move and the issue could only be resolved by another department which had just closed for the evening.  I decided to work at home the next day so that I could watch the movie when my son came home that evening.  The next morning I called and realized that the opening time quoted to me was obviously in a different time zone.  When I finally reached an agent, 2 hours later, I was told that I was 5 dollars over my credit limit.  I informed the representative of my situation, as proof I pointed to the fact that the bill that I had paid earlier this week was almost 200 dollars more than my current statement.  I was asked to wait 30 minutes and to call back if the issue hadn’t resolved itself within an hour.  An hour later I called, explained my situation to another representative, and was told to call back in an hour if the problem hadn’t resolved itself.  An hour later I called and after being sent to several different representatives I was asked to call back in an hour if the issue hadn’t resolved itself.
Meanwhile my wife was contacted at worked by Verizon, informing her that there was no record of us returning the equipment and that we could be facing additional charges if we did not straighten out the issue.  After spending the next several hours assuring my wife and showing her how on the receipt, each piece of equipment was clearly scanned and entered into the system, I decided to call customer service again as my VoD was still displaying the same error message.  I was apologized to yet again, and was told that my order was being slowed down due to a high number of unresolved issues on our account.  I was assured that he would clear out the mess and that we should be able to order movies that evening, if not I should call back in 24 hours.  I apologized to my son and grandson yesterday evening, both of them took it surprisingly well.  This evening I waited until 7:30 to contact customer service (31 hours after I was told to wait 24 hours), I was placed on hold again and again for over an hour and a half.  I finally was told that my account would be cleared out to resolve the issue, I informed the gentleman that I was already told that would be done and then referenced the ticket number that I had received (and double-checked) from the gentleman the day before.  After speaking to his supervisor about the issue I was informed that there was no record of this action nor was there any ticket number matching the one I had given him.  The gentleman tried to help me for several more minutes until he transferred me to another department because neither he nor his supervisors could understand why my account wasn’t letting him change the date on my ticket, as he had reset all my resolved issues. 
I explained my situation to the representative who after reviewing my account information informed me that I could have had the issue resolved on the 29th of August but someone during my process removed my order.  She then informed me that due to the number of unresolved orders on my account the system could not let her schedule a credit increase until the 26th of September.  After repeatedly asking her what I could do to expedite this process, I came to realize that all she could do was repeat to me the information that she had already said.  I then asked her who I could talk to resolve this issue or file a complaint.  After rambling for several minutes I was then transferred to the billing department.  After explaining my situation, yet again, to another representative, my account was reviewed again, and I was once again informed that I was over my credit limit.  After going into details a little more intimately, I was assured that the earliest that I could receive the credit increase was the 26th of September, and that I should make another payment.  I informed her that I had just paid over $550 dollars on my last bill and had given up the majority of my free time over the last 2 weeks trying to resolve issues that I was assured wouldn’t be a problem by a Verizon representative.   I asked if I could receive a small credit to my account ($30) so that I could just watch the movie and feel like I received a small victory for sacrificing so much of my time.  She informed me that only her supervisor could make that call.  She informed me that I would have to wait around 15 minutes on hold (what’s 15 minutes when I’ve already waited 8+ hours on hold?).  After explaining my situation to Cornell he reviewed my account and then reworded what I had just told him.  He informed me that the department that deals with my issue (the department that just transferred me to billing) was now closed and that I would have to wait until Tuesday (4 days) to have my issue resolved.  After explaining the fruitlessness of dealing with that exact department with the exact information he was trying to send me off with, he placed me on hold for several minutes and then came back and agreed to only meet me half way, a $15 dollar credit.  I was extremely offended.  This is not even 3% of my average bill.  $15 for 2 weeks of unsatisfactory service, in addition to 12+ hours of my personal time in addition to my wife’s time and visiting the Verizon store.  After explaining to Cornell that $15 was less than satisfactory, I asked for an email address or a complaint line.  He agreed with me that it was frustrating and explained to me that it was getting late for his department “almost 11:40 in the evening”, the exact time where I am.  He gave me Verizon.com/contactus, which after reviewing the page, I became insulted.  I have continually followed up with my phone calls and stayed loyal to Verizon, following the instructions of each representative that I have talked to in the last several days.
Verizon has provided both my family and me with an excellent entertainment package as well as outstanding customer service in the past.  I would like to believe that despite the fact that I was lied to by both a sales representative and a supervisor that my family’s experience over that last few weeks with Verizon is not a common one.  I am more than willing to place this movie order on my next bill, all I ask is that you please help me to enjoy the advertised early release and to enjoy the services I previously had with your company.

Answer 1

We've been having problem with our Verizon Fios set up since the moment we moved in to our new place. We've had several technicians come through, and then eventualy aftet two weeks of setting up appoitments and calling the customer service folks, they were finally able to resolve the issue. However, the nightmare doesn't end here. Last week, our neighbors switched over to Verizon Fios, and their technician swtiched our cables with theirs ( what a sloppy, lazy, job) meaning that they unplugged everything that was running to our apartments and transferred over to their becuase they didn't want to put in the extra work to chech and make sure that everyone was getting service. After, we had noticed the problem, my husband called  customer service to put in a ticket for the technician to come through and resolve the issue. The ticket was made for Wednesday, Nov 7th, 2013  under ticket number {edited for privacy}, the rep had clealry stated that a technician will come anytime from 3 - 7, which meant that one of us had to be home. My husband took off work and waited for the technician to come through, however, NOBODY showed up. Instead, they told us that they were came at 5 oclock but nobody was home. The same day we called customer service again, and reschudeled to the next day. Thankfully, someone showed up at literally 7pm, meanwhile my husband was waiting at home since 3pm. After hounding them down and calling every hour to make sure that they would show up. Sure enough, they coudn't fix the wiring with out a bucket truck, which the technician mentioned he didn't have since it was already late in the game and eveything was closed. So again, my husband called to make another appoitment, for Saturday, November 9th, 2013, and again, the customer service people  confirmed that someone will show up on this day from 8am-12pm. Guess what!? NOONE came, because NOONE issued a ticket, meanwhile we knew for a FACT that we made an appoitment. It's been one week, and no end to this problem. I am appalled, that a multibillion dollar company such as Verizon has such poor customer service in this area. It is sickening and sad, that noone can come and fix a small issue such as this. I hope that this will be resolved tomorrow, ( as they confirmed that they will come on Sunday) if not we have no other choice but to cancel our services and switch to something else. If only Google fiber was in town, things would have been so much easier, and not OVERPAID, especially now with the CRAPPY service we've been getting.