my own story about Verizon & by the way, I did mention to a few reps at Verizon that I had authored a book on elder abuse and exploitation and that I did not like the way my issue was being handled...their response? YOU GUESS IT...nothing!

"On December 16^th 2011, I called Verizon and spoke with customer service Daphnee regarding an issue we had with our bill. Our issue? My son’s Blackberry had stopped working in late August in that he could no longer make or receive calls on it. Frankly, he always had an issue with this Verizon because he lives on the North Shore of LI and the signal is poor with an incredible amount of dropped calls. Verizon promptly sold him a signal booster which worked… some times.

When he spoke with a customer service rep, that rep told him his phone was under warrantee and customer service sent a prepaid envelop and asked that it be returned. Verizon replaced it. No issue.

However, suddenly, he was billed for the new phone. When we called, Verizon stated that their warehouse rep open the envelope and reported the Blackberry had a hairline crack in the phone’s screen. The Verizon rep talked to my son and said that any damage to the phone negated the warrantee and Verizon added $300 to our bill. My son said there was no damage to the phone which had worked perfectly and then died.

I called Verizon and got Daphnee on the phone because my son’s home had some damage from Hurricane Irene’s gale force winds and he was more concerned with that as an immediate issue; he said he cannot get anywhere with Verizon customer service.

Since the account is in both of our names, I took over. I am glad I did because from what my son was telling me I thought, perhaps, he was exaggerating. Bad news…he was not in the least exaggerating…….a 37 year old guy was stymied, confused, getting the run around and he could not handle the maze of inept customer service. Once I took over, I couldn’t handle the amount of bull I was hearing either.

The first person I spoke to was the person mentioned above: Daphnee. She said we would just exchange the replacement Blackberry for my upgraded phone, remove the bells and whistles of the Blackberry account which my son felt was worthless anyway and, as Daphnee stated, everything will be okay.

I did, at this time, tell Daphnee that when my son returned the original phone it was not damaged, but, had stopped working. Daphnee expressed the opinion of Verizon corporate, apparently, saying:  “IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE PHONE WAS DAMAGED BY THE MAIL SERVICE.”

Since I have gotten everything from a set of dishes to glass packed in styrofoam that was well packed and received in a perfect box but once opened and every single dish in a service for 12 was smashed, I really couldn’t quit understand why Verizon’s rep found it so hard to believe that something may have happened to the phone in transit. More details followed and I found myself wondering, could this whole thing be a scam?

That same day I spoke to Mark, a Verizon customer service rep, who said he would mail out another envelope so we could send back the second Blackberry. My woman’s intuition told me to speak to a supervisor that day and Verizon’s supervisor told me that there would be no problem with this exchange and even texted me (don’t you hate texting, BOOMers?) Daphnee’s email address which remains in my cell phone as we speak.

So as of December 16^th I had the above information and we were going to wait to receive the packing envelope to mail back the Blackberry.

It didn’t come…okay, so I am reasonable, holiday rush, a lot of mail, etc. I waited. I waited almost one month and then I emailed Daphnee on January 9^th. No response from her and I am still waiting for that on 2/17/2012. So much for the supervisor’s text telling me how to resolve the issue.

Daphnee did tell me that my son should request my upgraded phone to replace his Blackberry but customer service refused to do that because, you guess it, we had not paid for the original Blackberry that was under warrantee. So much for information from Daphnee and the above supervisor!

Are you getting any of this? Mind boggling isn’t it? I called Verizon on January 14^th at 2:53PM and spoke with Tiara, Verizon’s customer service rep who then transferred me to someone named Beverly at 3:01 PM.

Beverly told me that Verizon does not accept used equipment back and that Daphnee had made an error. When I told her I had also spoken to Mark and the supervisor during that very same call, Beverly said, “They were all misinformed.”

I said, “Why are we going through all this mishegas (Yiddesh word for mess)?” Beverly laughed and said, “I am probably the only person in Atlanta that knows what mishegas means!”

I responded, chuckling, “How do you explain that?” She retorted with, “I was born and raised in Miami.” We both laughed.  We continued to exchange pleasantries and she told me that she was so fortunate to have her Verizon job because, at this time in her life, she never would have guessed that she would be looking for a job.

After more pleasantries, I said to her “Beverly, why is it that 3 of your Verizon co-workers lied to me?” She said, “No, I’ve heard this story before and they are just misinformed.”

Hmmm, misinformed customer service reps, lies perhaps, maybe scams? I dunno.

I asked, “Why didn’t Daphnee respond to my email and just tell me the truth?” Beverly said, “I don’t know but I am going to send an email to her supervisor (who I had already spoken to on 12/16 who verified that I had been given the correct information on 12/16) and she will be reprimanded.”

Maybe but you could have fooled me judging by the rest of this issue with validation for my suspicions coming to fruition since it is NOW February 17, 2012 with absolutely no contact from Verizon despite their word.

I asked Beverly: “What do we do with this Blackberry? My son says the first one was garbage and the second one has not performed any better.”

Here’s the kicker from Beverly, “I have had phone issues too and I sell my useless phones. They do have a market on CraigsList where you can recoup some of their value so that’s the advice I would give you. It’s probably worth $20 or $25, just remove the SIM card first.  Meanwhile, your son can take your phone upgrade, discontinue his Blackberry services like receiving email and lower your bill. We’ll let you pay off the $300 for the other Blackberry” (now remember, this Blackberry was under warrantee and it was VERIZON’S REP who told my son it was).

I told her I will tell my son to sell the Blackberry and obtain my upgrade but I want to hear from someone on a supervisory level to explain to me why 3 people gave me “misinformation” on December 16^th and why this mess exists because Verizon reps have been giving me faulty information since this started a month ago.

Beverly assured me I would hear back in days. Never happened! Are you relating to this? Are you catching the pass the buck?

I resisted paying my bill as long as possible because it was incredibly clear to me that something weird was going on here. So, my next bill was due January 21 and I called and spoke with customer service rep who then contradicted Beverly saying that Verizon would have taken back the second Blackberry if we hadn’t sold it.

Is everyone following this circle? So…Daphnee tells me send it back, doesn’t respond to email, no envelope is sent and then Beverly tells me no envelope was sent because that is NOT Verizon’s policy and she will speak with Daphnee’s supervisor who also, along with Verizon customer service rep Mark, told me on 12/16 that a return envelope was on the way. Then, Beverly said all 3 of them were misinformed then this new customer service rep told me Beverly was misinformed.

I WAS ANGRY now and asked to speak to a supervisor. Her name is Courtney and she told me that Verizon would definitely have taken the phone back and credited us but we sold the phone. They said they would take 25% off the value of the phone and refund that amt ($75) to our account.

I said, “NO WAY…I want to speak with your supervisor” but for some reason that couldn’t happen at that time but Courtney said she would request that Verizon staff listen to the tape of the conversation which took place at 3:01 PM on January 14^th 2012 between Beverly and myself. This process, said Courtney,  would probably take about 3 days at the soonest and in 7-10 days at the latest.

She said Verizon Corporate took things like this very seriously and I would definitely hear from them. I did take Courtney’s direct phone number from her but my call to her was not returned. Hmmmm, I think there is a pattern here, don’t you? ;o) Ssssshhhh, corporate America thinks we are dumb

Well, today is 2/16/12.

Outcome? Nothing.

I have not heard a word from Verizon since January 21^st.

I placed an ad on CraigsList here in NY asking for those who had issues with Verizon to come forward and quite a few responded including a reporter from News 12 here in NYC who asked if anyone had come forward from the Bronx….”not yet,” I retorted. The reporter said, “When you hear from a Bronx resident, get back to me and we will do a story; we cover the Bronx.” Hmmmm.

So, during the above, “Welcome to Verizon” has taken on a whole new meaning, in fact, I keep hearing subliminal banjo music playing on my phone. Here’s what I am hearing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPK8SWDF-kg&feature=related (You have to be a BOOMer to get the metaphor!)
 
When I searched the Internet for the corporate office, I noted that Verizon corporate makes it very difficult to find a specific place to register a complaint though there are scores and scores of complaints spread around the Internet. I can’t imagine why, can you?

Fellow BOOMers, after reading the above, do you think that you would have been able to do all of the above without getting disgusted and then paying what they asked while feeling very exploited and scammed but just delighted to have this over? BINGO!

A quick survey of my peers found every one of them having a Verizon horror story to tell and most couldn’t even figure out how I managed to put up with this. But, writing a book does help train the mind to think methodically and always take notes. Also, since my father’s life was lost in an elaborate scheme, this, sadly, is not my first rodeo. It’s not even my second or 300^th rodeo because when "Paradise Costs" was released, I heard from people all over the country telling me horrendous stories about greed and even murder.

So, is this what we face with corporate America?  There’s a surprise, right? Is Verizon aware that its own employees don’t know company policy or there is a confusing and inconsistent company policy that exhausts and wears down the customer instead of resolving the problem?

How many other companies like credit card companies, banks, investment houses, medical plans, etc are running these types of customer service operations providing such awful service to seniors like me?  Of course, since most of us do lose some cognitive skills in this natural process of aging, how will we, as a 78 million member generation, do with all this?  

What are the State Attorney Generals and the Federal Trade Commission doing about this?

Perhaps customer service is a thing of the past and we can rename those so-called services “covert operations?”

This is why the younger folks are in the streets to Occupy Wall Street like we were in the streets to end the Viet Nam war. This is why we picketed for a woman’s right to chose. This is why we stood for Civil Rights…now who among you will join us BOOMs and clobber corporate America whose greed knows no bounds?

POWER TO THE PEOPLE as my blog's attorney has advised me to sue Verizon in Small Claims Court to demonstrate the power of the little guy vs the giant corporate entity. He seems sure I will prevail.

Remember, BOOMers, as the largest voting block in America, 78 million strong, our voice can determine almost anything including the next president of the US."