Friday, February 4
More Spectacular Customer Service
Ok, I've been trying for about a month to arrange DSL for one of my customers in Baytown, TX. This is a Verizon served area that used to be GTE before the merger in 2000.
The link below takes you to a field where you enter the phone number to find out if DSL is available on that line. For the customer's main phone number, it says no, for their fax number, it says to call their 800 number to find out availability.
So I called. Got told yes, they can get DSL on that line. Handed it off to our tech that usually handles this type of ordering. He called Verizon and they told him that DSL was not available on that line. So it got handed back to me for more research. Another call to Verizon, and I spoke with a tech who told me that it was available on that line, but that there were coils on the line that would have to be removed, so it would take about six weeks to install, instead of the normal two weeks. Ok, so we sent the information back to the customer. Then yesterday I called and spoke to one of their ordering people who told me that there was no guarantee that DSL could be installed on this line, but that she could start the order process, and we would find out if they could get DSL for sure. So I sent this information, her phone number and extension to the customer because they wanted to order the DSL themselves.
Got a call this morning, the customer tried calling Verizon, and could not get to the rep who I listed for them, so would I please take care of this order?
Sure, so I'm on the phone with Verizon, I've gottten in touch with the same rep from yesterday, and now she is telling me that she is getting told that none of the lines are available for DLS today.
Yes, No, Yes, Maybe, No.
Hmmm.....
This would be funny if we were not billing the customer about $125 per hour for this service. Instead it just looks like we're ripping off the customer, and that Verizon DSL is completely incompetent.
At least it makes it easy to understand how our country is lagging so far behind the rest of the world in Broadband Internet Access.
Ok, I'm back from hold. Now none of the lines qualifies for DSL, but if they run a new replacement line, at the customer's expense, there is a chance that it might support DSL, chance it might not. So the Verizon rep is calling the customer to get approval to re-run the line.
The funny part is remembering that the incumbent phone companies have warned if there is competition instead of their monopolies in Texas that it would make service worse. Aside from going to Morse Code or Semiphore, I don't see it getting much worse than this.
Verizon Online Business DSL
The link below takes you to a field where you enter the phone number to find out if DSL is available on that line. For the customer's main phone number, it says no, for their fax number, it says to call their 800 number to find out availability.
So I called. Got told yes, they can get DSL on that line. Handed it off to our tech that usually handles this type of ordering. He called Verizon and they told him that DSL was not available on that line. So it got handed back to me for more research. Another call to Verizon, and I spoke with a tech who told me that it was available on that line, but that there were coils on the line that would have to be removed, so it would take about six weeks to install, instead of the normal two weeks. Ok, so we sent the information back to the customer. Then yesterday I called and spoke to one of their ordering people who told me that there was no guarantee that DSL could be installed on this line, but that she could start the order process, and we would find out if they could get DSL for sure. So I sent this information, her phone number and extension to the customer because they wanted to order the DSL themselves.
Got a call this morning, the customer tried calling Verizon, and could not get to the rep who I listed for them, so would I please take care of this order?
Sure, so I'm on the phone with Verizon, I've gottten in touch with the same rep from yesterday, and now she is telling me that she is getting told that none of the lines are available for DLS today.
Yes, No, Yes, Maybe, No.
Hmmm.....
This would be funny if we were not billing the customer about $125 per hour for this service. Instead it just looks like we're ripping off the customer, and that Verizon DSL is completely incompetent.
At least it makes it easy to understand how our country is lagging so far behind the rest of the world in Broadband Internet Access.
Ok, I'm back from hold. Now none of the lines qualifies for DSL, but if they run a new replacement line, at the customer's expense, there is a chance that it might support DSL, chance it might not. So the Verizon rep is calling the customer to get approval to re-run the line.
The funny part is remembering that the incumbent phone companies have warned if there is competition instead of their monopolies in Texas that it would make service worse. Aside from going to Morse Code or Semiphore, I don't see it getting much worse than this.
Verizon Online Business DSL
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