Verizon Wireless – Taking the Service out of Customer Service

It turns out my correspondence (in an earlier post) to the regional President and Vice President of Customer Service was far too generous. After I called Jose in the “Executive Office” from Mrs. Pinky’s phone and left a message that I couldn’t call from my phone from another location, he promptly cancelled the shipment of the network range extender / micro-cell that he had sworn was the closing action for my third trouble ticket. Really?! They were sure enough that marginal coverage was the problem that it was the closing action for my 3^rd trouble ticket, but then they were suddenly sure there wasn’t more than one issue and they could cancel the micro-cell? YGBSM! Jose claimed that network technicians had come out to my house and verified that coverage wasn’t the problem, which is supposedly the same thing they had done when they determined that it was the problem. I am unable to ascertain whether they are lying or just completely incompetent.

Jose also informed me that my options were a 5^th refurbished Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus (V-SGN) or a refurbished Motorola Razr Droid Maxx (MRDM). I queried as to why they couldn’t ship me a new V-SGN, since the refurbishment process was clearly inadequate and they were still selling new models in the store. He stated that my contract called for a refurbished unit. I explained that the contract also implied that the refurbished unit would be functional, and there was no reason to believe that a 5^th refurbished unit would function any better than its predecessors, but Jose didn’t budge. I then told him that I would settle for an iPhone, but Jose informed me that the iPhone was a different class of phone, and my contract called for the same class of phone. I explained that the iPhone was a 3G device and theoretically inferior to my 4G V-SGN, but again, Jose wouldn’t budge. It turns out that MRDM that I received is a very nice phone.

I never received a response to my second correspondence to the executives at Verizon Wireless, so I decided to contact somebody in the sales portion of the company, as the sales staff is quite good, and it can be inferred that the sales executives are competent. I managed to reach the secretary of a regional sales manager, but unfortunately her boss was going on vacation for a week. She promised to have somebody call me back the next day, but unfortunately, it was only Daniel from the “Executive Office”. I explained the source of my extreme frustration, and that at this point in time, his goal shouldn’t be to try to make me happy, but to make me not so angry that I would do something like the “United Breaks Guitars” video. I asked him if he was familiar with the video or the business school case study on the issue, but he wasn’t. He did have my second correspondence and could see that nobody had responded. Daniel promised to look into case and call back in a couple of hours, which he did. After all of my time and aggravation, all he could do was issue a refund for the 2 months that I didn’t have service. It is clear that no customer will actually ever speak directly to the VP of customer service and that Verizon will never deviate from the minimum service required by the contract.

So, while I don’t sing, it is time to get my creative juices flowing for a YouTube video, and I am taking suggestions.

Verizon Wireless – Taking the Service out of Customer Service

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More on Verizon Wireless and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

My message to Melanie Braidich, Vice President – West Area Customer Service resulted in a phone call the next day from her minion Jose, who promised to ensure that my problem was resolved. A week later, my trouble ticket was closed. My message to Bobby Morrison, President – Pacific Northwest Region, David Small, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, and Melanie Braidich should make it clear how I feel about the closing action.

Dear Mr. Morrison, Ms. Braidich, Mr. Small, and their correspondence staffs:

While Jose from Ms. Braidich’s staff has been most courteous, I believe that it is time for me to speak directly with somebody at the Vice President level or higher, including somebody with a technical background. A conference call with Ms. Braidich and Mr. Small would be appropriate.

My third trouble ticket was generated after I took my newly received (refurbished) Samsung Galaxy Nexus to the Verizon Wireless store. The representative inserted a new SIM card into the phone, activated it, and successfully made one call, but then the phone then lost network connection and was unable to place a second call. This was my fifth Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus and fifth SIM card in six months. (I don’t know how well these details were captured on the trouble ticket.)

The closing action on my trouble ticket was to send me a micro-cell for my house, as service in my area is “marginal”.

While I appreciate the micro-cell for a stronger signal in the back portion of my house, the closing action clearly didn’t solve my fundamental problem, which occurs all over the Seattle area, both inside and outside of buildings. (Our house has a clear line of sight to the towers located across the lake, and my wife’s Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus typically displays three bars of 4G service from the front half of the house and two bars of 4G service from the back half. After a Verizon engineer did some troubleshooting on my account, my phone displayed four bars of 4G service and placed a crystal clear call, but an attempt to repeat this feat moments later from the same location resulted in “Network Not Available”.)

A few hours after the trouble ticket was closed, I drove an hour to the north and tried to place a call from Interstate 5, but the phone again lost connection and showed network not available. I then grabbed my wife’s theoretically identical Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus and placed a call to Jose, again letting him know that my wife’s phone had no problems making a call, but my phone couldn’t.

For the first month that I had my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, it worked just fine at home and in my office, but that abruptly changed, and so began the saga laid out below. I test complex systems for a living, including digital RF data systems, and understand propagation, multipath, and signal to noise ratios, so I also understand when the root cause of your system problems are not being identified and addressed. While my wife’s Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus has worked quite well for six months, a quick check of the android forums made it is clear that I am not the only person having unresolved problems with the phone.

I have not determined whether Verizon Wireless is unwilling or unable to rectify the problems, but I am growing extremely tired of paying for a service that I am not receiving. I have been unable to place a call for over six weeks of the six months that I have had Verizon Wireless Service and wasted countless hours with tech support, and nobody has offered so much as a credit for a month or two of service.

It is also extremely frustrating going down the same path over and over again with technical support. While I have been through five handsets and SIM cards, at this point in time it isn’t obvious to me, or apparently your network engineers, whether the problem is with the handset or my account configuration. Of course there is what should be a basic troubleshooting step that would isolate the problem between the handset and my account, but that has not been attempted.

If the only solution offered is to try a fifth refurbished handset and SIM card, my wife and I are ready to give up on the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus and try the 3G but apparently more reliable iPhone 4S.

You can try to reach me at xxx-xxx-xxxx, but if the call doesn’t go through, please call my wife at xxx-xxx-xxxx with a callback number and time, and I will call you from Google Voice.

Verizon Wireless – The Service that I Have Come to Expect

Last December, Mrs. Pinky smashed the screen on her trusty cell phone so that she could get a new phone, and we both ended up with Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones on Verizon. While Mrs. Pinky’s phone has proven reliable, mine has been otherwise. Here are some excerpts of the letter that I just sent to a VP at Verizon Wireless.

Dear Ms. Braidich:

I am writing to elaborate upon the answer I gave to the recent survey question “Did you receive the service that you have come to expect from Verizon Wireless?” When I said yes, that was not a compliment. I have been with Verizon for six months and am on my fifth Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and fifth SIM card, but I still can’t place calls on my phone. Please read the chronology below and let me know if this is what I should expect from Verizon.

…

The refurbished phone arrives, but as soon as I turn it on, it goes crazy, with the touch screen randomly firing buttons so quickly that I am unable to even setup my account. I have no doubt why the phone was returned the first time.

…

Of course reaching tech support is difficult because when I call from my wife’s phone, the system flags her phone as the one having troubles and tells me to call from a different phone. (We don’t have a landline.) I eventually get through and start all over again. Explaining that I am calling from an identical phone that works fine, and that the problem happens on multiple cell towers doesn’t seem to shorten the very familiar troubleshooting checklist. I am eventually elevated and a trouble ticket is opened.

Three days later, my phone still won’t place calls, so I again do battle with the tech support menu until I finally reach a person, who informs me that my trouble ticket was cancelled because it was filled out wrong. It is rather amazing that I didn’t blow an aneurism at this point. After working through the troubleshooting checklist one more time, it is determined that I should try a new SIM card. I return to the Verizon store, where after a new SIM card, the phone still won’t place calls. Another “new” phone was ordered.

Wanting to try something different, I brought the next refurbished phone to the Verizon store for initial power on. I suggested activating the phone to a known good test account to isolate the problem between handset hardware and the software settings in my account, but apparently your system lacks this simple troubleshooting tool. We inserted a new SIM card, turned on the phone, and placed one call before the phone lost network connection. I handed the phone to the Verizon representative, who called tech support. Eventually, he informed me that a trouble ticket had been opened and I would receive a call in three days.

…

While the representatives at the <redacted> store and some of the tech support personnel have been very good, I am most dissatisfied with Verizon support overall. I have been unable to place calls for about six weeks of the six months that I have had service with Verizon, wasted countless hours with tech support, and wasted four screen protectors, and all that I am offered is the promise of a response in three days?

If my phone ever gets fixed, I can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Otherwise, you can reach me through my wife’s phone xxx-xxx-yyyy.