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Dear Verizon Wireless,
I have been a customer of yours for over eight years. For the last five years, I have owned several Blackberry’s which I use for both work as well as personal use. I believe that I have the most expensive plan you guys have totally unlimited minutes for both phone and data because of the huge time I spend on my phone. My bill is automatically paid through my credit card each month and before yesterday I don’t think I have ever contacted your customer service . I guess what I am trying to say is that I believe I am one of those customers that you want to keep.
The Blackberry I presently own is about a year and half old but it is already starting to show some wear and tear because pretty much I am the greatest product tester in the world. No matter how good a product is, I will find a way to destroy it in one way or the other. Since my phone is on its last legs, I have begun looking at a new Blackberry to purchase. Unfortunately, recently Verizon you guys have been getting your butts kicked by your fellow wireless competitors on phones. First obviously enough the iPhone and now AT&T has come out with the Blackberry Curve and all you got is the World Edition Blackberry which pretty much is exactly identical to the phone I have now except a wee bit thinner, no thank you. Oh and by the way, it is ugly as sin.
I have begun to think that maybe I should look to change providers who can offer me the kind selection I am looking for. Though before I do that, I decided to start looking online to see when and if you guys are going to come out with the Curve or other Blackberry’s. You know what I discovered, there are a number of blogs and discussion boards that are taking guesses when and if Verizon will come out with new phones, but there is absolutely no news or conversation coming from you! Why is that? Why wouldn’t you want to keep your customers informed of what is happening and what kind of new products and services are coming out in the future? I don’t know if you guys of heard about this internet thing, but there are a lot of companies that have this crazy thing called a corporate blog.
Last night I was on your website, verizonwireless.com and I saw you had a web chat feature that you could speak with someone at Verizon and I decided to give that a shot. Here is the conversation I had:
You are chatting with Greg
Greg will be right with you (Mind you I waited 6 minutes for Greg)
Greg: Thanks for contacting Verizon Wireless, how may I help you?
Cord: Yes, I was wondering if Verizon is coming out with any new Blackberry’s?
Greg: Yes they are!
Cord: Great, when will that be happening?
Greg: I do not have a date on that.
Cord: Well, will it be happening in the next 3,6 or 12 months?
Greg: I do not have a date on that.
Cord: Do you know what Blackberry phones Verizon will be supporting?
Greg: I do not have that information.
Cord: Ok, do you have any information that you can share with me other than that sometime before I die Verizon will be coming out with a new Blackberry?
Greg will be right with you
Greg will be right with you
Greg will be right with you
This is when I was put on chat hold I guess and after several minutes of waiting, I finally just hung up.
Verizon, it is time that you start communicating with your customers better. Your contract cancellation fee is not going to stop your top customers from leaving if they do not believe that you are meeting and exceeding their expectations.
I am wiling to place significant odds that no-one from Verizon is bothering to monitor what is being discussed about them online and no-one from the company will contact me from this post. Anyone wanna place a wager?
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Technorati Tags: Verizon Wireless, Blackberry’s, customer service, Blackberry, Verizon, Blackberry Curve
I will be right with you…
Wireless providers are right up there with insurance companies in their treatment of and obvious contempt for their customers.
Why hasn’t someone in the industry decided to be the one that doesn’t fit that description?? They’d take over the market in no time flat - which by the way is a wee bit competitive, dontcha think?
I don’t find this surprising at all. Verizon has historically offered a poor selection of phones, usually crippled by their sad, sad software. As far as I can tell, they felt they had the leverage to do this since their network coverage tended to be better than the competition. That’s a pretty weak position and one without legs.
On the customer support side, you’ll enjoy this vid which shows 50 or so calls to Verizon support to figure out their overage rates. Apparently this is not an easy question to answer.
Whoops, the video embed was clipped off. Here’s the url.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdKwRdWocco
Yeah Cord, stick it to them!!
Any company that doesn’t keep customers informed about upcoming improvements or when new phones will be available is bound to loose them to the competition. Especially when they are competing with a product as sexy and irresistible as the new i-Phone.
I say ditch Verizon and go with the company that gives you the best rate on the best phone.
Awesome, I made a blog, however, you may get it better and more accurate by saying the truth. It is NOT “I do not have a date on that” It is “I do not have that information”. And it is so because us webchat reps are NOT given that information!
We are there to give informaed decisions about a purchase, not give you sneak information about what is to come.
Get real! Just because you did not get your information that is CLASSIFIED, EVEN TO US WEBCHAT REPS, don’t cry! Just buy a damn Blackberry we have available! If you don’t like it, use our test drive policy to RETURN it! WTF? You are the kind of customer that pisses us off.
If you notice when you start a chat it says “You are now chatting with a pre-sales specialist” Not “You are chatting with the chairman and CEO of Verizon Wireless”
I would appreciate if you change my name as well
And no way in hell did you wait 6 minutes, because if you do not type anything it automatically gives nonresponses and will close after just 3 minutes.
Secondly, it will NOT do the same “I will be right with you three times in a row, they are automated, and do a random response, not the same response.
“I am wiling to place significant odds that no-one from Verizon is bothering to monitor what is being discussed about them online and no-one from the company will contact me from this post. Anyone wanna place a wager?”
YOU WERE WRONG! You just happened to come across a webchat rep who googles alot!
How the conversation really went:
** = thoughts, not saying**
You are chatting with Greg
Greg will be right with you (Mind you I waited 6 minutes for Greg)
Greg: Hello! Thank you for using our chat service. May I help you with your order today?
Cord: Yes, I was wondering if Verizon is coming out with any new Blackberry’s?
Greg: Unfortunately, I do not have that information. Are you a current Verizon Wireless customer?
Cord: Will they ever bring the Curve to Verizon **the most annoying question**
Greg: I am not given information about new devices until they are released to the public
Cord: Well, will it be happening in the next 3,6 or 12 months?
Greg: I do not have that information.
Cord: Do you know what Blackberry phones Verizon will be supporting?
Greg: I do not have that information.
Cord: Ok, do you have any information that you can share with me other than that sometime before I die Verizon will be coming out with a new Blackberry?
Greg: I will be right with you **Maybe because you do NOT understand english I let you hang without an answer**
Greg: I will be right with you
Greg: I will be right with you
Well I would absolutely love for this Greg to be the actual real Greg, but unfortunately this guy is bullshit. Thanks Greg for making me hope, but no cigar.
I suggest you stop basing your whole “Verizon chat experience” on your one mishap, because you could not get it through your head that we do not have the information you want.
How about I call you at work and ask you questions about guitars? Your company most likely has no information on guitars, so why would I go around and cry about your business not helping me because they do not have information on guitars.
Why don’t you copy/paste the real chat transcript onto the page. You could of had it e-mailed after the chat closed.
Why would you not thinkI am the real Greg, and why would I take all this time to write all this if I was not the real Greg?
Unfortunately “Greg”, your apparent anger regarding the current circumstance isn’t making Verizon look any better.
I understand that. I am not mad at the situation, and I understand that anyone can blog about anything they want; however, I think that Verizon is being unfairly represented. Especially when the rep being used as an example is me. The facts of his chat were not accurate, and spreads false information.
Being a company man himself, he knows that one company cannot please every single customer that may call in, or inquire about services.
I do apologize that I was not able to give him the information that I do not have myself.
Me saying “Yes they are” when asked about a new Blackberry device was untrue. We never give any information that may turn out untrue.
When asked about new devices, my answers are the same “I do not have any information about that”.
As I said before, if I called his company and asked a question that the certain rep had no information about, I would not base their whole customer service skills on what that one rep has information about.
Customer service reps are on the bottom of the todem poll on the Verizon scale, and are given very little information about new products.
There are other departments that may have been able to answer his question (Telesales @ 1-800-256-4646)
The chat reps are taking not 1, not 2, but three chats at a time on old outdated Celeron 700Mhz computers. So if I am looking up information for one of the other two chats, it may take a while to get you information.
So, please keep in mind the next time you connect to a live chat that the rep is chatting with other people at the same time, and is trying their hardest to give you the information we have.
I am sorry if my previous comments seemed a little “rude”, but our job is not as easy as everybody makes out to be, and we really don’t have as much information as everyone would like us to have.
There is no way to make up for the experience you have, but please, feel free to connect to a chat again with questions about products we do have. I guarantee you will get all the information we have about the device.
The reason I am angry about the above blog is that is puts out the impression that the chat reps are not professional about the job.
The chat that he had typed up was not the actual chat transcript, and I take offense that you put out that the customer service you received was really that unprofessional.
Greg, let it go. You could have been anyone. Greg is a popular name, so no one would have to know this was you. You don’t have to defend the fact that you work at a crappy company. Besides, the rant is about Verizon, the stupid corporation, not the stupid employees. Get a life; quit Google-ing complaints about your stupid employer.
Just thought I’d throw this in for the hell of it. Greg happens to be one of the experts in my department that I count on for technical answers to a large number of my customer base. He knows what he’s talking about or I wouldn’t use his advice to support my current top sales position in on our sales floor. I too, find myself constantly dealing with unhappy Blackberry aficionado’s craving for new RIM products. I takes me only a few minutes to sell them one of our new XV6800’s for retail.