Monday, January 14, 2008

We need new phone service


I hate Verizon. All told this afternoon, I spent close to an hour and a half on hold, trying to reach someone who can make an account adjustment for me. The first time I called, it took 40 minutes to reach someone and then the rep reluctantly told me she had to refer me to Financial Services. All I want to do is change the checking account that our payment automatically comes out of each month. That's it - nothing complicated.

So I get to Financial Services and that rep indicates I have to do that online. I said I had been unable to locate the place to do that so she gave me a Web Support number, because she could not help me with that. Now, I am no idiot, and I must have spent an hour going through their website trying to find the place to make the change to no avail.

Of course, no one answers in Web Support so I wasted another half hour on hold there. I got disgusted and hung up, and thought perhaps I should check the web again. Still no luck. I made one other attempt to call and ended up on hold way too long again.

I am now switching our phone service. We are getting gouged by Verizon and for those high prices we get lousy service when we need it. We have to switch.

Has anyone had any experience with Vonage? Their rates are cheaper than Comcast, but I'd like some personal experience to base our decision on.

8 comments:

USA_Admiral said...

Classic customer No-Service.

I don't know anyone who has tried Vonnage.

Good luck getting things changed

SoHoS said...

Do not try Vonage. I had them and the reception was terrible. When I went to cancel you cannot (literally) cannot get a real person on the line to cancel. After 3 hours, I am NOT lying or exaggerating, of waiting on hold and going through their automated system I finally got a person and canceled the service. They said they were going to charge me for the last month which should have been 24.99 instead they charged me 48.00. When I tried to call back to correct that mistake I got stuck in the loop again and just said forget it. It was worth the extra money to not have to deal with them ever again.

Aprilwine said...

All companies are the same. Like Admiral said, there is no such thing as customer service anymore.

We switched to Verizon fios? Not sure I'm saying that right, but it's supposed to be awesome for the internet, phone and tv satellite. Our phone and internet went out 3 times, one time for 4 days, before they could figure out to just switch something and turn it back on. They ended up coming out and switching a box. It's been fine ever since, but I was so pissed, I was seeing red and spitting nails when I finally got a real person on the line.

IHeartQuilting said...

Admiral - unfortunately it seems to be the norm these days, thanks.

SoHos - good advice, glad I asked. Cheaper is definitely not necessarily better!

April - They were just out in our neighborhood asking people to switch to the Fios, but after this past experience we won't. Plus they have not yet finished their compatibility testing with Windows Vista, and two of our computers use that.

Anonymous said...

Believe me I feel your pain !!

Constance said...

I'm with Verizon. Have not tried Vonage. Customer service these days is non-existent, and it is incredibly aggravating. I'd like to charge a company for MY time when I'm put on hold on one of their infernal voice automated machines !

Aprilwine said...

Since they figured out what the problem was, we have actually been happy. Fios does work with Windows Vista, that's what I'm using right now. This is the fastest connection we've had and It's pretty cool.

Buckaroo Banzai said...

I have Verizon (phone and internet) and have had no problems. Just don't go with Comcast. They are an evil conglomerate that murders puppies and eats babies!

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