Even though I cancelled my service with Verizon a few months ago(best thing I’ve ever done), it seems as if everyone else I know always seems to have some sort of issue with Verizon. I’ll start off by saying my experiences with Verizon, and then go on to saying why I actually made the rant. The only Verizon product i’ve used throughout my lifetime is Verizon DSL. I switched to DSL in about 2006 and was pretty happy with Verizon. Really, up until the point of switching out of Verizon, I didn’t have much of a problem with them. Their service worked, however, their customer service was so bad, Dell would probably laugh at them. Why? Simple. Because Verizon’s customer service IS laughable. The last time I got decent customer service from Verizon was when I was calling to GET Verizon. Their “help” is a joke.
Summer 2009 was when the problems started to arise. My internet would go down for about 2-3 hours at a TIME, instead of the 2-3 hours a month it used to do. Again, I put up with it because I always had a stubborn mind that Comcast was worse than this(I was very wrong). Throughout the Summer I’ve called Verizon multiple times, and for about 45 minutes each call, and all calls seemed to be automated, from a script. “please restart your router” etc etc etc. Not to mention, not once was I talking to a person who spoke fluent English. I don’t mind people with accents, but if I can’t understand you, we’ve got problems. Eventually in October I got so fed up I switched to Comcast. People say it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done, sounding like Comcast is some evil dictator. I don’t care. They work better than Verizon, support faster speeds, and they respond immediately in customer service, AND to add insult to injury they have almost 20 help representatives on Twitter. So thats my story with Verizon.
The reason I’m doing this rant, though, because of Chris Pirillo’s issues with Verizon. Chris recently got a Verizon MiFi and had major problems with it — As a matter of fact, he couldn’t even get it to work. Of course, I was absolutely not surprised by this, and wondered how much Chris would eventually get charged for “using” the MiFi. Didn’t take me long to find out. Kevoc2008 posted a YouTube video(check end of post for the video) on Chris calling Verizon’s technical support to try and get the issue solved. Nothing happened. As a matter of fact, Chris left the phone call owing Verizon $34 for 11MB. That’s right. $34. Not for 11GB, MB. Absolutely crazy. Then again, I wasn’t surprised.
A message to all those who don’t use Verizon and are looking to switch: Don’t switch. Especially when it comes to Internet. While FiOS may be superfast, if you run into problems you will be stuck with no one to turn to, since Verizon’s “help” will probably do NOTHING.
Video on Chris calling Verizon:
