Attention Verizon DSL Customer Relations

Dear Verizon DSL Customer Service Relations,

You have FAILED miserably to offer adequate customer support for your home DSL customers. Your business customers have nice, friendly, and intelligent American tech support for whom English is a first language. They actually seem to know a thing or two about computers, networking topologies and the interworkings of TCP/IP. Yet for the home customer, we are forced to call in to an automated system where we can take no action for the first 45 seconds of a call, we are forced to remember our High Speed Data telephone number, and then navigate a menu system to get to the right place.

THEN, once we locate a technical support representative, he or she has a fake Americanized first name and a last name that cannot be revealed (I assume for safety purposes). Your tier 1 technical support representatives (TSRs) are all located in foreign call centers where English is apparently their third language. They do not seem to know how to go off-script, or to intelligently identify area problems based on simple troubleshooting steps. They ALWAYS make us jump through hoops.

Here’s the worst part, Verizon – your tier 1 support techs are trained to LIE. I asked for a tier 3 technical support representative today (because I know your tier 1 support is lousy. I was transferred to another tier 1 support technician who attempted to start all over again. Then I explained I asked for tier 3 and I want tier 3. I was transferred to a floor supervisor, who claimed to be tier 3. I said “Are you SURE you’re tier 3, usually tier 3 techs are not floor managers also.” She (Rebecca, z911196) confirmed she was in fact, tier 3 and would be happy to help me. After I got her operator ID, I knew it did not match the regular tier 3 ID numbers and I called her out on her lie. She said she did not have the phone number for tier 3 and I could only reach them through retention.

On the weekend, I’m pretty much out of luck if I want any help at all with my connection. I’ve had this problem since June of this year. My download works mostly fine, but intermittently doesn’t do anything at all. My upload is complete crap. I can’t voice chat for my online classes, I can’t upload files from my computer to anywhere. I have to go to internet cafes and hunt down free public wifi. This is unacceptable – I am not paying you $30+ a month to have to do all of this. The service should just work. And when it doesn’t, I know your company makes enough money to have someone there for me who can do more than give me excuses.

If any of my readers has stock in the Verizon company, I would suggest they sell it and get as far away as they can. Most of my readers will say “Why don’t you simply cancel your account and go with someone else?” and the simple answer is my only other option here in the mountains is HugesNet satellite internet service. And right now, I’m very seriously considering them, Verizon. Because despite their limitations on bandwidth during the daytime and sometimes slow connections, the people I talk to say it works, at least, and better than dial-up. And with all those problems, it’s a heck of a lot better than a non-working connection.

So how about it, Verizon? Is there anyone at your company with a heart who can take care of my area’s problem? It’s not just me, it’s the neighbors too. When your service worked, it was great. But since it hasn’t worked right since June, I’m slowly forgetting what that’s like.

If any of you reading this know someone high up on the food chain in Verizon DSL’s corporate structure whose attention you can get to this post, I’m hoping you’ll forward the link to this post and let them read my plea. If you Twitter, let’s raise some hell – retweet this:

“RT @ragingtech: An Open Letter to Verizon DSL Customer Relations: http://tinyurl.com/vzdslfail Pls read & RT, FWD to anyone at Verizon DSL.”

Also, feel free to Digg, Stumble, or otherwise spread the word. I know I’m just a small-time blogger, but I believe in the power of all of you speaking at once, through just a simple tweet or email forward. I don’t want you all to feel like I’m trying to obligate you – I understand if you’re like “Meh, not my problem,” and move on with your life. And I apologize if all of this was a lot of tl;dr.