Uggghh! I hate Verizon. They are evil. Phone companies are evil–we don't have a CHOICE in who we use really. So they just stick it to you.
I have this One-Bill plan they sold me on when I moved last year. I am SUPPOSED to be getting all these great rebates on all my bills (Internet, phone, cell, and satellite) but I haven't seen anything yet. I've been riding out my cell agreement and plan to fire them when the time comes–only 3 months away!
At any rate, I don't get a paper bill and the system doesn't email my bill like it is supposed to. I pay the bills online. Their site has been all wonky and won't work with Mozilla Firefox anymore so I have to use Explorer just to see it–already more hassle than paying any other bills. So last week I paid my bill. But the site flashed a message that it could not process my payment at that time. I checked my bank account and no pending charge. So I waited about 10 mins and went back on to pay again. But then it said it could not process my card–I've had that happen before where if you charge the card and then try to charge the same amount again, it won't let you. I went back to the main page and it said my balance was now $0–okay, so it must have accepted my payment, right? The site says it takes 3-5 business days to process payments and my bank is really wonky about how they process stuff (I have a gas charge from 2 weeks ago that just barely showed up as pending this week) so I figured it all went through and I would see the charge this week.
I checked and there was no charge still yesterday but the phones and everything were still on. And I did not check back with Verizon because their site sucks and takes forever to load But this morning I tried to call Xaver on his cell and I am greeted with “You have a special message from Verizon…” WHAT?!?!? The boneheads turned off all my phones!! And I paid the darn bill-their system just screwed up. Luckily my Internet is still working so I checked the account and it did not say it was paid so I paid it again–at the worst if I get charged twice, then I'll have a credit, you know? I checked the bank and the charge showed as pending–finally. So my phones are still not working. I call customer service and I get this snotty nasty woman on the phone, after 4 attempts of trying to call them because the message says they open at 8am but I guess that REALLY means 8:15 am because the system kept kicking me off saying they were closed until then.
So anyways, I get this snotty lady on the phone who is supposed to be giving me customer service but instead she is giving me customer grief. She just barely started work and she is all mean and nasty and raising her voice and talking over me and I wasn't even being snotty to her at all–I just told her the story and asked what can we do to fix this mess. Hello??!! I called them with a complaint and the dang woman is just blahblahlabhing and saying my phones won't be on for 24 hours. It would have ben alot more gratifying for me to just chew her out and at least get something out of her being nasty but I am trying to keep a level head here and just solve the problem and stay focused–phones need to be back on because I feel disabled without the phone and I have places to go, people to call.
Since this chick is being really snotty I ask for a supervisor. She says there aren't any–so all these people work there unsupervised all day? I told her I would hold until someone gets there–not like I am expecting any calls, you know? She says I need to give them a number they can call me back at. But all my phones are off so what number am I supposed to give? The whole thing was just asinine–we turned off your phone and you can't talk to a supervisor because there aren't any but you can leave a message and they will call you back on the phone that we turned off. Huh?
Well, the home phone just rang and it was Xaver–so it only took 30 mins, not 24 hours. But still, I feel like we all get raked over the coals with stuff like utilities and phones–there is no CHOICE involved!! And then Verizon has the gall to say on their message –“Thank you for choosing Verizon”…like I had a choice–who else does phone service? I only have the home phone so I can get Internet. There has to be another way, a better way, a real choice. I mean there is Vonage but you have to have internet to get that and you have to have a phone to get internet so if I already have a phone, why would I need another phone line through Vonage? It does not make sense to me.
So if you have a solution or know something I can try, please enlighten me!! I am desperate. We are going to be moving again I am 99% sure and the last time I had to deal with Verizon when I moved it was utter chaos. I'd like to move out from here and move on with out Verizon–heck and even the gas company too if I can!! It just really is that there is no choice at all for us–we get it stuck to us from all directions: gasoline and oil, phones, cell phones with these lousy contracts, the gym membership…this kind of stuff makes those people who talk about “living off the grid” sound pretty wise–I'm off to check out solar panels and a windmill now.
