Brilliant video of Verizon's bad customer experience

Hmmm. I've been a Verizon Wireless customer for 7 years now. I tried Sprint for a while, and T-Mobile for another short stretch - and both were a *nightmare*.

While there's validity to the above scenario, I think the primary purpose of a cell phone provider is to provide good/consistent service - and the *cell* service that they provide creates a better experience than the answer you get once every five years when you need an answer to an obscure question like the one discussed here.

Hands down, Verizon provides the best cell phone service in the U.S. From the ski slopes of Park City, Utah to the cliffs of Acadia National Park in Maine, to the urban jungle of NYC - Verizon consistently provides a signal.

And for a cell company, that's the key to their success. Not the response you get by phone when needing to know how many tenths of a cent it costs to transfer a byte when in Uzbekistan...

I've had direct or indirect experience with Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T in the last year and would say that their coverage and dropped-call rates are about the same.

But let's assume that Verizon drops calls a little less than the others... if you choose Verizon, you save a few minutes a year with fewer dropped calls, yet you could spend dozens of HOURS a year dealing with a single customer service issue, like a charge they mistakenly put on your bill. How is that equation in Verizon's favor?

Mark, I would respectfully disagree with your comment above.

If Verizon drops calls [hypothetically] 50% less frequently than their competition, the time (and frustration) saved by reliable calling would probably far outweigh the time and frustration caused by the occasional customer service issue, *for the average customer*.

Cell phones are a commodity now (although iPhone may be helping to break this paradigm), and people tend to buy commodities based on price and reliability, not based on expected customer service levels.

However, it remains true that poor customer service will, over the long run, cost companies like Verizon thousands of customers. Until they realize the millions of dollars they are losing to attrition, they're more likely to focus their energy on sales. I'm not saying that's the right decision, but if their call reliability was as inconsistent as their customer service, they'd be out of business tomorrow. For now, they've prioritized their technology infrastructure over their customer service infrastructure.

I'd draw a parallel with banking, another commodity for most consumers. Wachovia and Commerce Bank, who have hung their shingle on customer service, can't take the industry by storm overnight. But as long as Bank of America, Citibank, and other "giants" continue to alienate their own customers, those dissatisfied folks will make their next banking decision based largely on the quality of customer service, and flee to the likes of Wachovia and Commerce Bank. They will win in a war of attrition.

Another problem with customer service anecdotes is that some industries (oligopolies) continue to have a very low bar, so it's easy to find examples of a terrible customer experience with any of the viable providers. If I avoided every airline on which I've ever had a poor experience, I'd have to give up traveling.

Of course, none of this makes it any less interesting or enlightening when others share their awful experiences with us. :)

Go to a local brick and mortar that's been in business for a few years. (Mine is a Verizon "Wireless Zone" franchise). Ask friends for a recommendation. They will have real employees that you can talk to face to face, who actually seem to *want* your business and to answer your questions and solve your problems. Let them deal with Verizon or AT&T or whomever (and they will likely be able to cut right throw the lower tier customer service and get people who can actually fix technical and billing problems).

Verizon astroturfer writes: "the *cell* service that they provide creates a better experience than the answer you get once every five years when you need an answer to an obscure question like the one discussed here."

Sorry, but *how much it will cost me to use my phone in Canada* is not an "obscure" question.

It seems that the issue in this case is that the price is, most likely, written in such a way that it is unintelligible to the CSRs. It's probably written like this "$.0002/kilobyte" and a combination of poor understanding maths and English pronunciation do the rest. I'm assuming this is the case because of what appears to be the consistency of the error -- most CSRs are getting it wrong in the same way.

That's not an excuse, mind you, but an attempt at an explanation. In this way, one might say that it's not only the CSRs that are broken, but also the manual they have to use is broken because it doesn't cater to their particular needs (that is to have things spelled out phonetically for them). For example:

"Our wireless internet service roaming charges in Canada are point two cents per kill-oh-bite"

The core issue is that telecom companies rely on convoluted pricing structures to maximize their profit, and it is predictable that reps can't explain it. Tiered pricing based on usage is inherently anti-consumer when there are no readily accessible tools to monitor usage and charges.

Instead of ranting more, here's an idea for the telecoms that would help consumers manage their service usage: let users define a cap for their monthly charges just like credit card companies do. When I reach a max of let's say $100, I get a message that I am at my limit but that I can override this and keep using the service. That way, there are fewer surprises when I get my bill and I can manage my usage better. Getting a huge unexpected bill erodes my brand loyalty.

I agree with the CSR-related post. I've done numerous studies with financial service providers and they suffer from similar problems. Customer experience is often a responsibility of several internal departments and many of these people care deeply, yet the people that design the actual materials for CSRs are have little or no exposure to the issues important to those groups. And, many supervisors in marketing, etc. never see the materials that the phone service people are using. A classic example is that when you call re: a web interface question for online banking, the CSRs often DO NOT HAVE the ability to bring up the same screen you are looking at and many times they are missing pages in their "book" that might include releveant images. The answer is obvious: the people who are paid to care about user experience need to approve the materials used by CSRs.

I had a similar problem with T-Mobile. Their chart showed "good" coverage in my area, but I could never get a signal unless I walked OUTSIDE and towards the top of my street.

After several calls, I was finally told that "good" means "outside" and/or "in a car".

I canceled my service, and was told I would not have to pay the $200 termination fee.

To my surprise, I received a bill for the $200 termination fee.

Several phone calls, emails and letters later, I had to pay it before they sent it to collections.

So long story short, T-Mobile sucks too.

When i got Verizon Broadband I knew I was only going to be in the US for 6 more months and was concerned about the minimum 12 month charge. The sales person explained that, since I was moving out of the country, the penalty charged would be waived.

I closed my account after 6 months. When i did I ensured that I had paid my bills with verizon. They told me they would send an address label so I could send the modem back. No label ever came. They dont want the modem back (apparently).

Now, some months later, Verizon want $80 from me because I broke out of the 12 month contract. I used my verison wireless phone to have a 45 minute conversation about this problem and I sent them an email. Since then they have sent my debt to a debt collection agency. Frankly, they can whistle for it.

I am a former At&T customer and a current Verizon customer. I did not have the problems you encountered trying to obtain pricing information. As for the user experience I am privy to as a customer, I am extremely happy. My BlackBerry died and they overnighted me a new one. When I call customer support, I get someone on the phone easily; these people are usually helpful and knowledgeable.

My experience with AT&T was the direct opposite. I waited on hold for long times. The people were usually not helpful and frequently failed to deliver the solution they promised. Being a loyal Mac user, I would have loved nothing more than to remain with At&T and get an iPhone. Unfortunately, AT&T (formerly Cingular for the majority of my years with them) delivered inferior and frustrating user experience.

Even canceling the account became an ordeal. They locked me out of the system almost immediately after switching providers. They provided no way to pay my final bill, which I had to call to remind them to send. And, they added late fees which I had to argue several times for them to remove, even after they promised to remove them.

Maybe Verizon provides a poor experience during the sales cycle, but the service I have received as a customer truly is emblematic of their ads. I do feel I have a team on my side. Conversely, Cingular / AT&T provided nothing but the dropped calls they so railed against in their marketing.

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