Question on customer service reps

[my6873]

So I have a question. Does the customer service reps have any responsibility over what they say. (According to Verizon's policy)

[Snn5]

Well, the lawyer speak of it is:

This agreement and the documents it incorporates form the entire agreement between us. You can't rely on any other documents, or on what's said by any Sales or Customer Service Representatives, and you have no other rights regarding Service or this agreement.

Customer Agreement | Verizon Wireless

What exactly is the issue you have with what a rep said?

Despite the sometimes monitored and recorded calls, it's hard to hold a rep to their word given the above statement and the fact that not all of them are in a call center with a manager, some are at home via telecommute or remote office (living room complete with screaming kids and vocal animals) and are harder to supervise.

[my6873]

I had to leave the country and this rep told me that she suspended my account for another 3 months without billing. And now I found out that she never did. So I have a three months bill for the service I never used...

[my6873]

But isn't the section from the customer agreement talking about the customer agreement document? That you can't rely on reps about the customer agreement issues?

[Snn5]

That one might take some hounding. 

Disregard what I said above since I was mistaken in thinking maybe a rep had offered a benefit or a plan change or some other offer for which would have benefited you, but instead was a promise that could not be delivered since it may have been outside their scope of ability to do so.

If you were attempting to make a change on an account and the rep failed to follow through on a perfectly reasonable request, then you have recourse.  After trying to get a hold of a rep that can understand what happened and get in touch with someone (if not themselves) who can rectify the issue, we can take another step from there.  I would suggest having the date and time that you called readily available and make it as easy as possible for them to recollect the information from your file or account notes, if any, to help expedite the resolution.

[my6873]

Well the only thing is that she wasn't able to suspend my account at all because I already used all of my suspension days (which is 180 days a year) . But I did not know that at the time and she did tell me that she was able to suspend my account for another three months. I have been talking to other representatives and they are telling me because of that, there is nothing they can do.

[Snn5]

Unfortunately, this might be the case if you have used all your suspension days available.  This would then fall under the first reply I posted because it is a policy limitation (the total number of days/months you can suspend in a year) and a rep cannot supersede the policies.  I believe, in the end, if you cannot get someone to reverse this policy that Verizon will chalk it up to a rep mis-informing you that the option was available.

Keep in mind that each suspension period pushed your contract and upgrade date that much further.

My apologies for missing your second in a row reply earlier.  that section I referred to was only to point out that the agreement and any stipulations in it that are policy cannot be changed by a rep, and that anything they say or promise outside the scope of the agreement will most likely not be honored by Verizon itself.

[my6873]

So, in your opinion, there is nothing much I can do?or is there??   Reps giving me misinformation has been going on from the beginning. Two different reps told me that I could suspend my account up to a year. And now this...

Thank you so much for your help by the way

[Snn5]

I read a lot about misinformation here. 

It is my opinion that you should not give up, but also that a favorable outcome in your benefit is unlikely.

However, the rep is correct that you can suspend for up to a year, but word-play ( termed: sophistry) made it appear that you could suspend for a continuous year, when in fact, you can under the reasoning that 180x2 = 360 (a year) but policy dictates that only 180 days in 1 year are permissible. On a 2 year contract you could suspend for a year total, but not continuously. (First year 6 months, 2nd year 6 months 1 year's total of days.)

[my6873]

I will try to call customer service again. Thank you so much for your help! Seriously I have been trying to get answers for weeks now and you are the only one who actually helped with a lot of it!