What happened to Verizon?

[Macfahad]

My apologies in advance if this rant lasts a bit long..

I had Verizon since 2005, i was grandfathered into the old unlimited plans. in 2018 I left for another provider (mainly because they offered a free years service which was too good to be passed over), I returned in Oct 2019 and my has this carrier  took a dive for the worse! I cannot believe how much worse the service has gotten in just a year.

I came back with 5 devices and took advantage of the byod offer for $250. My brothers phone needed to be upgraded to we put a new iPhone 11 on payments which was supposed to get us $300 credit. One month into the account my brother paid the phone in full, what we both didn't realize is inorder to receive the $300 credit we had to continue paying the installments without paying off the phone. I was upset no one had notified me but ultimately it was my fault, I should have asked any conditions and I didn't make any issues of it.

I also set up the paperless billing and autopay. A month into my autopay, I checked my account and saw my payment didn't go through. After trying to chat with customer service and waiting almost 30 minutes each try, as I'm suspecting they only have one representative at a time helping all customers 😂. Ultimately I called their customer service and put the phone aside, doing random chores, while I waited close to an hour for a representative.

Once someone finally andwered, I requested information as to why this payment hasn't gone through, they requested I call later when some financial department is open. They did look into the account and said since my first payment didn't go through, my account is been blocked from enrolling into autopay for the next 6-7 months. On top of that, I have been charged $29 return fee and $5 late fee. He asked if I'd like to make a payment, not thinking it over I said sure no problem, just make the payment with the credit card in file, only to find out I was also charged another $7 fee for him to process the payment.  I could have easily done this payment through the app if I knew there was a fee associated to them clicking submit on my behalf.

none the less, the operator did sympathize with the situation stating it's a bit aggressive for your account to be blocked after a first payment is rejected. I agreed, I may have put in the wrong account number but Verizon said my bank returned it because they couldn't find the account. From a simple mistake Verizon bills a user $29 return fee (absolutely acceptable), blocks their account from participating in autopay and changes their terms and conditions so they lose $10 per line discount ($50 total). This is like putting someone in prison and saying your also going to be paying fees for staying in prison. This is now how you treat customers.

anyhow, the rep said this is excessive and he will try to resolve the situation. After waiting some time he returned stating the system would allow him to reinstate my autopay so he will work with his manager to credit my account each month until my account gets eligible. This was very fair and I appreciated it. Eventually he said it's done and I also received a text message from Verizon stating the credit.

Low and behold, next statement comes and there is no credit. I proceed to call Verizon again and go through the wait time, I again tell the new rep about the issue they replied there is no history of this conversation. I asked to look into the notes and they couldn’t find any notes of the conversation or anything about a $50 credit.  There was also nothing they could do about it.

I called back to the financial department to see if they can reinstate my autopay and absolutely indifferent with my concerns the lady simply stated no. We can’t help.

So now I will lose $50 a month until June 27 and no one at Verizon cares to provide customer service any longer. I also cannot leave the service because I took advantage of a promotion that requires me to stay with Verizon for 6 months.

At this point, my mouth begins to froth thinking of April 27 because April 27 is the day my 6 months requirement expires. I have set a reminders in my phone that will begin on April 27 and go off every hour without stopping, reminding me to cancel my Verizon account. I am dreaming of this day and it cannot come soon enough.

I was with Verizon from 2005 as stated below and although it was more expensive service than others, I never wanted to change. As friends who had other carriers asked why, my reason was always the same. Customer service. If there was an issue I knew the customer service went out of their way to provide exceptional support... what the heck happened in just one year??? It’s very sad to see this but I’m sad I actually returned to Verizon, although I never expected this kind of experience. It’s quite extraordinary of how fast and how far their service has fallen.

Oh April 27, I await thee...