Wow. You can't make this stuff up.
And for a measly $20, or 10 megs of roaming data ;).
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Receive SMS updates about the Swine Flu
A reader has submitted a link to her sms based swine flu update service. According to the article, it will only cost you the same as your usual SMS messages cost.
Get SMS Updates about Swine Flu
Get SMS Updates about Swine Flu
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Ex-Customer: Why I will never use Verizon again
Submitted by a verizonmath reader/ex-verizon customer:
My experience with Verizon is like the song, “Hotel California”….”you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave…”
I am no longer a Verizon customer – having cancelled my service five years ago. Verizon seems to think that I owe them over $400 in unpaid bills – and it has taken their stellar billing department five years to figure out that they applied my payments to the wrong accounts. Mind you, my records indicate that they owe me money, so go figure.
My repeated attempts at resolving this situation since 2004 have proved fruitless. No one at Verizon can tell me how they arrived at the dollar amount owed, probably because all invoices attached to my account have been paid in full. I was assigned a Customer Service Rep in their Accounting Dept. who would not provide her last name, identification number, or phone extension. I even offered to drive to Providence, RI & meet with them to review the account – and they declined my offer. So I would have to call the 1-800 number and ask for this person in Customer Service, hold for 30-45 minutes at a time, then leave a message for her. She only returned one of my calls – and left me a voicemail without her phone number. Eventually, Verizon stopped sending me letters and one of their Customer Service Representatives told me my balance was $0. I thought they had finally got their accounting act together & found their billing errors.
Then in 2007, I started getting calls from multiple collection agencies. Each time I receive one of these lovely letters, I have to dispute the validity of the bill in writing, via certified mail/return receipt, and copy/include three years worth of invoices and proofs of payment (about 35+ pages of documents). I even provide them with a easy-to-read spreadsheet showing them the invoice amount, payment date, amount paid, check number, etc. None of this is enough to appease the collection agencies. According to them, proof of payment via bank copies of cashed checks was not enough proof. If that’s the only method I used to pay my invoices, how can I provide additional proof? That’s all there is! I quickly came to the conclusion that collection agencies aren’t there to help me resolve my situation, they just want the amount of money listed on the piece of paper, and they will resort to whatever nasty means necessary to collect it…wrong or right.
In 2008, I received a particularly nasty phone call from one of Verizon’s collection agencies, and finally did what I should have done years ago: I contacted the Attorney General’s Office. Initially, Verizon told them that I shouldn’t be receiving calls from collection agencies. A few months later, they admitted I didn’t owe any money. Since I was still being hounded by collection agencies, I requested that they send me something in writing stating this – so I could share it with the collection agencies in the future. Their response was that it was against their company policy to provide anything in writing. Finally, they relented, and sent me a letter stating my balance was $0 --- but they put the wrong account number on it, so it was absolutely useless. We requested they send us a revised letter, but never received it. My rep at the Attorney General’s Office left his position, so I had to start all over with a new rep there (who has been wonderful). He has contacted Verizon, and he has to start the whole freakin’ process ALL OVER AGAIN. Apparently, they couldn’t just open my file to review the history and the incorrect letter and make a simple account number change. Five years after the fact, their rock star billing department is finally figuring out that they put some of my payments against the wrong account.
Verizon lost my wireless business, online account and regular phone service – and I’ll never use them for cable either. This comes to about $150/month or $1,800/year – which certainly adds up over time. I don’t want to work with a company that puts me hold for 45 mins. every time I need to speak with a Customer Service Rep. I don’t want to pay a company a monthly fee when you can’t get a Billing Specialist who returns your calls --- or a person’s name, direct phone number or email address, for that matter.
These days, Comcast gets all my business, even though it costs a bit more --- and I couldn’t be happier with my service. I never have to hold more than a few minutes to reach a Comcast Customer Service Rep, they provide speedy on-site technical support and every person I speak to there is terrific. I've never had a billing problem, either. In addition, anytime my elderly mother’s phone service goes on the blink, they are at her house the next day!
After all they’ve put me through, I have not received an apology letter or a check refunding me for the overpayment I made to my account. Up until recently, I received several “Come back to Verizon” letters every month. I contacted Verizon several times & asked them to take me off their mailing list, to no avail. Welcome to the Hotel California... Then, I started returning them to the sender with “VERIZON SUCKS. TAKE ME OFF YOUR MAILING LIST” written in bold black marker on the marketing letter. That seemed to do the trick.
Verizon’s Billing Mistakes: $400+
The Amount of Business I Cost Them By Sharing My Experience Online: Priceless
My experience with Verizon is like the song, “Hotel California”….”you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave…”
I am no longer a Verizon customer – having cancelled my service five years ago. Verizon seems to think that I owe them over $400 in unpaid bills – and it has taken their stellar billing department five years to figure out that they applied my payments to the wrong accounts. Mind you, my records indicate that they owe me money, so go figure.
My repeated attempts at resolving this situation since 2004 have proved fruitless. No one at Verizon can tell me how they arrived at the dollar amount owed, probably because all invoices attached to my account have been paid in full. I was assigned a Customer Service Rep in their Accounting Dept. who would not provide her last name, identification number, or phone extension. I even offered to drive to Providence, RI & meet with them to review the account – and they declined my offer. So I would have to call the 1-800 number and ask for this person in Customer Service, hold for 30-45 minutes at a time, then leave a message for her. She only returned one of my calls – and left me a voicemail without her phone number. Eventually, Verizon stopped sending me letters and one of their Customer Service Representatives told me my balance was $0. I thought they had finally got their accounting act together & found their billing errors.
Then in 2007, I started getting calls from multiple collection agencies. Each time I receive one of these lovely letters, I have to dispute the validity of the bill in writing, via certified mail/return receipt, and copy/include three years worth of invoices and proofs of payment (about 35+ pages of documents). I even provide them with a easy-to-read spreadsheet showing them the invoice amount, payment date, amount paid, check number, etc. None of this is enough to appease the collection agencies. According to them, proof of payment via bank copies of cashed checks was not enough proof. If that’s the only method I used to pay my invoices, how can I provide additional proof? That’s all there is! I quickly came to the conclusion that collection agencies aren’t there to help me resolve my situation, they just want the amount of money listed on the piece of paper, and they will resort to whatever nasty means necessary to collect it…wrong or right.
In 2008, I received a particularly nasty phone call from one of Verizon’s collection agencies, and finally did what I should have done years ago: I contacted the Attorney General’s Office. Initially, Verizon told them that I shouldn’t be receiving calls from collection agencies. A few months later, they admitted I didn’t owe any money. Since I was still being hounded by collection agencies, I requested that they send me something in writing stating this – so I could share it with the collection agencies in the future. Their response was that it was against their company policy to provide anything in writing. Finally, they relented, and sent me a letter stating my balance was $0 --- but they put the wrong account number on it, so it was absolutely useless. We requested they send us a revised letter, but never received it. My rep at the Attorney General’s Office left his position, so I had to start all over with a new rep there (who has been wonderful). He has contacted Verizon, and he has to start the whole freakin’ process ALL OVER AGAIN. Apparently, they couldn’t just open my file to review the history and the incorrect letter and make a simple account number change. Five years after the fact, their rock star billing department is finally figuring out that they put some of my payments against the wrong account.
Verizon lost my wireless business, online account and regular phone service – and I’ll never use them for cable either. This comes to about $150/month or $1,800/year – which certainly adds up over time. I don’t want to work with a company that puts me hold for 45 mins. every time I need to speak with a Customer Service Rep. I don’t want to pay a company a monthly fee when you can’t get a Billing Specialist who returns your calls --- or a person’s name, direct phone number or email address, for that matter.
These days, Comcast gets all my business, even though it costs a bit more --- and I couldn’t be happier with my service. I never have to hold more than a few minutes to reach a Comcast Customer Service Rep, they provide speedy on-site technical support and every person I speak to there is terrific. I've never had a billing problem, either. In addition, anytime my elderly mother’s phone service goes on the blink, they are at her house the next day!
After all they’ve put me through, I have not received an apology letter or a check refunding me for the overpayment I made to my account. Up until recently, I received several “Come back to Verizon” letters every month. I contacted Verizon several times & asked them to take me off their mailing list, to no avail. Welcome to the Hotel California... Then, I started returning them to the sender with “VERIZON SUCKS. TAKE ME OFF YOUR MAILING LIST” written in bold black marker on the marketing letter. That seemed to do the trick.
Verizon’s Billing Mistakes: $400+
The Amount of Business I Cost Them By Sharing My Experience Online: Priceless
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Petition for Accountability and True Responsibility
A friend over at Paper Economy has come up with a brilliant idea. If responsible Americans are going to be footing the tab in terms of either tax dollars or deflated savings, how about the recipients of the bailouts having to give what they can too?
Please visit this story here and please digg the story here to make sure this get's the attention it should.
Please visit this story here and please digg the story here to make sure this get's the attention it should.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Where's My iPhone?
Past VerizonMath reader David Gouldin, now fellow dissatisfied wireless customer has written to inform us of a problem he has been having over the past week or so with AT&T. He appears to have ordered a refurbished iPhone with intentions of developing iPhone apps. Unfortunately the package that should have contained his shiny *new* iPhone contained instead a shiny white AT&T bag, a packing slip (referring to the bag) and nothing else.
Check it out over at wheresmyiphone.blogspot.com.
Good luck David! Please keep us posted.
Check it out over at wheresmyiphone.blogspot.com.
Good luck David! Please keep us posted.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
PBX Hell: 50+ Hacks Get to a Real Person in 10 Seconds or Less
A reader sent me the following link and it seems like it might be very helpful to those of you visiting this blog as a result of your own customer service nightmare:
PBX Hell: 50+ Hacks Get to a Real Person in 10 Seconds or Less
Good luck!
PBX Hell: 50+ Hacks Get to a Real Person in 10 Seconds or Less
Good luck!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Hello AT&T
So, about 1 month without a cell phone was all I could stand.
I really wanted the iPhone, but I wanted gps too, and since the iPhone doesn't have it yet I went with the Blackjack II until the next gen iPhone comes out. I assume Apple will add gps and 3G next time around.
The phone is really great and I purchased the unlimited data plan with tethering, so I can supposedly tether whenever I need to, and even potentially download without caps (unlike Verizon's supposedly unlimited plan which has a 5GB cap).
So far I'm very happy with the phone. Its thin and fast, and I've been getting away with google maps for mobile as gps software. I've tested the bandwidth, and gotten as much as 1MB/s down and 200KB/s up.
The people at the AT&T store were unbelievably different than the Verizon store folks, although, my Verizon store experiences were in NJ while I got the blackjack from an AT&T store in California. I suppose that could account for a difference in mentality and mental capability on its own, but being a Jersey boy I'm thinking its the companies, not the states ;).
The last thing I'd like to tell you all that I found out that might be of interest is that since I really ultimately wanted an iPhone I asked a lot of questions about it. As it turns out, while I received my Blackjack II at a discount for signing with AT&T for 2 years, were I to upgrade even today to an iPhone I would still be able to get the normal iPhone new subscriber price and would not have to break my contract on the Blackjack II. So this means I get all the benefit of having a new phone with GPS and 3G data in the meantime while Apple get's their act together, and when the new one comes out (as long as the policy doesn't change) I can upgrade to the iPhone without paying any penalty other than the $100 I paid for the Blackjack II (after $100 mail in rebate).
This seemed to me to be a great policy and a great deal, at least for me with my sights on the iPhone. Otherwise I might have gone with a prepaid phone or perhaps bought a cheapy phone on ebay and simply signed up for a contract free month to month service. So now I've got the best of both worlds.
Thanks AT&T - so far so good!
PS: the one thing that is interesting, not that I'll be roaming to Canada anytime soon, but AT&T's data rates there are $.015/KB compared with Verizon's now well known $.002/KB. So AT&T comes in at $15.36.MB - which seems outrageous compared to Verizon's $2.05/MB - so you folks on the border, make sure you do your math before making the switch like me.
PPS: I transfered my old Verizon number to my broadvoice account, since I was trialing AT&T and didn't want to hassle with the number portability thing (back and forth) should I decide to cancel. This worked out great as I use Broadvoice's simultanous ring feature so that should anyone call any of my old numbers, it will ring on my new phone. Then if and when I decide I will keep this phone I can either port my older number over to AT&T from Broadvoice, or just keep it in my Broadvoice account for less than $2/month. I'm really happy with their service. Anyone going over their monthly mobile minutes who also spends much of their time in front of a PC might want to look into Broadvoice. I use the free X-Lite from www.counterpath.com as my PC SIP client and make calls right from my computer. For anyone not familiar VoIP I can make and receive calls to and from any phone, and I also get unlimited calls to the US and many other countries included, all for about $27/month (including taxes). Remember too you can make calls from other countries for the same rates - as long as you have reasonable internet access (about 150KB/s up and down). Check out www.broadvoice.com.
I really wanted the iPhone, but I wanted gps too, and since the iPhone doesn't have it yet I went with the Blackjack II until the next gen iPhone comes out. I assume Apple will add gps and 3G next time around.
The phone is really great and I purchased the unlimited data plan with tethering, so I can supposedly tether whenever I need to, and even potentially download without caps (unlike Verizon's supposedly unlimited plan which has a 5GB cap).
So far I'm very happy with the phone. Its thin and fast, and I've been getting away with google maps for mobile as gps software. I've tested the bandwidth, and gotten as much as 1MB/s down and 200KB/s up.
The people at the AT&T store were unbelievably different than the Verizon store folks, although, my Verizon store experiences were in NJ while I got the blackjack from an AT&T store in California. I suppose that could account for a difference in mentality and mental capability on its own, but being a Jersey boy I'm thinking its the companies, not the states ;).
The last thing I'd like to tell you all that I found out that might be of interest is that since I really ultimately wanted an iPhone I asked a lot of questions about it. As it turns out, while I received my Blackjack II at a discount for signing with AT&T for 2 years, were I to upgrade even today to an iPhone I would still be able to get the normal iPhone new subscriber price and would not have to break my contract on the Blackjack II. So this means I get all the benefit of having a new phone with GPS and 3G data in the meantime while Apple get's their act together, and when the new one comes out (as long as the policy doesn't change) I can upgrade to the iPhone without paying any penalty other than the $100 I paid for the Blackjack II (after $100 mail in rebate).
This seemed to me to be a great policy and a great deal, at least for me with my sights on the iPhone. Otherwise I might have gone with a prepaid phone or perhaps bought a cheapy phone on ebay and simply signed up for a contract free month to month service. So now I've got the best of both worlds.
Thanks AT&T - so far so good!
PS: the one thing that is interesting, not that I'll be roaming to Canada anytime soon, but AT&T's data rates there are $.015/KB compared with Verizon's now well known $.002/KB. So AT&T comes in at $15.36.MB - which seems outrageous compared to Verizon's $2.05/MB - so you folks on the border, make sure you do your math before making the switch like me.
PPS: I transfered my old Verizon number to my broadvoice account, since I was trialing AT&T and didn't want to hassle with the number portability thing (back and forth) should I decide to cancel. This worked out great as I use Broadvoice's simultanous ring feature so that should anyone call any of my old numbers, it will ring on my new phone. Then if and when I decide I will keep this phone I can either port my older number over to AT&T from Broadvoice, or just keep it in my Broadvoice account for less than $2/month. I'm really happy with their service. Anyone going over their monthly mobile minutes who also spends much of their time in front of a PC might want to look into Broadvoice. I use the free X-Lite from www.counterpath.com as my PC SIP client and make calls right from my computer. For anyone not familiar VoIP I can make and receive calls to and from any phone, and I also get unlimited calls to the US and many other countries included, all for about $27/month (including taxes). Remember too you can make calls from other countries for the same rates - as long as you have reasonable internet access (about 150KB/s up and down). Check out www.broadvoice.com.
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