My wicked bad Verizon adventure

I normally focus my blog entries on wireless and mobility issues, but today I must digress and tell you about my wicked bad Verizon adventure. For those of you who are not from the greater Boston area, the word “wicked” is local vernacular for “very”, as in, “The new Star Trek movie was wicked good!”

My sad story begins on Wednesday when business associates began asking me, “Hey Paul, did you leave the Burton Group?” Apparently, when they dialed my business number Verizon no longer rang my phone, but instead, rang a phone at Caldwell Banker. Sure enough, when I dialed my number, I was connected to a very nice lady at Caldwell Banker (Roxanne) who had been receiving all of my phone calls. To my great surprise, Roxanne was very sympathetic and offered to refer all incoming callers to my mobile phone number. How many people would take the time to do that?

Naturally, I figured a simple call to Verizon customer support would resolve the problem. Well, I was sadly mistaken. I was informed that my phone number had been transferred to another telecommunications carrier! “But who authorized that action, I asked?” They did not know. All they knew was that someone authorized the transfer and therefore they disconnected my phone service.

I was stunned. How could this happen? Who was responsible? Who was going to take ownership of this problem and resolve it? The response:
“Mr. DeBeasi, it will take us 8 business days to restore your service”. This was totally unacceptable. I receive phone calls on that number throughout the day. I told Verizon that I need my service reactivated within hours, not days or weeks.

During the next 1 ½ hours on the phone, Verizon had me re-apply for phone service (including a new credit check) as if I was a totally new customer. After waiting on hold for what seemed like eternity, they assured me that everything would be copacetic by the following day (Thursday). Ok, I could live with that.

Unfortunately, Thursday came and went and the phone service was still not active! On Friday morning I called Verizon again. Of course, I had to navigate through five minutes of questions from a hyper-friendly automated attendant before I was connected to a living human being. Naturally, there was no record of my previous conversation so I had to explain the entire situation over again. Arrrg! Finally, after a lengthy wait on hold, the customer service representative informed me the repair work could not be completed until June 12.

“What! That is 1 month from now”, I said. The very friendly representative said he would see what he could do and would call me back. At this point I was ready to blow a gasket. This situation was going from bad to worse. I then contemplated a call to the Massachusetts Public Utility Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and the Massachusetts Attorney General.

However, to my surprise, I received a call from Roxanne at Caldwell Banker again. She told me that Verizon had just called her to say that they figured out how to solve the problem with my phone service. I guess that was good news. Shouldn’t Verizon have called me? Whatever! All I really cared about was that they activate my service. Well, to my surprise, Verizon activated my phone service early Friday afternoon and all was happy again in the Beantown suburb of Milford.

As I contemplated the previous three days, I asked myself if I had learned anything from this experience. Well, I learned how dependent I am on my traditional landline phone service. Although I have a mobile phone, many of my incoming calls still go to my landline phone. Secondly, I realized that subconsciously I felt ownership toward “my” phone number. I was appalled that Verizon gave my number to another telecommunications carrier! Lastly, I learned that a simple friendly gesture can mean a lot.

Thank you Roxanne. You made my day!