FCC Makes It Easy

Previously I had written about how Verizon has been unable to resolve some billing problems with my account. I have to call them each month to get some bogus charges removed. Management could not help me either. So I am stuck accepting lesser features with the same price for my wireless phone bill. I asked that senior management call me. Nobody called back.

You can try to ignore your customer problems. But you cannot ignore me. I asked the only manager I could get at Verizon who the federal agency that regulated wireless carriers was. I was told it was the Federal Communications Commission. Verizon gave me their mailing and web address. I was going to pen a letter to the FCC complaining about Verizon’s shortfall.

I decided to double check the mailing address for the FCC online. It was there that I found they made it easy to issue a complaint online. Verizon gets dinged by me for their incompetent customer service. However the FCC gets two thumbs up for a friendly and easy to use web site. I entered my complaint and did not have to deal with writing a physical letter.

We shall see if the FCC is helpful in getting Verizon to deal with me fairly. I have proposed a number of ways for Verizon to resolve the problem for me. However they absolutely refuse to be helpful. The next steps will involve the Better Business Bureau and alternate techniques for reaching Verizon executives. However that is a story for another blog posting. Stay tuned.

Verizon Debacle

A couple months ago I went to the local Verizon store and bought a couple new cell phones. I also signed up for wireless phone service with them. It seemed like a good deal at the time. However I found additional charges on my bill for Data Usage Charges on my bill. I called them up immediately to complain that I had asked them to block any access which generates that charge. Their customer service told me that they would correct the problem.

The next two months I got bills which had this same Data Usage Charge. Each time I had to call up Verizon customer service, ask them to reverse the charges, and request they prevent this from happening again. Verizon was just not able to correct this problem. By the third time, I requested to speak to a manger.

The manager told me that they could not determine what exactly was causing this charge. They had some ideas. However they could not guarantee that it would not occur in the future. That was an unacceptable response. The only option to guarantee that the charge would not appear would be to accept restrictions which remove some of my phone capabilities. I asked if that meant I would get a discount on my service if I had to submit to lesser functionality. Of course the answer was no.

I have just about given up on Verizon. My time is money, and I am wasting a lot of time on the problems with their billing. I asked a Verizon manager to waive my early termination fee on all my phones. They refused. They also could not put me through to any regional or senior management. I was promised a call back from senior management in 24 to 48 hours. It has been over a week and I have received no calls back.

Perhaps Verizon is assuming I will just roll over. But I refuse. So it is time to use the tools at my disposal to get satisfaction. I figure I can use the Federal Communications Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and also try to get in touch with the powers that be at Verizon. I will keep you posted on my progress. If Verizon is listening to my rant, you are doing a bad job with customer service here. I can be reached at SoftwareMaintenace at gmail dot com.

No B.S. Direct Marketing Book Review

I saw an ad for a book entitled "No B.S. Direct Marketing" by Dan Kennedy. The ad was a good one. It sounded like this might be the answer for my small business marketing woes. I got a gift card this past Christmas. So I used it to buy the book. The cost was cheap.

As soon as I received the actual book, I was a bit disappointed. Not all chapters in the book were authored by Dan Kennedy. Much of the book felt like an advertisement for services by the various authors.

Now I won't say that I did not learn anything from this book. However I don't think there was anything revolutionary about the book either. In retrospect I wish I had skipped it. At least the thing did not cost that much.

I do not know that much about Dan Kennedy. However if this book is indicative of his efforts, I will be skipping his other books as well.