Verizon DSL WARNING! Check your ordersummary/bill carefully! Potential RipOff Verizon.com - Charleston, West Virginia

I recently was let go from a company in Norfolk, VA., that was contracted by Verizon to handle the Billing inquiries and Customer Retention for DSL, so if you dialed 800-567-6789, its possible you reached that office, if it didnt go overseas, so I know what your saying. 

It was a common practice and complaint in the department I worked for regarding "Slamming" of customers.  What the CSSC dept (Consumer Sales and Service) would do is load customers up with alot of unordered items that the customer wouldn't find out about until first billing or maybe even later in most cases, which would prompt customer to call.  But by that time the rep who placed all the extras on the acct probably received their bonus for that month. 

The most common issue was the Elderly calling in about their phone service and being offered DSL "for free for 30 days", most of these people didnt even have a computer, let alone know how to use one. The billing reps would then remove the charges to make the customer happy and sometimes offer an additional month credit for the customer's inconvenience.  And in regard to cancellation, more than a few Verizon customers will agree that the line mysteriously dropped after they stated they wanted to cancel service, or the rep would tell them its cancelled and would take no action on that acct.  If the reps don't access you DSL bill in the system they use, there is no way to tell who you spoke to unless you wrote down their name and/or id.

Real Verizon employee id's begin with a V and contracted companies begin with a Z both have 6 numbers following it.  They will typically not want to give it to you for fear they have screwed up and your going to report them.  But there is no reason a rep should not give you their id number, although, they will try to deny it because you wouldn't know that.

If only the customers knew what caliber of people they were dealing with when they called in to that office.  I've put in complaints about Team Developers (supervisors) being high on the job that went unaddressed to the Director, because I couldn't trust the Operations Managers who is their direct supervisor, for fear he would go and tell them.  Also the drug use in that building is ridiculous.  I've seen some supervisors come in to work high, during the day high and at the end of the day high.  And to make matters worse it sits diagonally across from a Homeland Security Building. And a majority of the Supervisors live a pretty good distance from the job to go home and do this, so it's safe to assume the drugs are either on their person, or in their vehicle. 

Needless to say shortly after filing that complaint to the Operations Managers at a later date this year, they found a reason to fire me, and had four sups in the room, two of which were accused of getting high, during my firing, I guess they had to be there for the show.  They tried to make up something else to cover it up. Since Virginia is an At-Will state, I had to bite the bullet.  

This outsourced company should not have the Verizon acct, because of their lack of professionalism and total disregard for customer needs.  If you noticed, you were probably transferred several times, the reason for that is the reps have to maintain an Average Handle Time, so it is common practice to send you somewhere else to keep the stats looking good for Verizon so that outsourced company can keep the contract.

So if you have friends that use Verizon DSL, please advise them of this.  Its all a numbers game, reps will get the customer off the phone as quick as they can and forget their needs.

To further clarify my situation:

I did check the Verizon e-mail,this is how I
discovered that contact with Verizon via telephone regarding the account seems to generate the Broad Band Essential Package being added to the bill. Also,we made it clear that we needed an internet connection only. Below are the details of the billing.




Verizon Unlimited Games + Starz(R) Play Pak 06/26/2009 US$ 20.98 per month $4.98/month off for the first 12 months Include with my Verizon Online Bill 06/26/2009 Cancelled


Internet Security Suite/3 05/05/2009 US$ 5.99 per month N/A Include with my Verizon Online Bill 05/05/2009 Cancelled


Games on Demand/Unlimited 04/28/2009 US$ 14.99 per month N/A Include with my Verizon Online Bill 05/12/2009 Cancelled


Starz Play 04/28/2009 US$ 5.99 per month N/A Include with my Verizon Online Bill 05/12/2009 Cancelled


Security and Backup Bundle/5GB 04/28/2009 US$ 8.99 per month N/A Include with my Verizon Online Bill 05/28/2009 Cancelled


Protection Pak Enhanced 04/28/2009 US$ 19.99 per month N/A Include with my Verizon Online Bill 04/28/2009 Cancelled

I am an employee for Verizon HSI/DSL (High Speed Internet) and I will let you know a few things about your order. When you sign up for service, in theory internet service is supposed to be used with a home phone line. However, with Verizon, we have a service called Dry Loop. With the Dry Loop service we are able to hook your internet up without the use of a home phone line. This option is best for people who port their home phone number to another carrier or Vonage users, as well as someone who uses cell phones and have no real need to have a home phone for lack of using it. I certainly apologize for the mis-information and inconvenience if you were not offered the product up front as this sounded like a better solution for you.

As far as the Broadband and Essentials go, there is Starz Play, which enabels you to watch movies online for free as you pay for the monthly service. Can range from 5.99 to 14.99, depending on what you choose. Then we have Internet Security, which is a total system for protecting your computer against viruses and other harmful elements that intend to bring the computer down. This ranges from 5.99 to 14.99 as well. Then there is Security and Backup. This is a combination of Internet Security and storage for your computer. We have 100 MB, 5 GB and Unlimited. These prices vary. Then there is Games on Demand. This feature allows you to play games online unlimited so long as the plan is on your bill. This can range from 5.99 to 14.99. Then there is Premium Tech Support which helps with software issues that may arise and so long as this feature is on the account there will always be help. This has a new pricing of 14.99 with an ETF of 59.00 if you chose to cancel before the year is up (I don't understand the ETF myself, but it's not for me to understand, just implement!). There are also other pricing guides for this without the ETF. Then we get to PC Protection. This plan protects your computer as long as you are protected, this is like an extended warranty for the computer and other merchandise in the house such as televisions and dvd players. These items, up to a certain dollar, can be replaced if something goes wrong with it and we cannot fix the issue. This have many different plans and depending on which you chose, this would be what is covered.

As I go into detail I have a point to make. There are some sales reps that are pushed to sell as much as they possibly can. There are quota's that need to be met and admittedly there are some that knowingly leave information off for the pride of a sale. However, when you sign up for the services, there are emails sent out, sometimes more than one, to confirm what you have bought. Along with the email, towards the bottom of the email in gray, there is the terms of service that covers the ETF (Early Termination Fee) if cancelled early if in contract and the fact that you have a 30 day MBG (Money Back Guarantee) which is painless and charges you nothing to try for that period and cancel if you decide that this is something you do not want. If you saw, on your first bill, that there were some features that you did not ask for nor was told about, then call 1-800-567-6789 option 2 for DSL billing (please enter a valid phone number for your area to ensure that you will not have to be transferred!), and get the features removed immediately. There was an email that was sent to you upon being signed up for the purchases and when you saw the emails, you definitely could have called and removed them immediately. I am not going to sit here and say that Verizon is perfect and that all of their policies are fool proof because honestly every company could have a few changes that would make things more fair for everyone. However, where the contract is concerned, they are big on informing you of changes and it's up to you to heed the information. Any changes made to the account or expirations on the account are always communicated to the customer through email.

There are some that call in to say that they don't use the email address given to them by Verizon because they do not need it and this is a reason to have something credited due to their lack of knowledge of having the feature. My advise to them would be to keep it operating if only to receive correspondance from Verizon to you so that there are no misunderstandings, such as this, as to whether you were signed up for features. It is more on the part of the sales reps to disclose everything in the contract as well as feature on the account, however, we as consumers bear the responsibility of being informed and knowledgeable about products before we dive into it and this includes making sure the email address for correspondence is active and you are periodically checking on it and that we research the product before we settle on a purchase.