Verizon to Cut More Than 10,000 Jobs After Sales Miss Estimates (Hope-n-Change!)

Business Week ^ | January 26, 2010, 10:01 AM EST | Amy Thomson

[mom4melody]

We have been Verizon Wireless customers for years - good coverage, good service and any time there was an issuse, it was addressed and fixed.

[Boardwalk]

The only jobs 0bama created were Czar jobs.

[Skenderbej]

Maybe that is Verizon’s new marketing plan...

“Verizon’s customer service; it’s like sex with a paper shredder.”

[tanknetter]

Not to mention that F&^@# Verizon is a crooked company that still acts if it has a monopoly.

How true. I stuck with a dial-up ISP for a couple years because Verizon was taking steps to drop FIOS into my neighborhood. Took them two years longer than we were originally told, and they really did a job on our yard, and out neighbors', cutting it up to drop the fiber lines and associated infrastructure in.

But I figured it was worth it. So first notice we get that it's available I call to schedule an installation appointment. Couple days beforehand I notice that someone's been out and run a fiber cable from the junction box in my front yard to my house. Everything looks good, right?

Install day arrives, and having taken the day off from work I call to confirm that they'll have someone out within the defined "window". They assure me that they will. Window closes, no one arrives, so I call back. The guy who was supposed to do my install called in "sick", but they'll have someone out within an hour and a half.

Hour and a half passes, so I call back. They'll have the "first available" out. I ask if that means they'll have someone out that day, or actually expect me to take the next day off from work too - am told no: that if they can't get someone out before 5pm I'll have to reschedule for a later date. I ask for when the next date will be, and am told its three weeks down the road.

I cancel my order completely (the one thing they were actually efficient about), called up my cable TV service and had a cable modem that I was able to setup myself the *next day*.

Then I cancel our cell phones (iPhone made it easy). And our landline. Am officially "Verizon Free".

So to summarize: Verizon had a happy, loyal customer (I'd been with Bell Atlantic and before that C&P) that was looking forward to a new and unique service they were offering. They were able to get everything in place - all the way running the fiber right up to my house - but could ... not ... provision ... the ... service.

And because of their incompetence they lost that happy, loyal customer. Completely.

[PieterCasparzen]

Nothing like an plain old telephone service POTS when the power is out, but if the phone lines aren’t cut the phone still works. Great old simple technology as a backup in an emergency.

[Dan Nunn]

I don't think Verizon just sat back and said, "Holy crap! Land lines are going away!" the other day.

In fact, they've planned for this for a while.

[Dan Nunn]

And yes, I yell at them etc and they promise this time it will be resolved, and it isn’t.

I wonder what the problem could be.

[Dan Nunn]

Nothing like an plain old telephone service POTS when the power is out

Ever try teaching a 2 year old to dial 911 in case of an emergency on a cell phone?

Me neither, but if I had one, I'd definitely have a land line.

[Eva]

Verizon has done worse than that to us and others that I know. They put a ding on our credit for a hundred dollar charge from more than fifteen years ago, but they can’t tell us what it was for or why we were never billed for it. As near as we can figure, the bill is probably from a time that we moved and shut the service off at one house and had it turned on at another. Verizon forgot to shut off the first house for three months, but never sent us a bill. The new people finally felt guilty enough to have the phone changed to their name.

Another friend of mine had an unpaid bill put on their credit for a step son who died. The young man had the same name as his father, but lived on the other side of the country his whole life. Both happened to be Verizon customers.

[envisio]

I had Altell which became Verizon. I have had no complaints so far.

[copaliscrossing]

Verizon wireless cellular has great coverage and network quality. Cust service is so so at best.

I have always enjoyed the coverage we get with Verizon Wireless. It's just this last customer service experience was horrible. I would love to have a shot at trying the fios service but it isn't available in my neck of the woods.

[envisio]

“”””During and after hurricane Hugo, the phones were the only thing that worked. A group of us older people was talking to a younger man about why we keep a land line in case of emergency.”””””

People were ditching land lines in 1989?????

[Williams]

You think that after maybe 90 minutes on the phone, with people telling you they are switching you to the right dept, and it NEVER being the right dept. - 90 minutes and this has happened multiple times.

You think the problem was that I wrote taht I yelled at them?

OK let me rephrase, I tried to impress the latest person on the line that I had been on for hours, that I had been transferred multiple times, and that I do not want to merely have the same thing happen again and to please get me to a person who can help.

You think that was a problem caused by me? Which dept at Verizon do you work at? And by the way, the passionate request for help doesn’t work. They transfer you again, you wait 20 more minutes, and if you’re lucky the system just hangs up on you at some point.

Just maybe a huge corporation’s service depts can actually have the ability to get a customer an answer to questions that must come in 10,000 times aday?

[AbolishCSEU]

I WISH i could get FIOS. I live in rural upstate NY but about 10 minutes north of a city. I’m stuck with the local mickey mouse telco’s DSL. And they charge big time money for what little service they offer.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

We were talking about why we want to keep a land line now because of what happened then. I thought that was clear. The people in group we were talking to never had one of their own as they were mostly raised with cell phones. They didn't think they could ever need a land line these days for any reason.

[Sender]

Can you hire me now?

[WaterBoard]

I am been on hold with Verizon today for over an hour to order new service and no one answers the phone.

No wonder they are losing money when they dont answer the phone to accept new business.

Just wish there was an alternative.

And yes, Verizon added a ‘crammed’ OAN/KOOL Telecom charge onto our bill this last cycle we did not order. Called to complain and told them I already had a ‘cram block’ on the account and our account needed a pin number to add/delete services.

They said the law prevents them from preventing people from adding service charges to your phone bill.

[Dan Nunn]

Whoa! I don’t work for Verizon, you don’t need to yell at me too. Just sayin’, I’ve never had some of the problems that people have complained about on here. Been with them since they bought out the regional carrier in this market back around 2001 or so, Frontier Wireless.

[CRBDeuce]

Baltimore-based King, who advises investors to buy the shares and doesn’t own any.

Nothing like loyal employees to push the product! Wonder if he's related to George Soros!

[CRBDeuce]

"Verizon is another advertiser with the dumb white guy ads."

That's Racist.....oh wait

nevermind