Bad Customer Service from Verizon Wireless Messaging Services
Two defective pagers in a row and they're sticking us for the full bill for it
This article originally posted April 7, 2003
UPDATE February 21, 2004: It's been 10 months since I originally posted this alert. Unless any further surprises occur, I now consider this problem with Verizon to be resolved. Click here to see what Verizon did in February, 2004 to right this wrong. Verizon Wireless messaging services text pagers bad customer service two defective Motorola pagers in a row cell phone Airtouch www.verizon.com Motorola Verizon Wireless messaging services pagers
Click on the links below to see for yourself
what this defective pager is doing
RealVideo | Windows Media PlayerAbout two months ago, we purchased our second text messaging pager from Verizon Messaging services (formerly Airtouch paging). It was a Motorola text pager. They shipped the pager to us. After opening it and installing a couple different new batteries in it, it worked for only a few hours. Then it started shutting itself on and off, over and over again. Most of the time, It beeped each time it turned itself back on. It got so annoying to my co-workers and me that I had to remove the battery. I called Verizon and told them about the problem. It had a 30-day warranty so they shipped me another one right away.
I've had this second replacement pager for only two months when it starting doing the very same thing. To see for yourself what it's doing, view the streaming video by clicking on the links below the picture to the right. Although it was past the 30 day warranty, it was not reasonable by any good customer service standards that this second one should have also gone bad with the very same problem in just two months. I called them up to complain that this pager they charge $65 for was for the second time in just two months experiencing exactly the same problem. At first, they were only willing to give me a 10% discount on the purchase price of another $65 replacement. I still had to pay full price for the defective one that no longer works. After arguing with the original customer service person, then her manager for over an hour on the phone, the best the manager would offer me was a 50% discount on a new pager. I would have to eat the price of the defective replacement pager they sent me. Bottom line is that if we want to have a pager, it will cost us $65 for the pager that no longer works after just 2-months, plus another $32.50 for a replacement. That's a total of $97.50 for a $65 pager that we've only gotten two months of use from.
What I originally asked for is that the pager be replaced again even though it was past the 30-day warranty. Later, I said that I felt I might be willing to pay $20 for the now defective pager (because I had gotten 2-months use of it before it went bad), then I would buy another pager. Both were reasonable requests given the fact that I had received two defective pagers in a row. The customer service manager I spoke to told me that although he had the authority to accommodate my requests, he would not do so. He also said that failure to pay the full $65 for the original pager (that he now knew was defective) would result in our account being turned over to a collection agency. It seemed to me that he was more concerned about how he might look to his supervisor about being too accommodating than he was about keeping my long-term business.
I explained to this manager that we had another pager with Verizon, and that for several years we've had two cell phones with their company (we have only one now). That made no difference. He was unwilling to cut us any slack whatsoever on the original defective pager, only on another replacement for it. I told him that if he wouldn't be more reasonable that we would cancel our other pager, and our other cell phone service with Verizon as soon as we found suitable replacements. He didn't seem to care about that, or the fact that we were long-standing customers with them. He was willing to be personally responsible for Verizon to lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of future business with us over this $65 defective pager. I asked him for his supervisor's name. He wouldn't give it to me. Instead, he said I could leave a message with him and he'd forward it to another supervisor who would then call me back. I asked him what the chances are that I would get the same results from another manager. He said "about 90%". On April 2, 2003, I tried to use the feature on the Verizon web site to send a comment to their executives about the way I was being treated. The feature didn't work. I sent the message instead to their webmaster and ask that it be forwarded. On April 7, I received an e-mail that in part said this:
Thank you for your message to Verizon. Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate department for review. For customer service issues, you'll hear back from us soon.
So far, I've heard nothing further from Verizon. I cancelled the paging service for the now defective pager. We are now in the process of looking for a new pager and cell phone company and will soon be canceling our other Verizon pager and cell phone services.
Update on 5/26/2003: To date I have sent three e-mails to Verizon asking them to forward it to their executives. The last one was on 4/29/2003 and it still has not been responded to. Yesterday I also posted a report on a web site for reporting rip-offs. You can see it at this link:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/view.asp?id=58346
Someone posted a follow-up that gave me the e-mail address to an executive at Verizon. Today I sent a 4th e-mail and copied this executive on it. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Update on February 17, 2004: Somehow Verizon found out about this page and contacted me about it (this page has been linked to over 7,500 times, so it was probably just a matter of time before someone at Verizon discovered it). They wanted to see if there was something they could do to make things right. They offered to send me a new P900 two-way pager at no cost. I will pay the regular rate for a subscription to their paging service. The defective pager cost me $65. The pager they're sending me is new (not refurbished), and according to their web site is currently on sale at $49.95. However, the person I spoke to said it normally retails for $189, so their offer is a fair one. They'll be shipping it to me shortly. I'll update this page after I receive the pager, and after I see if there were any charges for it that I did not anticipate or was not told about. The gentleman who spoke with me seemed genuinely concerned about the way I had been treated and told me that he would be following up with the person who I originally had the problem with. He also said that the problem I was experiencing with the original defective pager was a software problem that has since been identified and resolved.
Update on February 18, 2004: I received the P900 pager. The pager hardware seems to be working fine. However, after trying for about two hours to get it to send outbound messages, I still can't get the function to work. I have a Motorola pager supplied through my employer that is nearly identical to this pager, so I'm familiar with how to send outbound messages and how to reply to inbound messages. It also has no option in the menu to reply to a message I've received. Called customer support and they said I needed to go to www.myairmail.com to register this pager at that site. There wasn't anything about having to do this in the instructions that came with the pager. I went through the registration process but it got an error message. I can send e-mails to my pager and they get through just fine. However, I can't use the alias I set up on the www.myairmail.com web site. It keeps giving me an error saying that no pager number is associated with the alias. When I get back into the web site to add it, it gives me an error message that tells me to contact my wireless provider. The www.myairmail.com site seems very buggy. Several links don't exist (i.e. the Help link). When viewed in Netscape 7.01, the field headings don't appear. Will contact their customer service number tomorrow to see if they can help me resolve these technical issues.
Update on February 19, 2004: Before I could call Verizon's customer service about the problem I was having with not being able to send outbound messages from the new pager, I discovered they had already assigned someone to work on the problem. This person sent a page to my pager that I discovered this morning. I spoke with him later in the day by phone. Bottom line is that the outbound messaging now works just fine. I'll still need to wait another day before my alias pager name is working, but that's normal for any new customer because it takes 24-hours for their database to be updated. I also learned today that they will not be charging me for an activation fee. They are also not going to require me to sign a one-year contract. So far I've been amazed at the blazing speed of this new pager. In the few test pages I've sent to it since the problems were resolved, it has taken less than 1-minute for the pager to receive the page, and less than 1-minute for the reply I sent from the pager back to myself to show up in my e-mail inbox. Very impressive! If there are no further glitches, and no more really bad experiences with their customer service folks, Verizon is well on its way to restoring my confidence in them. I'll update this site again tomorrow as to whether or not the alias name is fixed. I'll also include some tips about using these pagers I learned from this experience that Verizon may not think to tell you about when they ship them out.
Update on February 21, 2004: Unless there are any further bad service surprises, this issue has now been resolved to my satisfaction. The pager Verizon gave me is fully functional, including the alias e-mail address. I can now feel comfortable saying that I've been pulling for Verizon to come through on this for a long time. I have no bitterness against them whatsoever. I'd much rather dedicate my web site to praising companies who have done the right thing than to highlight bad experiences like we initially had with Verizon. They have finally recovered nicely from their original mistreatment. I don't believe it ever would have happened without the existence of this web page highlighting the original problem. Having said that, I still give them the credit for doing the right thing in the end, and for the professional way they treated me. When our contract expires on our three Sprint cell phones, we'll be considering Verizon as a replacement for the Sprint phones. Truthfully, we were happier with our Verizon cell phones to begin with. We used them a lot on Boy Scout campouts. When other members of the troop couldn't get a signal on their cell phones out in the wilderness areas, we almost always could on our Verizon cell phones. That was very helpful when my sons were trying to call home to get updates on dangerous weather that was moving into their area. Congratulations Verizon on your nice recovery.
Conclusion
Even though the problem is now solved, I am going to leave this web page in tact for two reasons. First, it is an example to others who have been treated unfairly by a company of the power of the internet to fight back if it is used in the right way. Second, it is an example to other companies that if you do an injustice to a customer, it is possible and even beneficial for you to right the wrong, no matter how long after the fact the problem is recognized and corrected. Verizon turned me, a big critic, into a cheerleader for them. In the end this web site which has probably cost them business in the past 10 months or so may now help them to shine.
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