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Verizon Makes Offering Service Blocks a Fireable Offense 370

Posted by Soulskill
from the customer-is-always-ripe dept.
Presto Vivace sends in a report from David Pogue at the New York Times, who learned from a Verizon customer service representative that the company has implemented a policy of punishing employees who suggest certain service blocks to customers looking to avoid unwanted or accidental fees. According to the representative, offering (for example) a web access block or premium SMS block without the customer asking for it can now lead to a reprimand or outright termination. The CSRs have also been directed to avoid issuing credits for such charges. "Essentially, we are to upsell customers on the $9.99 25mb/month or $29.99 unlimited packages for customers. Customers are not to be credited for charges unless they ask for the credit. And in cases such as data or premium SMS, where the occurrences may have gone months without the consumer noticing, only an initial credit can be issued."
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Verizon Makes Offering Service Blocks a Fireable Offense More

Verizon Makes Offering Service Blocks a Fireable Offense

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  • T-mobile is great in this respect (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2010, @10:52AM (#32632118)
    T-mobile, say what you will about its coverage. But it has excellent customer service. They voluntarily suggested these blocks, and they have lower rate plans for people out of contract who don't need subsidized phones. As the market is saturated, most people who want cell phones got them. Those who don't need/want premium service are happy with their two or three year old phones. T-mobile, and others who are offering lower rate plans without phone subsidies are going to retain these customers. And the nickle and dimers like AT&T and Verizon would find it difficult to peel off customers from them.

  • Re:T-mobile is great in this respect (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2010, @11:01AM (#32632180)
    I fully agree with the T-Mobile recommendation. Another thing to try for those of you with minimal needs is one of the prepaid plans offered by some of the smaller carriers. These plans piggyback on the major provider's networks (you'll need to research to see who has paired up with whom), and they are substantially cheaper. My co-worker and his wife use these, and they pay about 100 bucks a year for both phones. There are frequently 2-for-1 minute top-off deals that come up. If you're frugal, you can get some good deals.

  • Re:T-mobile is great in this respect (Score:5, Informative)

    by ZosX (517789) <zosxavius@@@gmail...com> on Sunday June 20 2010, @11:03AM (#32632190) Homepage

    I second this. I have T-mobile and while their android phone selection is kind of sucking right now, I can still get away with wireless tethering for free and they have one of the largest caps (10 gigs). I've easily blown through 2-5 gigs already this month. They also just boosted their speeds locally and I'm now pulling like 2.5-4mbps, which is a lot better than the 1mbps I was getting previously. Don't know when I'll start to see speeds over 5mbps, but I should probably upgrade to the latest radio. The worst they do to the people that exceed their caps is drop them down to edge, which still at least leaves their phones somewhat usable. Every other provider wants to nickel and dime you to death. Boost is good for cheap phone service, but their network is terrible and nowhere even near edge quality. I'd feel pretty bad for anyone that bought their proposed android phone. Its going to be rather painful. Seems like sprint is content to milk the old nextel network for all its worth.

  • Re:Glad I just moved to Sprint. (Score:3, Informative)

    by ZosX (517789) <zosxavius@@@gmail...com> on Sunday June 20 2010, @11:11AM (#32632246) Homepage

    Sure. T-mobile won't nickel and dime you and they have generous caps on data. I've never paid more on my bill than the original stated amount. If you already have a compatible phone you can go month to month, contract free, or you can pay the full amount for the phone and avoid the contract. I was kind of dumb and did the contract, but I really have no complaints at all as I'm only paying like $30 more than I was before for just voice/sms and I can wirelessly tether with my laptop. They just bumped local speeds to 2.5.3mpbs on average and it should eventually get nearer to 7mpbs for me as their HSPA+ rollout completes, but I'm already pretty happy with the speed I have now for it being wireless and all. I can even watch hulu or netflix, which is pretty decent, though data consumption is awfully high. :)

  • DIY (Score:5, Informative)

    by audubon (577473) on Sunday June 20 2010, @11:23AM (#32632326)
    You can go to verizonwireless.com and add (or remove) the blocks yourself (note: some of the links are found at the extreme right or bottom of the page):

    Account -> Plan -> Set Usage Controls -> Add/Remove Blocks

    • Block Ringback Tone Purchase
    • Block Premium Messaging
    • Block V CAST Music
    • Block Premium Animated Messaging
    • Block Mobile Web
    • Block Web Purchases
    • Block V CAST Video Clips
    • Block Application Downloads

  • They didn't deny it. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Posting=!Working (197779) on Sunday June 20 2010, @11:29AM (#32632356)

    The source claims that they can be fired if they suggest data blocks unless a customer specifically asks for them.

    Verizon's defense was that no employee would be fired for adding a data block if a customer specifically asked for one.

    What's really disturbing is that the reporter actually accepted this as a valid defense. Their answer covers when a customer specifically asks for a block, the firing in question occurs when a customer does not.

    How specifically do the customers have to ask? Is asking for them to stop these ridiculous charges enough, or do you have to ask for a data block specifically? Would you still have to request download blocking, Vcast blocking, etc. by name?

    They designed the phone interface to maximize the frequency of these charges, I'm pretty sure they make stopping them as difficult as possible. As far as companies go, Verizon is among the lowest of the low.

  • Re:T-mobile is great in this respect (Score:3, Informative)

    by SpzToid (869795) on Sunday June 20 2010, @12:15PM (#32632694)

    T-mobile has the lowest price for data-only service, at $40 monthly. This has been the case for years. If you've got your VOIP setup down, you already know this is all you need. One SIM allows easy-tethering also.

    http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/cell-phone-plans-detail.aspx?tp=tb1&rateplan=Even-More-Plus-Smartphone-Unlimited-Web-E-mail [t-mobile.com]

    My brother drives a truck around Northern Arizona and I've been trying to get him to switch to such a plan, but he says there's nothing like Verizon coverage in the area, (and what he really wants is voice service). If anyone has any comments on T-mobiles coverage in N. Arizona, I'd like to hear. When I look at T-mobiles coverage map, it looks pretty good along all the highways, to me.

  • Re:Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:5, Informative)

    by green1 (322787) on Sunday June 20 2010, @01:09PM (#32633072)

    One of the metrics used quite extensively by the telecom company that I work for is "churn" this is the percentage of customers that leave the service. It is compared extensively with churn numbers from our competing carriers, as well as with our historic churn levels for previous quarters or years.
    The company is well aware of the cost to acquire a new customer, (they have it figured out down to fractions of a cent) and the churn rate for existing customers.

    Although this doesn't help you see "why" someone left, you CAN see any trends based on various policies. (ie. we instituted policy "screw the customer" in Q1 2009, and in subsequent quarters we started to show a higher churn rate, maybe we should re-think that policy?)

    Additionally whenever anyone cancels their service, A rep tries to get a reason out of the customer, this is obviously 2 fold, part of it is to try to keep them by offering some form of "save" deal, but the other one is to keep statistics on why people leave, if most people leave for "price" then you consider changes to pricing structure, if most people leave for "reliability" you consider upgrades to infrastructure, if most people leave for "customer service"... well... our execs still haven't decided what to do about that one... but I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually...

  • Verizon handled this issue well for me (Score:3, Informative)

    by guanxi (216397) on Sunday June 20 2010, @01:41PM (#32633252)

    I know people gripe about every large company, but Verizon has provided very good service to us. Regarding this issue, we received 2 unsolicited premium SMS messages for $10 each. We called them, and Verizon refunded the charges and suggested blocking premium SMS (which we did).

    It was a little while ago, as a said, but I seem to remember learning that there was a legal issue involved -- either a lawsuit or FCC investigation. Also, Verizon has a FAQ that explains premium SMS well:
    http://support.vzw.com/faqs/Premium_TXT_and_MMS/faq_premium_txt_and_mms.html [vzw.com]

  • Re:Customer Service (Score:5, Informative)

    by Widowwolf (779548) on Sunday June 20 2010, @01:43PM (#32633262) Homepage
    Do you realize on average about 1 every 2 months there are changes to multiple things such as the privacy policy, contract and a number of other things that, if you don't agree with the changes, you can terminate your service without paying the fee. People don't pay attention to their bill so they don't realize when these things happen. Same thing for credit cards. They are basically changing the contract, which if you do not agree to the new contract, you don't have to live with it, and they can't make you pay for it.

  • Re:Rife (Score:3, Informative)

    by Khuffie (818093) <khuffie@khuffie.cAAAom minus threevowels> on Sunday June 20 2010, @01:52PM (#32633318) Homepage
    Looking at Fido's escalation process, 'Step 2' is where it fails all the time. The last time I had a problem that customer service couldn't resolve, I asked to speak to a manager, wherein the rep replied that all the managers were in a meeting and no one could take my call. Every single one. At the same time. And no one could field problems. Took my number down and said a manager would call me in 24 hours. When no one did, I called back, and once again I got the same line that every manager was in a meeting and no one could take my call. That time I insisted, and my rep managed to grab a manager who was 'walking by'. Yeah right.

  • Re:T-mobile is great in this respect (Score:2, Informative)

    by Mateorabi (108522) on Sunday June 20 2010, @03:00PM (#32633774) Homepage
    Agreed. $30 for a a phone and a $25 in minutes. Buy the $100 minutes to become Gold so you have to get more minutes 1/yr instead of every 90 days. Now I only have to put the minimum $10 a year on the phone (or whatever I use above that, because even I use >100minutes a year) upkeep.

    It's great, no hassle, cheap, and they have the best customer service. The first year I forgot the renewal date (I was off by a day) but the rep told me I was within the (one time) 48hr grace period so they restored the ~100 bucks that should have expired. They got a life customer for that class act.

  • Verizon is disgusting (Score:2, Informative)

    by spongebob232323 (1061346) on Sunday June 20 2010, @04:04PM (#32634246)
    Verizon signed my dementia addled father for not one but two long term wireless contracts. Luckily (not really) he brought me in to deal with it before the FCC 30 day termination deadline. First they didn't mail promised phone return labels. After many calls later and the phones were returned and the account payed off. Then, boom, a month later they sent a bill for early termination fees. It seems that my father had called them to see if they would release a previously ported phone number back to the original carrier (he decided he was too old not to have a landline). Well it seems some helpful associate/technician trying to help my pathetic dad get his number back triggered early termination penalties and this was found later in some beancounter audit. The person he talked to did not indicate he would have to pay ~$200 to get his number back. Incredibly, trying to get the early termination fees re-removed from the account was denied. Even when the employees try their best to help you, the Verizon faceless machine Corporation will screw you.

  • Re:Surprise? (Score:4, Informative)

    by P0ltergeist333 (1473899) on Sunday June 20 2010, @05:30PM (#32634832)

    Well said. Bravo. Rather than accept such attitudes, people should tell Verizon exactly why they're leaving and leave. In my case, I did and went to Sprint who happens to also have much better service and coverage in my area. While Sprint's CS hasn't been completely stellar, it's well above Verizon's, and like erroneus, I always suspected it came from the top. If I hadn't already made the change, I would be making it right now. No-one should tolerate such business practices. Additionally, since they are making a policy of refusing to credit accidental charges, I wonder if that doesn't fall directly under deceptive trade practices since they obviously know that such charges are being unintentionally incurred, and they are knowingly profiting off such as well as implementing policies specifically intended to profit off these deceptive practices.

    On the other side of this, I have worked as a phone rep. In fact I have worked at a contractor who at the time had the Verizon account. I'm not sure if that contractor still does Verizon support, but they take pride in following such practices..."whatever the client wants" even if that client is plainly screwing the customer. Today's version of 'customer service' has made me so disillusioned I am strongly considering getting out of tech and into something like food services, where good customer service and providing quality goods is actually still appreciated and is even rewarded to a large degree.

  • Re:Customer Service (Score:5, Informative)

    by Widowwolf (779548) on Sunday June 20 2010, @06:54PM (#32635404) Homepage
    Basically if you get your bill and notice there is a change to ANY part of the contract or service agreement(Such as trying to force you to a different plan or changing procedures for billing) This is a change to the original contract you signed with the carrier. Look for your provider to bury changes to Terms of Service with your bill. Quite often providers modify their service plans, much of the time the modification is a benefit. It doesn't matter, this voids the previous contract. Read the small print on those inserts included with your bill, it will spell out that you have 30 days (may vary on where you live) to cancel your contract with no charge simply because they changed the contract. Pay attention to how it tells you to cancel because sometimes that's very important. But remember if you pay that bill before this, most time it is look at as if you agree to the new changes and henceforth the new contract.

  • Re:Customer Service (Score:2, Informative)

    by sixsixtysix (1110135) on Sunday June 20 2010, @07:45PM (#32635730)
    did the original contract say this behavior was okay on their part? services like phone,cable, etc, may have the fine print that they can change some things without violating the original contract.

"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs