Customer service fail!

I am in the process of changing over my email address from RCN to Gmail. Most of the changes have been painless since all I have to do is sign onto a website and change my email. Not so with the Verizon website. Sure I can sign on and get to the section where my email address is. I click on the “manage” button and all that happens is that the page expands and I now see where I can opt in to Verizon email offers.

I finally bit the bullet and opened up a chat window with Verizon. Talk about a surreal experience! I was online with the rep for an hour. Yes, that’s right ONE HOUR, to change my email address.

These customer service fails are pretty bad. But the sad thing, the fixes for these fails are pretty easy. Verizon, are you listening??????

Fail #1: Critical webpages NOT working.

I tried the Help section and it said, “Go to Account Page. Go to “Email Settings.” Click on “Manage.” Enter your new email address. That sounds simple enough.  Well, when I clicked on “Manage.” All that happened was an expanded page asking me what additional services I wanted to add.

Further on in the Help section, it very clearly states, “Your primary email address cannot be changed.” What a contradiction and what nonsense.

Fail #1: Easy fix for critical webpages not working.

Have an employee read the Help section and make sure a. It is accurate. and b. The instructions actually work!

Fail #2: Too few choices.

You HAD to select from a drop down menu what type of problem you were having. Nope, I don’t want to pay my bill, add new services or change my password! But since I had to choose one of them, I chose, “change password.” Big mistake, since for the first 5 minutes of the customer service chat, I had to keep explaining that my password was fine, and that it was changing my email that was the problem.

Fail #2: Easy fix for too few choices.

It is not possible to account for every type of question, but how about a category called, “Other,” with a space for someone to describe their problem.

Fail #3: Unstable network.

I’m doing this from my home computer, so I know I have a good connection. The problem must have been on Verizon’s end. Every minute or so, I kept getting an error message, “network connection lost, will keep trying to connect.” No wonder my session took over an hour, since for 30 minutes of that time the “network” was down.

Fail #3: Easy fix for unstable network.

How about a working network? How hard can that be? After all, this is Verizon, who’s ads claim they are the most reliable network.

Fail #4: Customer service reps who don’t listen.

I work in computers so I know the importance of being very specific in describing a problem you are having. I did that. How complicated can it be to understand, “I need to change my contact email address since my current one will no longer be active after June 19?”

She kept insisting that all I had to do was click on the “change email” link. Well, guess what, there was no “change email” link anywhere on the Verizon website. Belive me, I looked and I looked and I looked!

Fail #4: Easy fix for customer service reps who don’t listen.

Train customer service reps to listen. How hard is it to train someone to read or listen to the customer describing the problem and then responding to what the customer said.

Fail #5: Cumbersome security processes.

After we finally established the fact that my password was fine, the rep wanted to be sure I was the correct owner of the account. So, after asking me about 25 questions, she was satisfied. I get that companies need to be sure the actual account owners are making the changes, but I had already gone through these questions when I first signed onto my Verizon account! Talk about stupidity!!!!!!

Fail #5: Easy fix for cumbersome security processes.

Why on earth should one have to answer the same questions twice?

The good news is that the Customer Service did eventually help me and change my email address.

So what about you? Any fun and intriguing customer service stories to share?

Frustrated woman at computer photo is courtesy of Debspoon’s Free Digital Photo.