WIth friends and family in Japan (fortunately, all west of Tokyo), and living in a town and area with a sizable population with ties to Japan, I find this to be unconscionable.
Lots of folks are doing all they can to help through this terrible crisis. Sadly, Verizon is an egregious exception.
Please share widely!
Not to excuse Verizon, but some other options:
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I have the iPhone app, but this is so very wrong. This is the coldest, cruelest customer service response I have ever encountered, and if it represents Verizon in any manner, the public needs to know about the corporate ethic.
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p>Spread the word.
This is the corporate culture of Verizon. It always has been.
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p>When AT&T was broken up, this piece was called “Bell Atlantic”. It was known for its arrogance, expense, and incredibly terrible customer service. The “Verizon” brand was created in an attempt to accomplish a corporate makeover. The name changed; the corporate culture did not.
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p>The attempt failed. New name, same old garbage.
Technically Bell Atlantic changed their name because they merged with a bunch of other companies. Name changes are always partly about brand image of course, but mean, Verizon really isn’t an “Atlantic” company anymore. They do business across the entire country. Thus those cellular maps they champion, plus FIOS seems to have made its way out west too.
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p>Of course, the concentration of the telecommunications industry is kind of an issue in of itself. It’s not as extreme as the iron grip of old AT&T, but it’s an issue.
I and my colleagues were part of the branding team that shaped the “new image”. The absolutely abysmal customer service of Bell Atlantic was a key business driver in shaping the newly-minted Verizon brand.
I would appreciate an answer that tells me I’m wasting my time, rather than encouraging me to do stuff that the rep knows is wasting my time because they don’t want to admit how much their company sucks. I found “Jan”‘s responses a nice change from the usual.
I’m always surprised to hear people actively demand to be bullshitted rather than just hearing the truth. Paul would rather waste hours of his time than be “insulted” by a direct answer.
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p>It reminds me of how doctors are never allowed to be explicit about a patient’s chance of survival or the severity of a condition. People demand misleading and confusing euphemisms that lessen the short-term pain but hurt them more in the long run.
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p>Thank you, Jean, for being honest and reasonable. It’s not her fault Verizon has faulty management. There’s absolutely nothing she can do except help people by being honest. Paul would rather compound the problem by having both a faulty management and a meandering, dishonest customer service program that wastes hours of his time to accomplish the same end.
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p>He’s not going to get what he wants whether Jean lies to him or not.
In a well-run company, your front-line customer service folks have an important role. They need to collect information for management, and communicate management decisions back to the consumer.
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p>I want the real answer, but it should also work like this.
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p>1. I make my statement.
2. Jean (or the equivalent) tells me that my statement will be forwarded to the appropriate person.
3. Someone responds back with with a thoughtful answer. “Thank you for your response, but due to [insert excuse here] we cannot do what you ask.”
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p>The key is that the decision makers should know what the customers are requesting, and that the decision makers are crafting the response. A corporate culture in which a low level customer service rep tells customers that you are wasting your time to even make the request is the kind of place that quickly starts to lose market share. Given that Verizon seems to spend a fortune on marketing to attract customers, it’s absurd to not make a minimal effort to retain customers.
NHK World is apparently available on Dish network. Don’t know about Direct TV.
I think it’s channel 1703 or something, there was a message on my tv this morning announcing it. Good work Paul, your calls and others like it made them switch. Now if we could just get Al Jazeera…
TV Japan is temporarily available for free on FIOS. TV Japan, which is usually a collection of Japanese language news, entertainment, and children’s programming, is now doing the straight NHK news feed. We are subscribers to this channel at a cost of $25 per month.
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p>What I am asking for is the English language service, NHK World, which runs on the Washington DC area FIOS system but not in Massachusetts.