Not One, But Two Phone Company Fiascos. Argh! Verizon and Frontier Are on My S-List.

Not one, but two phone companies have pissed me off this week. I like to be shiny and happy in my blog- usually. Today, while I sit on hold, AGAIN, I will vent. Mind you, not from my home computer because I STILL have no Internet at home.

Verizon Wireless Sucks The Big One:
I Don't Care How Many People Are Outside my Door With Gadgets

INCIDENT #1
We'll start with wireless. I recently had to change responsibility of my phone from the company into my name. Easy enough. Boom. Done. Okay, okay. I did have to wait for a while because the girl who serviced me at the counter at the Verizon Wireless location at the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre had not done this before. Two weeks later, I am smack-dab in the middle of a company event where I needed to reach people. One second the phone is fine. The next, I get a message, "The phone you are calling from cannot be authenticated." WHAT?

Since I do not have landline at home yet, I dialed 611, which is really a great service to have- that you can reach customer service right away. I give them credit for that. I found out that the person who switched my account over left an employer or employee ID on my account-- the company phones were to be deactiviated on the 10th. Since my accounted APPEARED to be a company phone- even after I got my welcome letter about MY new plan. So, just like that, with the flip of a switch, my phone was shut off. They apologized and immediately turned me back on. So it was really less than 12 hours without phone- but since I have no landline and no Internet it was an eternity.

So over a stupid field, I missed out on meeting up with some clients because I had no phone to call or be called on.

INCIDENT #2
So I lost my charger. Left it somewhere and it was half-broken anyway. I went to the same Verizon store that messed up my account to purchase a home charger. I told the guy, "Home charger." He had to knock on the door to the office, swipe a card to gain access and go back to the stock room to get one. He peeked back out and said, "Home or car?" to which I replied, "Home." Speaking of home, I got home, opened my bag and saw that I got a CAR charger. Partially it's my fault- I didn't check the bag.

I went to the mall the next day with the intent to exchange the charger. The girl went in that same super-secure back room. She came back out and said, "Sorry. We don't have any of those." She told me to go to the Verizon store by Wal-Mart or wait until they were back in stock. I hate driving by Wal-Mart in Wilkes-Barre so I just walked away. I need to go somewhere soon though because I am borrowing a charger. Maybe I will just use the car one for now... but still... why can't they get ANYTHING right at this Verizon store in Wilkes-Barre.

THE LANDLINE AND INTERNET: Frontier Sucks, Too
Not the people. I talked to a really cool guy from Minnesota, a state where people think I am from for the way I pronounce certain words. But anyway, I called three weeks ago to transfer service. A year or so ago, Frontier Communications bought out our local phone company, Commonwealth (CTSI). After I explained my whole situation three weeks ago, the rep informed me that they do not handle service in 18074, which is less than five miles from 18708 where I was moving from. I was told to call a different office. But it gets better- I had to go through the whole queue again. I am busy and have limited time to do these menial tasks. I could not wait on hold any longer so I hung up. Since then, I was in San Fran, busy moving and busy with a work event.

Today was the day. I called again today, when I was connected with the nice Midwestern boy. I told him that I wanted to be transferred to the right person and told him what happened last time. He said, "Why would they send you to someone else. I can help with Frontier everywhere." I trusted the boy from the Viking state and carried on.

"Oh. I see what the other guy meant. I can't help you."
"See! I told you!" I couldn't get mad though. He was so nice. He explained the whole Frontier-buying-CTSI-but-TSI-gets-to-keep-some-local-jurisdiction. He put me on hold to come back with this, "Oh, Miss Donna. It gets better. The local Frontier you have to call closes at 6:00pm."

See- I knew that. But the main Frontier site says until 7:00 p.m. They really need to implement a map and you click on it to see which service center you need to call. I work in e-commerce- something like that can be done.

I hung up, but then I realized that I am still paying for service three weeks later at an abandoned apartment. I called back to cancel that service. Turns out, I still have the final bill. I have to pay that first before I cancel. So, I had to pay that via their phone service and then I have to call back to the OTHER number to get new service at the new place.

Mind you- when I signed up for service last time, I signed up online to avoid this PHONE CRAP. I was NEVER contacted even though I got an order confirmation e-mail. When I called, the lady laughed and said, "Oh yeah- you should never place an Internet order with us. That happens all the time with things getting lost."

I'm at a loss. I'm about to get two tin cans and a piece of string. Frontier needs 24/7 service to acommodate busy professionals who don't have 30-60 minutes in their day to deal with this.

So guess what. I am going for a beer. Thanks Verizon.. Thanks Frontier. Thanks for contributing to my drinking habit. Ugh!

--sorry for any typos- I am writing this irate and don't want to edit at the moment. (Again, the beer is calling!)



Not one, but two errors on Verizon's part.

The Perils of Free Trials & Contracts- Stamps.com Can Stick It, Odyssey Fitness a Waste and Blockbuster Online Rocks

The Health Club Membership- The Only Thing I Lost Was My Money
Odyssey Fitness in Wilkes-Barre used to be convenient to where I worked. But since I was on the woman's side, which closed at 7:00p.m., the hours were not. Plus, I live about 45 minutes away-- so it was just so stupid to sign a one-year contract at $24.95 per month. My year was over I think in June or July. I probably could have gotten out of the contract if I really tried, but I let it go. So, I continued to wastefully have $24.95 debited from my account each month for an entire year, plus three months even thought I never set foot in the place.

Today, I was looking at my bank account online and saw this month's charge-- I realized that crap, I CAN cancel now because it has been a year. Nearly $300, down the drain. Can you believe it? I really hate that Odyssey Fitness in Wilkes-Barre does that. Everyone is talking about the new Planet Fitness in Edwardsville because it's $20 a month, unlimited tanning and NO CONTRACTS!! It makes me wonder if Odyssey really is that bad that they make people sign contracts because otherwise they'd leave. My feeling on this is why reel someone into a contract for something like a health club? People move all the time. People change jobs and shifts all the time. Why make it difficult for them to get out of a membership that they clearly cannot use? On the flip side, if someone is happy where they work out and take classes, wouldn't they continue to pay their membership? I clearly lost a lot of money, all my own faultof course, but why do places like Odyssey Fitness make you sign a contract? In hindsight, I regret doing it. It was kind of a rip-off. So- my word to the wise- don't join Odyssey Fitness in Wilkes-Barre if you aren't rock solid you'll go or you are uncertain if you will move or change your work schedule, when suddenly the gym does not jive with your wheareabouts or your schedule.

Stamps.com Can Stick It! (haha, I crack myself up!)
Stamps.com is my other gripe. I signed up for a free trial a ways back, mostly because I lived in the Boonies and never had stamps. After a month went by, I tried to cancel my free trial because, well, I never got around to buying labels to print my postage. I called Stamps.com to cancel. When you call places like Stamps.com to cancel an account, they sneakily direct you to a Retention Department, or rather, a bunch of well-trained reverse sales people. I have no idea what they guy said to me, but basically he didn't let me cancel and said to call back in another month. Whatever. I hung up because I was frustrated with him and his tactics- he was pretty much a bully. For what? Postage? Come on! I made a mental note to call back and hope I got someone not as pushy. Yeah. A whole year went by. Fast forward to now.

I have a credit card that I used to sign up for Stamps.com- I don't really use it for anything else- it was my online card that I used solely for stuff like that. Well, I had to go online and change my billing method for that card and saw the Stamps.com charge for $7.95. Crap! I forgot. Another year or more at$7.95 per month- probably at least $100 for absolutely NOTHING. I never even logged back in. Never printed on piece of postage. Why can't Stamps.com just provide good customer service, like Blockbuster.com does for their online service and let users simply cancel online, no questions asked, no bullying, no trying to save the account?

So today, I called Stamps.com today to cancel after paying them one year of $7.95 per month. I was prepared to go to someone who would talk me into staying, and she sure did. She tried to upsell me on another plan! WTF? I just told her I hadn't used it since I signed up for the free trial. She asked where I bought my stamps from. I told a white lie and said that my job lets us use the postage machine because otherwise I am sure she had a rebuttal for the other answers like, "The United States Post Office" or "CVS." She then put me on hold because she had to get "approval from a supervisor" to cancel and when she came back, she tried to keep me one more time. What the freaking bloody hell? I don't even have a printer at home because it is still at Dave's house!! I really wish I could get a refund since they can clearely see there was no activity since Day One.

(Update after post- I was curious. I googled "Stamps.com Complaints" and found a crap load. Here's a very well-constructed complaint from Complaint Board)

Avoiding the Perils
So kids, the moral of the story is- free trials (which require a credit card so they can bill you after the first 30 days) can be cool and work if you end up liking the product and using it or if you remember to cancel after the trial is up if you do not think the product or service is for you. My advice is to set an outlook reminder or somehow ping yourself close to the end of the 30 days to remind yourself to cancel. The other moral to the story is to not join a gym like Odysseey in Wilkes-Barre that requires a year-contract. If you believe that you will go often ( hahahahaha), go ahead. Otherwise, you will end up like me and a few others I knew that paid for an entire year without setting foot in the place. All that wasted money. Think of all the books I could have bought!!

Some Companies Have EXCELLENT Practices- Like Blockbuster!
Ah- back to Blockbuster... now that I talk about bad practices, I must compliment their awesome customer service department. A while back, when I still lived with Dave, we both got so busy and weren't watching our Blockbuster movies in a timely manner. I went online and easily found the place to cancel. Rather than cancel, Blockbuster had an option to put the account on hold, where you could return the movies you had out at the moment and then not be charged for six months. Wow. I didn't even have to call someone or be bullied by someone like at Stamps.com. So, instead of cancelling, I decided to just freeze my account.

Well, over six months passed, and I ended up moving on my own and have been TV-less since May. I left the nice 50-some-odd-inch plasma TV with Dave because I am nice. I could have bought my own TV, but that's a whole other story about writing and self- discipline... So when I was charged last month from Blockbuster, I immediately e-mailed customer service, told them I was one of the seven Americans who does not have a TV and asked to be cancelled. They wrote me back within the hour, refunded the $14.95 and were super-nice about the whole thing. I'll tell ya what-- I had Netflix in the past two and loved them- only tried Blockbuster to compare the two. Because I had such a positive experience with them, when I do get a TV, I will sign up through them, and will recommend Blockbuster to anyone looking for an online movie delivery service. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can get- so why WOULDN'T someone strive to provide good service??