My complaint is with both Verizon and Verizon Wireless. Verizon is my local phone company and I tried to "port" my home phone number to a Verizon Wireless cell phone.
When I tried to do this I chose Verizon Wireless because I thought there should not be a problem going from Verizon to Verizon Wireless. I had tried to port my number to someone else, but they couldn't get it done.
I ordered my phone online indicating that I was porting a number. The phone arrived programmed with the correct number so that when I made calls, the correct number showed up on caller I.D. displays, but I could not receive calls. I called Verizon Wireless and was told that a port could take up to 7 days. After 7 days, I called again and was told that it could take up to 10 days.
After 2 weeks into this, I was in a Verizon Wireless store and asked a salesman and he called it in and was told that since I had tried to port it to someone else, the number could not be ported. It was not an active account.
I called Verizon Wireless and asked for a new phone number. After about two weeks, I received a call asking if I still wanted to do the port. I called them back and of course was not talking to the same person and I could tell she did not understand my questions, nor did she understand her answers. I sent an e-mail to Verizon Wireless and within a few days I had my ported number on the cell phone.
However, I soon discovered that while people could call me from landlines, I could not receive calls from Verizon Wireless cell phones. I also could not access my own voice-mail from my cell phone.
I e-mailed Verizon Wireless on this and was told it would be taken care of. I e-mailed a second time and the lady called me and said I would have to call customer service.
Since this is so hard to explain over the phone and in e-mail, I decided to bring it into the store and show them. I was told that it was a problem with the phone, not their service. I was told that I would have to visit a store that handled phone problems. After driving 30 minutes to another store and going to the counter where they handle phone problems, I was told that it was a service problem and sent to the line for people with service problems. They tried to contact Verizon (landline) about the port, but since it was late in the evening, Verizon's customer service had closed.
They ended up giving me a new phone number, which I did not find out until later was not a local phone number for where I live or anywhere close to where I live. The number they gave me is a number for a town 75 miles from where I live.
At this point in time I decided that all correspondance should be in writing for legal purposes. I wrote them a letter complaining about their lack of service.
After some time I discovered that my call-forwarding was not working. Also, at times my message waiting indicator on the phone would not work causing me to miss messages. I wrote them again asking to be let out of the contract due to the number of their mistakes. A $175 termination fee was added to my bill but they did not terminate my service. I sent an e-mail explaining the entire situation. Numerous e-mails went back and forth, but rarely did their responses have anything to do with my complaints. On two occasions, their response to the fact that my call-forwarding was not working was to give me instructions on how to use this feature. On other occasions their response would be to tell me to call customer service and on at least one occasion reminded me in the same e-mail that as part of their "Worry-Free Guarantee" that anytime I contact someone about a problem it becomes their problem. No runarounds.
My problems with Verizon and Verizon Wireless does not end there. I tried to get the number back into my home as a landline. Verizon was not able to complete this, but they did bill me for this service. Each month I would send them a letter explaining that the service had not been established. At one point I received a call stating that all I would have to do is do a third-party verification and I would have my service. I did this, but the service was still never installed. I eventually received a bill from a bill collector, but the amount on that bill did not match any of my bills from Verizon. I sent them a letter and eventually a collection was placed on my credit report.
Has anyone else had similar problems? Is anyone planning to file a class-action lawsuit?
John
Tipp City, Ohio
U.S.A.
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