- Report: #1340189
Complaint Review: Verizon - Nationwide
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Author Not Confirmed
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Verizon
Nationwide, USA
Web:
www.verizonwireless.com
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Verizon Verizon Refuses Ethics Training Suggestion, Preys on Elderly & Vulnerable omaha Nationwide
Cell phone service providers are in a unique position to exploit their elderly and vulnerable customers. Cell phone companies provide a service that is necessary for the safety of the vulnerable and elderly, they often require contracts which are confusing and more expensive than necessary. The rapid turnover in devices requires another trip to the store and exposes customers to high-pressure sales tactics. My personal experience with Verizon taught me that there is no ethics training and procedural safeguards to protect vulnerable customers. Cell phone companies are operating exactly as we saw in the Wells Fargo case: selling customers as much as possible, regardless of actual need or even understanding of the purchase.
My parents are elderly. They are the daily target of con artists and hucksters. I can insulate them a little bit from the approach of strangers, but for their own safety they need to have cell phones, which forces them into a relationship a provider, Verizon in this case. In my parent’s world view, if you're a customer, a company will watch out for you. They are primed to trust those companies. (If not Verizon, it would be another company. The point being, cell service is a modern necessity and this positions cell providers to have special access to vulnerable people.)
My parents moved this past month, and while helping them set up their new household I learned that when my dad had visited Verizon 20 months ago to get new cell phones he had been told that made him eligible for a free tablet. He accepted the offer, even though he had two tablets at home already. What he didn’t understand was that the “free” Verizon tablet was actually cell-enabled and came with a monthly charge for cell service. As I was connecting his devices to his new WiFi, he mentioned that he didn’t understand why the Verizon tablet had a phone number. I asked to see the bill and that led to this discovery. My dad doesn’t need a tablet with cell service, he’s 80 and his health doesn’t permit him to travel. He spends most his days in his own house. He had two tablets, a smart phone and a home PC. Two minutes assessing his needs would have revealed this, but needs assessment isn’t part of Verizon’s culture. I visited Verizon to see if I could get this corrected, but the answer there was that “he had signed a contract, so there was nothing they (Verizon) could do.” We could pay $90 for early termination or ride it out for four more months for $50. In the Verizon world, a signed contract trumps doing the right thing. I can’t say I was surprised.
As he has aged, my father has become more vulnerable to fast-talkers. On top of that, his hearing is poor, he doesn't catch everything that is said. He’s not alone in this, and the cell industry also serves other vulnerable populations such as the mentally challenged. For vulnerable people, there is a need to have cell phones as part of their personal safety plans. Cell phones allow them to have more independence and a better quality of life. When the vulnerable and elderly go into the provider’s store for service, they should not be viewed as another mark to be hustled. Special care should be taken to ensure their needs are met and they they are not abused. The primary goal of a cell phone sales staff is to get customers on contract, and there is no procedural barriers to prevent exploitation of this customer subset. It It is unlikely that cell providers have incentive to do the right thing on their own. As in the case of Wells Fargo Bank, it will take public scrutiny to bring changes that ensure vulnerable customers are protected.
I very much doubt that the sales practices we’re discussing would pass muster in the sunlight of public scrutiny, but Verizon continues to insist that it would be impossible to conduct ethics training and to create supervisory oversight that would ensure vulnerable customers are protected.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Right to expect fairness
#2Author of original report
Mon, November 28, 2016
Tyg
I think you're one of those trolls I read about, but anyway...
It's not unreasonable to expect fairness and ethical behavior from businesses.
You don't have elderly parents, obviously, but when the time comes you will be amazed at the amount of energy and time people spend targeting them because they are elderly. Once in a while, one will slip through, as Verizon did. It's impossible to be with them every minute of every day. Regardless, I appreciate your thoughts, however impractical they may be.
Tyg
Pahrump,Nevada,
USA
whos failure??
#3General Comment
Mon, November 28, 2016
Sorry but the person selling your parents are NOT going to know ALL of the medical information YOU have. If your parents look and sound normal then they are going to be treated as a normal person. if anything YOU have failed your own parents. Its on YOU, thier child to help protect them. YOU should have gone with them in order to ensure they were being treated fairly and got EXACTLY what they need. YOU are trying to turn your parents into drooling fools who cant even tie thier own shoes without help. If that is NOT the case then YOU cannot expect anyone else to treat them differently then they would treat a younger customer. No I dont work for Verizon but I have been a customer of thiers previously. What gets me is YOU do not show ANY wrongdoing on Verizons part. Its 2016, either provode PROOF that Verizon did something wrong OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN!!!! And YOUR post is nothing but YOU trying to cause issues for a company that was just helping thier customer. There is no possible way for ANYONE other then YOU and THEM that would have the information YOU HAVE!!! To hold Verizon accountable for something they have ZERO control over is rediculous. As for the tablet the tablet itself WAS FREE, the SERVICE however is NOT!!! Please if its so very important to protect your parents then STOP ASSUMING that the rest of the world are as informed of your parents medical conditions as YOU are!!YOU are the one that has to be the listener and interpretor for your parents if THEY are so enfeebled that they cant READ or UNDERSTAND what they are signing thier name to.
