Recently, I moved my cellular service to T-Mobile. I addition to her phone, my wife had an iPad on the plan- no phone or SMS service, of course, just internet connectivity via Verizon's cellular network. Ten bucks a month.

Day before yesterday, she called to have this removed and to close the account entirely. She had the required PIN but they wouldn't assist her because it's my name on the account. Fine, even though they can see that the two phone lines are now gone and it's only logical that any additional devices would be removed, and she had the account PIN and knew the billing address, sure, whatever. Because: Security and fucking with you on your way out of the door.

Yesterday afternoon, I called the phone number printed on the bill. Went through the prompts. listened to their endless recorded loop of 'Verizon cares, no really, no shit, we really, really care'. Finally, I was connected to a guy who was clearly in some offshore location- The Philippines, Guatemala, perhaps Dubai. I love that, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love American companies who send jobs out of the country. Love it.

He was polite enough but his dyslexia was kicking in and after giving him my account number three times, he announced that I had called the wrong number, as he was in the FIOS/residential service department.
I told him I called the number on my bill and he then told me I must have been "mis-routed". Terrific. I asked to be transferred.

After listening to a loop of hold music for almost 15 minutes, someone answers the phone like a frat boy on the morning after a righteous kegger. Lazily, faintly, almost inaudibly, "How can I help you?"

I asked him to speak up. Silence. Hello? Hello??

"Yeah, how can I help you?"

Now, this is not the way they are trained to answer calls, and I had already had enough of this.

"Did I wake you up, son?"

Silence

"Let me tell you, Ryan, I need you to be a part of this conversation and help me."

Silence

"HELLO??"

Bordering on anger, Ryan asks, "What can I do to help you?"

"You can help me cancel my account."

"Well, I'm in Sales. I can't help you with any of that."

No, really, this is verbatim. I hung up.

I called first thing this morning, got a chipper gal in Kentucky, who tended to the matter PDQ. I asked her for a confirmation number. She told me one would be texted to me. How, I asked, since both phones are off the account and the remaining device cannot receive SMS messages. "Oh, right," she said, bless her heart. She advised me I can call back after April 20 to confirm.

No, I think I'll take my chances that they stumbled into getting it right.

No doubt, members here can tell the same kind of stories about T-Mobile, and that they love Verizon yadda yadda, and everybody hates AT&T, even AT&T, but this was my experience with Verizon, and I am happy to be leaving them.

Verizon's customer service is equal to FedEx, they both suck!

I'm with you 100% on getting offshore operators.
It's bad enough when they can't do their job, but they can't even understand plain English!

I'm stopping here before my blood pressure goes up any further.

Example for FedEx:
They were to ship a product from North Carolina to Indiana. It's now a week late, showing delayed and is in California! WTF

I've had to deal with multiple providers because everyone in my family sees me as their personal technology concierge. Verizon is one of the worst. My Aunt's wireless modem/router died for her home internet service during the middle stages of COVID. 180 mile round trip to diagnose it in person, 1.5 hours on holds and transfers with Verizon before they finally get a tech on the line and confirms the unit's dead.

Their solution:

"Buy a new one because due to COVID our techs can't enter the house and do a warranty replacement. If we mail one to you, you'll be charged retail price ($200+) because it's not covered under warranty if our techs don't confirm the dead unit on site."


Dead serious. I had to buy a used modem on eBay, drive another 180 miles round trip when it finally arrived and swap the unit. Then spent another 1.5+ hours on the phone to get the dept to register the MAC address so the signal would come through. All while my aunt not having internet for the 10 days it took for the used modem to come in. Then when COVID ended, I told her to call in the dead unit I replaced so they'd send a tech out and she'd get a brand new replacement which she did. Complete asshattery.


I will say that T-Mobile has been a real pleasure to deal with for the 15+ years we've been using them. International travel, no problem pay $7 and have most per minute fees eliminated or reduced by 70%. No cost upgrades to data service until they decided one day just to give unlimited data just because. Every time I call in, hold/wait times are minimal compared to other carriers and I get the sense that they do value our longevity because they always mention it when we call in and take the necessary steps to resolve our issues with the least resistance. I can't think of a time when I've had to ask for a supervisor because the rep was incompetent. Then again when it just works I don't need to call in very often. I hope your experience with T-Mobile is as good as mine.

TBH, para, I've had similar experiences with just about every service provider of every kind of service I can imagine. But, yeah: It's generally been worse with telecommunications providers.

Though, for all the flak they've received over the years, I have generally received good, prompt CS from T-Mobile. We switched to them from Sprint ages ago and have never since been given cause to regret the decision.

(Though I do occasionally still cuss them out for spotty coverage.)

Experienced, problem solving reps are rare, getting rarer when you can hire a give a shit for 15/20 bucks an hour. True dedication is slipping away. I was lucky enough to have great bosses that demanded accountability or you’re out.

Ps… kinda like para!

OK...coffee all over keyboard after reading "righteous kegger". Don't know why...that just struck my funny bone. Maybe 'cuz I've BTDT...

An ATT installer came to the house and was having some techincal issues installing the internet. He was not allowed to call the Phillipines{where the technical people were located} because of complaints. It seems the ATT installers were forced to text message the Phillipines because the local installers were cussing them out.
The installer spent the day trying to get the internet working. I don't know how the offshore system saves money.

Very few companies have decent customer service anymore. Consumers demand the lowest price, things get outsourced. Most companies don't even run their own customer service departments anymore, many are handled by vendors some in the US, most outside the US. Personally I'd be willing to pay a little extra for decent customer service.

I just got off the phone after an hour with United Healthcare. The final lady started the conversation by saying and I quote “let me apologize for the incompetent way we have handled your issue”. Then she fixed it in like 5 minutes. Why don’t these people answer first?

I hated verizon.

I left verizon after an incident with them several years ago. I'm never going back. I'm on ATT - another case of least worst option.

Customer service sucks - we have no recourse. They have no real competition because it's just a few companies that dominant markets. They are okay just round robining their customers, us.

I've had a tracfone for quite a while. Verizon bought tracfone. Yeaaah.
The tracfone website no longer lets me make changes or purchases online. I have to call "Jon" in Bangladesh. Yesterday Jon's sister told me my plan wasn't available. I gave up and tried today and told them I'm looking right at the plan I want online but I can't checkout because crap website.
I'm really looking forward to my next interaction w/ them.

My lovely wife just got a new IPhone from US Cellular. We have been customers with them for 20 years. I was calling to try to get a refund on an activation fee. I had to go through a few selections which took less than two minutes and was on hold for about 2 minutes and got an articulate, pleasant American sounding lady "Althea" who corrected the problem in about five minutes and issued a credit to our account. I felt very fortunate as some of these phone calls with different companies really go down the toilet. I considered buying a lottery ticket.

^^^^^^^^^^
Nice to hear.

I had Verizon for over 20 years. No problems, nothing but excellent service the few times I needed it.

Went to AT&T on a whim and it's also been great except for one lying Customer Service representative who's the reason I'll probably ditch them later this year and go back to Verizon.

Dealing with AT&T Customer Service? Call early in the morning and speak with a U.S.based operator. Later in the day, speak with "Hello Misster John. Can I call you John? How are you today John? My name is Ram-A-Lamb-a-DingDong and it is my pleasure to assist you"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Johnny 3eagles,

seems like I added the wife as an account manager and she has same authority as me?
I am gonna dump Verizon for a different reason, they support defend the police groups.

I am looking at “mint” carrier right now, they use T-Mobile service and I hear it is getting better all the time.

I thought I'd get with the times and use the "customer service" chat feature. DO NOT go down that hole, ever. You still get shuffled to various departments unable to assist. You will start all over again with each new CS "representative" and enter the same information 3 or 4 times.
Trust me, suffer through the phone call.

In the chat applets, your first contact will be with a bot, and yes, it's a waste of time.

I had two giant fights with Verizon in past years, one dealing with account cancellation and the other dealing with an account fraudulently opened by someone else using our information. Ever file a police report on a deceased man? I have now, thanks to Verizon's stubbornness.

I hope to never have to deal with Verizon again.

I was on the phone for 2 hours with AT&T wireless to see why one of my phones (My elderly mother's phone ) stopped making calls. It was a not-so-new Samsung 4GLTE phone. Initially, I got a local tech support personnel, a lovely female, and help as much as possible, but it was over her head. She tried everything to reset the phone, and even she couldn't text or call the problematic phone.

So she sent me to higher-level tech support overseas with tons of background noise, and you know it was a tech center with all of the people lined up so close you could hear the others' conversations. Annoying!! So after 2 hours of having a tough time understanding the gentlemen, we found out that it was working on a 3G service. All vendors are shutting down the 3G service, and unfortunately, that is how my mother's phone stopped working.

Hmmm, 3G phone even though it indicated that it's been using 4GLTE service for the past two years? I find that very odd and deceptive.

AT&T was supposed to send out replacement phones to all affected customers by shutting off the 3G service. And as of today, still no replacement phone. I couldn't wait any longer, and I got another phone immediately. 5G this time, but I'm sure if it's true 5G.

Yes, T-Moble, Verizon, AT&T, etc....they all suck!!