When I moved back to Gaylord this past fall I needed internet service and unfortunately for me the only high speed option available was from Verizon.

The order process was long and painstaking.  It took forever on the telephone and I was repeatedly pushed to go for additional service that I didn’t need.  The installation order was ‘lost’ and my internet wasn’t ready for me when I arrived at the new house.  Of course there was no explanation or apology – just another long, aggravating phone call to place another order.

When my internet was turned on, it was only half has fast as promised.  A phone call to investigate revealed that I was getting the fastest service possible at my address and surely noone at Verizon suggested I would get anything faster than that.  (grr)  I gave up on it.

A few months later I got on office in town and don’t ask me why but I actually turned to Verizon again.  This time I decided to place my order online, thinking it would be faster and involve less hassles.  Well, the joke was on me.  When I finished putting my simple DSL only order together, I wasn’t given an ‘order received’ message – instead I was told to call their customer service department to discuss my order with their agent.

Yeah, another long, aggravating phone call with unwanted upsell offers.  Several times the agent tried to sell me on a discounted service with a year’s contract.  I explained that I was in a short term lease and only needed service for six months – so I did not take the discount offer and signed up for full price service.

Now, six months later my time at the office is over and I’ve moved into a new house and enjoy lightening fast cable internet. (Thanks Charter!)

I called Verizon tonight to cancel my service.  30 minutes on hold and I’m told that I’ll have to pay a $79 fee to cancel service because I’m under a year contract.  (!!!)   I’m ticked off to say the least.  I’ve requested  a supervisor and shocker of shockers, I’ve been on hold for another fifteen twenty-five thirty-five minutes.  (Yes, I’m writing this while I’m on hold.)

So, this is why I won’t ever recommend Verizon to anyone ever:

1. They fail
2. They don’t admit that they fail
3. They don’t apologize
4. They’re overly pushy
5. They don’t listen
6. They waste customer’s time

Verizon, you’ve quite literally trained me to despise your brand.  When I think of Verizon I think of long time wasting telephone calls and complete loss of trust.  In this day and age, you should know better.  Customers like me don’t just get mad.  They get mad and tell people about it.

(Update: it got so late that I gave up on the phone call.  Nobody ever came back to the line after more than half an hour and it was time for me to head out to the gym – and you know I NEEDED to go workout some of my frustration – so I’m going to have to call them a second time to get the darned account canceled.)

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