detth
Onemhz On Aim
join:2000-10-06
Astoria, NY
| Verizon Sucks Nutz
Verizon does not care about their customers. They are a monopoly and will soon take over the entire home DSL market. Look at what they did to Northpoint. Ever wonder why they botch installs with other DSL cos? Why lines are "accidentally" cut? Why is it the DSL lines have problems, yet phone service remains UNINTERRUPTED OR NEVER DOWN FOR DECADES??
I can personally confirm this, I have friends that work for Verizon and tell me since it is a union job, they take their time and don't care much about the customer.
I see many of us switching over to cable in the next year or so, unless Verizon really ups its service and plans.... |
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AHBAC
join:2000-06-12
USA
|  Next call center will be in Guatemala?
Whoreizon has now shown it cares less for those that support and attempt to build their business than for it's customers, and we all know how concerned they are for their customers. I guess their next step will be to open sweat shop type call centers in countries that do not have labor laws. Will it matter if the techs don't speak English? No... they can be taught the few sentences to blame the customer's equipment easily. Thank God for cable!!
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keep those FCC complaints coming »www.fcc.gov/cib/ccformpage.html The artist formerly known as ANOTHERHAPPYBACUSTOMER |Leader of the Lollipop Gang
[text was edited by author 2001-01-20 14:27:58] |
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dbarc
join:2000-01-22
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to detth
Re: Verizon Sucks Nutz
said by detth:
Ever wonder why they botch installs with other DSL cos? Why lines are "accidentally" cut? Why is it the DSL lines have problems, yet phone service remains UNINTERRUPTED OR NEVER DOWN FOR DECADES??
My service via covad was out almost 2 weeks after it'd only been installed less than two weeks earlier. The reason? strangely someone removed the cross-connect at verizon. oops, make that 'the cross connect was missing'. |
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willardk
Mod 2000-03
join:1999-12-02
Jackson Heights, NY
|  Where is roar of outrage from the other unions?
Apparently as long as they get there grease and graft the other unions will stay out of this travesty. Its a shame it used to mean something honorable when you a part of the union. These days managment and union leaders are both victimizing the worker....SHAME.
Will |
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geek49203
join:2000-11-25
Jackson, MI
| shocked, SHOCKED I say....
I worked a phone support center for a year. That's about average for phone support, and actually I wouldn't have lasted that long except that I was supporting a good product. As anyone who's done tech support will attest, if you're doing tech support for a bad product then it's worse than being a skin diver for a septic tank company. I suspect that doing customer support for some of our ILECs would be worse than the septic tank job.
Let me address the "concerns" listed:
>>* New procedures are introduced during peak volume without planned training, resulting in more harassment for not following procedures.
Well, again that's a part of the "way things are" for all tech support people. My observation for my job was that proceedures were changed so often that we simply documented chaos. While you won't be fired for not following procedures (well, unless the contractor gets REALLY pissed) you won't get your raise either. Like you thought you'd get a raise on this kind of work??
>>>* There is a button on the telephone to depress for a rest room visit, so that a manger knows your frequency. Abuse of authority is prevalent and meander’s in the realm of violating human rights.
Can't run any sort of assembly line w/o every worker in place! Like you'd expect more than 15 minutes offline? Again, this is normal stuff.
>>>*Hanging overhead in each aisle are streamers of $100 dollar bills and .
Again, this isn't a job where you're gonna last more than a year (on average) or get rich. Get used to the fact that this is a "stepping stone" job. It's great for a way to finance your college, or get training for a better job, but it's not a 20-year gig. |
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Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York | reply to AHBAC
Re: Next call center will be in Guatemala?
THAT WAS FUNNY!!! Sad, but true. |
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OCNBLUE
Dazed
Premium
join:2000-11-07
Dallas
| reply to geek49203
Re: shocked, SHOCKED I say....
I think what you will see is Verizon opening up additional call centers that are outsourced. With the closing of the CLEC, there was an existing contract with an outsourcing company that has a few years remaining. I would imagine those people will now support DSL. This should also increase the headcount.
One issue that always arises with union employee's is when the company needs to make a fast change on anything. Union contracts need to be renegotiated due to the changes. This always takes forever. I think that is why Verizon outsourced the CLEC to begin with.
All this stuff about bathroom breaks etc. is standard for any company in customer service. Do not think it is Verizon only. Sprint, Operator Sevices divisions for all telecom companies, AT&T, USWest/Qwest all operate the same. When you hire someone for customer service (a job I wish on no one) they should have to sign a waiver that states their duties. They will probably re-think the job and that would force companies to raise the pay scale.
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Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York
 ·PHONE POWER
·Broadvox Direct
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| No one ever wants to feel under-appreciated
Being part of a union used to mean job security, and great benefits. Nowadays, the only certainty you can get is your health insurance, since you will need to use it often as your health deteriorates from doing the line of work many people like the reps at call centers do. It would make me feel as if I'm back to dictatorship times, as when I'm told when I can go for bathroom breaks and how long I can be to take a break. People take jobs like this either due to immediate necessity of income, or for customer support experience you can add to your resume. Everyone knows that there will never be any room for improvement, for you are commanded to read a help desk script to the end user who calls in trouble. The jerk that looks over you isn't expecting brilliance from you when you're helping a customer, and that same person won't care to acknowledge that you're doing your job effectively, or not. The only thing that upper management cares about in a position like that is volume, the number of people you help in a typical day. They don't care if you got it fixed, they care if you pick up that phone, take down all the information, and pass it on to the technical group, even if the problem could have been solved right then and there. Everyone also knows that you will never get a raise with a job like that. It is much easier for upper management to find something wrong with you at the time of your performance review in order not to approve something like that, and keep the unused budget money to themselves in the form of bonuses by year's end. Being in a position like this is almost no different than being a computer technician for say, a design company. Do you really think that in a design business upper management will care to have the latest and greatest technology to do their job, and top notch technical people to support it? Of course not. Instead, they'll continue to put band aids on all the problems they have, and have idiots for tech support running around and really breaking more stuff than they fix. However, when it comes to their line of business, design, they will definitely go all out with flying colors, spending all the budget money they have on fancy lunches with clients or prospective licensees, or opening stores so people can buy the merchandise they make. Does the technical support group see any of that money they make thanks to their support? Of course not, no profit sharing, no bonuses, not even comp time. This is when you need to sit down and analyze yourself, is this line of work doing anything for my experience, I'm I happy with what I do for a living? When you find yourself not finding satisfactory answers to these questions, guess what? IT'S TIME TO LEAVE!!!!!! Trust me when I tell you this, I used to work for a fashion company for a year and a half, and I can definitely relate to the pain and anger that people like those working in call centers feel. Bottom line: Verizon won't do anything for you. That jerk you have for a boss won't do anything for you. Shove that foot right up their ass, and do yourselves a favor and look for a better job. Get a job where you won't find yourself squinting your eyes at the end of the day when you leave work and can't take the brightness of the sun from sitting at a cubicle looking at a monitor screen all day. Get a job where you won't find yourself feeling worthless, or too stupid to accomplish anything better than what you have. Get a job where your boss actually treats you with DIGNITY!!!! Trust me, when you realize your full potential, you can get to more places, and do a lot more than you had ever thought you could. TOSS YOUR BOSS, AND TOSS VERIZON TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Archvile2
join:2000-10-22
Natick, MA
| Verizon is messing up my Covad connection
I'm paying $49 per month for 608/128. It stays up MUCH longer than Verizon's connection did, but apparently the Verizon-owned CO is limiting me to 256/64. I don't know what I can do, since Verizon doesn't offer any kind of support for non-Verizon DSL users. I called my ISP about this, and they said "wait until monday". Right, as if that's even an option when I'm being bogged down NOW. |
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Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York
·PHONE POWER
·Broadvox Direct
·Verizon Online DSL
| Did you tweak your PC yet? It sounds like you may need to tweak your PC for broadband. Unless your connection has been established via line share (data line uses your existing telephone line), I don't see why Verizon is degrading your line speed. If not so, then your ISP may need to get Verizon to change your data line to a different copper pair in better condition. Be patient, depending on who your ISP is, they'll eventually get it done. |
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Oh No
@pub-ip.p | reply to Network Guy
Re: Next call center will be in Guatemala?
Me no speaka good english. No refunds!!! No coke...no pepsi...dsl badges?...we don't need no stinking dsl badges! |
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Nice
@pub-ip.p | reply to Network Guy
Re: No one ever wants to feel under-appreciated
Very well put...I'm printing it and sticking your message on my wall. |
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Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York | reply to Oh No
Re: Next call center will be in Guatemala?
====================
No refunds!!!!
====================
You are too funny!! I bet they'll get well trained particularly at enforcing a no-refund policy to the customers. |
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sadowski
I Am My Own Doppelganger
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-14
Buffalo, NY
clubs:
| reply to detth
Re: Verizon Sucks Nutz
Nonsense, this has nothing to do with unions. It's outsourced to reduce costs to a bare minimum. They don't even expect real help to be offered. They simply point to their support contracts and say we serviced x customers per x period so we are doing what we are supposed to. |
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lemondrop
Defender Of Mindless Frivolity
join:2000-08-03
Virginia Beach, VA
| My heart is bleeding for my friends........
To all in the HSSC north center:
This is truly a sad day. I am here in the south center in Norfolk, VA. We are under a contractor called Coleman and associates. Please do not think we are not saddened by this turn of events. I know for a fact that you guys are some of the greatest people in the business, and you will be sadly missed. This closure benefits no one. It will serve as a disadvantage to the customer and the employees still here. The customer service in the north is completely different from the south and there are some things pertaining to the order that simply cannot be done by the south at this time. It is a shame that you were not given better tools to work with, but you no doubt did the best you could with what you had.Jennifer,Stacy, Ellen, thank you guys so much when i had to call and needed your help with a north order when we started taking calls from both regions. lisa, carol, jason, thank you so much for making sure the customer got their equipment. Shantel, Chris, Mark, thank you so much for calling the customer to let them know that their order was in jeopardy due to the F***ked up systems that we have to deal with and the cowardly supervisor throws the call on you because they don't have the balls or tits to do what they are paid to do and handle escalated calls.. Mary, Frank, julie, thank you for putting on a smiling face and faking happiness and contentment when verizon execs came around because if you don't and actually tell the truth about the Stupid decisions, impossible sales goals due to system malfuctions, incompetent supervisors, and the deals made with some workers about late arrivals and long lunches because they are the team rat but write ups for those who take a stand, because you will lose your job.you guys want to know why we are being sued???? here it is: NO MATTER WHAT WE DO OR SAY OR BEG OR PLEAD, THEY THINK THAT IF THEY IGNORE IT, IT WILL FIX ITSELF..they know our central offices are full, but no one bothered to notify us until your due date. sure, we can take your order, but it will take us about ten days for our constantly broken automated system to finally alert us to the error and by then it is 5 days before your connection is due..Please know that we employees in the DSL centers work very hard....DAMN HARD..But when something goes wrong with your order, we have to call Verizon core employees to help fix it. BUT GUESS WHAT?? They take up to week to get back with us and (here is the kicker) YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK TO THEM. So day after day we get yelled at by customers, our bosses, and even verizon employees. And if you ask any Verizon employee worth his Management position, they will tell you that when the core was on strike and they recruited us to take their places in maryland handling broadband tickets, we did more work and closed more tickets in two weeks than they did in 3 MONTHS!!!!! THESE ARE GOOD PEOPLE,BUT CUSTOMERS DON'T SEE THAT BECAUSE THEY ONLY WANT THEIR ORDER DONE. I understand their pain, and I try to help them, but they have to know that this goes deeper than the reps on the phone. However, we have been deemed scapegoats in this chaos. So with a heavy and empathetic heart, I want to say i am sorry for all of this, because i know what is really going on. Well, I am off to post my resume, as so many others here in the south center are doing. It does not take a genius to see a sinking ship with a drunk captain at the stern..Godspeed, my friends.... |
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ah ha
@adsl.bellatlanti
| reply to Network Guy
Re: Verizon is messing up my Covad connection
How do i 'tweak' my pc for broadband
thanks |
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GrahamG4
join:2000-12-01
Pottstown, PA
| I can appreciate this
I'm a contractor at a large Drug company and I know how it is. My co-workers are always complaining about the conditions and the managing "employees" lack of knowledge. But, no matter how bad it is at my end it doesn't compare to this. One of the members of my dept. actually wants to get into call center work, I think he should read this. Being on the front line is not fun, my heart goes out to all of you. |
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RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| An Insider's view
For an insider's view of what happens at a similar call center look here: »What really goes on in PacBell's Internet Center
Note: The link in the article above no longer points to the correct location so here is the correct archival URL: »www.eastbayexpress.com/archive/1···100.html. |
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Toad
@adsl.bellatla
| reply to lemondrop
Re: My heart is bleeding for my friends........
Hey sorry but verizon should not be contracting out it's sales and service. Not only does it reflect poorly on its own employees but it sets themselves up for major problems. As a verizon employee why should I care about an employee who is contracted by my company to do my job??? And why should a contracted employee care about the customer 10 states away that they will never see or hear from again?(they don't). I see it every day. The automated systems don't work properly and the contractors can't call the engineers or local service techs to find out about problems or facilities. All this to save a few bucks.. If the fcc backed down then there would be no need for the contracted employees. everyone says to go cable but they have a larger monopoly on isp's than verizon could ever have. Try to get anyone other than your local cable company as your isp on your cable line..The fcc should bust those hacks.. |
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JSY
Premium
join:2000-04-05
Elmhurst, NY
clubs: |  That Westell External
Does this mean that I'll never get my return slip for the Westell?
(Waiting since March, 2000)
Yes, I've given up. |
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