Firestone: For The Win

It's not all bad news here in "Your Call" land . . .

I've been taking my 1993 Ford Ranger to the nearby Firestone Service Center for quite a long time. They may not be the cheapest, but I usually feel like I'm getting an honest story out of them, and the location is close enough to walk to, which makes it convenient.

After returning from a recent business trip, I noticed that I was hearing a noise from something tire or wheel-related that portended bad things. So yesterday at lunch I drove the truck up there and left it with them to diagnose. A few hours later, I got the bad news - the right front bearing was shot, and given the age of the truck, it would be prudent to replace both right and left. The dollar figure was daunting, but even an automotive know-nothing like me knows that a bad hub is bad.

I okayed the work and left it with them overnight. For today's lunch break, I walked on up there with a pocket full of discounts and coupons and paid the ransom.

Here's what they did right:
- the guy at the desk pulled up my records without having to ask my name
- he explained the work that was done
- he happily took a percent off coupon, two rebate checks and another discount coupon
- he engaged in actual conversation and even banter

So yeah, I'm not thrilled to have spent a few hundred dollars today, but the outstanding level of customer service I get there makes it not quite so painful.

Kudos to the Innsbrook Firestone.

Verizon FiOS: Follow-up 2

A surprising call just came in from a guy on the Verizon Executive Support-Potomac Region team. We talked about the billing issues, he looked at my account, he too was puzzled by one of the large credits applied to my bill (but said I could keep it) . . . Ultimately it sounds like everything is finally set up properly, albeit five months on from when I first tried to order this.

I still think the customer-facing systems are messed up beyond redemption, and it shouldn't take multiple phone calls, emails and blog posts, plus Executive Support involvement to get some type of resolution. And of course, the next bill still has to be checked to see if we've really reached the finish line on this.

Stand by.

PopPhoto.com: Website Fail

A few months ago, I received a hand-me-down DSLR - the original Canon Digital Rebel. Just recently, I was reading an old copy (2004) of Popular Photography that mentioned the D-Rebel in an article about Nikon's (then new) D70. This made me think that maybe I could find the Pop Photo review of the D-Rebel and see what they'd had to say.

I first went to popphoto.com using Google Chrome, my current browser of choice. I put "canon digital rebel" in the search box and the list of results gave me one link that was very obviously the page that I wanted. Or so I thought . . . when that page loaded, there was some text that said:

"Download our
Canon EOS Digital Rebel Full Test
-requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

But there's no link at all.

Just to check things out, I copied the URL and tried to access it using IE7. First I got a message at the bottom of my screen telling me that the page "required" an add-on that I currently have disabled. Before I could click on that message though, I was bombarded by cookie warnings (I have IE set to prompt me for anything except session cookies). There were at least ten sites that wanted to drop a cookie on my system. Once I stopped all that, I tried to check with add-on was so desperately required for that page to work. Of course IE doesn't tell me that, it just shows me which ones are disabled and which are enabled. There are a couple disabled items that are related to instant messengers, and two that belong to Real. So are they trying to serve me an ad in some kind of Real media format? I can't figure it out.

But aside from all that, what I came here for was the Digital Rebel PDF. And there's still no link.

I checked the source, no "pdf" string anywhere, no any evidence of anything that would resemble a link near the text offering me a download.

OK, then, I'll be a nice net citizen and report the broken page. But the closest thing to a "contact us" link is all about subscriptions and leads off of popphoto.com completely (with no warning).

Maybe there's something on the home page, says I, so I click on the logo to get me there. Well yeah, there's something. It's an annoying graphic that keeps rotating through three "featured stories" with no way of stopping or pausing it. It's not making me want to click on any of the stories, it's making me want to stab somebody with a fork.

There's more, but I think you get the idea. It's another website set up to maximize ads with seemingly no thought given to usability.

popphoto.com: Website fail.

RBS Card Services: IVR Fail

... or "How to annoy an IVR programmer," the "IVR Programmer" would be me.

I was checking over one of my credit card statements when I noticed that a restaurant I ate in a couple weeks ago seems to have given themselves an extra bit of gratuity. So I needed to call RBS Card Services to open a dispute case.

I knew I was off to a bad start when it started out with "please listen carefully as our menus have changed." Changed when? From what? I know it's hard to believe, RBS, but I didn't memorize your previous menu layout, and I don't remember the last time I called you. I do remember that it wasn't a very pleasant call, which is one reason I had put this card away and not used it for awhile. But I needed a card to separate some business travel expenses on, so I grabbed this one.

Anyway, AFTER I'd started to listen carefully, I got the dreaded "for English, press 1." Now just suppose that I didn't speak English. That "menus have changed" message sure would have done a lot of good, eh?

Next, I'm asked to select from "account information" or "respond to a call or letter asking [me] to confirm charges." Press 1 or 2, that's it. So I press 1 and have to enter my card number and ZIP code. No biggie. But then they want my CVV, which of course is on the card, and the card has been put away until the next business trip.

OK, I get through that, and immediately, the system tries to get me to "activate" some bogus profit opportunity for RBS. No account information yet. And the marketing message seems to be uninterruptible, since pounding the 0 key isn't getting me anywhere. Finally the IVR gives me my current balance and I start camping on 0 again. I think while I was doing that, they were teling me how many of my questions could be answered at their website. I should check it out, just to see how bad it is. To complete the trifecta of bad message practices, I get the ol' "due to higher than expected call volumes" shinola.

They're not satisfied, though. They're going for bonus points by having an annoying music loop that is interrupted EVERY THIRTY SECONDS by "Please continue to hold. Our service representatives are still assisting other customers. Your call is important to us and will be answered by the next available representative." As the display on my cordless handset shows that I've been on the phone for 25 minutes now, I guess I've heard how that recording over 40 times. (I'm cutting them some slack for the couple minutes it took me to get to the hold queue).

OK, RBS, here's the thing. If my call was important to you, I wouldn't be in queue for 25 minutes. You'd hire people to staff your call centers and/or get a whole lot better and planning so that you wouldn't have "higher than expected" call volumes. Nor would getting through your system to the point where I can get into queue be such a nightmare of worst practices.

Verizon FiOS - Follow-up

All I have been asking for is an explanation of the charges and credits on my bill. That's apparently impossible, but I did get this latest email -

Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. I have received your
email dated 5/12/09 regarding errors on your bill.

I understand your frustration with this matter.

Your account has been corrected already.

I have reviewed your statements and issued credits totaling $189.06.
These credits will appear on your next statement.

Whoa! One hundred eight nine dollars? And six cents!? I have no idea where that amount came from. In an attempt to be honest, I will see if I can work that out when I get the next bill, because as much as I like free money, I shouldn't be getting that much.

On the other hand, Verizon's impenetrable billing system is what caused all this frustration in the first place, so I have little hope of figuring this all out.

I guess I'll just carve out an hour or two each month to review my bill and then call them.

USAirways email fail

Last week I was on a business trip, and my employer's hapless corporate travel department didn't manage to get my USAirways Dividend Miles number attached to my reservation. No problem, said I, I'll just log in to the website and request the missing miles. That wasn't too difficult, although there are some user interface issues that I could point out.

What prompted this post is the email that popped up in my inbox a few moments later. From: dmsc@usairways.com, Subject: DMSC

DMSC? WTF?

The content of the email wasn't very useful either:

Your question/request has been submitted.

Thank you for your email. Your reference number is xxxxxxxx

We appreciate your business and we will respond to your request as soon
as we can.

** This is an automatic response - please do not reply to this message.
**

I guess I should be grateful there's not a fee for receiving this email. Or a fee to pay the fee.

Verizon FiOS -- Billing From Hell

Verizon, you have brought me to the brink.

All I wanted, back in December 2008, was the Triple HD EXTREEEEEEEEEME FiOS bundle. I'd had FiOS TV for nearly a year and was tired of paying Cavalier Telephone $25 in taxes and fees on $50 worth of services. I'd gotten a direct mail piece from Verizon saying that the bundle I wanted could be had for $109.99/month, with an additional discount if I signed up via their website. Simple enough, right?

Yeah, no.

First, since I was already a FiOS customer, I couldn't place the order without "signing in". They want to base each and every interaction with them on your Verizon home telephone number, but being a customer of a CLEC, that wasn't possible. I fumbled around and found something that was supposed to let me sign in using the account number from my bill. That didn't work either. I was able to send an email using the site, and did get a response - "Dear Larry Mac - Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCetner. I have received your email dated 12/15/08 regarding the trouble your experienced in trying to place an order for our Triple Play Bundle package. ... If you would like someone to contact you for assistance with your order, please reply to this email with a telephone numnber and the best time to reach you. ..."

That seemed helpful enough. Don't be fooled.

The incoming mail was dated 12/17. I replied on 12/18 with the contact information. I replied a second time on 12/23. I'm still waiting for that call to come in.

I tried using the website again, with my account number. After a lot more time and frustration, a webchat representative told me that I should only be using the "middle 10 digits" of my account number. Oh, hey, that's clear. NOT. I was still unable to place the order, probably because of my non-Verizon phone number, so finally, on December 30, I called. After quite a long time on the phone, including the third-party verification that is necessary to switch phone carriers, I thought the order was placed, and I was even supposed to still get the web discount.

Ha ha, tricked you again! On January 6, I received an email telling me the installation date (January 20), and to check their "What's Next" website. The order summary at that website mentioned "new" FiOS TV service and Internet service, but nothing about phone.

More phone calls. The guy on the phone said the first order hadn't been placed properly and there was no indication of my requesting phone service. This despite the aforementioned third-party verification and the previously undisclosed hard inquiry that hit my credit report. I was told that really the only way to resolve all this was to cancel the pending order and start from scratch. Oh, and since I had Cavalier DSL, they couldn't switch my phone over till that was removed. I really couldn't afford to be without DSL while waiting for Verizon, so the order then became just "add FiOS internet." I'd have two internet services for awhile, but once I knew the FiOS part was working, I could safely call Cavalier and cancel DSL. All of this, of course, meant losing my place in the installation queue, but the guy on the phone assured me once the original order showed as cancelled in the system he'd be able to bump my new installation up and he'd call me back as soon as that was done. Still waiting for that call too.

When the installer showed up to add FiOS internet to my house, the order information was, again, completely wrong - his records showed he would be doing a completely new installation. This meant that the “8 to 12” window stretched out until past 2 PM, making me miss a whole day of work instead of the half day which I had scheduled. I then called in on Tuesday 1/27 to attempt, yet again, to get telephone service to complete my bundle. After maneuvering past the incredibly poorly written phone menus, I was on hold for a good twenty minutes before getting to speak to somebody – who couldn’t help me because he was in a “copper only” office. I was placed on hold again, finally got to speak to somebody who seemed to be helping me, but then she put me on hold “to check something” and I ended up having my call answered in a FiOS HOA liaison office, and of course they had no information on my pending order. That person transferred me again, and when I heard “what telephone number are you calling about?” I just hung up in frustration. (Verizon, please note: You are not the only telephone company in the area. You need to STOP asking that as the opening question.) That was over an hour of my time wasted on their inability to accept a simple order. One might have thought that the representative who lost my call would have called me back at the contact number I’d given her when we began speaking, but of course that didn’t happen.

On 1/28, I cleared an hour from my schedule to make another call. It took exactly forty-five minutes to get through the whole process and I thought it was all good. I specifically asked the representative yesterday if there would be another credit check and was assured that there would not. And then I got an email the next day from Experian stating “The following inquiries are "hard" or voluntary inquiries and were generated because you authorized the companies listed to request a copy of your credit report.” The problem is that I did not, at any time during my numerous calls, EVER authorize a credit check.

The phone installation finally happened on February 12, or two months from my initial attempt to order the bundle. You'd think that would have been the end of the nightmare, but no, of course not.

Since then, I have had to call EVERY month upon receiving my bill. First, there were the unauthorized "activation fee" payments. Also, somebody had taken it upon themselves to give me a "free" month of HBO and Cinemax. Now I'd had this free shit from Verizon before. They start it in the middle of a billing cycle and then try to charge you for a partial month later on. Not falling for that crap again. In addition, even though I thought I finally had my long-awaited Triple bundle, I was receiving separate bills - one for TV and internet, one for phone.

In April, I called to get the second installment of the activation fee removed, and I still had a partial month of HBO/Cinemax to get removed. They'd managed to combine my bills, but in so doing, had to monkey around with the billing cycle, so there was partial month this and partial month that everywhere.

Yesterday, I sat down with my May bill and of course I had to call again. First, the final of the three activation fee installments had to go. Also, since this was the first bill that had everything combined on the same billing cycle, I whipped out my calculator and found they were charging me $119.99 for the bundle. So how long has *this* been going on? Three months, I'll bet. Another phone call. This time I'm informed that I was not, in fact, set up on the Triple bundle at all. WTF? Seriously? So the lady on the phone puts me on hold a bunch of times, gives me a number that supposedly represents the credits I am due, and promises me that my next bill will be correct. She offers me some free movie channels for my trouble. See above. I guess getting a credit for the previous incorrect bills is out of the question.

Today I decided I'm not going to let that sleeping dog lie. I log on to my verizon.net account and try to find my bill. There's apparently no way to see the bundled bill at all. But I could be wrong . . . even though today is May 12, the most recent bill information I can locate is from March 1. Seriously, Verizon?

And the constant nags to sign up for direct and/or paperless billing? Who on earth would trust you with access to his checking account?

Let's cut through all this and lay it on the line, Verizon. Your customer facing systems are broken. Completely and irretrievably broken, and frankly, I don't think they can be fixed. In the meantime, I've sent a request for a full review of my account going back to December, with a complete and clear explanation of all charges and credits.

I'm more than willing to contact the state regulators if necessary.