Sunday, November 14, 2010

Verizon KO’d

Last night, the super welterweight championship fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito was supposedly offered on Verizon’s On Demand service and Verizon apparently wasn’t up for the game. Not only were some fight fans frustrated by not being able to get the fight, the On Demand servers crashed in Maryland, leaving even non fight fans high and dry.

Peanut and her friend were in the middle of watching “How to Train Your Dragon” when the movie suddenly stopped. I tried to restart it by rebooting the cable box but nothing worked. I reluctantly called customer service and after waiting on hold for at least a half hour for tech support I was finally told by "Antwon" that the system had gone down all over the state. I asked to be transferred to billing so I could get a refund for the movie.

This time I waited over an hour.

By the time I got someone on the phone I was more than a little annoyed. I spoke with a guy named Dave. He told me he was in “central Illinois.” He wouldn’t give me his last name but he gave me his “badge number.” It was 2111.

“Don’t you think it is ludicrous to have someone wait on the phone for over an hour just to get a five dollar credit?”

“Yes sir, we’re sorry.”

“I know it’s not your fault, you are merely the poor guy who ended up on duty tonight. Who can I contact to register a formal complaint?”

“I don’t know.”

“How about this, who signs your pay check?”

“I’m not permitted to tell you that.”

“Okay, how about giving me the name of the president of Verizon?”

“I don’t know that.”

“Let me get this straight, you don’t know the name of the president of your company?”

“No sir.”

Note to Badge number 2111, it’s Lowell McAdam
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