Waiting for the Phone to Ring

Deborah Leavy often writes op-ed pieces on various topics for the Philadelphia Daily News. I'm not sure if she really wrote this one, NO VERIZON ON MY HORIZON, or if it was my colleague Karen in disguise.

Karen works from home most of the time. In our business (health law), that's doable -- for most of our work, all you need is a computer, printer, fax/phone and email/Internet. Unfortunately, Karen hasn't had phone/fax (via Verizon) for over a week and hasn't had email/Internet (via Comcast cable) for several days now. She lives on the Main Line and the last few storms have caused outages. That's "act of God" in legalese, but the post-storm delays are pure acts of big business. Verizon and Comcast are the epitome of unconcerned big companies -- monopolies really -- who know you don't have much choice, so can give little or no service, or bad service, without penalty.

When Karen told me that she had to stay home last week for a 12 hour period to wait for the Verizon repairman, I thought that she was kidding (and today is the day that the Comcast repairman is supposed to come during another 12 hour window). When the appointed day arrived, no one showed (if only he could go the way of the Sears washer repairman!).

That must be the Verizon SOP (standard operating procedure):

1st step: Tell customer wait time for repair order is 1 week.

2nd step: Tell customer to stay home all day to wait for repairman.

3rd step: Ignore angry calls to customer service when repairman does not show.

4th step: Reschedule for later in week/next week.

5th step: Start over at step #2.

Leavy's experience was identical. As she states:

I WASN'T GOING to write a column this week. Our son's weeklong visit with friends down the shore would be giving my husband and me some time for ourselves, a little vacation.

But instead of driving up to Bucks County for the day, or even going out to lunch with my hubby, I'm spending at least some of that time waiting for the Verizon guy to show up.

It happens to everyone. And if it's not the phone, it's the refrigerator, or the toilet, or you need the exterminator. If you don't live in an apartment with an extremely nice super, you're stuck waiting, and probably have to take a day off from work.

Maybe you're lucky and people show up when they're supposed to. But probably not. Or they don't have the right part and have to come back, and we have to wait all over again.

When the phone went out a week ago Friday, they said it couldn't be fixed until the following Tuesday . . . .

But before long it was Monday, and I got an automated call telling me the repair would be done the next day between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., and I should be home all that time. I was. Home. All. That. Time. Do I have to tell you that nobody showed up?

After 7 came and went, I called four times, and each time had to listen to the cheery voice telling me that Verizon is committed to giving each person the best possible customer service.

* * * *

But I don't understand why if someone fails to show up for an appointment on Tuesday, I can't get rescheduled until Thursday - a week without phone service. None of the four "customer service representatives" I spoke to would explain it, nor would they change it.

For more than an hour, I was put on hold, told that I could speak with a supervisor, disconnected three times, told there was no supervisor on duty, or that one would call me back. When would that be? Between 10 p.m. and midnight! Not to worry - of course, no one called.

No one showed up on Thursday, when it was my husband's turn to wait. He called and was told we had been rescheduled for the Tuesday after Labor Day - today, 10 days after we reported the problem.

So why is it that we have to endure minor (and sometimes major) inconveniences from companies whose goods and services we are willing to pay for - or sometimes have already paid for?

WHY DO WE have to spend hours on the phone listening to automated menus and responding to them like pigeons pecking for food?

We have to be on time for our jobs and appointments - why don't these companies have any responsibility, or consequences, when they screw up?

The answer is the bottom line - fewer people to answer the phones, drive the trucks and make the repairs means more profits for business owners, who increasingly are anonymous shareholders without a personal relationship with customers.

There are people in our communities wanting jobs, and plenty of jobs to be done, but if a company can squeeze by with 10 more minutes of hold time for customers and make a penny, they'll do it.

As I always say in this situation, if I provided this kind of service (or lack of service), I'd be out of business. Of course, that's just what you'd like to say -- I'll take my business elsewhere. But, there is no elsewhere.

(Photo: Waiting for the phone to ring by Gina Rothfels)