Tag: Ivan Seidenberg

Verizon Adds Insult To Injury For Dead Soldier’s Family

The customer service agent’s job isn’t to fix problems. The agent’s job is to make the person complaining go away! Of course something could be done and was done once this story saw the light of day.

If you’re Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon, what’s it worth to you not to see this headline on Consumerist?

Verizon: Die Fighting In Afghanistan, Pay $350 Early Termination Fee

I’ve written more than once about customer service and the value of employees being given some latitude in fixing problems. Here’s a perfect example of what I’ve been talking about.

What’s the opposite of warm and fuzzy?

The story was originally reported by CBS13 in Sacremento. Thanks to the Internet it’s been seen worldwide. Time wounds all heels!

The family says a Verizon customer service representative told them that “nothing could be done” about the termination fee.

The customer service agent’s job isn’t to fix problems. The agent’s job is to make the person complaining go away! Of course something could be done and was done once this story saw the light of day.

Is there anyone who believes any party involved in this story didn’t know the right thing to do immediately? Words like “nothing can be done” represent the training customer service agents receive and their total lack of discretionary power.

This wrong decision was the inevitable outcome of the system as it now stands.

Maybe it’s time Sprint or T-Mobile (both desperately trying to regain their footing in the cellular marketplace) gave their agents a little latitude and then screamed it in their ads? Considering the typical customer reaction to cell carriers it just might work.

The sad truth is bad customer service is not bad for business when your competitors are doing the exact same thing.

Verizon – This Really Worries Me

So, if Verizon decided to block geofffox.com or vonage.com or comcast.com, they now have self supplied permission. They can do it for any reason or no reason.

There’s a posting on Reddit.com, one of the techie sites I visit, about Verizon’s upcoming change to their Online Terms of Service. It is very scary – really, really scary.

…we have the right, but not the obligation, to pre-screen, refuse, move or remove any content available on the Service including, but not limited to, content that violates the law, our Terms of Service or our AUP.

AUP, in this case is Acceptable Use Policy.

So, if Verizon decided to block geofffox.com or vonage.com or comcast.com, they now have self supplied permission. They can do it for any reason or no reason.

Or, they could just place their ads on my site, or any site, before it gets to you.

I’m giving examples, but I have no idea what they would do, except to say they could do anything.

Throughout my lifetime, companies like Verizon have operated as common carriers. Here’s Wikipedia’s take on that:

An important legal requirement for common carrier as public provider is that it cannot discriminate, that is refuse the service unless there is some compelling reason (e.g post doesn’t allow to send cash). As of 2007, the status of telecommunication providers as common carriers and their rights and responsibilities is widely debated (network neutrality).

However, Verizon and other telecommunications providers like it aren’t businesses that opened and got saddled with these obligations. We allow them to erect their lines on our streets. We gave them (each incumbent wireline phone company) their original cell licenses.

We assume… I think we have a right to assume… they don’t inspect our communications across their network. We certainly wouldn’t allow it with their phone service. Is there really a difference here with this nascent form of carriage?

Don’t they have an obligation not to look over our shoulders?

I have written about Verizon in the past. Maybe you remember me quoting from Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon’s CEO, about cell service.

“Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?” he said. “The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement.”

Seidenberg said it’s not Verizon’s responsibility to correct the misconception by giving out statistics on how often Verizon’s service works inside homes or by distributing more detailed coverage maps, showing all the possible dead zones. He pointed out that there are five major wireless networks, none of which works perfectly everywhere.

I sense, if this becomes a mainstream news story, Verizon will relent. Sunlight is the great sanitizer.

Can they hear me now?

The Customer Is Always Wrong

If you’ve read this for any length of time, you know I have been frustrated with the policies of Cingular, my cell phone provider. Maybe Cingular’s actions are just part of the prevailing attitude of cell companies in general.

Here are some snippets from an interview with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg as conducted by the San Fransisco Chronicle.

“Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?” he said. “The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement.”

Seidenberg said it’s not Verizon’s responsibility to correct the misconception by giving out statistics on how often Verizon’s service works inside homes or by distributing more detailed coverage maps, showing all the possible dead zones. He pointed out that there are five major wireless networks, none of which works perfectly everywhere.

The fact that he thinks this is not surprising. The fact that he’s actually said it in public (as opposed to having it dispatched to lawmakers through a lobbyist) is astounding. Somewhere within Verizon, some PR person is suffering cardiac arrest.

This is hubris. Ivan, can you hear me now? Good.

Blogger’s note – T-Mobile now provides high resolution coverage maps from their website.