Verizon: Show Me the Money!Verizon: Show Me the Money!

The lesson is pay your bills but pay them one-at-a-time and send one bill with one envelope and one check for payment.

Our IT contractor met me on a customer site to discuss a migration plan. After our meeting, I took my buddy around and gave him a tour of the facilities. Afterwards we went to lunch.Just a few blocks away as we were having our meal, my phone went off with that old familiar ring tone (of my customer) and they wanted to know if we could look at the network because Internet access was painfully slow since we were just there--meaning, did you guys do something?

I've told my customer, lightning bolts are in our logo for a reason. On a clear and sunny beautiful day, lightning will strike nearby in a building that I am in. Of course the plausible explanation is that I'm in the building.

We headed to the customer site, checked everything and then determined that no matter what we tried, the T1 for the Internet isn't going to work even though the span is synched up, no go. Thank goodness for DSL backup--although slow, it's our bailout. Next I called Verizon and requested service on the span and within an hour my cell had a voice mail message stating in a gruff voice "Regarding the ticket number...you did NOT pay your bill and you must call the 800 number and SPEAK with collections"--CLICK!

All I could do was relay the information back to the customer. Later when she called me again, she discovered that the central billing office did pay the invoice; only they paid two bills from Verizon and inserted two checks with two statements into the same envelope. The Verizon business office called my customer and told her that credit for both checks was posted on just one account and you can guess which account didn't get a credit. The Verizon person went on to say that, "the Internet T1 would be restored, just not today. Maybe in 2-4 days."

So here it is, nearly 5:00 pm on a afternoon and I begin to call around for help. The Verizon rep that I referred to in the past is MIA. I call his boss and her voice mail is clear that as of today (my luck) she is no longer with Verizon and her responsibilities are now shared with two other people. I call both of them and no response, not even voice mail. Next, I reverted to calling a media contact at Verizon and explained that as many good things that I do write about Verizon that I really don't like writing bad things about them and besides, I know times are tough but to yank service with no notice? Thanks to my media contact at Verizon, the customer's service was restored around 10 am the next morning and he did validate my customer's story.

So the lesson is pay your bills but pay them one-at-a-time and send one bill with one envelope and one check for payment. Then, a novel idea is to call your account team and ask them what's new? Otherwise, you may find your contacts are gone too. Times are tough so be prepared to show the money.The lesson is pay your bills but pay them one-at-a-time and send one bill with one envelope and one check for payment.