Even not-so-frequent readers of this space will be familiar with my ongoing campaign against the Verizon behemoth. Judging from some of the responses that I've gotten from my post that was a direct response from good-friend-I've-never-met and fellow Verizon-hater Pedro Vera, followed closely by a post from another good-friend-I've-never-met, J. M. Tewkesbury, as well as caustic Verizon comments from Lucy, Herb of DC, and nutmeg96, I am far from alone in my opinions of this august institution.
This was recently forwarded to me, and the sender swears that they weren't even aware of who the original recipient was. Don't know who the Verizon customer was, but I'd like to meet him, shake his hand, and tell him how badly I wish I'd thought of this first.
18 comments:
I feel this way about Comcast - I now have nothing affiliated to that shady business in my house.
OK, so that's Verizon, Maytag and Comcast. Anybody else out there?
Best Buy.
And I've actually been pretty satisfied with Verizon, but I'll definitely second the Comcast hate. But since Comcast is my only option not involving a satellite dish, I can't give them the finger until FiOS becomes available in my area.
I roll Sprint, but it might as well be Verizon--I have yet to see anyone who loves their phone company.
Despite my contempt for Verizon, I do keep a relationship with just as a back-up for 911 service. I have a local call plan that with taxes runs about $14 a month--I can't imagine they make any money off of that. Good!
Some day I am going to post pictures of the mess of wires hanging at eye level in our backyards here that Verizon has been unable to fix for years. (we created a series of wooden stakes, etc to raise them).
The check is pretty funny but as a former banker I feel sorry for the lock box operator trying to process it.
Scotus - I'd love to hear the Best Buy story, especially since there's a $25 gift card on its way to me right now.
Will - So there's a motto for a new venture: "The phone company that somebody might love." Actually, I have Cox phone service now, and while "love" is a strong word, I'm quite happy with it.
Herb - As a former banker, is that check actually legal? Could the guy argue in court that he had paid his bill in good faith?
I have it on moderately good authority that that check was made out by Randall Munroe of XKCD fame, whose webcomics I am always linking to you. (Al Gore-rhythm? ^_^) It was in response to a semi-famous phone call in which a Verizon customer tried to explain to the customer service people at Verizon that .002 dollars and .002 cents were not, in fact, the same thing.
Links below.
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=76908
http://www.verizonmath.com/
It has gotten mixed reviews.
Ha! Mixed reviews indeed. There's a link in there to some real YouTube comments that he's turned into a comic. Thanks for this.
You should read the transcript of the original call off the second link. It's hilarious.
Did that. And you're right.
Aside from lousy customer service in general, here are my two biggest problems with Best Buy:
1) When I was going to college, I bought my new computer at Best Buy, and was told by the Geek Squad guy that I needed an ethernet card for it to be compatible with the school's network. So I shelled out the $75 or so and had them install it, and when I came back, I was told the computer actually didn't need it after all. But since they'd opened the card's box before realizing that, they refused to give me a refund. I had to threaten to call their regional manager before they would.
2) When Madden 2007 came out a couple of years, Circuit City was selling it for $10 less than Best Buy. When I attempted to get Best Buy to price match, they refused, because they claimed the nearest Circuit City was completely sold out. I went directly to that Circuit City, and they had dozens of copies for sale.
I can't say I never shop at Best Buy, but for all my major electronic purchases, I go elsewhere.
Scotus - Wow. Guess I've never made any big-ticket purchases at Best Buy. My gift certificate will probably just go to CDs, as I never have enough.
My only problem with Circuit City is that after you agree to buy something there, they hold you down and try to cattle-prod you into their extended service agreement. I can't count how many times I've said "no" every time I've bought something there.
Yeah I think that check would be legal although they would have to run around the bank finding someone who actually remembers algebra. Or is that calulus? Geometry?
thank god for my calculator.
I think it's trigonometry, but I barely made it past advanced algebra.
I fought with Sprint for 2 months to get out of my contract without paying them $400 (they charge $200 per line to cancel, they conned me into a second line even though I never wanted it in the first place), to no avail. Finally, I registered a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Here's an excerpt:
After all of this, the second phone line I was told was my only route to a local number, the one that is threatening to cost me $400.00 because of Sprint’s ingenious “screw-em-on-the-way-out” plan, is virtually useless to me in my daily job. This letter will be submitted to the Better Business Bureau in September of 2007, unless I am allowed a clean break from my contract with Sprint. I think I have endured enough, and I KNOW they’ve gotten enough of my money.
Within a week or two, someone from Sprint called and told me they would allow me to break my contract if I would retract my complaint. BOO YA
Wow. I love it when the little guy wins out over the corporate behemoth.
Funny how different people have different experiences. I've had Sprint long distand for about umpteen years now, and a Sprint cell phone for something less than umpteen years, and I've never, ever, had a single bad experience with them.
Lovely! That's like something my brother would do!
My beef: The DC Police Department. Slow on response, lacking in people skills, and scofflaws abound within their egregiously less than stellar ranks. Unless you live in Georgetown, of course, where everything is cream-of-the-crop.
I suppose that's an advantage of living in the 'burbs, as I do. Although there are certain bloggers I can think of in the DC space whose ire you may raise with a comment like this. Nobody can ever accuse you of not callin' 'em like you see 'em. :-)
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