Comments for Union Hits Picket Line To Protest Verizon's Poor Customer Service

Union Hits Picket Line To Protest Verizon's Poor Customer Service

2008-04-22T01:57:34Z

The IBEW 824 union is generating good business for the stick and sign makers of western Florida. First they picketed over Verizon ignoring the quality of its copper lines at the expense of pushing out FiOS. Now they're picketing over what they say is Verizon's poor customer service. One self-identifying union member said in the comments on this local news bit, "We are losing customers because of billing problems. We are losing customers because when the customers call in with billing or installation problems the employees are told to focus on "educating the customer on Verizon products and services" not on correcting their problem or answering their questions. " Verizon's response was that they haven't gotten many complaints from customers.

Workers Picket Verizon Again Over Customer Service [Tampa Bay Online] (Thanks to Jefro!)
(Photo: Getty)

Comment from shimshimminy on 2008-04-26

2008-04-26T15:20:04Z

oh how i wish the EMBARQ employees would do this as well but at the moment employees are being treated worse than than the customer. they was even some complaints involving the benefits of retired workers. basically stealing from old people, ican see it clearly in my head. go ahead close your eyes! so the next time you think you got it bad just do an EMBARQ search. the worst telco in america indeed.

Comment from Serpephone on 2008-04-22

2008-04-22T21:52:29Z

Yeah, I have a Verizon billing issue right now. My most recent call indicated the problem is fixed--time will tell. If not, I will post my exhausting experience on Consumerist.com.

Comment from P_Smith on 2008-04-22

2008-04-22T20:52:05Z

IBEW stands for "I'm Broke Every Winter" because construction happens in summer.

Verizon's "customer service" is broken everywhere.

Comment from munch44 on 2008-04-22

2008-04-22T19:54:00Z

most of you think the fios will be easier to maintain are crazy .fios has so much more equipment that can fail ont, bbu , power supply , router , set top boxes , and the fact that the fios terminals are so far from the homes that if the service wire breaks you could spend half the day at one house replaceing it, if it was a copper loop it could be done in 1 hour i vz went all fiber there would still be enough work for all the unoin workers and more would be needed ,and in verizon eyes they think they are all fios because they refuse to dispatch copper work and not everyone can get fios.the fact is someone is telling consumers why they cant get their copper phone fixed and then everyone has to post how its just a union ploy and that could be the case .but someone should be glad that the information came out. because at the end of the day the customer is still getting screwed

Comment from ChuckECheese on 2008-04-22

2008-04-22T06:01:43Z

We should give Judy Peters a call and get her opinion on this turn of events.

Comment from mac-phisto on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T04:48:19Z

@mac-phisto: correct my correction - reneged

Comment from mac-phisto on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T04:38:09Z

@JohnMc: "renegged"

Comment from mikelotus on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T04:27:05Z

@statnut: Don't reply to the guy in Atlanta Braves fantasy land. All he does is troll on this site between thousands of posts on sports blogs.

Comment from JohnMc on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T04:22:48Z

"There is no law that says Verizon has to offer copper at all if they dont want to. Its not profitable so why should they spend millions fixing it when there is a better solution" -- Gorky

Actually there was a agreement made back in 1986 by the Telcos and the government that copper would be around for quite awhile as part of support for ISDN rollouts. The Telcos of course renigged once they got what they wanted.

Comment from JohnMc on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T04:18:00Z

Well the fact that IBEW and CWA are going to go on strike in August probably does not hurt either.

Comment from ivanthemute on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T03:23:50Z

@JustAGuy2: Bingo, nail and head and all that. Just like the last time these schlubs started rattling their sabers. While Verizon does have a duty to its subscribers to maintain what infrastucture it has, the eventual elimination of copper will put many of these guys out of work.

Comment from Gorky on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T03:08:04Z

The people that are complaining about Verizon ignoring the copper are probably the same old timers who complain about the digital TV conversion. I.E. they never want to change for the better. There is no law that says Verizon has to offer copper at all if they dont want to. Its not profitable so why should they spend millions fixing it when there is a better solution

Comment from Dobernala on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:56:32Z

@JustAGuy2: Wait, you mean the fact that Verizon isn't doing its job that is mandated by both the FCC and state utility commissions isn't really the issue here? If Verizon is not putting people to work to follow the law, I can hardly see a conflict of interest in union employees in pointing out the fact to us.

Comment from JustAGuy2 on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:46:56Z

The fact that the FiOS infrastructure is much lower maintenance, and will require fewer union staff members to run when compared to the copper infrastructure had, I'm sure, absolutely nothing to do with this protest.

Comment from bgp on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:36:16Z

Nothing makes me thing of being responsive to customers like dealing with unions..... oh wait.

Comment from TechnoDestructo on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:15:07Z

It could just be that all the complaining (or rather, venting) is done when people switch to another company (which these days is just out of the frying pan and into the fire).

Comment from statnut on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:11:13Z

@Steve Trachsel, Ace: Probably because they dont view the calls as complains, just "re-education opportunities".

Comment from a_mama on 2008-04-21

2008-04-22T02:09:33Z

So how many MORE complaints do they need to take them seriously? Because I have several that I could bring to their attention, if needs be.