It's an hones question. I am in IT (2 years with VZ) and I see issues we have on the tech side, I do not think our competitors are better though? What do you see as the main issue?
30 replies (most recent on top)
- poorly trained outsourced rep who give wrong information and wrong transfers
- systems dont work and doing ays tickets do nothing
- expensive service with no value
@OP Definitely high prices and customer service. Language barrier with customer service reps is one of the BIG issues.
VZ is losing subscribers because overall VZ su-ks. VZ is the most expensive, has the worst customer service, and the network is no longer a differentiator.
VZ always prided itself on it's network and got away with overcharging and cr-ppy customer service. Sorry, if you think VZ EVER had good customer service you're insane. The contract model was anti-consumer. You had to pay for overpriced insurance and VZ would give you a refurbed phone that would barely work for 90 days while paying a huge deductible to get another "like new" replacement. Calling or visiting service in the stores was a nightmare! Customers only put up with this when cell phones were new because VZ was the most reliable, but the market is saturated and T-Mobile has disrupted the industry. T-Mobile forced larger carriers to get rid of two year contracts and caught up with VZ in terms of network reliability. T-Mobile is a fraction of the cost and will buy you out of your VZ DPP. It can also process your trade-in timely. Ask any frontline rep and they will tell you how bad VZ is. Why wouldn't you switch to the "un-carrier?" I know I am after losing my job!
Everyone, it’s always about price and aggressive promos.
The Networks for all 3 of the major carriers are very close in terms of reliability. Most consumers are looking out for the best deals..period.
Sure are a lot of people wildly missing the mark here. Customers churn due to network issues <10% of the time. It’s almost always price and/or customer service.
We sell a commodity.
Customers want good enough and decent customer service. At the lowest price possible.
The "good old days" were when the cellular industry was new and growing. Then a second life as smartphones entered the market.
We're past all that. Phones are like staplers now.
The past 5 or more years we've been having to package other parties' products at a discount to make ours attractive. And it isn't working, because no one really cares about that, there's a million ways to get streaming services without buying it through your cell phone carrier.
Lower prices are the obvious solution.
Verizon turned its leadership to non Americans. Those folks completely had no idea how to relate to American consumers.
Verizon must be viewed as an American company and not a global company if it wants to survive.
No India, no Europe; stop the outsourcing
5G su-ks and no one is doing anything about it other than raising prices on the consumer. The customer is told to call in when they have issues, but customer services is horrible. It is easier to switch to a different carrier. No one at top listens when they are told what the issues are.
The data network in dallas is HORRIBLE, Im stuck on LTE and rarely get 5g and only get ultrawide band 5g on major highways
@OP Cust service SUX!
Too expensive and service stinks.
- Price
- Price
- Price
- Customer Service
- Uninspiring marketing (SB ad was great tho)
Because Mint Mobile $15 a month. Motorola on Amazon $250.
@OP can you fix My Verizon? Because customers hate the log in system.
Some have to reregister every month to get online.
Whoever is outsourced to take the tickets for those complaints just slams the ticket closed insisting that the customer just doesn’t know their user/pass when we are telling them that the customer is experiencing a “something went wrong” error while resetting their password.
I know for a fact that not being able to log in is responsible for accounts with multiple lines churning every week.
The most important factor is the network and it is not a new problem, it’s been going down hill since the 3g phaseout began. I work on the front line and hear it every day. I’m in a semi large town in the southeast surrounded by rural areas with a few small towns (think towns with town squares). I was dropping calls in my house where I formerly had great coverage and good data speeds on 4g, I switched to Tmobile 3 years ago and the difference in coverage and speed was night and day, even in the rural areas. This has only grown worse over time. I’ve been here nearly 15 years, I could count on one hand the number of complaints I got from customers that were genuinely network related prior to 2020, it’s multiple a day now.
The network compounds the other issues, it drives more people to need help either through customer care (which has been gutted and outsourced) or to the store where the hiring standards have severely declined, those people come in for help and don’t get it, either due to lack of knowledge or lack of desire to help a non buying customer. Back in the days of netace I could fix 99% of what came in the door myself, now I have to call CS and get someone in India or the Philippines who (through no fault of their own, they aren’t well taught) has no clue how to help even though I can tell them exactly what the problem is and what needs to be done. Most new reps won’t even call for the customer.
This may not be universal across the company but in retail, the tenured reps by and large are not the problem, those who are still here after all the BS the last 5 years has put us through want to be here and give a sh-t about the company and customers, these new hires don’t care about anything outside of themselves. Not all, but the majority I’ve come across.
TL/DR version
The network su-ks now and customers can’t get help when they need it because we don’t staff quality employees anymore
Outsourced customer service is absolutely horrendous. I made an order on the app by accident, tried to cancel it, it charged my bank account anyway, sent the device, all while there was nothing in their system. It took them an entire MONTH to even get a return label going for me. I had to call the company I work for and yell at someone to get some traction.
That is not some outlying string of bad experiences. Customer service at Verizon is genuinely some an incompetent, bureaucratic, nightmare.
Creeping bills. Bills should not increase month over month. There's this whole 'price guarantee' thing. You know why it exists? Because people know their bills creep. Nobody likes it. T-Mobile said here's a flat rate, here's everything you pay, and that's FINAL. The damage has been done with Verizon in this regard.
It's expensive and the service is going downhill. I don't know why. I don't know if it's because I'm in Texas and people are pouring in for their employer to work them to the bone, but it's been worse than T-Mobile in my experience. Maybe poor investments? Congestion? I don't know. It doesn't matter. You don't get what you pay for.
Salesman tactics. People don't like going into a store and feeling like they're being sold something. The customer wants to come in, probably with some research on the subject, and wants transparency. There is none of that in the world. These salesman are trained on commission and are coordinated. It's nothing against y'all in sales. It's nothing against y'all in it.
The experience with our design team, and general incompetence in our software engineering. There's some pig slop of software in this company. This is coming from someone who's worked in it. Our apps are pure drivel. Our enterprise tools are leagues behind companies like AT&T.
I've sat on all of this stuff while being here. This place is a huge mess.
the best thread on this site, so far
I think Sprint used to run ads talking about how VZW was 1% better by Root Metrics measure but twice as much. I’d been a VZW sub for 18 years and an employee for 13. After taking voluntary, I moved to Spectrum mobile and my experience was it the same network for $45 including roaming. I got fiber in my home, so rather than paying more I got bold and tried Visible. Terrible experience. It might be great in metros but no roaming means no calls. Landed at T Mobile. Travel all over the country and it’s pretty good. My employer provided VZW devices started having terrible coverage. Verizon coverage in my state literally degraded.
Is the VZW network better? It was back then, but as the Sprint pointed out 1% - 10% better doesn’t command a 100% premium. The past few years VZW seemed to really be positioning itself as a luxury brand with Vestberg and company making frequent public statements to analysts I would summarize as “think we’re too expensive? We’re not for you.”
VZW was built on giving people what they wanted. Local number portability, the phone upgrade, worry free guarantee and so many other programs invented by VZW to directly address what customers wanted and were concerned with. Pretty different messaging from “think we’re too expensive? You’re not good enough for Verizon”
@a1 thats a misnomer. We are not more expensive at all. Thats perception. Cable companies arent “in the wireless space” they are reselling without a competitive response. We also have bloated union salaries without equivalent production or ability to require quality.
Dei hires in marketing and operations. People in charge who have NEVER been consumers or producers. Offshoring customer service going back and forth with accents and “im sorry” over and over. Paying beyonce and kevin hart.
Coming from a retail store/ retail ops pov, the playing field has leveled with all carriers. Dan said it already, we don’t have the “premium” leverage, we are just another option for customers. The disconnect between groups and wasteful spending is outrageous. Not sure if many caught how Dan referenced the “credo” in his first announcement. He mentioned it in a way that was clearly not a priority and more of an afterthought.
T-Mo overtook us in network.
We have nothing else to stand on but legacy…
Network and coverage started back in Nov 2015 with the first big RIF, followed by the first VSP in 2018. We lost nearly all of the experienced/senior field folks in those two waves. And they aren't exactly minting those folks at your local University.
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Outsourced customer service is horrendous
Network and coverage is worse today than it was years ago. Outsourced customer service is horrendous. Lack of vision from executives due to being distracted by things that do not matter. Internal groups not working together which manifests in a poor customer experience. There are more meetings here than you could imagine and these meetings create zero value because our execution is poor.
@OP In my area 5G ruined cell coverage. Where you can get it it's fast, but because it doesn't go as far as previous tech, lots of dead spots where there were none in the past. Verizon made it clear that it is what it is. Updates from now on won't extend range. So we lost customers, govt, business and retail.
@OP Customer service is absolutely horrendous!!!
Price. If you have spectrum you can get spectrum mobile for half the price and it’s the Verizon network.
ask grok
Cable operators are jumping into the wireless space... this is adding more competition.
Our competitors are more nimble and execute better.
We are more expensive but the quality does not justify our premium (any more)
No growth in the overall market so shrinking customer base impacts us even more.
Our exec mgmt was (and still is) meh.
Other people will have differing opinions, this is how i see things.