One of my biggest peeve's of using Verizon has been their websites. Buggy and rarely useful. I especially love the fact that your cell phone charges are never complete, or clear nor do they let you change all of your options online.
Up until today my truly favorite part was that the bill payment section never told you what you owed. The would tell you what your bill was, but whether you paid it or not was something you had to do your own research on. This meant that sometimes I would think I made a payment but didn't, and ended up with a $600 charge, and other times I'd have a -$300 bill. Ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if I checked carefully I'd probably find I paid them twice and didn't always get credit for it.
Fast forward to July 15. I get an e-mail. It has a link to pay my bill. I end up in web site hell. Rather than explain it, I'll let the conversation I had with the representative speak for itself. Yet more evidence that laws need to be passed to have web designers publicly flogged when they make it impossible to navigate a web site.
Chat Subject: Home Phone Billing Question
Your Question: How can I pay my bill online? The previous website I could never tell how much money I owed. This one keeps sending me to the login and e-mail screen and never allows me to pay my bill.
A Verizon eCenter Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you. (14:03:40)
14:04:55 We apologize for the delay.You are next in the line. A representative will be with you shortly.
Agent Martha has joined. (14:05:10)
Martha : Chat ID for this session is 06666. (14:05:10)
Martha(14:05:20): Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. I will be happy to help you today.
Martha(14:05:25): What services do you have with Verizon?
Customer(14:05:33): None of the "pay your bill" links work correctly.
Customer(14:05:35): All of them. :)
Customer(14:05:43): DirecTV, DSL, home and wireless.
Martha(14:06:43): You are able to sign in to your account?
Customer(14:06:55): Yes. I wish I could send you some screen shots.
Customer(14:07:05): I get in and it takes me to a home page with e-mail and other windows.
Martha(14:07:26): At the top of the page does it say "accounts"
Customer(14:07:30): Yes.
Customer(14:07:53): Sorry, no.
Customer(14:07:56): It says Verizon Central
Customer(14:08:10): and it says various things, at the end "My Account | Support |
Martha(14:08:45): You are logged into the Verizon.net web site.
Customer(14:08:47): If I click on "My Account" I get to a new screen
Martha(14:08:52): You will need to log into www.verizon.com
Customer(14:08:55): which has a list on the left,
Martha(14:09:01): I will need to reset your password for you.
Customer(14:09:02): and says "Make One Time Payment"
Martha(14:09:07): What is the name of your first pet?
Customer(14:09:21): Wait, do NOT reset my password.
Customer(14:09:28): Why are you resetting my password?
Martha(14:09:38): You do not know the password for Verizon.com
Customer(14:09:46): Yes I do.
Customer(14:10:02): The problem is that I am at a screen that says "My Account" and it says "Make One Time Payment"
Martha(14:10:08): Then sign out of www.verizon.net and sign into www.verizon.com
Customer(14:10:09): I click on that and it brings me right back here.
Martha(14:10:19): Then you are signing into verizon.net
Customer(14:10:21): Why should I? WHy doesn't this link work?
Customer(14:10:27): This is where the e-mail took me.
Customer(14:10:37): The e-mail that had a link that said "pay your bill"
Martha(14:10:57): You had to sign into the page that the link took you to correct?
Customer(14:11:02): Yes.
Customer(14:11:28): which goes to verizon.com
Martha(14:11:38): You signed in with your verizon.net informatin.
Customer(14:11:46): Yes, and...?
Martha(14:12:01): And you need to go to www.verizon.com
Customer(14:12:50): Here, I guess there are two problems. I need to pay my bill, but I am also really frustrated with this bogus web site design that the links don't work.
Customer(14:12:58): If I go to verizon.com
Customer(14:13:09): and pay can you tell some one that this stinks for the end user?
Martha(14:13:29): The link works fine. You are signing in with your verizon.net information and the system know to take you to web site.
Customer(14:13:45): Fine, but then when I click on the link to pay my bill, it shoudl do that!
Martha(14:13:50): If you would let me reset your verizon.com password you could sign into the correct page and pay your bill.
Customer(14:13:54): instead I get taken round and round. That is NOT the system working fine.
Martha(14:14:09): You are on the wrong web site.
Customer(14:14:18): And that's YOUR fault.
Customer(14:14:29): Not mine.
Customer(14:14:38): I log in, and the links don't work. That can't be my fault.
Customer(14:15:35): So, let's do it your way. You can reset the password, but if I click on a link that says pay my bill, it should work. End of story.
Martha(14:16:00): It goes to the page you sign in with.
Martha(14:16:05): You are signing in with your vz.net info.
Martha(14:16:20): To get you to vz.com you have to sign in with that User Id and password.
Martha(14:16:26): The User Id is the same for both web sites.
Martha(14:16:31): But the password is different.
Martha(14:16:41): Do you want me to reset the password for vz.com?
Customer(14:16:53): Yes.
Customer(14:17:03): Now, all of these conversations are recorded on your end correct?
Customer(14:17:15): Please reset my password
To be clear, what's missing from this log is that Verizon does keep copies of this conversation and makes it clear that these chats can be monitored for "quality control purposes" so there is no expectation of privacy for either party. I'm sure more than one Martha works for Verizon.
No comments:
Post a Comment