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- aramova, on 05/23/2009, -13/+496Verizon: $20 past due bill is the cost of a life. Can you here them now?
- fairandtrue, on 05/23/2009, -21/+463yet another example of the biggest disease affecting our country, corporate GREED
- prompel, on 05/23/2009, -6/+418At least they weren't obstructing the police.
... oh wait ... - inactive, on 05/23/2009, -14/+278Unfortunately, the customer service reps can not bypass the billing system and re-activate phone service unless the flag (in this case, the non-payment flag) is removed by applying a payment into the system. I really can't put the blame on Verizon as the system of checks and balances keep accounting and the phone service synched up and prevent fraud from within.
HOWEVER, they should put into place a way for emergency services to identify themselves and get a phone activated for such a situation....I hope someone at Verizon sees this post - dtfinch, on 05/23/2009, -3/+133A greed-driven company would have been able to recognize that the cost of negative publicity would outweigh the cost of bending the rules. When you trade intelligence (even greed) for strict policy, everyone loses. Verizon is just fat & stupid.
- inactive, on 05/23/2009, -10/+125I would beat the everliving ***** out of the person who declined the officers request to trace. People need to get out of habits like this.
- sUGArDawg, on 05/24/2009, -8/+120here?
- SauerNinja, on 05/24/2009, -6/+113This is horrible, but what do you expect from a company that can't understand that $1 does not equal $0.01?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs&fea ...
lol, There's a Verizon banner at the top of this page. - aramova, on 05/24/2009, -2/+71*sigh* I proof read the story, but not my own comment. I *hear* your point. :)
- mitrovarr, on 05/24/2009, -0/+67Even if the rep cannot do that, the solution is obvious - escalate the call to the highest level you can escalate it to, immediately.
- BrownieMix, on 05/23/2009, -22/+88The greed must STOP >:(
- BigBalledOX, on 05/24/2009, -8/+66Firstly, this is not an attempt to defend Verizon or cause false accusations or anything . . . but something is weird here.
See, all cell phones sold in at least the last six years, and very well possibly beyond that, are required to be able to dial 911 even if they are not in active service. A lot of cellular carriers are partnered with a phone recycling program that refurbishes used phones and distributes them to battered women's shelters, so that at bare minimum they can call 911 if they need help.
Since 2003, the FCC has also mandated that all phones be E911 Phase Two capable, which is an enhanced method of locating cell phone users who call 911. Previously, cell phones could only be tracked to the tower through which a call was placed, but E911 Phase Two was designed to allow carriers to use triangulation to give a much more accurate location of a cell phone.
With the advent of location-based services such as GPS on a phone, manufacturers have now made available the option to make your phone's location either always available to these services, or if you don't use these services, only available to emergency services in the event you dial 911. You cannot disable emergency services' ability to locate it, at least not on ANY phone I've seen over the last six years.
In other words, emergency services should have been able to locate this phone regardless of the customer's status with Verizon. The officer in question should have NEVER had to agree to make any payment arrangements, because the feature in question in this instance works ENTIRELY INDEPENDENTLY of its normal duties as a cell phone.
I'm not sure exactly where the break down occurred here, but there was a pretty goddamn major ***** up on SOMEONE'S end and it sure as hell sounds like it was Verizon. It's bad enough to try to extort money out of someone completely unrelated to the customer in question when their life is in danger, but it's even WORSE when, as far as I am aware, Verizon should have been able to assist with the tracking of the phone whether the customer's service was active or not. - NathanielJ, on 05/24/2009, -5/+59Why should someone working a crappy $7/hour call center job have to pony up $20 any more than the sheriff's department should? It's ridiculous either way, and Verizon should have the ability to just have a supervisor bypass that requirement altogether.
- SEN5241, on 05/24/2009, -1/+53The dead cannot pay their phone bills.
- Snakedal337, on 05/24/2009, -3/+54I work in public relations for Verizon Wireless as well, and on behalf of Verizon we would like retract Imerritt's statements above, and simply let you all know you can go ***** yourselves and we shall continue to be a spiteful worthless excessivly greedy corporation. And don't forget to pay your bill.
Wow that's easy! I could represent any company like that. Sweet. - inactive, on 05/24/2009, -2/+52this isnt GREED, they didnt have any board members on the phone. They had some person with very little training making $8/hr on the line.
- Useight, on 05/24/2009, -4/+53I am subcontracted to do Verizon's tech support. I wish I wasn't. Links to better jobs would be appreciated.
- aramova, on 05/24/2009, -0/+44The guy didn't call 911 from his phone, the police were alerted to his situation from someone else, so it was a matter of finding a phone that wasn't dialing out. not 911 trying to track an active call.
- joshblufs, on 05/24/2009, -2/+46yeah! How many ***** could possible work at verizon customer service...
just keep calling till you get the nice ONE. - HeavyWave, on 05/24/2009, -6/+47Oh, hi the internet tough guy!
- dzhastin, on 05/24/2009, -1/+41Reaching an ***** at Verizon is not "bad luck," it's more of a given.
- RandomGorilla, on 05/24/2009, -1/+34I was getting ready to say something rather ugly about the rep who handled the call. However, after reading that, I now feel sympathy for the poor, hamstrung bastard who had to take it. If it's one thing I can identify with it's being professionally hobbled by truly ***** corporate policy.
- emt1451, on 05/24/2009, -0/+30No. I am an EMT on my local fire department. Cell phones can only be triangulated (poorly) if 911 is dialed on the phone. If 911 is not dialed, emergency personnel have to go through the cell phone company. Most cell phone companies require that we prove that the person's life is in immediate danger. Obviously their bill also has to be paid... which is just wrong.
- dwhitbeck, on 05/24/2009, -3/+30Sounds like the Verizon I have come to know and love.
- piieerrrree, on 05/24/2009, -4/+30Stay classy, Verizon.
- landosystem, on 05/24/2009, -3/+28Greed blinds you to any forest for the trees arguments, the current economy is proof of that.
- Stap1eGun, on 05/24/2009, -0/+24Very good point dtfinch, reminds me of a very good TED speech I saw.
"Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world."
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_los ... - inactive, on 05/24/2009, -0/+24Exactly. The company should fact both criminal(obstruction of justice), and civil(sue the ***** ***** out of them) penalties.
- HeavyWave, on 05/24/2009, -2/+24"I'm not a mathematician" = "I'm don't have a brain of any kind"
- one1plus1one, on 05/24/2009, -1/+22Training and salary had anything to do with this.
This was simply someone with no sense of morality or empathy. - MidnightFox, on 05/23/2009, -4/+24umm the point is they tried to do that but one of your lackies still ***** up on the job, how ever according to the consumerist.com this is nothing new for the lot of you.
- Mawds, on 05/24/2009, -5/+25Why do companies pull crap like this? Haven't they learnt that when they do this it ends up on the net, everyone hears about and they lose money and business from the negative press.
- moothemagiccow, on 05/24/2009, -1/+20indeed. who would have such loyalty to a massive company like that?
- aramova, on 05/24/2009, -2/+20I think all carriers do allow you call 911 in the US, however the man in question was unconscious and unresponsive, so he couldn't dial anyone even if his phone worked.
The problem here is Verizon wouldn't turn the phone on to track it for the police in an emergency situation where they knew his life was in danger. - inactive, on 05/24/2009, -2/+20generic comment generator
- jsmith212600, on 05/24/2009, -5/+22All this over 0.20 dollars. A shame.
- inactive, on 05/24/2009, -0/+16Wait! That's BS! The E911 system is separate. You can have a phone that isn't even activated at it'll work for emergencies.
- JoJoDilio, on 05/24/2009, -0/+16Man, if he'd brought his network with him, one of those guys could've called 9-11 for him...
- Hillsfar, on 05/24/2009, -2/+18I know of a cop who had trouble getting Verizon to help in a situation where a woman was being stalked and getting death threats over the phone. So this is not unusual at all.
- Psara, on 05/24/2009, -1/+16Yeah the way I understand it, all land and cell phone carriers are required by law to take any 911 call, even from a deactivated phone. As long as it can connect, they have to put it through.
Why this didn't extend to tracking the phone, or why Verizon was so unwilling to help law enforcement is beyond me. I guess I can add that to the list of reasons I'm not on Verizon. - Ajajadude, on 05/24/2009, -8/+22Well, could their managers go around that? Hell, no one in the call center could pony up $20 if there was no possible way of bypassing that system?
- piieerrrree, on 05/24/2009, -0/+14.002$ != .002¢ !!
- dannomite, on 05/24/2009, -2/+16This is what happens when strict rules tie our hands from common sense.
- kinerry, on 05/24/2009, -1/+15*you're
- giloron, on 05/24/2009, -0/+13No, but at some point the people running the company are so far removed from the customers, it becomes nearly impossible for them to really care about any single customer. If you go too long without caring about individual customers, it becomes harder to care about customers in general.
- lyonzy90, on 05/24/2009, -1/+13Just imagine the response from the officer when the operator said 'Oh, we can't trace the phone unless you agree to pay the bill'.... 'WHAT?!?'
- satanherself, on 05/24/2009, -4/+15Very nice Verizon! The human life is worth $20 to you! Thanks for letting us know.
- smashblu, on 05/26/2009, -0/+11I agree that they don't need to provide any service since the bill wasn't paid but they were also impeding a police investigation.
- xDynaBlade, on 05/24/2009, -2/+13I used to have an iPod, but when I sent it in to be serviced because the headphone jack was *****, they refused to honor the warranty because it had a scratch on the back. They'll do anything they can to weasle out of paying anything for anyone. Needless to say, I've never purchased another Apple product and never will again.
- giloron, on 05/24/2009, -1/+12I've had to call Verizon a couple times recently. Both times the rep didn't sound very intelligent and neither were aware of the service I was calling to sign up for. On the plus side, they were American.
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