Alde’s Stuff

After spending 20 minutes trying to wade through the compartmentalized and siloed nature that is Verizon billing, I eventually talked to a Mr. Mukerjee (guessing he was in Mumbai) to dispute the erroneous charges on my bill. Then I talked to a Mrs Smith (the indignant agent would not give me her first name) to ensure that my account was canceled. This was on the 18th of August. Now I get the following voicemail in my inbox:

“This is Verizon with an urgent message regarding a letter that was sent to you recently and the potential interruption of internet access on your account. Think for your internet access can be as easy as using your charge card. Verizon offers convenient self-serve payment options including the ability to pay your bill using the recurring charge card payment method. To take advantage of this payment options, visit us on the web at www.verizon.net/myaccount or call us online 1-877-432-9409. If payment is not received. Your verizon online service maybe suspended and any outstanding debt will be referred for collection. Verizon thanks you for your prompt attention. Goodbye.”

So, I’m wondering why an automated call would come to me on the 27th of August, days after I canceled my account and was told my Mr Mukerjee that my account balance was $0.

I call that number; it’s a payment service, that charges you, get this, a $3.50 convenience fee. Whose convenience? I why do I need to pay to save you the time and processing of a check? For a bill I’ve been told I owe nothing. See, the email that Verizon Sent to me:

Thank you for allowing us to serve as your Internet service provider. We received your cancellation order effective 2008-08-20 00:00:00.0. We’re sorry to see you go and hope you reconsider. If you change your mind and would like to re-start your Verizon High Speed Internet service, simply call 1-800-567-6789.
…
Sincerely,

Verizon Online
Customer Care Team

Then I call into Verizon’s Payment Information and Payment arrangements line: 800-281-8584. Since I had a dry loop DSL, this completely FLUMMOXES their Voice Actuated IVR system, so much so I eventually just get an “Ok” from it, and a transfer…. To Residential Voice Line collections. Hey! Collections department… No, Lisa doesn’t want to talk to me, so she transfers me over to DSL collections… Where Monica Miller tells me, oh, Dry Loop DSL is another department… To which I get a “Please enter your 10 digit account number…” um, my account number is 13 numbers. I try the first 10, no go. I enter the last 10, no go. Eventually I get the “We can’t help you, please call again.”

So much for having the Network by your side.

Verizon, your customer service is horrible. I’d dare say it’s more horrible than my company’s, and JD Power doesn’t like us at all.

So, I work for a large company with a rather big call center, including off-shore partners, as honestly, people won’t pay the money to get 100% on-shore support, especially for the idiots we are able to hire at the exhorbanent prices due to our location.

Last month, after being told by a technician dispatched to my house that I was lucky my DSL modem got sync as how far I was from the Central Office, and that most likely it was a wet pair, i.e. every time it rains it gets wet and causes the modem to lose sync.

Bundled that with Verizon billing me $5 more a month ($40 a month) for 1.5meg DSL, and my contract being up, I was ditching Verizon for a cable modem. I hate the cable companies, but at least for my $43, I’d get more than 1.5megs.

So, on the 14th of July, I cancelled my account with Verizon. Told the retention agent, no, I’m not interested in a free month, I am no longer need DSL. I might come back when you have FIOS, but you suck, I’m firing you.

I was told by the retention agent that my account was canceled, and my account would be updated and I’d get a pro-rated charge for the 7 days of the month I still had service.

‘lo and behold, when my August bill showed up, I got the free month and my account was not cancelled. Hooray call center agent!

Now that I work with 1000+ call center agents, with another 300-500 off-shored agents, I know excatly what the agent did, and why.

See, call center agent is a suck ass job. First line tech support sucks so bad as a job, every company (basically) off-shores this part. Why? No one will work for that wage and deal with the idiots that call in. So, at my work, tier 2 tech, advanced tech support, some sales, and retention are all housed in the US.

So, the retention agent job sucks as well. At least with the other tech support jobs, you get a satisfaction in troubleshooting a problem and generally delighting the customer. However, for these jobs, you need some computer saavyness, and the ability to troubleshoot advanced issues dealing with problems you will not have a script for.

The retention agent job sucks in that every person you talk to is on the phone to fire you as a company. It’s almost as bad as cold-call sales. So to get people into the job, they provide probably the highest per-hour wage (other than the advanced/tier3 tech support jobs), with a bonus based upon your “save” rate, or the rate at which you are able to convince customers to not cancel their service.

So, the unscrupulous agent (i.e. the agent that for the most part will not have a job soon) to boost their numbers, will tell the customer that they’re cancelled, but “save” them in the system, so it’s put off onto another agent next month. The “Retention Shuffle”.

I had once thought Verizon to be a company of impecable technical support and service, I realize that they are just like every crappy company out there and therefore, I no longer put them in that class of “enlightened” customer service companies.

Sorry for you, Verizon. You’ve been fired, even if you’ve tried a corrupt way to keep my account, I’m going to get the (unfortunate) pleasure of firing you again…After 47 minutes on hold, to talk to an agent who may (or may not) cancel my account… Again.

Want some Rye? ‘Course you do.

From a Slashdot article + comments, some sites for Electronics kits / Electronics Learning.

Heathkit

Nerdkits
Electronics Kits
Getting Started in Electronics
RadioShack Electronics Learning Lab
Adafruit Industries
MakerShed Kits
Camera Triggers
Velleman

From the folks at Twitch, they get the envious exclusive first look at the english subbed trailer and sales reel for Ong Bak 2. I don’t want to compare him to Jackie Chan, because martial arts wise, he’s hands down better than Jackie, but his versatility (at least in the trailer) is like the Three Dragons rolled into one.

So, my friends know that one of my idiosynchrosies is to use the words “Kungpao Chicken” as a blanket answer for lots of questions. I even have a server named Kungpao (my servers are named after asian foods). My wife says that I say “Kungpao Chicken Optional Pancake” even though I should be be saying “Mushu Pork Optional Pancake”.

Back in my freshman year of college, my friend Jason Engh was taking a karate class, and my friends Rich and Joel came up with this idea that Jason should use chinese foods instead of the typical “Hi-Ya”.

I found the Wanchai Ferry Kung Pao Chicken pre-made kit at the super food town while shopping for groceries. On an impulse, because I have very little impulse control with asian foods, I picked it up to make for dinner one night.

It comes with rice, kungpao sauce, peanuts and peppers, all you add is a teaspoon of vegetable oil (for coating the wok/pan) and a pound of chicken.

Making it was fairly easy, especially for someone like me who sucks at cooking. Put the rice and water into a pan, boil it, simmer for 15 minutes, then let it sit. The chicken was easy, but I messed up one thing; this stuff was FREAKING SPICY.

The package comes with 5 dried peppers. at least 3 of which opened up and dumped all their seeds into the mix. I haven’t had kungpao this spicy since my friend Chris Takasawa’s roommate cooked Kungpao and pork dumplings one night.

Note to self: next time, empty all but one of the peppers of their seeds before placing them in to cook with the chicken.

It was very good, even with the spice, you just need to give it a little time to allow the final product to reduce and thicken a little otherwise you end up with a thin brown sauce that doesn’t really stick to the chicken.

This one’s directed by the same man who directed Ong-Bak.

The Move’s called Chocolate. Girls kick ass…

Trailer says it’s “The Machine Girl“.

Beekers writes about her Smurf Glasses. Seeing as she wanted Smurf Gummi’s for Christmas, I know she’ll want the full set still.