Customer Service?

I just have to take a second to vent.

I am starting to be of the belief that the old days of quality customer service are quickly going by the wayside.  Let me explain.

When I decided to leave my old job in May, unfortunately I had to change my cell phone plan from my company's plan to a plan in my name (a.k.a. I now had to pay for my blackberry!).  When I first transferred my plan into my name, I asked the customer service rep to please add a text messaging plan so I wouldn't get charged per text message.

Fast forward one month.  I go in to pay my cell phone bill at the local Verizon store, and find out that the text messaging plan still had not been added.  I asked the store rep to please add the text plan to my overall plan so I didn't get charged per message. 

At this point we're about two weeks before the wedding.  Let's just say I didn't make the best effort to follow-up to make sure text messaging was added to my plan.  About a week after we return from the honeymoon, I find out text messaging is still not added to my plan.  At this point, I now have two bills outstanding with a ridiculous amount of extra charges for my text messages.

Over the course of the next month (right up until today), it took me two more calls to customer service to get a text messaging plan added to my overall plan (that's right, it took 4 tries just to get text messaging).  It took me three failed attempts to get a customer service supervisor on the phone (the first two times I gave up after waiting on hold for 45 minutes each time).  I actually had one customer service rep ask me if I knew how to pay my bill (I politely explained that I knew how to pay my bill while also asking if she knew how to do her job).  I let her know I'd be happy to pay my bill, as soon as they could get it right.

In all of these attempts to get my billing issue corrected with Verizon, I never once dealt with a customer service representative that was polite, sympathetic, and even wanted to do their job correctly.  By the time I got to the last rep today, I was completely at my wits end.  I understand that you don't go to school with aspirations of dealing with cranky people complaining about how you screwed up their bill; but it's still their job and you should work to do your job well.  There is a lady I work with who's job it is to keep the common areas and restrooms clean, and she is the happiest, most polite, fun person to talk to.  She has fun doing her job and she does it well.

Needless to say, I was ready to cancel my service with Verizon.  Never have I experienced such horrific customer service.  Finally, FINALLY tonight I was able to talk to two individuals who were able to help me figure out how to get my bill corrected, pay the correct balance, and do it without a bad attitude, snide remark or a response involving, "I'm sorry, my system won't let me do that."  Big thank you to the guy who stayed on the phone with me for an hour and 15 minutes tonight to make sure I could get the correct credits to my account.  He totally made my night, and maybe restored a little faith in customer service reps, just a little.