You'd better engage the chat fairy when he first greets you, or you'll never see him again.



  • Go to this site about Verizon FIOS Internet service and try to chat with them.

    http://www22.verizon.com/content/ConsumerFiOS/

    After you browse a few pages, you'll probably get an in-the-page popup asking if you'd like to text chat with a sales rep. Choose NO (pretending that you're not ready to chat yet.) Now continue browsing and see if you can find another way into the chat application. I couldn't. For an unrelated reason I moved my session from Opera to Firefox and the chat prompt appeared again, so I chose YES, and here is the result (edited by me where he corrected his own typos in the next line):

    Chat Information
    We are routing you to a chat representative. Thank you for contacting Verizon Fios. Your average wait time is 2 seconds.
    Chat Information
    You are now chatting with 'Denver'
    Denver: Hello. Thank you for visiting our Verizon chat service. How can I help you with your Verizon FiOS Internet Service order?
    you: I am overwhelmed with disconnected information and your brochures suck
    you: also, I couldn't figure out how to get back to this chat window in another browser after I chose 'no' the first time it asked if I wanted to chat
    you: sorry to start on such a negative tone, but I'm really not a happy sales lead right now
    Denver: What are you needing help with?
    you: first, can I simply come back to the chat feature LATER when I'm done reading all the advertising material on your site?
    Denver: Yes.
    you: how?
    you: it's not under 'contact us'
    Denver: There should be a window saying click to chat with a live rep.
    Denver: Is there anything I can help you with now?
    you: yes, that appeared once. how do I make it appear again after this conversation?
    you: in another browser, I chose 'no' and I couldn't find any way to make the chat prompt reappear
    Denver: Is this the only thing you need help with.. I have already told you how should come back.
    you: you have not told me how to make the window reappear
    you: nevermind though. I will call a sales rep another day when I'm ready to talk
    you: I'm not ready with specific questions about FIOS yet
    Denver: Ok. Thank you for using Verizon's chat service. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
    Chat InformationYour chat session has been terminated by the Verizon Fios chat representative.

    The sales rep's conduct in this brief exchange are as good as they can be under the circumstances. My problem is that there's no obvious way for the user to initiate a chat session after he has declined the initial offer (other than deleting cookies), and the sales reps themselves can't tell you how to do it. Does that make any sense?

    So, essentially, if you do this at night (when the phones are closed), the only opportunity you have to ask questions is before you've ready anything.



  • Update: I'm still on the site, browsing, and the offer to chat decided to pop up again. So apparently the answer to my question of how to MAKE it appear is that you're simply supposed to sit around for a few minutes and hope it asks you again.



  • The real WTF here is that you are seriously considering being a Verizon customer.



  • [quote user="Brendan Kidwell"]Update: I'm still on the site, browsing, and the offer to chat decided to pop up again. So apparently the answer to my question of how to MAKE it appear is that you're simply supposed to sit around for a few minutes and hope it asks you again.
    [/quote]

    That's fantastic!

    Shall we include a link on our website to allow people to chat with us, therefore having our website work the way most people expect it to work? No, I've got a better idea; lets make a pop-up that asks them periodically if they want to chat, what could possibly be wrong with that?

    So if you're a slow reader, you're constantly interrupted by a pop-up asking you to chat. If you're a quick reader, you're left searching the website trying to figure out how to get back into chat (or left twiddling your tumbs).

    What about people who don't use javascript? 



  • <off-topic>

    When I first saw the subject line I misread it as "fat chairy".

    I thought you were talking about Steve Ballmer.

    </off-topic>

     



  • [quote user="asuffield"]The real WTF here is that you are seriously considering being a Verizon customer.[/quote]

    Their website is awful, but the cell phone service is pretty good. DSL is slow from any provider, you can't hold that against them. 



  • [quote user="savar"]Their website is awful, but the cell phone service is pretty good. DSL is slow from any provider, you can't hold that against them. [/quote]That depends on your definition of slow - DSL is pretty speedy around here - ADSL up to 8192/768 and VDSL up to 40/15M. With 10/10 VDSL, I easily get 1,1MByte/s transfers.



  • I've got SBC/AT&T DSL and am pulling 2 mbit down and 512 - 768 kbit up, so DSL is definitely not the 'turtle slow' connection Comcast wants you to think it is.



  • [quote user="savar"]

    [quote user="asuffield"]The real WTF here is that you are seriously considering being a Verizon customer.[/quote]

    Their website is awful, but the cell phone service is pretty good. DSL is slow from any provider, you can't hold that against them. 

    [/quote]

    Clarification: We're talking about Internet (and TV) over fiber optic cable here, not DSL.

    Verizon's fiber optic SERVICE seems to get good reviews, but their customer support sucks just like the rest of the industry. I'm tired of the Comcast DVR machine and I'm interested in Verizon's TV with DVR... but I've heard their DVR is worse than that of Comcast.



  • [quote user="Brendan Kidwell"]

    Verizon's fiber optic SERVICE seems to get good reviews, but their customer support sucks just like the rest of the industry.

    [/quote]

    It sucks quite a lot harder than most of the industry (although, admittedly, not much worse than several of the other big players). Also they don't know the difference between dollars and cents ("it's just a matter of opinion"). Their network products aren't any worse than average, but the support is BURNING PAIN in your lower digestive tract.

    I wouldn't know about their non-network products. Do they use the same mouth-breathers as the network division?
     



  • [quote user="asuffield"]The real WTF here is that you are seriously considering being a Verizon customer.[/quote]

    It would indeed be a WTF, if he had a choice.  Verizon is a telecommunications monopoly.  The only ways to get 10-20 Mbps in a Verizon-controlled region is through them, unless you want to pay for your own T3.



  • [quote user="VGR"]

    [quote user="asuffield"]The real WTF here is that you are seriously considering being a Verizon customer.[/quote]

    It would indeed be a WTF, if he had a choice.  Verizon is a telecommunications monopoly.  The only ways to get 10-20 Mbps in a Verizon-controlled region is through them, unless you want to pay for your own T3.

    [/quote]

    My other "choice" is Comcast TV and/or Internet over coax cable. That's what I have now, and I've enjoyed six months of reduced price after my initial signup and the price is about to go up substantially above Verizon.

    So Comcast has passable customer support and costs more, and Verizon costs less and their customer service is like "a special kind of Hell. The kind they reserve for child molesters, and people who talk in theaters."

    Anyway, not looking for advice here. That's what Dslreports is for. 



  • [quote user="Brendan Kidwell"]

    Anyway, not looking for advice here. That's what Dslreports is for. 

    [/quote]

    Oh, don't mistake this for advice, we're merely laughing at your impending pain. 



  •  why if he dissaperse get a nother guy



  •  yeah laughing in pain if a fairy does why marry him



  • Two posts that make no sense in a two year old thread, do you suffer from My Mother Dropped Me As A Child Repeatedly Syndrome?


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