[Infowarrior] - Verizon: "We Record You, but Don't You Dare Record Us!"

[Richard Forno]

(c/o IP ... my comment?  What's good for the goose must be good for  
the gander.  --rf)

January 18, 2010
Verizon: "We Record You, but Don't You Dare Record Us!" -- and a FiOS  
Order Canceled

http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000671.html
Greetings. In FiOS Scamming the Elderly a couple of days ago, I  
expressed my extreme displeasure at the horrendous (whether legal or  
not, yet to be determined) sales techniques used to pressure the  
elderly father of a friend of mine into signing up for FiOS services  
(on a long-term contract) that he didn't want or need.

Since that posting, I've discovered more subterfuge -- they even  
signed him for FiOS TV after he explicitly told them that he already  
had cable TV and wanted to stay with it.

Today I finally reached Verizon, and after fighting my way through the  
usual impediments and multiple transfers I successfully canceled the  
order. I hope.

Verizon won't provide written confirmation that the order has been  
killed, and simply tells you to use the original order number for  
reference. We'll see if his existing, non-FiOS Verizon phone service  
ends up being disrupted, and I've told him that if any Verizon crews  
show up at his house, just send them packing back to the depot.

I plan to pursue the issue of the tactics used by the Verizon door-to- 
door hit squad. Verizon reps I spoke to today refused to reveal  
whether or not such workers were Verizon employees or (more likely  
I'll bet) contract workers on commission.

There was an amusing aspect to canceling the order. I felt it  
appropriate to record the call, so that I'd have a proof of this order  
activity in case there was an "issue" regarding the order's status  
later on.

Complexities of individual state laws regarding notifications of  
recording aside (one-party vs. two-party states), my policy is to  
always notify the other party when I'm recording a call.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Verizon reps I talked  
to absolutely and indignantly refused to continue the calls when I  
told them that I was recording. This despite the fact that virtually  
the first words out of the Verizon phone system are "call may be  
monitored or recorded."

So, being a law-abiding, ethical citizen, I stopped the recording and  
so informed the reps. Their hesitation to continue the calls was  
unmistakable. "Did he really stop recording?"

The technical term for this attitude on the part of Verizon is of  
course referenced by the acronym CYA. They want to record you for  
their protection, but heaven forbid if you desire to record them for  
the same reason.

But given Verizon's sleazy FiOS sales practices, the fact that they  
behave similarly disrespectful of their customers' concerns at the  
call center level shouldn't really surprise anyone.

It's almost as if the long gone but widely despised General Telephone  
sometimes still lives on as a ghostly spirit in aspects of its  
descendant Verizon.

Cue the theremin ...

--Lauren--