Listen here.

It’s about 20-minutes long, but you will be amazed the entire time.

What Verizon doesn’t yet understand (as well as many other huge companies) is that you can’t treat people like idiots anymore.  Everyone has a voice, and you never know when you’re talking to someone who will tell others about how you’ve treated them.  Some will tell their friends how great you are, while some will blog about how terrible your service is to their audience of 1,000+.

It’s so much easier to just say, “You’re right, we screwed up.  We’ll eat the bill this time, and we’re extremely sorry for all the confusion.”  Instead, they argue with this poor guy over something so simple (while never admitting they’re wrong), and piss him off to the point where he records the call and posts it online.  The damage to their brand from people who complain is far greater than the money they’ll gain from ripping one person off.

To all small business owners reading this: Swallow your pride and appease your pissed off customers.  It doesn’t matter who’s right.  Treat them with respect, and restrain your condescension.

The fact that marketers repeatedly have to write about this issue is absurd.  It’s so basic and fundamental, yet so many businesses still manage to screw it up.

I went into the Verizon store to get it fixed after receiving multiple text messages hours after they’d been sent. The worst was one that came in 15 hours late (see picture). I made sure to save all of the messages as proof, and I showed them to the guy working there. His response: “We have to be able to prove that the texts are coming in late while you’re in the store.” No joke.

So he sent my phone a message, and it went through right away. This didn’t surprise me. We’re in a Verizon store. I highly doubt the service is going to be poor in the store that’s promoting it. Just like you’re not going to see a lot of broken computers in an Apple store. But the problem with my phone isn’t that texts come in late every time. The problem is that the service is ridiculously inconsistent, and that’s what I told him.

“There’s not much we can do.” Actually, there is. I view cell phones as a necessary evil. Verizon is reinforcing that belief by having shoddy service and treating me like a liar. You need to recreate the problem in the store? Why? I didn’t make this complaint up. It’s very real and I have proof. I’m not trying to scam them into giving me a better phone. I just want mine to work.

I know nearly everyone has a cell phone these days. I know people upgrade to new phones fairly often. But no one has to stay with the same service for too long. Verizon’s service sucks, but the rep who patronized me is the reason I’ll switch. Every interaction with a customer has an impact. Treat consumers like people (not con artists) and they’ll stick with you. I’m not married to Verizon, and if I was, I’d file for divorce.