Your Own Personal FiOS Account Manager – Verizon trying something different to cure Florida FiOS gripes…

In: broadbandreports.com|Site Feeds|VoIP

8 Apr 2008

Though we’ve been talking about FiOS billing issues for more than a year, Verizon suffered from a wave of bad press on the issue last week. First the Tampa Tribune ran an article slamming Verizon for dysfunctional billing support, and then an insider leaked information showing just how extensive the dysfunction was. The insider highlighted how the telco was being skimpy with credits during the month of March, and how phantom billing and delayed bundle discounts were not an isolated phenomena.

The company has (at least in Florida) been in damage control mode since, and tells the Tampa Tribune this morning that they’re experimenting with personal FiOS account managers to help ease customer irritation.

Verizon is quietly testing a program in Brandon to deploy “Personal Account Managers” to each customer. Here’s how it works: Each new FiOS TV-phone-Internet customer receives the name of an individual “PAM,” as Verizon is calling them, plus a refrigerator magnet with the manager’s cell phone number and e-mail address.

Each “PAM” carries a Blackberry, works from 8AM to 8PM, and is responsible for around 800 customers. These new positions receive a base salary, but receive a bonus depending on how highly customers rate their support satisfaction. This appears to only be a trial in Branson, Florida so far. One of our users has a “PAM” in Florida:

I have one of the PAM’s in Brandon…service so far has been better, but they seem to get the same amount of misdirection as the customer. I had a billing issue, and the PAM had no special number…they just called the normal billing department and sat through the music until a rep came on, then patched me in. Better than before, but still needs some work.

So apparently they’re simply a proxy for your annoyance with Verizon’s billing and support systems. That’s better, but it still doesn’t seem to cure the underlying cause of consumer complaints — namely a troubled billing platform.
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