Virginia Man Has Meltdown Over Verizon's Service

I've had my own woes with Verizon's service. See HERE and HERE from last year when, twice within a month, Verizon delayed in accomplishing repairs to my phone line.

I was understandably fed up with Verizon and having a mini-meltdown from the frustration of being cut off from the outside world and sitting here in my house day after day as I waited for the Verizon repairman to come. Finally, one the second of the two cutoffs from service within a month's time, Mr. AOW spliced the line and dared Verizon to complain. Verizon didn't complain. After all, hell hath no fury like a blogger disconnected from the worldwide web, and the Verizon technician noticed that fact, likely because of the expression of rage on my face and in my voice.

Last week, an elderly man in Vienna, Virginia had a negative experience with Verizon, and the story made all the local news stations as well as coverage in the newspapers here in the D.C. area. He won't be having any more such negative experiences:

A 79-year-old Vienna man who was fed up with his Verizon service died after trying to stop a technician's van from pulling out of his driveway.

The man, identified by neighbors as William Cornelius, fell after grabbing the steering wheel of the van late Wednesday afternoon and died hours later at a hospital, police said.

[...]

Cornelius was upset and followed the technician to his van. Cornelius "continued to express his dissatisfaction and tried to block the technician's van from leaving his driveway," said Vienna police spokesman Bill Murray.

The technician got inside his van. Cornelius moved out of the way, and the technician began to drive away, according to police.

That was when Cornelius "reached in through the van window and grabbed the steering wheel," Murray said. Cornelius fell to the ground. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

[...]

"I bet this Verizon situation is the straw that broke the camel's back," [a neighbor] said....

Read the entire article HERE.

Mr. Cornelius clearly acted foolishly, and other factors contributed to his actions, including the death of his wife and struggling with his disabled daughter's care. But I have to say that I completely understand his frustration. Verizon has the habit of telling customers that the repairman will come on a certain date. Many times, the repairman doesn't show, comes some ten days after the customer's request for service, and sometimes doesn't even accomplish the repair. In my own case, one repairman did reconnect the telephone line but disconnected my DSL line! I had to wait several more days to get Internet service restored.

Most of us realize that the days of good customer service ended quite a long time ago. That realization, however, doesn't always prevent or ameliorate one's frustration. Feel free to vent your frustrations about today's customer service in the comments section.