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Verizon Sued After Tech Punches Customer In Face
suraj.sun writes "A Verizon customer filed a lawsuit after the tech the company sent out got a little punchy. Instead of fixing the customer's problem, the tech allegedly hit him in the face. The New York Post says the tech attacked the customer after he asked to see some ID before allowing access to the apartment. From the article, '"You want to know my name? Here's my name," Benjamin snarled, slapping his ID card into Isakson's face, according to Isakson's account of the December 2008 confrontation. "The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver. He said the pounding bloodied his face and broke his glasses. But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall. "He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of." The customer broke free and ran away. The Verizon tech then chased the customer until he was subdued by a neighbor who was an off-duty cop.'"
Exactly. Ive seen some really dumb thugs doing this kind of work. To say they lacked customer service skills is something of an understatement.
Recently, we upgraded my dad's directv service to HDTV and the guy they sent over was somewhat rude, but I didnt care as log as he got the job done. Turns out the job was harder than he thought so he said he was going to his van, left the dish in the snow, and never came back. Yep, he just said "fuck it" and went home. I doubt he got fired.
A little while after that I got Dish network at my place and was talking with the installer. I told him Ive put up dishes before at old places. He looked surprised. he said that they have guys with 5 weeks training that cant even up a dish.
5 WEEKS to mount and point a dish? Wow. These arent the brightest bulbs.
"WHo is in the picture? The tech or the allegdely attacked customer?"
That's what I was wondering. I'm looking at that photo thinking "why is that photo there? He can't be the tech, he looks mean as hell, like he just got out on parole, is that the customer?" Then I click to read the article and sure enough, that photo is the technician. If he showed up and said "I'm a Verizon Technician" I think I would have asked for ID too.
"Benjamin was arrested and charged with assault"
That's good. But FTFA....
"But prosecutors offered to dismiss the case if Benjamin agreed to stay out of trouble for six months -- despite assuring Isakson there would be no deal, Isakson alleged. "According to what I was told, there was an error by the DA's staff," Isakson said. "They're giving this guy carte blanche to do this every six months."'
Employee snaps and starts beating customers and gets a free pass? Wow, that's just wrong. And this is worse:
"Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company has "zero tolerance for any sort of unethical or illegal behavior" and noted Benjamin was not convicted of any crime. "In the months since this incident, his conduct has been blameless. As a result, we will not take further action," Young said."
W....T....F....? "Well he hasn't beat any other customers so we're not going to do anything" Verizon said. Are you frickin' kidding me? Not only did this guy get no jail or even a fine, but he kept his job?
Hey Verizon, are you hiring? Cuz apparently I have to kill at least 2 or more customers before I'd be fired.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Our DirecTV guy pointed the dish to full signal strength by eye. He could find the satellite by memory.
It also doesn't happen a lot here in Switzerland, where all the adult male natives have assault riffles and ammunition at home (in case the country gets invaded).
If the society is shit, banning guns is useless. Just ask the stabbed teenagers in the UK.
That said, I don't really want to own a weapon (other than my exquisite collection of kitchen knives).
Most of the problems the western world has (drugs, violence) are only symptoms of the decay of a society that has no direction, no leadership, no common consensus, no purpose other than monetary gains.
While societies need regulation, laws, the sheer existence of laws (and even strict enforcement) doesn't automatically make those societies safer per-se.
Politicians want to make us believe the opposite, though.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
An idiot? Really?
I let people in without asking for ID. If I'm expecting them to be there, then that's good enough. If I'm not, then I probably don't let them in at all. I see no risk in this. It's not like I'm going to call Comcast and then some criminal claiming to be from Comcast will just happen to show up at my door at the time when the real guy said he would be there.
I don't know who that other guy is, but here's a few... *wink*
*cracks nuckles*
First, the common mistakes:
You've got the classic case of fall/winter installations, where the tech doesn't take into account the fact that the dish they just installed is pointing through the branches of a (currently) leafless tree. Come spring, the customer calls in with no signal, and claims damage for holes in their wall, where they should not have been.
Technicians also seem to be fond of drilling holes into carpet, without cutting it first. This is especially fun with Berber, when the entire carpet is one long, braided strand. Yeah for whole-room carpet replacement!
Techs also don't always seem to check for a good line of sight when they should. I had many, many claims where a tech tried mounting the dish in 3, 4, 5, or more spots on a roof, without finding a good signal. That wouldn't be a problem, if they didn't drill holes each time...
Ok, some exceptional stories:
Technician finished a job, no problems, got in the van to leave, and backed through the customers fence.
Technician, weighing ~285lbs, stood on top of customer's washing machine while running cable. Dented the lid badly enough that it wouldn't open.
Technician, doing an installation at an apartment complex, removed 5 DirecTV dishes from the roof. Apparently he didn't realize that Dish's new customer wasn't the only person living there...
Technician, when grounding the system he had just installed, soldered the wire directly to the hot water pipe leading to a shower. It took the customer a month to figure out why they were feeling mild electric shocks when showering.
(And, just to prove customers can be bad, too, this one actually turned out to be the customer's fault...) A customer called in, extremely irate. He claimed that the tech, while installing a box in the master bedroom, went through his wife's underwear drawer, and then urinated in the bedroom. Of course, a claim was opened, the tech almost instantly lost his job, and it seemed that was that.
Well, doing due diligence, the facts of the situation came out. It turns out that the customer hadn't moved necessary furniture away from the walls, as is requested. So the tech, needing access to a coax outlet behind a dresser, opened the top drawer, in order to use the inside of the lid as a handle to pull the furniture out. Right then, the customer came in, assumed the tech was after panties, and pushed the tech into the corner, holding him by the neck and yelling. The tech, terrified, peed his pants.
I really should have blogged these when I still had that job, but I was worried about getting fired.
As well as the fact that the company said no one would be coming inside. How hard would it be for a thug to follow a service van, watch him pull up, see the unit # for the NIU he's working on, and then go to that door. KNOCK KNOCK. Let me in I'm with "insert name here". Customer knows tech should be there. Voila, door opened. Distract customer, or send him to another room, grab something valuable, and then make an excuse to go back to the van. You're in and out in about 2 minutes. I'd ID too. Regardless.