The three big telecommunication service providers in the U.S. are intensifying their efforts to stay competitive. However, these attempts often lead to pressure falling on the employees to meet unrealistic goals and, at times, get involved in practices that are otherwise considered shady. Even though T-Mobile has been ambitiously working on transitioning its operations to a self-service model and bringing more enticing deals for its customers, it has in the past called a bad name on itself for taking actions that do not sit well with its users. Now, Verizon is said to have earned a reputation for taking an aggressive approach toward customers who challenge its practices, suggesting it does not take well to accountability.
Verizon's hostile reactions to customer complaints filed with government agencies hint at a personal vendetta against regulation
In the past, T-Mobile has been called out for subtly preventing customers from taking any regulatory action against it. Its contract clauses are laid out in a way that users are trapped and cannot sue the carrier if it decides to raise prices. Customers often resort to community forums to share their frustrations with other users and make them aware of the ongoing practices. T-Mobile quietly discourages legal actions, but Verizon is not making an effort to conceal its hostile reaction to external complaints. The company considers any action against it as an intolerable offense.
A customer is said to have shed some light on some rather dubious activities going on in the company, and about the carrier maintaining a secret internal blacklist that is aimed at targeting users who file a complaint with the company via PhoneArena. As per the information shared by the customer, they reached out to the Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia's Consumer Mediation Program, and due to this course of action, were put on the blacklist. The agency did reach out to Verizon for an official explanation of the retaliation and lack of transparency regarding how the company treats its customers.
The customer further went on the state that the consequences of the complaint were not limited to being barred from its services, but even went as far as damaging the user's credit report by making an old, already settled debt appear again, a tactic called re-aging to ruin someone's credit score and make it almost impossible to get approved for loans or even credit cards. The list is not visible to the public and is then used to show hostility to any report made to the external authorities.
Verizon, in its defense, responded by saying that the account in question was already in collections when the customer decided to pay it off, and it did not do anything illegal, but followed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) which does not allow companies to remove negative history of someone's credit report just because they paid off the debt. Nonetheless, Verizon could have shown more leniency instead of taking harsh measures that could have caused lasting damage.
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