Verizon Sued After Tech Punches Customer In Face 493
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.'"
a slight over reaction .. :) (Score:2, Interesting)
I figure 'Aubrey Isakson' is exaggerating the damage as this did happen in the United States of I'll-Sue-Your-Ass-off-Man !! Like, I worked front-desk in a tourist hostel, who forgot to give a guest his wake-up call. He threatened to sue them for missing his flight, meeting etc. Get the fuck out of my hotel, man !!!
My experience with a tech who wanted in (Score:1, Interesting)
(I should have tacked this on to my other post...)
About 15 years ago I lived in an apartment in a generally good but transient urban area. One day while home from work, I heard a knock at the door, a muffled "maintenance" and someone start to key their way in.
I yelled "Who is it?" and grabbed my handgun and shoved it in the front of my jeans. The maintenance guy had stopped entering and said "maintenance" again. I grabbed the door and pulled it open and asked what he wanted. He was holding tools and said he needed to do some wiring for a new intercom.
At this point, he saw my gun and stepped back. I just turned around and walked back to the kitchen and said "Go ahead". He came and must have worked real fast, as he wasn't there more than 5 minutes. I suspect he just faked work and came back later when I was gone.
It was the last entry by maintenance I had in my apartment.
Re:This tech still has a job with Verizon (Score:2, Interesting)
The good is that maybe Verizon will think twice about keeping a psycho on their payroll. I think Verizon keeping this guy will show a court that they are not even attempting to weed out the bad actors on their payroll.
I figure the reality is that if this guy snapped once he will again. The next guy (or his relatives) will have a really good case when they sue Verizon. There will be no argument that this was an unforeseen probability.
I'm of the opinion that once an employee assaults a customer or another employee regardless of the circumstances, outside of self defense, he should be an ex-employee.
Re:And he's still running service! (Score:1, Interesting)
So, exactly what are you saying? The fact that he has previous acts of violence does weigh in his favor, in that there's no history of violence. Are you claiming that past performance is no indicator? Then you go and say that verizon isn't following a zero tolerance policy, but it seems like they're saying that violence has yet to be proven (there has been no conviction) and Verizon is doing nothing. What would you prefer, that Verizon fire the guy because of an unproven allegation? It seems to me that Verizon is waiting for the court to decide if any wrongdoing has occurred, rather than performing their own investigation; an argument could easily be made that Verizon should do their own investigation (and they probably will, before going to court). What would you have them do differently?
Re:Sigh (Score:3, Interesting)
What are you kidding? Getting the crap beat out of you vs dealing with Comcast? I'll take the beating any day.
The real pisser is, the guy probably deserved it, but other people at Verizon are going to have to fricking kiss his feet every time he needs something just because one tech lost his temper.
Re:Dude (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:So.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Dude (Score:5, Interesting)
Our DirecTV guy pointed the dish to full signal strength by eye. He could find the satellite by memory.
Re:My experience with a tech who wanted in (Score:3, Interesting)
Had a similar situation, but as we'd just been burglarized recently, I was a little more worried about who was on the other side of the door.
The maintenance guy saw our shotgun, but as I wasn't in a fire position, waited while I put it back up. Office management wasn't too thrilled and gave me a call, but one explanation and purchase receipt later, t'was all sympatico. At present, they don't come in 'less one of us is there, though, so it may've helped in that regard.
{For those who ask what it "helped", be glad you've never had a nosy landlord.}
Re:More to the Story? (Score:3, Interesting)
Would those crimes have happened if there had been an outlet for all that rage?
You mean like boxing [wikipedia.org], or MMA cagefights [wikipedia.org], or violent video games [wikipedia.org]?
Re:I'd much rather read this... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Why does he need ID? (Score:3, Interesting)
So, what do you do when the guy shows you his ID? Let him in? Or do you make a point of always noting down what the ID says, closing and locking the door, figuring out what the company's phone number is, then call them and verify that it is the correct person at your door?
If not - how do you know whether the ID is fake or not?
Re:So.... (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Dude (Score:5, Interesting)
*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.
Re:So.... (Score:4, Interesting)