When I was thinking about what the topic of the first “Insights” blog post should be, my thoughts went to the businesses with which I’ve had good and bad experiences, and Verizon immediately popped into my mind.

Several months ago, a few Verizon representatives came to the building where I live to sign up residents for the company’s FiOS internet service. Finally! An alternative to Comcast’s Xfinity internet service! The sign-up event was on a Thursday evening, from 5-7pm, in the lobby, and staffed by four people: an experienced salesperson; a sales trainee; a local executive who, if I remember correctly, had come in case the iPad-using salespeople had tech issues that required her escalation to get the matter resolved quickly; and a guy whom I was told later was the event organizer.

The evening started out uneventfully. I arrived around 5pm and set about reviewing the promotional offers (free tablet or game console, plus a $50 coupon) and asking questions about the FiOS service. Then, slowly but surely, things started to take a turn for the worse.

I was excited that I didn’t have to be tethered to Xfinity anymore if I didn’t want to be, but I did have some reservations about Verizon FiOS, because my sister has it at her house and they have more internet outages than I do with Xfinity. When I mentioned this in separate conversations with the exec and the event organizer (whom I didn’t know wasn’t a salesperson at the time), both insisted that my sister couldn’t have FiOS because it so rarely has outages, and that she must have the old DSL service.

These same two people, in separate conversations and in one together with me, addressed my billing question this way: One said it was pre-pay, the other said it was post-pay, and each stood firm in their answer when I suggested that they needed to get their stories straight.

Now for the humdinger.

When the experienced sales rep sat down with me to do my FiOS order, he kept getting up to help with others’ questions, order form issues, iPad glitches, and the like, in order to keep the sales process moving along for them. According to him, only the two salespeople were able to put through sales orders, so he had to help the trainee. All well and good, but meanwhile, the process for my order had stalled. Not once but four times. Every time he went to help and then sat back down with me, we had to start over because some code had expired.

The fifth time, we made it to the credit check bit, but the sales guy hadn’t mentioned this to me earlier so that I could be prepared. Like many other people, I had locked all three of my credit reports year ago (to prevent unauthorized credit-related activity), so I had to return to my apartment to unlock my Experian account in order for Verizon to get proof of my credit-worthiness. That took about five minutes, and I returned to the lobby to finish my Verizon order.

Except they were all gone. The lobby was empty, save for the concierge. Yes. All four Verizon representatives had packed up their gear and left. I was shocked. I get that it was after 7pm now, but really? When I asked the concierge if they had left anything for me, he handed me one of the Verizon flyers with a phone number handwritten on it. I called it and the sales guy answered, saying they had an emergency and had to leave, and that he would return the next day to complete my order with me.

This, he did, and I left the lobby excited for the installation team to arrive a week later to set up the modem/router and activate my service. That excitement vanished within minutes.

In visiting the Verizon website to add details to my account, opt out of marketing emails, etc., I noticed an alert in red: It stated that I had to provide proof that I lived in my condo unit before my order could be completed. I texted the sales guy about this, he said he didn’t know why I got the alert but that I should go ahead and provide the proof. I didn’t.

Instead, I called Verizon customer service and asked the customer service rep (CSR) why this was on my account, as my order was complete. Not so, the CSR told me, as there was already an order for my address and unit number, so I had to provide a mortgage statement or some other accepted document to prove that I live in my own apartment in order to complete my order. I declined and told the CSR to cancel my order.

He transferred me to another CSR, who asked me why I was cancelling my order. I told her everything from start to finish, and she cancelled the order. The next business day, a Monday, I missed a call from someone at Verizon’s Chicago office, which handles sales and customer service issues, and returned it the next day. I related to the customer service executive everything that had happened, and she apologized, giving me the usual “this is not how we treat customers” line, and closed with the offer that, should I ever want to sign up for Verizon FiOS in the future, I could contact her directly, and she gave me her full name and direct phone number. I thanked her and hung up.

The likelihood that I will ever do business with Verizon: slim to none.

Don’t let this be the outcome of what could have been, dare I say, should have been, a straightforward business transaction with your company. It doesn’t matter whether yours is a small- or medium-sized business or a behemoth. The takeaway is the same: Do better than Verizon did.