Verizon Fios

Finally, I spoke to a customer service representative who said, "I can help." She was going to give me $50 credit for this month and a $50 credit for next month to make up for the $100 gift card and if I signed up for Autopay I would receive another $5.00 off every month. I received a $50 credit the first bill. I never received the $50 nor the $5 for autopay. I spoke with 2 customer service representatives and 1 supervisor who was NASTY and was told I would not get the $50 credit and as far as the autopay if I wanted the $5.00 credit every month, I would have to give up my promotion for a free DVR for life. Very dissatisfied with Verizon. Promise you one thing and you get another.

After 4hrs on the phone they told me Tuesday. Yes Tuesday. Today is Sat 4/7/18 so of course that was unacceptable since I had service until their rep told me to unplug it after 4 hrs and speaking to Jeremy in the escalated complaint dept. I got Monday. They have no concern that I work from home and now can’t work. They don’t care that it was their fault I have no service. They don’t care. This is a company that’s just too big that they can knock out my service and make me Wait almost 3 days to fix it. I can’t see keeping Fios after this. A sorry excuse for. Major company with terrible customer service and worse tech support. NYC needs to rid themselves of this company or us as consumers need to move on. It's the only way to get them to at least act like they care.

Now Fios is charging a fee that is not my fault because I cancel the arrangement and paid before the arrangement. The point why try to charge me twice. Not fair at all. I wouldn’t recommend Fios to family and friends. Also, they didn’t want to adjust the fee probably because I had renew my contract with them. If my contract was about to be over trust me they work with you, so the person could be stuck in a whole new contract. And then what they do is treat you like nonvalue customer!!!

So I paid the final bill and cancellation fee 350 dollars to Verizon knowing that they would put it on my credit report but after I paid the final bill three months later they sent me a bill from a collection agency for another 35. Keep in mind I never pay anything late and have great credit. I will pay the 35 dollars even though I don’t know what it’s for but the least I can do is write these crooks a bad review. They got me and ruined three days of my kids life. I see bankruptcies in their future.

On 12/30/17, I spoke with a 4th customer service rep who advised that the order was showing as “pending,” which is why it had not gone through. He said he would correct it. About 15 minutes later, I lost TV and Internet service. I called Verizon back and was transferred to what I assume was tech support. The lady I spoke with told me, after speaking with a technician, that when I placed my order, it should have never gone through. She said it should have “triggered” a technician coming out to replace the ONT (Optical Network Terminal – a big circuit board in a box on the rear of my house) prior to the order being completed.

I told her that I had spoken with 4 different customer service reps about my order/bill not being correct, and none of them said anything about this. She said that they should have known it, and that everyone she has spoken to in customer service was aware of it. She said they couldn’t restart my service until the ONT got replaced. The earliest a technician could come out was Monday, January 1st, 2018, so I scheduled an appointment for that day.

Later that afternoon (12/30/17), I received an e-mail on my cell phone from Verizon titled “Review My Order.” After entering my zip code and clicking on the link it said, “The order you are trying to preview is canceled (PA02).” - see attached screenshot titled "Order Cancelled." Also, the 4th customer service rep called me back to see if my service had been restored. When I told him it had not, and that it stopped because the ONT was supposed to have been replaced before the order went through, he was shocked. He said he had never heard of this and sounded incredulous. It seems like the only employees who knew this were the technicians. Not even the people in support who answered my calls knew this, until they had spoken with a technician.

I called Verizon back and spoke with someone else in support about the order supposedly being canceled. He said my order went through on 12/27/17 (not 12/30/17). This contradicts what the 4th customer service rep told me. At first, he said he wasn’t seeing anything that should have stopped my TV and Internet from working, and he’d try to restart my service. After speaking with a technician, he said that my order shouldn’t have gone through until the ONT was replaced. He said he couldn’t restart my service with the existing ONT. So, I had no TV and Internet the entire New Year’s weekend. Also, my home phone wouldn’t work because I have a VOIP phone service, but not Verizon’s.

On January 1st, the technician arrived late, at 3:15 PM. I was told that he’d be at my house between noon and 2 PM. He asked me why I was having the ONT replaced because his records show that I have the newest one. Another piece of contradictory information. At one point when he thought it was repaired, he told me to turn on a TV. I did but got no reception. He kept doing stuff on his tablet and ended up speaking with someone and said there appeared to still be a problem with the order. He finally got my service restored but it took about 5 hours to do so.

The technician had to install a new AC power supply for the ONT because my existing AC power supply/battery backup unit wouldn’t work with the new ONT (even though he said he had the same power supply/battery backup unit and a new ONT). He had to install a new cable from the ONT to the new power supply. Where the wires connected to a harness hanging out of the new AC power supply, they were exposed - see attached images titled Verizon ONT PSU. I asked him if there was some way he could cover it up. I was worried about something catching the wires and pulling them out of the harness. He said he didn’t have anything to cover it up and the harness wouldn’t fit inside the power supply unit. I expressed my dissatisfaction with the installation, and told him it was sloppy, or unprofessional, or something to that effect.

AND TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, after all of the errors made, and incorrect and contradictory information I was given, the first bill I received in January was incorrect. It was for $161.16, or $4.17 higher than what it should have been and I had to call Verizon to have it corrected. The reason for the $4.17 increase was listed as losing a discount for a speed upgrade - see attached screenshot titled "Second Incorrect Bill." The only problem is, I had had never requested a speed upgrade. So, how could I lose a discount for something that I never had in the first place?

I hope someone from Verizon reads this. Verizon has gotten so big, that their internal communications are abysmal and the customers are the ones who suffer as a result. I have specific dates and times of when I called, who I spoke with and what they told me. I just didn’t put all of that information in this review. TV and Internet service with Verizon has been great. I think I’ve had only one outage in the 11 years. However, Verizon should change the name of what they call “customer service,” because it is practically non-existent.

I insisted on getting a better explanation, I was asked to buy their newer router for additional $10 a month. Again, I rejected this suggestion. All I was asking for is to get the same quality of service I got when I first signed up. The c. support person said she will transfer me to tech and guess what, I was on hold for 90 minutes + until I just decided to hang up. This is a warning to potential customers, please be wise when choosing your service provider. My experience with Verizon can be summed up as this: They are very nice to new customers but once they get you, they don't care about providing your quality service anymore.

The next day no technician in sight, no calls from Verizon to let me know why the technician was not here as promised. At 12 noon I decided to call again to find the status of the repair, the customer service representative inform me that the crew was scheduled to do three other services before coming to my home. Finally after 3 PM two technicians showed up with two trucks each with a lift. My internet was fixed later that day however they never used their trucks they just used a simple ladder. So clearly my service could've been reestablished 24 hours before however the technicians involved were not able, not willing, not had the desire to my connection.

I need reliable internet for my work as I'm a Real Estate Broker, internet to me is us much important as the same as to have transportation, or cell phone. I can understand the wind threw many power lines and that is why it took so much time to respond, I can understand many hundreds or thousand were without power. I cannot understand the unwillingness, the incompetence or the bad blood of the three technicians involved to keep me 24 hours without the service. My concern is that you really know how a company performs is when there is a problem, during my 2 years Verizon has collected my monthly service fee however when is time to provide solutions when a problem arises Verizon lacks of customer support, their technicians lack of training. Very disappointed.

Lo and behold, she told me I could agree to another contract agreement for another 2 years to decrease my rate. I explained I already went through this and I was uncomfortable agreeing to another contract as they couldn't honor the first agreement we had. Other than agreeing to another 2 year agreement, the customer service representative stated there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to the supervisor and he again tried to convince me to agree to a 2 year contract and stated other than signing a 2 year contract, there was nothing he could do.

Anyway last night I returned from vacation only to find that I had no internet, television, or landline service. So I called 1-800-VERIZON. I encourage anyone that is thinking of installing FIOS to call 1-800-VERIZON. Actually if you look on the WEB you will find several phone numbers for FIOS support. It doesn’t matter which number you call you will be connected to the same maddening automated system. Speaking to this automated agent is about as pleasant as drinking a glass of napalm.

Seems that the FIOS system understands that people don’t like being put on hold for long periods of time. So the system tries to resolve your problem. After establishing who you are the system prompts: “Do you need technical support”; “Is this for your home or business”; “What is the zip code of your location”; “OK I’ll transfer you to someone who can assist you”. So you expect a real person to answer – no such luck. A new automated system takes over offering a series of mundane commands – “Power – on/off the system”; “Reboot the router”; “OK we’ll run a test – looks like your system is working fine – power off the system and in 10 minutes you will be fine – have a good night and thank you for calling FIOS support” Clink – Oh really?

So I try a different FIOS support number and I get the same result. After a few more cycles I have lost it and start yelling at the ‘voice’ “AGENT AGENT AGENT – and this does seem to work. Next thing I hear is: “We are experiencing very long call wait times. We encourage you to go to the Verizon web site for help – thank you for calling Verizon”. Clink. Now enraged I call again and this time I’m not so nice to the voice. After several vulgar shrieks I finally hear: “Thank you. Your call is important to us. I’m sorry, but due to heavy call volume all of our technicians are busy at the moment, but please stay on the line. Your call will be answered shortly". Generic muffled music interspersed with countless attempts to sell you something. Can you imagine being happy about being put on hold?

Fifty five minutes later I get to speak with one of Verizon’s four service technician. Jamie was a very nice man from India the Mecca of technical support personnel. Did you ever notice that Verizon salespeople are never from India? This is because Verizon wants you to have a pleasant experience while they are trying to sell you something that you don’t need which happens every time you call Verizon for whatever reason you happen to call. “Hello this is Paul and my television set is spewing white foam” – “Thank you for calling Verizon, after reviewing your service contract we are entitled by the rules established at the Geneva Convention to inform you that we can reduce the amount of your monthly bill by $1.15 – all you have to do is agree to a 12 year contract extension.

I will go ahead and have you start savings immediately and you’ll surely want to sign up for our Premium Technical Support which is only $14.95 per month. This is the service required to address your white foam issue”. First thing Jamie ask me to go find the large white box that is probably outside my house. So at 9 PM on a cold snowy evening I finally locate this box on the side of the house which happen to be bolted shut. Jamie asks me to get a wrench and remove the bolts so that he can step me through the simple fix.

When I explained to him that I had no intention of removing these bolts he instructed me to go inside the garage where I would find another white box on the wall opposite the outside box. I located this box. When I informed him that none of the four LED lights on the outside of this box were on he told me that this is impossible unless that box is not plugged in. He told me to check to make sure that the box is plugged it. There was no plug. This box is hard wired into circuit breaker box. He wanted me to disconnect the wire from the circuit breaker. I explained that I was plagued with electrophobia, and that I own heavy rubber gloves that I use when I change the batteries on my flashlight.

I told him he was nuts if he thought that I was going to mess with the circuit box. Jamie then he told me that he would not be able to help me if I was unwilling to do any of these small tasks. I suppose had I obliged that the next instruction would have had me at the top of pole on the street which is a task that my acrophobia would have prevented me from performing. Finally, nearly 2 hours after I first called FIOS Jamie told me that serviceman would be at my house in three days but that I may be charged $300 if I was somehow responsible for the box with the LED not receiving power. The RCN guy is coming in four days!

I chatted for about an hour and a half and was assured that this was because this time "they were going to get it right" and someone would get back to me within 24 to 48 hours. I got a phone call the following day, missed the call, but immediately returned the call to the number that called me, twice, and have yet to get a response. Below is the confirmation number that was given to me during Facebook chat. But I had been given other numbers by other reps, I don't think they mean anything.

January 4th the installer arrived to install my system, just to tell me that Verizon/Fios (unlike Comcast) had to drill a hole in my walls from the outside to bring in the cables. Yet I told him that I already have drops installed, he then stated that Verizon/Fios being fiber driven, had to be ran in by him and then I would be set. Now, this guy runs the cable into my garage and stops. Then he brought in the cable boxes to install, just to tell me that now the system will not work because they can’t use my data drops... And that I need phone drops installed… Even though he told me that once he ran Verizon/Fios cable in, that I would be set. Then he tells me that Verizon/Fios doesn’t run cable through the house like Comcast so that it was up to me to get a drop installed. What pisses me off is that no one bother to tell me this until after he drilled holes in my wall to the garage.

So then the installer, gives me his number and tells me that he will get back with me after he speaks with his manager about the issue. Three day goes by and I hears nothing from him. So I called him and he doesn’t answers nor returns my messages. So now I get on the phone with Verizon and they starts transferring me from person to person for about an hour. So finally I get to speak with a manager. Who tells me that because I had to go through all these changes, that he will give me HBO for 12 months free. Yet when I get my bill I see that I’m being charged for it.

Now, the second installer arrives and still doesn’t know how to connect the phone system for me to have tripper play. He then also states that he will get with his manager and get back with me, still haven’t heard from him either. So now I’m back at the front office where the manager they set me up with this mess to get him to help me out with this. He then gets on the phone with Verizon and get placed on hold for more than an hour…

Finally someone answers the phone and tells him that a manager will be calling me on Wednesday to made an appointment to come out to assist the issue for themselves. Wednesday afternoon and one of their operators call me just to ask me if I wanted to speak with a manager… Come now, wasn’t the manager suppose to have been calling me, so why am I being ask that? If you are still with me at this point, it doesn’t matter what your thoughts are of me, because I’m just trying to share my experience with Comcast, so that other will not have to go through this. Btw… Nothing has been corrected, nor have I heard anything from any manager from Comcast cable department.

Updated on 03/05/2018: This review is a follow up to the one placed a few days ago... Verizon just had a machine call me to work out an issue that a manager were suppose to come out to check up on. The machine called me and told me I needed to call Verizon to check up on my account, but when I called into Verizon using the number given, it connected me with someone in India and god knows they didn't understand what was happening. So I called the manager at the 7645 Arundel Mills Blvd, Hanover Md 21076 location and he just got pissed at me for asking him to help me with this issue.

So as of right now Verizon Fios have shown me that they have no contention of helping me and Verizon billing department stated that once I cancel my services that there will be a early disconnect fee. Again, please I know Comcast's customer service is just as bad...but please if you do not have Verizon...do not get these people, because you will not be pleased at all.

I called and demanded they fix her lifeline issues. It took me three calls that would be six in total. They owe her credit and still bill her so she can see what charges apply for the credit. Guess what? It went from $52 to $153! They also added requested service nobody ordered. If anyone of us little people did that we'd be in the news and in jail! As for my problem I was told I had best internet when installed a year ago. Now a rep told me, "Nope that's old" and it would cost me $150 to upgrade! My bill is $62 but they bill me $142. When I call they say I get billed a month ahead! WHAT?

Then to add salt to that wound they charge late fees for me refusing to pay ahead! I will be leaving them soon guess who my only choice is? My friend in New Mexico is also dealing with them and he told me in the last two week (unresolved) he spent a total of a day and a half with no solution. It's always about them ripping people off and it's blatant. We have to start fighting together and put a stop to this NOW!

If I wanted to watch the shows our family used to then it would be more money. We also kept losing our internet (better service-ha) and they needed to come and change the box outside. It was confirmed for a Saturday, I left work early that day (losing out on 2 hours pay) and they never showed up! Our service appointment was accidentally cancelled out of their system. Bait and switch company. You will be disappointed with Verizon.

Finally got a service date again. Hopefully the problem will be fixed. In addition a few months I was offered a "deal" to include SHO and HBO which I signed up for. Each subsequent bill is higher than I was promised and no one can explain clearly why so. I happen to watch those channels a lot so I'm paying a small fortune to Verizon. I am also a stockholder and right now very angry and upset with Verizon. I wish Comcast was available where I currently live but it is not.