Take your FiOS and shove it! Fun with Verizon.

The BBQ Pit
1

Backstory: We live in an area where it is possible to get Verizon’s FiOS fiber optic internet access. We have their basic DSL and are happy with it. For the past two years they’ve been cramming FiOS down our throats and the throats of everyone in our area. Every bill came with a FiOS add. There were daily mailings. One ad even came in a very important looking FedEx envelope. There were frequent phone calls. Then they sent around a door to door sales person who rang the bell which made the dog bark waking the baby who woke the toddler and all was misery for the rest of the day. I called Verizon and had them put a block on our account which specifies that they are not to pester us with FiOS adds. (I was tickled that they could do that - it work, the adds stopped.)

On Monday, I moved four miles north of my old (small starter) house into a new (big, 200yr old) house. Over a week before the move, my husband called Verizon to have our phone and DSL service changed. For some reason, this initial request took 45 minutes, what with the third party verification, ritual goat sacrifice, etc. New phone service was supposed to be on at the new address on the 7th. It was disconnected at the old address on the 9th (but was supposed to be on until the 11th).

At the new house, there is no service. I call Verizon on the 11th. Thank you for calling Verizon your complete entertainment provider protection of your privacy is our responsibility my name is whatever how can I help you today? I am shuttled around to six different people over about an hour. Each time I tell them that we have no landline service. Each time they put me on hold. Each time they come back, tell me there’s a problem (but won’t say what) that they can’t fix, and they dump me to another person. Lather, rinse, repeat. The fifth person finally tells me that the change of address order had us moving from our old address to our old address. Sounds simple to me - change the address, put the order back in correctly. Oh, but this person is not a FiOS (fiber optic) person. We live in a FiOS service area, we must have the address changed by a FiOS person, oh and by the way aren’t we so lucky to have the option of FiOS? cue transfer

The final FiOS person puts the order in, promises the phone will be hooked up on the 13th, sorry for the delay, yes it was our problem, and do I want to switch my DSL to FiOS? No? Am I sure? Okay. The DSL will be hooked up in about a week.
Here’s an 800 number to call the FiOS people if we have any trouble.

On the 13th, we had no phone service. And my 17month old gave the cellphone a drink of water. The cell phone was not thirsty. I run to the Verizon store and get a new one (was due to anyway).

On the 14th I called Verizon. I call the 800 number. Oh, we can’t help you. Let me transfer you to our 24hr Fiber Optic Service center. Hello! Do I want FiOS?
No, I want a landline. Oh, but we sell FiOS! Let me transfer you to the people who just transfered you to me!
I didn’t let her. I made her stop the sales pitch and listen to the problem. She got another person on the line who assured me that the order was completed on the 13th and therefore we have phone service. The only problem is that we don’t. Are we sure? Yes, we checked. Oh! You didn’t tell me you checked! (what, we just assumed we had no dialtone?) Well the order says it was completed yesterday, so you will have phone service by 5:00 today. Here’s a number to call in case you don’t. Oh, and do I want FiOS? No? Am I sure?

Guess what? No phone by 5:00. I call the number, it shows the order is complete. Go figure. There must be something wrong, can we send someone to your house Saturday? I ask for Friday instead. That’s fine. Someone will be out sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. And we’d better hope the problem is not in the house. (It’s not in the house because my father installs phone systems for a living and just inspected everything on the inside and my husband has been testing the line from the box on the house and there is no dialtone.) Would we like to order FiOS?

Damnit, Verizon! All I want is a goat felching landline! I do NOT WANT FIOS!
I do NOT want to be transfered to someone else! I do NOT want to spend another hour playing customer service roulette! People move every day, how the hell hard can it be?!
And while you’re at it, take the nauseating cute kid commercials with the asshole FiOS guy and his truck and his “three spectrums of light” and cram them up your collective assholes.

2

They are pushing it awfully hard, aren’t they?

Oh, well. They put FIOS in my neighborhood, and they offered it to me for the same price as my DSL. I took it. I can’t tell the difference, really, but then again, I’m paying the same price, so meh.

3

Geez, that is amazingly crappy service.

Since they’re moving at a snail’s pace anyway, have you considered writing a letter and mailing it via snail mail? At the current rate, that may actually get things done faster.

4

So when are you getting the FiOS?

5

By the way, would you be interested in FIOS?
We are running a special.

6

So why don’t you want FiOS? This is a serious question actually. All the reviews I’ve read of the service say it’s pretty good, and my own experience with it has been good too. If following the path of least resistance gets you provisioned with a service which is competitively priced and is good service, I’m not seeing why you wouldn’t take it. Not that it excuses their screwups, and I’m sure you have your reasons, but I’m curious as to what they are.

For me, when they first launched my neighborhood(about two and a half years ago) and blanketed us with marketing I didn’t take it because I didn’t want to change my email address. Kind of sad that. I paid ~$58 a month for 4Mb/Sec(theoretical, I actually got more like 2.4Mb/Sec) to the cable company when 5Mb/Sec(tests at 4.5 Mb/Sec) would have been ~$39 with FiOS. It was my local cable company being bought out by Time Warner and them deciding they were going to convert my address anyway which got me off my butt. I could have saved myself a lot of money if I had converted a year and a half before I did.

Enjoy,
Steven

7

The first reason I don’t want FiOS is because I’m paying $15/mo (works out to about $17 with fees and whatnot) for their slowest DSL service (can’t remember the actual speed offhand). Believe it or not, this is completely fast enough for our needs. Especially considering the computer itself is not top of the line anymore. To me, it’s not worth any added money per month for speed. I need the money for insulation. Lots and lots of insulation. (see 200yr old fixer-upper above)

The second reason is that now it is a matter of sticking to my guns. The ratbastard advertising cretins will NOT break me down! (I recognize this is a silly reason, which is why it’s the 2nd reason)

All I really want is my landline back. It’s 12:44 here and the tech has yet to show up. My at-home spouse is frustrated - there’s a lot of things he could be doing other than waiting for the Verizon tech to show up. Anyone want to place bets on if/when it’ll happen? :slight_smile:

8

But when you look at it in terms of the cost per bit, it’s amazingly inexpensive! Wouldn’t you like to sign up for FIOS now?

9

So no service person came on the 15th. Surprise surprise. I called them at 4:00 and they promised to contact “dispatch” and have them call our cell phone to tell when someone would be out. When no phone call and no person was forthcoming at 7:00 p.m. I called again. Was told, “Oh. That’s a missed service call. We’ll send someone out tomorrow before noon.”

The following day, no one came before noon. I called at 12:02. The helpful customer sercive person suggested I had grounds for a complaint with the public utilities commission due to two “missed” service calls. Dispatch was supposd to call us before 2:00 to let us know why no one came. Dispatch did not call. A serice tech showed up at 2:45 and after about half an hour of work and changing “a couple of wires that were definitely an outside line problem” we have a landline.

I had an illuminating conversation with the service technician:
The only reason I had to deal with FiOS customer service reps was so they could push FiOS service on me.
The reason they’re pushing FiOS is because they’re supposed to have 70% of my area signed up for FiOS service this year, and they’re only at 11%.
They’re only at 11% because no one wants to pay $24 more per month for marginally better service.
The customer service reps are required to keep their calls under 3 min 11 seconds. They will hang up on people to make this quota if necessary.
What’s better is the 411 customer service people are required to handle 55 calls per hour.
The technician also does repairs for DSL service and is required to call in from the customer’s house using the same 800 # the rest of us plebians use and wait in the que like everyone else.

Moral of the story: Verizon blows goats and I’m glad I don’t work for them.

10

Why are you using them at all? Is there no alternative service provider you could be using?

11

Probably not for a landline. Local infrastructure is owned by either an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier(ILEC) or a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier(CLEC). The ILECs are mostly fragments of AT&T, which was broken up in the mid 80’s. Each has their operating territories. In theory they’re supposed to provide other companies access to the infrastructure(much of which was built, and is still maintained, with tax subsidies) at cost so they can compete with the ILECs to provide service to consumers. The reality is far different.

Much more is available at that site. It’s a bit dated(from a study performed in 2001), but much of it still applies today.

Enjoy,
Steven

12

I think I see your problem. Yup, if you read your bill carefully you will see you are dealing with Verizon. You even have cell service with them (that has gotta hurt.)

If you can get cable television with high speed internet access, damm the cost and do it. Sign up with Vonage, and have the pleasure of telling the phone company to go fuck themselves.

I hate the way most cable companies are run, but it is not even close to the burning disgust and contempt in which I hold Verizon, AT&T, and the other ILECs. AT&T is offering their tv/internet service in my area, and I told the door-to-door salesman I would not sign up with them even if they ran a feed of porn directly to my brain.

13

Just FYI, Solfy, you wern’t talking to Verizon at all that whole time. You were dealing with Teleperformance Inc. I knew that exactly when you mentioned the 3 minute, 11 second AHT. They can exceed that by up to six minutes, but only on a completed sale. Sorry that you had to go through all that crap, though. Did you get any of the actual agent’s names (full names, preferably.) I’d like to foreward your experience to the Verizon project manager (it makes everyone in the center look bad, even if I’m on the BellSouth DSL project.)

14

The 3min 11sec time I was quoted was from the Verizon technician who kindly visited my out of the goodness of his heart on Saturday.
In the interest of brevity and my blood pressure, I’m not even going to go into the shouting match and accompanying FiOS sales pitch that happened yesterday when I made sure I wasn’t paying for service during the 9 days it was shut off. I also won’t mention how our DSL isn’t schedule to be back on until 6/28/07, an entire three weeks from when the service was shut off.

Unfortunately I did not get agent’s names as I got bounced around so many of them I quit keeping track. I really wish I had gotten the name of the smarmy son of a bitch I had to deal with yesterday, though. You are welcome to relate my experience if you’d like - I believe my e-mail’s in my profile if you want to e-mail me for “real” identifying info.

I did as suggested by the customer service rep on Saturday and filed a complaint with the PUC. An agent from the PUC contacted me today and said they’ll be in touch, and that Verizon is required to let you know that you can file a complaint in instances like this. Interesting. And really kind of sad.

15

Good for you. The PUC is one of the main ways we, as a representative government, keep tabs on the few remaining legal monopolies. They’re required to tell you about the complaint avenues because they’re allowed to dip into your pocket to offset their costs. Check your phone bill sometime for “regulatory charges.” Those are basically the operating and infrastructure costs the government allows the phone company to pass on to you. Think of how much you’ve paid in those charges over the years and realize that what you get for that money is the trade off of Verizon being made to comply with the dictates of the PUC.

Enjoy,
Steven

16

You can take your post here, add your addresses and other identifying details, and send it to your local Public Utilities Commission, and you might want to copy the FCC and some local officials. If nothing else, it will make Verizon bend over backwards to get your problem fixed.

More broadly, it will help to keep the phone companies honest perhaps help others avoid this crap.

17

I ditched Verizon in favor of Time-Warner Cable - for both internet and phone service - months ago, and I’m very, very happy.

18

Well at least our preferred call time is now 14 minutes. The issue this customer has to deal with sucks, but what we have to deal with sucks too. You would not believe some of the customers we have to deal with for the pay we get. Yes, Teleperformance handles Fios’ technical support, and we do the best we can with the tools we’ve got. Teleperformance will hire anybody that can read and is breathing, so of course they have a high turn over and a lack of knowledgable staff. I doubt any of you would last a week dealing with the exceptionally rude customers that we have to handle daily. I see new agents crying because some awful, mean-spirited customer screamed, not politely complained to. SCREAMED at for over an hour. It wasn’t the agent’s fault, but does anyone care? No. The customer needs to vent, and who gets to take that abuse? We do. No we can’t give you our last names, nor the state we’re working out of, and that is for our safety. You can ask for an agent number, and that is all you need to reference us if the call escalates. It kills me how people demand-not ask-a supervisor, thinking that the supervisor will get them better, faster results. Tech. support is there for problem resolution and trouble shooting, supervisors are only there for administrative purposes. I don’t know about any of you, but I’m a lot more inclined to help you and treat you kindly when you are polite. Yes I understand that you are frustrated, and it is our job to help you to fix a problem, but if you treat me badly, don’t expect me to do anything for you beyond what I absolutely have to, and to hurry you off the phone if you’re being a jerk.

19

I actually ditched TWC for FIOS.

My GAWD I hated TWC.

20

Really? Do you also handle 2nd-level tech support as well, or is that in-house?

That’s pretty messed-up. No wonder customers are pissed-off. Internet tech support needs to be in-house, especially 2nd-level tech. It also needs to be well-paid, so that employees stay long enough to actually know what they are doing.

Sorry 'bout the soapbox.:slight_smile: