I learned alot the past few months about cable companies. To sum it all up, Verizon sucks, and I will never use their service again, and customer service departments are worthless.

I switched to Verizon because they promised a lower monthly fee than my original service provider. A note to the wise…Before you switch cable companies, call the billing department of your current provider and tell them you want to cancel the service and they immediately lower the price to get you to stay. I talked to the service department and they told me they couldn’t lower the price, and that I should switch cable companies. (I was in shock) But when I talked to billing / disconnect department, they gave me a better deal. You have to have the right person on the phone to get the right information.

So I switched to Verizon, a very costly mistake. We don’t have Fios in our area so we had to get direct TV. In my opinion, Verizon teaming up with Direct TV was an ingenious scam on their part.

As soon as you order Verizon, Direct TV comes out to install the dish. Once the dish is installed you can’t cancel the Direct TV service for 2 years. If you do, it costs you ~$20 per month for every month left in the 2 year contract. If you just got the service you have 2 years left (24 months x $20 / month = $480). I found that out the hard way as it was never really explained to me.

Verizon loves being with Direct TV because most customers won’t break the contract because of the penalty. I ended up getting such a good deal to go back to my original service provider that it was a wash. This was in part because Verizon doesn’t tell you the actual price (with the additional $25 in taxes that they add on every month).

But Verizon has a 30 day money back guarantee…or so they told me. Another note…Customer service will tell you alot of things that the billing department does not agree with. Be aware.

We got the direct TV right away, but it took a month to get the phone and internet service installed. Not sure why. I called to verify that the 30 day money back guarantee didn’t start until all services were active. This was confirmed (on a recorded conversation) by the customer service department.

Ok, got my bases covered, right? WRONG. We ended up canceling the service 20 days after it started. We were still getting billed though. We called to dispute the charges since we cancelled within 30 days. First they told us there was no 30 day money back guarantee.

Then we called again, and they said that their policy is that if you had services, they need to charge you for them. I said, we had a 30 day money back guarantee. Then they went another route…

They looked at the account and saw that we complained about the internet service (before we cancelled). So they said they could eliminate the charge for the internet, since we complained about it, but since we didn’t complain about the phone, they have to charge us for it.

I said that we bought the service as a package, how are you now going to delineate services??? They said it was their policy. I told them they need to get their customer service on the same page as the billing department so that the customers understand the terms of service…they hung up on me.

So in the end, I am stuck with a $70 bill for less than a month of telephone service…incredible!! How does a telephone line for less than a month cost $70??? The triple play was only supposed to be $80 per month.
There seems to be nothing that I can do since they already contacted a bill collector and sent me a notice. So my credit rating will be affected. I have never missed paying a bill, ever and now because of Verizon, and their unreal charges, my credit score will probably be affected.

First of all I have spent at least 4 hours every month to talk to so many people to simply get the promotion (you have to fight to get credits that they promised you). After almost 5 months I still can’t get the prie I was promised. You got nothing else to do except sit ans argue with bunch of ignorant people GET VERIZON.

Second…Their TV channel line up sucks. Trust me go with people who know TV better (that would be Comcast–I hate myslef to promote them). You won’t get half the sport channels in HD because you have to pay additional $6/month for that. You won’t even get NFL highlights of the week (comcast does it–real sweet).

Their FIOS Internet service is good I have to admit and that was the other reason I switched but take my advise…don’t get TV or telephone from them. I get a phone bill charging me $7/min to international destinations while I was not even in the country…Go figure that. I’m now stuck with $600 bill and an address in DC to write and complain.

I swear I’m not getting paid to do this. I just know you will hate becoming a Verizon. Their customer service sucks and you will be on the phone for hours being transfered from one department to another talking to some ignorant people.

Being a network Engineer, take my advise; get TV from Comcast, Internet (fios if available in your neigbourhood) from Verizon and Use Vonage (you can get it for $9.99/month if you puch them)giving you unlimted calling in US, CANADA and several countries in Europe, and you can take their modem anywhere in the world, connect to highspeed internet and you have a phone line as if you were in your own home.

Don’t get fooled by this promotion crap from either Verizon or Comcast. Long live educated consumer.

After 10 more weeks I still had not received the tv as promised. I called the customer service again and they said that I should have had the tv shipped to me and they did not know why they had failed to send it to me. The verizon rep said he would call me back after he investigated the situation further. 2 hours later he called me back and said I did not have the service installed within the time period required to qualify for the promotional offer. After picking my jaw up from the floor I told the verizon rep that I had no control over when it could be installed because they actually scheduled and did the installation!!!! I then asked him where was this information that said the installation had to be completed by a certain date? (ok, everybody get ready for this) He replied ” it was in the fine print”. When I asked why would you do that he replied “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have that information. I asked for a supervisor to have my tv sent as they promised and they refused. I am disgusted with they way I have been treated by this company after having paid them thousands of dollars over the years for their mobile and home phone service. My advice to everyone considering any promotional offer with them is don’t trust them. All they care about is getting your money no matter what it takes even if it means deceiving you in the process.

Both Direct TV and Verizon are staffed by idiots who could care less about customer satisfaction. Moreover they are two slick companies that are purposefully incompetent so that they can actually steal your money. (And the US wonders why we are in economic turmoil.)

Don’t believe a word Verizon and Direct TV say about Triple Play. It’s triple screw the customer!!!

1. The company Verizon contracted with to provide these gifts (Harte-Hanks) has cut them (Verizon reps) off effective less than a month ago in this sense: They used to be able to call Harte Hanks a month ago and ascertain delivery status of the gift. Their phone number is now disabled and redirects the caller to a Verizon customer service rep. The main channel of customer service has no direct resource to determine a delivery date of a customer. Supervisors also do NOT have direct access to this information, so it is almost always essentially useless to ask for one for this situation. It is a public utility, and some resolutions that have been offered were violations of the states’ tariffs. For example: Giving $200 in credit on a bill. That will no longer happen, even with an executive complaint from Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO. Verizon is not tariffed to provide credit for misquoting customers a free gift. I am personally working on creating a resolution that will work as a compromise for those who will not receive their gift, but please have more patience while that is fought for. I am spending countless hours researching and fighting this problem. You deserve what you were promised.

2. On that note, there are indications in these posts that people are referring to outside agencies (Public utilities commissions and better business bureau)… when you file a complaint with these entities, it is referred directly to an executive level, and from there it is referred directly to reps that work in the same call center you started communications with. Starting recently, even these executive complaints are going to lead to the same conclusion as calling in: Your point of contact is not going to have direct access to the information you’re trying to obtain. The only thing you would accomplish is receiving an offer for a call back, and a direct line to their voicemail where you can leave a message (or several) and be waiting for a response when that person has the time to check their voicemail messages.

3. If your information was sent to this contracted company Harte-Hanks, you might not get your gift until November. They had such an overwhelming response from Verizon to deliver these televisions that a couple things happened: After January 1, you were not guaranteed the Sharp Aquos. Regardless of whether the rep promised a sharp or not (If I knew why people said the things they said, or did they things they did, I’d be in a different business than I am), After Jan 1 It might be a Zenith, might be a Viewsonic, etc. As of right now, Harte-Hanks is quoting a 7 to 11 week delivery timeframe. No lie….

4. If Verizon has not sent your information to this company already, you are out of luck. You won’t receive a TV, or a best buy gift card, or an RCA small wonder camcorder, or a Flip Video digital video camera; regardless of whether the services you signed up for qualify you for this promotion. This is one of my main concerns…I am working long extra hours to convince my contacts to help lobby an approval for a replacement (or consolation, if you will) gift.

If you were promised this promotion and at this point have not received your gift, here are the steps I recommend you take. Call Verizon’s customer service number, found on your bill or Verizon’s website. Ask for billing and make sure you enter your home phone number into the automated system so it will get you to a FiOS agent. Ask the agent who answers if they are in the department “Encore”, or ask to be transferred to there. Then, ask the Encore rep to check the database for your account information. If they do not have the database on their workstation, they can easily find someone who does.

*If you are in the Database, You are on the right track. Harte-Hanks is prepared to honor the promotion that Verizon promised you. Request that the rep forward this information to inquire about delivery status. The rep will be notified and is more than empowered to call you back with details. Please keep in mind that Verizon is not authorized to issue credit toward the billing for an unreasonable delivery time, due to a lack of state tariffs allowing the credit. If you pursue this with the state utilities commission, they will refer your complaint to the call center and someone will call you and advise you that they cannot issue any credit.

*If you are not in the database, I’d ask, “What did Verizon do to disqualify my account?” Even though the answer you will receive will not be reasonable, (You signed up for 5/2 instead of 15/2.. I dont care what internet speed I had, you told me I’d get this TV. I’m stuck in a contract for 2 years). Please do not argue that Verizon did not meet their end of the bargain:

A) Calls are recorded randomly, each rep has 2 random calls per day recorded for TRAINING purposes only. It is useless to request a recorded conversation you have had with Verizon over the phone.

B) The terms of service for a FiOS bundle, which is the agreement Verizon is held accountable for, has no mention of a free gift, so please do not ask to have the early termination fee waived as an argument that we did not meet our end of the agreement. Trust me when I say, if people you speak to had the option to waive or credit this fee, several people would be receiving a $199 credit on their account. The reality is that the 2-year contract is for providing the services themselves (Freedom Essentials, FiOS Internet, and FiOS TV Premier). The terms of service for the fios bundle can be found here:
http://www2.verizon.net/policies/tos_output.asp?version=bundle

P.S. If you are in Oregon and were promised this promotion for signing up for FiOS Triple Play, sorry…Verizon could not get approval from the state to offer this promotion to you, and therefore Verizon made a mistake mentioning this promotion. If you saw this promotion on Verizon’s website, it’s because Verizon was giving general information and you did not enter your address or phone number to make sure you qualified for the service.

Another thing to point out is that Verizon had system issues on and around the time of the new year, preventing reps from being able to add the qualifying bundle discounts to accounts. Reps were relied upon to follow these accounts and subsequently add the discounts when a fix was in place, but many lost track of the accounts being followed, and thus disqualified the account from the promotion.

My bottom line: I know this is Verizon’s fault. They chose a company that is on the bottom of the marketing food chain to provide a sweetener to sign up for their services for 2 years. They need to be held accountable for their employees promising a free gift to people who sign up for these services in a 2 year contract.

I want to help you. If you are still pursuing resolution for this promotion, please feel free to email me and I will do everything I can do to ensure that you get results.

youdodeserveit@gmail.com

Thank you for your time

January installation 8am-12 no show ,reschedule next available mid february.Call and verify free tv is still obtainable.Verizon rep Ater 30 minute wait)Oh yes it has been extended until March due to overwhelming interest in Maryland states rep.

After many calls,no letter,can’t my supposed password to work on Verizon web site.June 6th Rep, states ourorder had never been processed in the dept thta award a tv.She submits offer and info.

Several calls in July to follow up ..Rep states “will be shipped in several weeks”

August 1st…Call again speak with someone in the billing dept I recieve a letter

Verizon has over charged you on your bill…You will recieve a creidt on the next bill (have spent nurmous hours since Jan trying to get bill corrected ) No matter how you add it up it’s not only different evwery month.. Charges are way over the 109.00 a month.

Now the real kicker I ask about my FREE TV ..6differnt people later and a 2.5 hr phone call..The marketing Dept tells me ” You didnt get the 12 mgb something internet service so you are not eligable for the TV. HA I;m not a computer specialist and told the girl your technican should disclosed this at the time of installation..Your company is not being honest..THE LINE IS QUIET she transfers me to a Customer Service Rep again (ith some long title) that is just a fancy name for a supervisor..I’m on hold again..20 minutes later..She states
You are not eligable because you already had Verizon Phone Servise !

That was the final straw…I explained the are full of deception and misleading…
and the only Customer Service they provided was they could speak proper English. I had read some where some consumers are asking Comcast etc to
pay verizon $199 the disconection fee and they would go back to Comcast immed.
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Verizon CAN YOU HEAR THIS>> When I can,I will disconnect ALL yur products ,

HOME PHONE,TV,INTERNERT and our family has 4 Cell phones thru Verizon WIRELESS

Kelly