Day 12 of my new verizon/fios triple play package. After 12 days of calling customer service and being on hold/talking to rep. I STILL DONT' have a simple e-mail account or user I.D. You would think a major communication company could provide what every other internet provider can do in 15 minutes and not take 12 days. Verizon promised to call me back today with a fix. I have heard that before.

We had verizon Fios installed for telephone and internet only in the spring of 2009. Worked fine, no real compliants (except for an occasional loss of Internet connection, but no worse than we had had with Comcast).
Then we decided to add FiOS TV, some months later. Long story short, their billing practices are deceptive, thievery even. They advertised the TV service at a certain price, and indeed bill it at that price. But then they changed our previous price for Internet and telephone, effectively raising the price of the internet and telepnoen service. i feel as if I was punished becasue we voluntarily asked for more service from them. they refer to this practice as giving you a new "bundle" but what it means is, "We reserve the right to re-price whatever service you already have if you are so foolish as to ask for something more." So beware! My guaranteed fixed 2-year price for my first FiOS package lasted only a few months becasue of this.

In early September 2008, I was persuaded by the Verizon Sales and Service Center in Tysons Corner, Virginia to sign up for the "incredible fiber optic" Verizon FIOS package. I was assured that Verizon had great customer service, all I had to do was call. At the time I signed up, I was NOT told that my existing international long distance service with Sprint (but billed through Verizon) would be automatically terminated. This was the beginning of my nightmare with Verizon since.

First, installation did not take place on the promised date. I received a call the evening before to say that there was a screw-up on the installation because it was not properly scheduled. Installation was re-scheduled a couple of days later. But the installation was improperly done and the TV service malfunctioned for some days. A technician was sent again to fix the problem. The TV and internet has functioned well since then.

Second, a few days later, a Verizon service rep called me to say that they noticed that I had made two long distance calls overseas but I had no Verizon long distance plan. When I responded that I had the Sprint plan, they said that service was automaticall cancelled when I signed up for FIOS and I now had to sign up for the Verizon international long distance plan, otherwise I would be chraged a much higher rate. I informed the rep that I was not informaed of the cancellation. In any event, I immediately agreed to sign up for the Verizon international long distance plan. Then, over the next week, at least three different Veruizon reps called me again and again to report that I had no international long distance plan but I responded that I had already signed up for one a few days ago. The replies I got from all of them was thhat there was no record of my having done so! So, I signed up again more than once.

To make a long horror story short, in the next two billing cycles (October and November), I received an astronomical bill of about $1, 790, mainly consisting of very high charges (in the hundreds of dollars for each call) for my international calls. When we called to complain (more than once), we were told again that there was no record of our having signed up for Verizon's international long distance plan! In the meantime, to add insult to injury and inconveneince, our international long distance service was blocked by Verison for about six to seven weeks in spite of repeated complaints by phone to Verizon. It has taken me about 15-20 separate phone calls to Verizon, lasting hours at a time, to finally resolve the problem, during which Verizon finally admitted that there was a big internal billing screw-up for which it apologized and I was given a $999 credit. In the course of these repeated calls, I was constantly transferred from one rep to another and from one department to another (customer service, billing, FIOS, high toll, user verification, etc etc) with each one disclaimimng any responsibility for dealing with the problem or helping me to resolve it. I wasn't able to figure out whether this was a horror story with no ending, a clown show or circus, a deliberate cororate policy or strategy to confuse, confiound and frustrate the customer so he/she would go away, cruel and unusuual punishment, or a bad joke In fairness, I should add that a few reps (out of a total of about 20 I spoke to) were nice and helpful and I'd like to name them: Ms. Williams from Maryland, Ms. Shalida form Illinois and Ms. Shumpter.

On December 22, when the problem was resolved, I was promised that the block on my international service would be lifted immediately. But it was only lifted yesterday, January 5 (15 days later), after repeated calls again and again by me to Verizon to remind them to lift the block. I also asked for a revised bill explaining how the credit was calculated but I was told that I could not get that but that the credit (without any explanation) would be reflected in the next bill. So, how am I to know how the credit was calculated and whether it is correct or too low?

To sum up, signing up for the Verizon FIOS package was a HUGE MISTAKE on my part. I gullibly believed all the high fallutin sales talk (or bullshit) of the Verizon reps at the Tysons Corner, Virginia sales/service center. I don't belive that the sales reps in this office (proudly displaying badges proclaiming themselves as "FIOS specialists") have the slightest clue how horrible and disastrously unhelpful and dysfunctional their FIOS customer service is. When I visited the store last week to report my probelm, they pretended to assist me in the most nonchalant way and in my presence e-mailed the problem to the attention of their "Escalation Department." I was guarnateed a response and resolution of the problem in the next 24-48 hours durin which Verizon would call me. I did not receive the promised call nor was the problem resolved by them. It was resolved finally by me after I spoke to Ms. Shumpter on January 5.

To those who may be contemplating getting Verizon FIOS service, I would strongly recommend staying away from this company, which is so utterly dysfunctional and unhelpful. For all their hype and promises, Verizon's customer service is truly a nightmare to behold and experience.

HM, McLean, Virginia, January 6, 2009

BEWARE of ANY PROMISES from this company. I recently changed over from cable to FIOS and most every important detail is not disclosed or blatently lied. First, they said I could keep my email address which I guess i should know is not allowed. Second they said they would remove the other not usesless lines. The sales agent said this and a tech said this and they won't. Third, the give you a cheap router that broke within 5 days and sent out a dead replacement. They say they will call back and they do not do so. The installation was terrible. The technician will not go up into the attic and will basically drill holes through walls and wire on the outside. He does it in a way that is not even hidden as he cannot measure so instead of tightening up any slack, he just makes loops along the route. I suppose you can hand stuff from these 5" diameter loops but all other companies including the cable, satellite, and telephone have gone through efforts to hide the wires inside. The technicians appear to be unhappy and are probably minimum wage and it shows in there personal service and skills. Despite the size of the company THEY WILL TELL YOU ANYTHING TO SELL YOU THEIR PRODUCT AND RENEGE AFTER YOU'VE COMMITTED. THE PRODUCTS APPEAR TO BE SHODDY AND THE INSTALLATION AND SERVICE IS EXCEPTIONALLY POOR. EVERYTIME YOU CALL, YOU GET A QUEUE THAT ASKS THE SAME QUESTIONS AND TAKES ABOUT 5-10 MINUTES BEFORE THE OPTION OF TALKING TO A HUMAN. WHEN YOU DO, YOU GET INTO ANOTHER QUEUE THAT TAKES A LONG TIME. YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF A "CALL BACK" WHICH IS ANOTHER COMPUTERIZED CALL THAT PUTS YOU BACK INTO WHAT APPEARS TO BE THE SAME QUEUE. WHEN I TRIED IT, I WAS TOLD MY WAIT WAS 11 MINUTES. THEY OFFERED A CALL BACK IN 11 MINUTES SO WHEN I OPTED FOR THAT, I GOT A CALL BACK AND HAD TO WAIT AT LEAST 11 MINUTES BEFORE TALKING TO ANOTHER REPRESENTATIVE. THE REP ON THE PHONE ALSO PROMISES SERVICE BUT IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AS THEY STATE.

I would recommend any other than Verizon. Given the competition, it sound's like they take the "Promise them anything, but buyer beware attitude". if you expect the lowest level of service, the shoddiest crastmanship of installation, and the lowest level of customer support and you should be fine.