Oh you will. Installation was the most competent part of my Fios installation. Trying to get them to bill you correctly is like asking a retard to do quantum physics.

That's some awesome note-taking. I bet Bill rocked in college.

I see a photo credit but no photo?

I'm in the process of switching from t-1s at all of my business locations (13) to fios where it is available, and it has been an unholy pain in the ass. I really feel for Bill here. On both of the installs I've done so far, the tech has shown up the first, and second scheduled times, climbed the pole, and told me "nope, can't install today, noone did the pre-work on the pole".

If I wasn't saving 900 dollars a month with FIOS over a T-1, I wouldn't even consider it, but unfortunately I'm in a crack.

Hopefully it'll get better, but I doubt it.

My girlfriend had FIOS for a few months. She would spend 20 minutes navigating thru the automated phone system to try and get a real person. When she did get a real person, they could never find her account. She would have to spend the next 30 minutes telling them that she did infact, have an account with them. They would tell her that they'd fix the account problem to no avail. She finally cancelled her service and they were relutant to waive the early termination fee until she brought up all the times she called them. FIOS customer service is horrible.

Maybe I should do a EECB so I can get FIOS in Madison, Wisconsin!

@TheFuzz53: We had an amazing installation guy. Definitely renewed our dwindling faith in Verizon. That said, we had similar shenanigans during installation. Explaining to a rep that "we need to get this sorted out now - I've taken the day off, and I earn hourly wages. Staying home has cost me a lot of money, and it was Verizon's error that the installation didn't happen. How can we find a reasonable solution?" That approach got me some amazing people who bent over backwards to make sure I got an installation the SAME DAY after the scheduled installation was canceled. I had to stay on the phone and make a lot of calls, but it was well worth it.

Despite their customer service being terrible, the installation (when it was finally done) I got was light years better than Comcast. They did a professional, very clean installation. Billing sucks--but the product is so far superior to cable-more channels, better picture quality, better equipment, better Internet, that the problems are worth it.

Oh jeez, a whole 9 days... pity you... I took off 6 days over a 1 year period, and over 50 calls, and had to wait even longer for new Fiber to be approved by the county because I was just outside of the end of the light on the first cable...

Maybe the headline should read "When 9 Phone Call Can't Get Your FiOS Installed, Support a Company That Actually Wants Your Business."

I'm just as guilty of this as anyone, but how long as a country are we going to allow companies to hold us hostage like this? Ultimately, Verizon is going to get the business in this case - pretty much the only thing they care about. If people (myself included) would take a stand and say, "Fine, you don't want to do this install on the schedule you agreed to? I'll find another company to support!"

It's tough in a lot of these situations with cable and internet not having a lot of options, but...it's never going to get better until these business lose something tangible to them (like revenue).

How is FIOS for anyone that has it?

Wow, only 9 phone calls is pretty good service considering he counted ones where he didn't talk to anyone.

Trying to get my broken business phone line fixed, I got disconnected or transferred to a nonexistent extension at least a dozen times.

@JMB: The problem is finding a good alternative...

@alexawesome: I wish I had your experience. Long story short of my Verizon experience, they sent the box with the modem and wires and stuff, but the modem was missing. Took me almost three weeks to get them to actually send the modem. Had connection issues the entire time even though my computer was wired in to the router. Turned out to be a bad modem. They had to send another one. Speed would fluctuate from normal to sub-56k modem speeds. Calls were always 45-60 minutes on hold each time I called. Not a single person I called could help or offered any kind of help other than their script, except for one guy who told me exactly what to say to the person to get a manager on the line. He transferred me, and the woman refused to get a manager when I asked.

Finally, we moved and when I called to move our service with us, they told me it would be two months before they could activate service in our new house. So I told them to cancel everything. I went with Comcast, who has been AWESOME. They have long hold times too, but instead of making you wait on the phone, they give you the option to keep your place in line and have them call you back when you're up. it's so awesome, you don't have to sit with the phone to your ear for an hour. Plus they've always met their appointment times within the two hour window they say. And everyone I've called (all three times I've had to) they've been really friendly and casual, even deviating from the script to have an actual conversation.

Anyway that's my rant for the day.

@JMB: I think that's an important question...Bill says that Verizon exceeded expectations in the end, but is that because our expectations are so low? Should it really take CEO intervention to have employees show up on the day they've agreed to? (And for porting phone numbers, that takes minutes on a cell phone, so I don't know why it wouldn't be equally easy on a land line, unless I'm missing something huge.

@JMB: I agree, but a lot of us are in markets that are quite monopolistic.

I hate Comcast, but if I want dependable Internet access I have to use their service. At&t DSL has been horrible in the past and for the price I can pay, Comcast is my only choice.

is there a link to the story which had all of the Verizon contacts listed? I might be needing them myself in the next few days.

@TheFuzz53: "Installation was the most competent part of my Fios installation."

I agree. Those guys know what they're doing, at least around where I live.

"[redacted] was original order that nobody could find originally. We now have to cancel this order so I can place a 3RD order which will be a duplicate of the 2nd order."

I laughed so much at that statement...

@ Braff is Thad Longlove:

Absolutely fantastic. Comcast an only dream of giving me such strong, reliable service. Always connected, all the time, no disruptions, and what's more I GET the speed I pay for. Or better. I once got almost 20 Mbps paying for the 15 Mbps plan.

They're an absolute pain in the arse to deal with most of the time though. I did jump in with my FIOS service right when Fairpoint took it over from Verizon, so I will cut them a small margin of slack.

It sounds like i'm the only FIOS customer in the world to have a GOOD install experience. I call up at the end of February and sign up, they ask when's a good time for ME for an install appointment and agree to come out on a SATURDAY, between 8-12 I think it was, and sure enough they were here at 8am sharp adn did an excellent job. Tech really knew his stuff. A few days before the guys had done the prepole setup work without even telling me they would be coming. I had a slightly issue with the service interfering with out TVs- they promptly came back twice in 2 days (again, on a weekend) to fix it, no charge.

@jdhuck: @Stoli: I agree 100% in this case. There isn't a lot of alternative in this case. I think there are certainly other cases where consumers in general continue to try and give money to a company that clearly doesn't want it. Until that behavior stops...I guess the Consumerist will continue to have posts.

@Braff is Thad Longlove: CRAP, CRAP, CRAP. We had it for 3 months - internet, phone, and cable. On ZERO, let me repeat, ZERO days did all 3 work for the entire day. Dozens of phone calls to Verizon, 3 techs to our house, and hundreds of hours on the phone with them, I'm so happy to be rid of them (minus still fighting about a bill that they admit I don't owe, yet they keep sending despite "fixing it" in the system). Two months into Comcast, and I have not one complaint.

My town was one of the first to get FIOS as a test back in 2006. I too tried to get FIOS, and here's my result:

10/29/06
tried to order fios via web; website having problems, please try via telephone
Ordered via telephone

11/12/06
received telephone call with checklist of what to have ready for the installers the next day.

11/13/06
verizon technicians arrived to install, but there was no drop performed.
They checked, and the contractors never received the order to build the drop.
I pointed out sink-holes in front yard, and circular hole in driveway from when they had run fiber through my neighborhoos.
Technicians told me that they would be in contact w/in one week

12/03/06
e-mailed to find status of order
got automated reply that I would be e-mailed w/in 1 business day.
never received response

12/10/06
e-mailed to find status of order, asked that they call me at 503-XXX-XXXX,
never received response

12/11/06
Called to find status of order @ 5:58pm:
Answer
trying to get the drop built, ran into engineering problems.

Order: expect reply w/in 24hrs
ticket #ordr327251

Told rep about sink-holes and circular hole in driveway
Construction: expect reply by 11am 12/12
ticket #ordr327246
Notes still said:
Trying to get the drop done, ran into engineering problems.

12/12/06
Rep called to ask about sink hole

12/13/06
Arrived to find cone over hole in driveway, and white lines leading to the house.

12/14/06 Drop completed, fiber line wrapped around elec. meter on side of garage.

12/18/06
Robert from Verizon called re: e-mail I sent. He says all we're waiting for is technicians to do drop. Told him it was already done, and just need technicians to do install.

12/20/06
Sink hole filled with gravel, still have hole in driveway.

12/26/06
Christine w/ Michael's Communications called re: sink hole to see if completed to satisfaction.

12/26/06
Michael's Communications patched hole in driveway.

1/3/07
Called @ 3pm went through story w/ rep. He said he'd send this to spec. operations to light some fires; Said order was in jeopardy, and they would be calling me within one hour. He also said they would get it taken care of this evening.

1/10/07
Called to find out when the install would take place, rep told me that order had been cancelled. Asked if I'd like to re-order at new higher prices since the initial promotion was over.

Verizon: if you are reading this, you've lost a customer for life! I'll pay Comcast more money for better service any day.

@esd2020:

Wow, only 9 phone calls is pretty good service considering he counted ones where he didn't talk to anyone.

Sorry, but there is no excuse for a phone ringing for ten minutes without getting answered. I would most certainly count that as a call, because in addition to the calls where nobody was able to help him, the unanswered calls go to show that the customer service at Verizon is so broken that they can't even answer their phones.

I can say this should probably not be categorized as a success story. I went through nearly the exact same situation when I tried to sign up for Fios. It ended up in 5-6 months of hell trying to get it sorted out, ending up with me cancelling my service. The whole fiasco is still ongoing and I plan to have it posted here.

@poison7fl: Oh yeah!!! Well in my day we didn't have no fancy schmancy fiber optic cables!!! We had to carry the photons to and from the central office ourselves!!! Uphill, both ways, in the snow!!!

Needless to say, the connection was horrible.

:)

Whatever you do, don't argue with me in tech support. I can't do shit about it and if you threaten me with lawsuits and that you're not going to get off the phone until you get this resolved and blah blah, you might as well ask me to poop gold for you over the phone. Skip the shackled level one techs and go to the top if one or two phone calls don't work.

***Hopefully i won't have to do another EECB for my billing when i get my first bill!***

Hate to bear the bad news, but expect to have to write one for your 2nd and third bill too....

OK, look, I know I"m supposed to hate Verizon, but:

* VZ FiOS installers arrived early in the service window
* Said install was scheduled for SIX hours
* actual install took < two hours (big-ass condo bldg so no yard-digging needed)
* worked the first time w/20mbit service, even with a Mac (zOMG!)
* has not set my place on fire.

This of course does not discount the horror stories of other FiOS customers, but my business with them has been, so far, trauma-free.

One day, in the near future, people will wise up to the EECB and it will become a useless tool. It's like an antibiotic. Use it when you really have to.

Verizon blows. I moved in 2004 and signed up for DSL. It took me weeks to get my DSL installed because of lost orders and bad customer service. After several calls, a CSR called me a liar and I immediately canceled. I called Comcast, told them what happened and they sent an installer out immediately. I had Internet back within 90 minutes of canceling Verizon.

I was still a Verizon phone customer and it pained me to send them a check, but I had little choice. They kept hounding me about once a month to sign up for FIOS and I kept telling them 'no' and to make note that I was NOT interested in their services and asked them to stop calling. The CSR said that because I was a customer, they had every right to keep calling and the only way to make it stop was to switch my phone service from Verizon. So I did... She was the best Verizon CSR I ever had.