Dave says he was lured in by the promise of a low rate when he switched from Cablevision to Verizon FIOS, but the bills have been much higher than expected and when he called to complain he was told the promotion he signed up for didn’t fit anything Verizon offers.
He writes:
I recently signed up for the Verizon FiOS TV, internet and phone bundle for a discounted rate of $67 per month for the fist 6 months and $97 per month for months 7-24. I had heard that Verizon adds on a lot of taxes and fees so I inquired as to what I would actually be paying. I was assured that the price I was quoted was after taxes and fees. So you can imagine that I was very excited to be getting such a good deal. I was told that I was receiving said deal because I was switching over from Cablevision’s Optimum Triple play deal ($99 a month after taxes and fees for phone, internet and TV).Needless to say, when I received my first bill estimate of $150, I was quite shocked. I immediately got on the phone with Verizon customer service and was told that since its just an estimate my discounts were not applied yet, and it is impossible to see the discounts until the service is activated (and I am locked into their contract).
So the installation comes and goes, everything is going well, I am very happy with the service… and then I get my first bill. $151. I once again immediately call Verizon’s customer service where I am told the reason my bill is so high is because it is for 1 and 1/2 months. So she breaks down the bill with me and we get an approximate monthly bill of $115. Well above what I was quoted and higher than what I was paying for Cablevision. She then informed me that the numbers I was quoted do not fit any promotion that they offer. (I had just received a flier a few days prior quoting $69 for the first 6 months and $99 for 7-24. After taxes and fees). After some discussion, (I admit, I got a little angry and for that I do feel bad) it is decided that my case will be submitted for review and I will hear back from them.
The next day I received an automated voicemail from a [redacted] informing me that if I have any issues please email. So I sent my story over to [redacted] and received a confirmation email that my issue is being assigned to one of her assistants.
After about a week of phone tag, I finally made contact with what turned out to be the presidential escalated service line (908-717-3115), where once again I was told that no such deal exists and the best they can do is give me a discount (down to $111 a month) for the first 6 months and inform whoever created my order’s supervisor that they made a mistake and should be reprimanded.
So now I’m locked into a 2 year contract paying a price I did not agree on. In a few months when the 6 month promotion ends I will be paying even more. If I try and cancel I will be charged a $365 ETF. Do you have any advice on what to do? Its a shame, because I really do enjoy the product.
Sounds like just cause for an EECB. Any other suggestions on how Dave can get out of this nasty contract?
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I still can’t understand how these types of bills vary from month to month. The service cost doesn’t change, the tax rate doesn’t change. Why do the fees vary every month?
Can’t say I have much to complain about with FIOS. I signed up for their triple play service at a Verizon Wireless store. When the year’s promotional period ran out, I sent them an e-mail basically saying that if they wanted to keep me, they would give me the same deal as a new subscriber. They wrote back and said “yes” and I’m good for another year. I’m sure the fact that I had all three services and was also a Verizon Wireless customer had something to do with it.
You’re not “locked into” shi anything. Also, you’re entitled to be as verbally abusive with their reps as you’d like to be to vent.
You don’t owe them anything, you’re not “locked in” no matter what some idiot phone sales rep tries to tell you. If you didn’t agree to the price they’re quoting then, while they can claim all day long you owe them an ETF, you don’t.
If they try and send you to collections, it’s a fraudulent debt. You can make some good money off of any attempts for them to collect this fraudulent debt.
Also, keep your flier handy (or print out a copy of that flyer posted earlier) and, like the others say, call the BBB, your state AG, and local news outlets. This could be a lot of fun for you making Verizon eat their words.
The EECB bs may work, but I really don’t like the idea of pleading with Verizon to fix their own screwups. They should be apologizing and fixing, not stonewalling you and acting like you owe them something for their bad work.
If the OP told a Verizon agent to sign him up, and he suddenly is signed up on that basis, without any physical papers being signed, then the deal is exactly what he agreed on with the agent.
See, under contract law, you can’t just call J. Random Employee at Verizon and make a deal. For example, the Janitor is an employee of Verizon, but lacks power to make deals on the company’s behalf.
But if you can say (verbally) “Sign me up for N deal please!” to a Verizon employee on the phone, and the contract just sortof happens without you needing to sign any physical paperwork, then you dealt with an Agent, not a random employee. If you did sign paperwork, then whatever is written on the papers comprises the deal and contract. Without a physical signing of paperwork, any verbal agreement between Customer and Agent is binding on both parties. If a contract exists, and no papers were signed, then it is the one the OP agreed to with the agent, not the “standard deal” they are trying to push on him after the fact.
If the employee the OP spoke to was not an agent of Verizon, and no papers were signed, then there can be no contract, just like making a verbal agreement with a janitor results in no contract. Verizon is, of course, free to reject the verbal agreement, but their providing the agreed-upon service indicates they did accept the verbal agreement.
In other words, if the guy who promised the OP a great deal was an agent, then he owes $67. If the guy who made the promise on Verizon’s behalf was not an agent, then Verizon has given the OP a month of uncontracted service, for the agreed upon price of… $67. Either way, unless an ETF was verbally agreed upon (and the Verizon side of the agreement was made by an agent), there can be no penalty fee for terminating the deal early, contract or not.
But see… when random Verizon employee gives me an order number and a installation date, it tells me that they are capable of making deals. I doubt janitors have the ability to generate order numbers.
I did have to verbally agree to the price over the phone, and verbally agree to the ETF. Though I never signed any piece of paper stating my rates. I didn’t even have sign anything when they did the installation.
I can only relate my own experience. I signed on to Verizon’s special for 24 months (at the same rate). My bill was somewhat higher because of the usual taxes and whore fees, but was close to what was stated. I was told I have this rate for 24 months, I will wait and see if it changes after 12 months. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised.
I’s switching back to Cablevision this week. I had nothing with problems with Verizion FiOS. The billing is the worse. One month I didn’t get charged for TV and the next month I get charged 3 months for TV. The prices changes every month. Cablevision called me two days ago offered me 85.93 with tax for the triple pay for two years, with two boxes and DVR free for one year. My wife can’t wait to go back. The position the channels are in on Verizon FiOS make no sense and you have to tune to a different set of channels to get HD. Cablevision changed that a few months ago, so when you go to channel 2 you get the HD version if you have an HDTV hooked up, no surfing two sets of channels. Plus I didn’t realize I missed News 12 until the last storm hit. News 12 Traffic and Weather is awesome too. All FiOS has is some Widget that is a pain to navigate and takes forever to get what I want.
Plus Cablevision will reimburse me for the ETF (Early Termination Fee)
I got a similar screwing… added a channel to my lineup, and now that I want to drop phone service from my triple play package, they say it is a $330 ETF This is after asking during the recording period if I would be charged an ETF if I dropped my phone service. Verizon is a bunch of fraudsters