NEW YORK, 5:27 AM, SAT JUL 19 | 19 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@consumerist.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

FiOS

insiders

4 Confessions Of A FiOS Support Agent

A FiOS Support Agent has kindly written in to share some insider tips to getting the most out of your FiOS support experience. Of particular interest: Make sure you know (and approve of) where they've buried your cable so you know wherenot to dig in your lawn! More »

frustrating

Verizon, It's Been 4 months, 16 days Since FiOS Was Installed. Where's My Free LCD TV?

Reader Chris had Verizon FiOS installed back in January, and like so many other Verizon customers, he's been unable to get the free LCD he was promised. Chris sent us a timeline of his struggles with Verizon. It's a long, frustrating read... More »

backlash

Verizon Infuriates Baseball Fans With "Misleading" Blog Post "Announcing" MLB Extra Innings On FiOS

Back in February of this year, Verizon posted the following message titled "MLB Coming to FiOS, Mom and Apple Pie Rejoice!" on their Policy Blog: More »

above and beyond

James At Verizon Fiber Solutions Center Deserves A Cold Beer

James at Verizon Fiber Solutions Center, this is The Consumerist calling to say that you deserve a beer. One of our readers shared with us a story about how you went above and beyond the call of duty to get his router fixed. You could have just left Jeff with "the tech should arrive," but instead you took a personal interest in Jeff's case and got his problem solved. You rule. Jeff's story, inside... More »

denials

Verizon: Cancel Vonage And Cablevision Phone Lines Or You Can't Have FiOS

Here's an odd little letter. For once a customer was actually pleased with the salesperson that came to their door and convinced them to try FiOS. Yay! The trouble came when the nice salesperson called in and Verizon refused to activate the account unless the customer canceled their phone lines with Vonage and Cablevision and switched all three to Verizon. More »

advertising

Verizon Sues Time Warner Cable Over "Egregiously False" Advertising

Verizon has had enough of Time Warner Cable making fun of their fiber intake and has sued the cable company, claiming that their advertising is "egregiously false" and is causing "immediate and irreparable harm" to Verizon. More »

customer service

Verizon CSR: My FiOS Bill Is Always Wrong, Too

The Tampa Bay Tribune has a fascinating article about the sales-centric culture at Verizon's customer service call centers. The CSRs are given large bonuses (sometimes thousands of dollars) for selling services to people who call in looking to correct their bills. More »

telephony

Union To Protest Verizon Ignoring Its Copper Phone Lines

Florida Verizon workers are going to picket Verizon HQ on Monday because, in their quest to lay down the fiber, the union says Verizon is neglecting the copper, reports DSL reports.

"Verizon is not letting us do our jobs, and not letting us take care of the customer," said Doug Sellers, president of the union that represents Verizon call center and repair workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 824. "Customers are waiting up to 10 days to get their phone lines fixed ... If you have something as simple as static on your line, that could be out 10 to 15 days.
Customer complaints have gone up, and union workers says preventative maintenance has been largely forgotten about in some places, an accusation supported by the findings of several state public utilities commissioners. Are you a Verizon landline customer? Have you noticed things getting worse? Let us know in the comments.

Union Protests Verizon's Neglect Of Copper: Focusing resources on FiOS comes with a cost [DSL Reports]
(Photo: Getty)


cable

Comcast Degrades HD Quality To Make Room For More Channels


When you order Hi-Def TV, you expect it to be on the shining Excalibur level, but it looks like Comcast is degrading the quality of some HD channels in order to make room for more channels. To test this theory out, Avsforum member bfdtv recorded the same shows from the same channel at the same time on both Comcast Hi-Def and Fios TV. The left is the FiOs. The right is the Comcast. As you can see, the Comcast signal looks like crap. The forum thread has more screenshots, a signal analysis, and some source videos. So far the Comcast channels receiving extra compression are: Discovery Channel, SciFi, USA, Food, NatGeo, UHD, A&E, HGTV, Starz, Cinemax, HBO, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater, and History HD.

Comcast HD Quality Reduction: Details, Screenshots [AVSforum] (Thanks to thedave!)


complaints

FiOS Is Great, If Verizon Ever Manages To Actually Install It

Ben is getting some crappy customer service from Verizon in attempting to get FiOS installed. His phone is disconnected, they made a half-assed install, don't show up for installs, don't call, oh, and he still doens't have FiOS. He writes:
To file amongst other I hate Verizon articles. Typing and summarizing while on hold with Verizon for approximately the 8th time...
More »

corrections

Customers Will Get FiOS Optical All The Way To Their Apartments, Verizon Plans

The AP made a major correction to a Verizon FiOS story we posted about yesterday. In that story, Verizon's head of FiOS stuff for apartments said that Verizon wouldn't be able to run optical cable up to all the apartments in two Manhattan apartment complexes and would use coaxial for the last leg. Verizon said not all apartments have the specs needed to install a necessary wall-mounted box. After the story came out, Verizon now says that it does plan to run optical to all the way up apartments that order FiOS. You may have to give up your medicine cabinent, but hey, you're blazing with the speed of FiOS, baby!

Correction: Verizon-FiOS Story [AP]
(Photo: Dana Spiegel)


fios

Not All Verizon FiOS Customers Will Get 100% Fiber

CORRECTION: Customers Will Get FiOS Optical All The Way To Their Apartments, Verizon Plans

Interesting news for apartment dwellers everywhere: Verizon is slowly creeping into Manhattan, but the difficulties of bringing FiOS to apartments will mean that some subscribers won't get 100% fiber.

More »

marketing

On The Radio, FiOS Free TV Promotion Changed To Free Gift Cards

Further distancing itself from its problematic free TV promotion (which for some customer has so far been lacking in free TVs), a reader in the Bronx reports that Verizon FiOS triple-play bundle ads on the radio are now offering $200 gift cards for Circuit City. As previously noted, the TV ads are now touting free Samsung digital cameras.

marketing

Verizon Changes "Free LCD TV " Promotion To "Free Digital Camcorder" Promotion

As a followup to the people who complained about not getting their free TV from the FiOS triple play promotion, I saw that they changed their commercials. Instead of advertising a free Sharp 19-inch LCD HDTV, they're now saying that you'll get a free digital camcorder when you order your triple-play bundle. They must really be having problem fulfilling those orders. According to sometimes broken Verizon PolicyBlog, every one who qualified for a TV will get one, you just have to have patience and give Verizon a break; their TV-giving division just isn't as advanced as their money-taking division.

fios

Verizon Responds To Angry Customers Who Have Not Received Their Free LCD TVs

Verizon has posted a Q&A that tries to address some of the concerns their customers were having over an LCD TV promotion that's gone awry. More »

fios

Verizon FiOS "Free LCD TV" Promotion Resulting In A Lot Of Angry Customers

Reader Mary says that she ordered Verizon FiOS during the "free LCD TV" promotion they were running, but she still hasn't received the letter she needs in order to start the rebate process. More »

errors

When Someone With Your 15 Year Old Disconnected Phone Number Orders FiOS, You Get The Bill

Reader Joan once had a phone number. 15 years ago, she disconnected it. Now she's being charged for someone else's FiOS and she's not happy about it. For the past 6 months she has called Verizon to ask that the error be fixed and each month she's been told that the stranger's FiOS has been removed from her bill and that she'll be credited for the error. It hasn't actually happened yet. More »

complaints

55 Support Tickets Later And Your Verizon FiOS TV Service Still Doesn't Work

Andrew writes: "I had been a satisfied customer of Verizon for several years - I have had phone service with them since the days of Bell Atlantic and have had their fiber-optic internet service (FiOS) since March 2005. In March 2007, I decided to switch cable providers and signed up for Verizon's FiOS TV service as it was cheaper than Comcast and supposedly provided superior picture quality. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for." More »