When it comes to online privacy, many consumers assume that their service provider, or the websites they are browsing, have the users’ best interest in mind and that these companies won’t simply hand over your information to authorities. These people are mistaken, as are those who believe that no online companies make user privacy a priority. The truth, as usual, is a bit from column A and a bit from column B. [More]
Graphic: Which Internet Biggies Are Even Slightly Concerned About Your Privacy?
By May 20, 2013
Verizon Accidentally Gives Customer’s Number To Someone Else, Charges Her $50/Month For Its Mistake
By May 13, 2013
One day, a Verizon landline customer in New Jersey found that her phone was no longer working because the number she’d had for 35 years had somehow been given to someone else. To make things worse, even after it was obvious that Verizon was responsible for the mistake, the company said the customer now had to pay an additional $50/month for its screw-up. [More]
BitTorrent Users Try, Unsuccessfully, To Trigger Copyright Alert System
By April 29, 2013
The recently launched Copyright Alert System — a joint venture between big-time content creators and the major Internet service providers — is supposed to trigger a series of alerts and warnings when a subscriber of a participating ISP appears to be illegally sharing copyrighted content. But some who put CAS to the test say they were able to share several items without being flagged. [More]
The $30 SIM Replacement Fee: When A Verizon Store Isn’t A Verizon Store
By April 2, 2013
It was a really exciting time for reader Poochie’s wife. She was getting an iPhone 5. Yaaay! Once everything was set up in her brand-new phone, though, the SIM card failed. No problem: Poochie pulled out his own phone and asked his trusty friend Siri where to find the nearest Verizon store. That store wanted $30 to replace the SIM of a phone that was just out of the box and under warranty. If that seems unreasonable, that’s because… it is. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 1: AT&T Vs. Verizon
March 27, 2013
It’s the final day of Round One play in the Worst Company In America Thunderdome, so why not start it off with a showdown between the two largest — and most-hated — telecom titans around! [More]
Verizon FiOS Wants The Fees It Pays Tied To How Many People Actually Watch A Channel
By March 18, 2013
Seems like ever since Cablevision sued Viacom over its process of bundling less popular channels in with the ones people actually want, things have heating up in the pay-TV world. But instead of suing anyone, Verizon says it’s working on an entirely new model of TV programming: It wants to pay fees to media companies for their TV channels depending on how many people actually watch them. [More]
Verizon Thinks My Wife Spent 10-Hour Roaming Call Talking To Co-Worker’s Voice Mail
By March 15, 2013
RL isn’t arguing that his wife made a roaming call to a co-worker from a hotel in Venice, Italy. His dispute with Verizon wireless is regarding how long that call was. His wife says that it was ten minutes long. Verizon counters that it was ten hours and nine minutes. Considering that the call was to a voice mail box, that must have been an epic, almost close to the the actual meaning of the word “epic,” voicemail. [More]
Lost Your Verizon Remote? Order A New One With Your Remote
By March 14, 2013
Reader Fred sent us this photo using our Tipster App, and we can imagine him scratching his head from here. “So to order a new remote to replace your lost or broken one,” he writes, “you have to use the remote!” [More]
After Much Delay, The Anti-Piracy “Six Strikes” Program Is Nearing Launch
By February 25, 2013
A program intended to fight online piracy without resorting to prosecution was supposed to go live last year but was repeatedly delayed, most recently by Hurricane Sandy. But the folks running the Copyright Alert System (better known as Six Strikes) say it’s ready to go. [More]
Which ISPs Are Providing The Speeds They Advertise?
By February 15, 2013
Once again, the FCC has put a wide range of Internet service providers to the test to see whether or not they are delivering on the speeds they advertise to customers. And while it the majority of ISPs are not far off, with a few actually over-delivering, some still have a way to go. [More]
3 Months After Sandy, Verizon Still Hasn’t Canceled Account Of Customer With Uninhabitable Home
By February 12, 2013
In November, we told you about Roy, one of many people whose home on the coast was rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Sandy. Roy’s displeasure with Verizon’s decision to repeatedly charge, and then re-credit, a monthly service suspension fee to storm-affected customers led him to cancel his service. Or so he thought. [More]
Verizon FiOS Misplaces My Set-Top Box For 7 Weeks, Expects Me To Pay $350
By February 12, 2013
When your cable provider makes a mistake and you can clearly show that this is the case, you’d expect that it would have the decency to not penalize you for its error. But that’s apparently not the case at Verizon, which expects Consumerist reader Steven to fork over $350 and hope he gets it back. [More]
Surprise, Surprise: Expert Says Many Broadband Meters Are Inaccurate
By February 8, 2013
While Internet providers look more toward capping data usage and penalizing customers for overages (even though it’s becoming less expensive to provide this service), one expert says many devices used to determine a customer’s usage are not sufficiently accurate. [More]
Verizon’s Redbox Instant Video Service Launching New App For Xbox 360
By February 6, 2013
Entering the already busy arena of online streaming video services, Xbox 360 announced yesterday that it’s teaming up with Verizon to offer the company’s Redbox Instant Video exclusively on its gaming consoles. It’s always good to have options, and it seems companies are going to continue coming up with competitors for Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s video services. And when companies compete, we win. Hurray! [More]
Californians Paying 115% More For AT&T Landline Service Than They Did Before Deregulation
By January 18, 2013
Supporters of removing price caps on utility services claim that deregulation will ultimately result in lower prices and more competition. But a new report claims that when California ditched pricing regulations on landline phone service, it only led to huge bill increases for AT&T customers. [More]
Verizon Has No Idea Whether I Get FiOS Or DSL, Keeps Billing Me After I Cancel
By January 9, 2013
It’s bad enough to get the runaround for something as simple as transferring your Internet service from one address to another. But when you cancel that service because your provider is incompetent, you would at least hope to stop being billed for service you never received. [More]
This Verizon CSR Really Wants You To Know How Great A Customer You Are
By December 21, 2012
For those consumers who expect to get a grumpy, unhelpful customer service rep, it’s always a nice surprise when the CSR in pleasant, professional and willing to work with you to resolve your issue. We don’t often hear cases of CSRs gushing about cooperative customers, but we’re not Kevin. [More]
New Report Says “Cash Cow” Data Caps Are About Pleasing Investors, Not Relieving Congestion
By December 18, 2012
Internet users have been complaining about data caps — and the costly penalties for going over said caps — for years, while both wireless and fixed broadband providers claimed these caps were an absolute necessity to curb runaway use. But a new report attempts to debunk many of the ISP industry’s claims. [More]
