Leon liked Verizon’s FiOS service when he had it. It wasn’t until he moved and sent his equipment back that he had any problems with them. He sent his router and CableCard back via UPS, and the card was taped to the side of the router. Verizon received the router, but the CableCard is still missing. “I have visions of the router at some new customer’s house with the cablecard still taped to it,” he writes.

Verizon FIOS of [redacted] was a very great service, while I had it. They evidently don’t put the same effort into their equipment return.

I needed to move out of area so I cancelled my account effective June 1st and paid the early termination fee because I was indeed terminating my account early. I was given two options to return my router and CableCard: I could either drive one hour each way through DC traffic to a FIOS storefront, or I could use a Verizon supplied box to mail in the equipment. I chose the latter and it was not a good choice.

I sent the box a few days early using the supplied label, UPS tracking number [redacted]. I figured all that was left was to make sure it was delivered, which it was on June 1st.

However I received a bill in early July saying I owed $108 for a missing Cablecard. I called Verizon on July 12th and I was told they would check and call me back. They gave me reference number [redacted] and told me they would call back in 1-3 days. After receiving no call back I called again on July 20th, and after repeated transfers spoke with a lady who said they could not find the card but were canceling the charge. I received one more bill very shortly afterward but it must have been in the mail while I was calling. No more notices or bills came and I considered the matter closed.

However it seems that Verizon simply lied and instead have now sent the account to collections.

I just got off the phone with Verizon. I was first transferred to tech support where a man said that he had just the other day managed to track down another woman’s cablecard, lost in the same manner, by looking up the serial number and finding that it was already redeployed in the field. He said I had to speak with accounts to get the serial number for the cablecard. Accounts said they showed it as being unreturned, and that I would have to get the serial number… from tech support. This is pretty typical of every call I have made to Verizon about this issue.

I am floored. I did everything they asked, and now they ding my otherwise perfect credit when they were the ones who lost the piece of equipment! My next step is to speak with a lawyer, but that’s something I would rather not have to do when this could easily be solved by Verizon simply admitting that they lost the card and honoring their representative’s offer to drop the charge.

The best part of all this was that the cable card was in a static baggie taped to the side of the router, yet they say they received the router just fine. I have visions of the router at some new customer’s house with the cablecard still taped to it.

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