Jeanne has had her Verizon FiOS settop boxes for three years now, and the rent for them has remained the same. Until now. The difference is only a dollar, but what vexes her is that she just signed a contract in order to get a discount on her service. They shouldn’t be able to raise the rent when she’s signed a contract. Should they? And why is the rent higher when she still has the same old boxes?

I just received my Verizon cable/internet bill and noticed a strange $1 fee for partial month set top box rental, and then noticed that the monthly rent on each box had increased by $1.

Verizon did not notify me, nor call out the increased rental fee on the bill.

When I called Verizon I was told that there was nothing they could do, the rental price for all boxes of this type had increased, and the hold time for a supervisor was 45 to 60 minutes.
These are the same boxes that I have had for almost three years, and they have not provided any increase in service.

My current options are limited because I stupidly agreed to a two-year contract in December to secure a $5/month discount after they increased the monthly fee by $10. And they are giving out $300 gift cards for new installations with no contract. [hand to forehead]

1. Can they increase the rent on an item that’s already installed?
2. Can they do it without notice?
3. Is there someone I can complain to at the FCC?

You can try to make the case that the raised fee is a materially adverse charge, but that depends on the contact of the contract that you signed with Verizon. You can also try to just get the rental fee waived for the remainder of the contract. Verizon has proven receptive to executive e-mail carpet bomb in the past.

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