Verizon
Reviews and Complaints

I had Verizon Fios service for 6 weeks in my home. The service never worked properly, and I attempted to get this issue corrected. However, the Verizon technician did not keep two separately scheduled appointments to address the issues. After the second “no show, ” I requested a cancellation of my service on June 21, 2008. Not only did they not discontinue my billing, but they have refused to make any adjustments to my bill as of this date (August 13, 2008). I have been kept “on hold” in numerous phone calls; they transfer me endlessly from one representative to another, and repeatedly tell me they cannot help me, because I have reached the incorrect department, etc. This is a result of their own internal phone transfers!
I am now looking at a bill for $480.24 for six weeks of almost nonfunctional service!

I have 2 Razor phones through Alltel. Alltel has sent me 3 phones to replace the phones I had bought. Each on the phones sent were sent with their own problems. Talked to Alltel Customer Service and was told they would be replace with brand new ones/new brand. Each store I went in stated they would not replace the phones. Now I have two phones that don't work but still have a bill to otherwise cancel my service altogether and pay $600.00 Great customer service!

We went for the Verizon deal last January of receiving FIOS internet, cable and landline service for $109/month with the added incentive of receiving a free 19” Sharp LCD TV.
January installation 8am-12 no show, reschedule next available mid february.Call and verify free tv is still obtainable.Verizon rep :(Ater 30 minute wait)Oh yes it has been extended until March due to overwhelming interest in Maryland states rep.
After many calls, no letter, my password dosent work on Verizon web site.June 6th Rep, states ourorder had never been processed in the dept thta award a tv.She submits offer and info.
Several calls in July to follow up ..Rep states “will be shipped in several weeks”
August 1st…Call again speak with someone in the billing dept I recieve a letter
Verizon has over charged you on your bill…You will recieve a creidt on the next bill (have spent nurmous hours since Jan trying to get bill corrected ) No matter how you add it up it’s different evwery month.. Charges are way over the 109.00 a month.
Now the real kicker I ask about my FREE TV ..6 differnt people later and a 2.5 hr phone call..The marketing Dept tells me ” You didnt get the 12 mgb something internet service so you are not eligable for the TV. HA I'm not a computer specialist and told the girl your technican should disclosed this at the time of installation..Your company is not being honest..THE LINE IS QUIET she transfers me to a Customer Service Rep again (ith some long title) that is just a fancy name for a supervisor..I’m on hold again..20 minutes later..She states
You are not eligable because you already had Verizon Phone Servise !At the time I had called about this great Verizon promotion I said ti this rep. Your company should have said I'm sorry but you dont qualify for this package.Instead yor excepted me for your free tv offer and 2 yr agreement.
That was the final straw…I explained the are full of deception and misleading…
and the only Customer Service they provided was they could speak proper English. I had read some where some consumers are asking Comcast etc to
pay verizon $199 the disconection fee and they would go back to Comcast immed.
*****************
Verizon CAN YOU HEAR THIS>> When I can, I will disconnect ALL yur products,
HOME PHONE, TV, INTERNERT and our family has 4 Cell phones thru Verizon WIRELESS
Kelly

I came into my local verizon store complaining of my phone (which was still under warranty) background always going blank, losing phone calls, not receiving phone calls or text messages & not being able to send texts or make phone calls, they told me all I needed was an update on my phone, since receiving the update my phone has had all of these problems much more frequently, I am very unhappy and very possibly will be switching to another service, my phone is now out of warranty and is not even a year and a half old.

EVERY time it rains my dsl goes, I have spent over 4 HOURS on the cell phone asking for service help..strange, my att blackberry can get online in the rain, yet my home computers can not..no one has bothered to come inspect the lines, and I can't cancel or I will owe money for early termination..wtf, so I am stuck paying for something that does NOT WORK..quite a nice littlke SCAM they have going! I really hope that the next time it rains, all of the co's have a major life stop..maids quit working, dr's stop mid surgery on them..of yes, and all their electronics mal-function..BUT they still have to pay everyone just the same.

Beware of any promises from this company. I recently changed over from cable to fios and most every important detail is not disclosed or blatently lied. First, they said I could keep my email address which I guess I should know is not allowed. Second they said they would remove the other not usesless lines. The sales agent said this and a tech said this and they won't. Third, the give you a cheap router that broke within 5 days and sent out a dead replacement. They say they will call back and they do not do so. The installation was terrible. The technician will not go up into the attic and will basically drill holes through walls and wire on the outside. He does it in a way that is not even hidden as he cannot measure so instead of tightening up any slack, he just makes loops along the route. I suppose you can hand stuff from these 5"diameter loops but all other companies including the cable, satellite, and telephone have gone through efforts to hide the wires inside. The technicians appear to be unhappy and are probably minimum wage and it shows in there personal service and skills. Despite the size of the company they will tell you anything to sell you their product and renege after you've committed. The products appear to be shoddy and the installation and service is exceptionally poor. Everytime you call, you get a queue that asks the same questions and takes about 5-10 minutes before the option of talking to a human. When you do, you get into another queue that takes a long time. You have the option of a"call back"which is another computerized call that puts you back into what appears to be the same queue. When I tried it, I was told my wait was 11 minutes. They offered a call back in 11 minutes so when I opted for that, I got a call back and had to wait at least 11 minutes before talking to another representative. The rep on the phone also promises service but it doesn't happen as they state.

I would recommend any other than verizon. Given the competition, it sound's like they take the"promise them anything, but buyer beware attitude". If you expect the lowest level of service, the shoddiest crastmanship of installation, and the lowest level of customer support and you should be fine.

I recently ordered Verizon Business DSL for my flower shop in Boston. The first sign of trouble was that I received a bunch of emails requiring me to confirm my order. However, I could not follow the instructions because it required the DSL to first be operational. When I called, I was sent into a customer service loop in which none of the reps I spoke with could figure out why I received the emails in the first place. Eventually they told me just to ignore them. So, fast forward to two days ago. A tech arrived, spent three hours at the store blocking my computers and phones, only to go away saying that he couldn't get it to work. This morning, more techs appeared, spent another three hours, still couldn't get the DSL operational on my computers and somehow destroying the network connections that I had set up between my server and front register. When I pointed out that these connections were no longer working and gave the tech the original settings, asking him to please restore the system to its original state, the tech simply left. So now, no DSL, no working computers, no ability to ring in customers.

I called Verizon tech support and let them know what had occured, and asked them to please send a tech back out to restore my computers to their original state. For six and a half hours, and I repeat, SIX and a HALF HOURS, no breaks, I was shuffled back and forth between different customer service reps and was told that their techs wouldn't know how to fix the thing they had messed up and that I would have to pay for someone to come repair their mistake. Several times, I thought I had reached someone who would help me, only to be disconnected and have to go through the whole thing again. After an entire day of non-stop frustration I still have no resolution to this issue and am about done with the pitiful excuse for customer service given to me by Verizon. One guy, supposedly a senior tech support agent, actually told me that he had no superior I could speak with, and that there was no customer service department to whom I could complain, then hung up on me. Mostly, Verizon seems to have very ineffectual phone systems, as none of the reps seem to know how to retrieve a call on hold without accidentally switching it to another department or hanging up on their client.

This is the single worst customer service experience I have ever had, bar none. I am horrified that a company marketing itself to businesses doesn't seem to have techs that know how to work with installation of DSL on an existing network, and even more horrified that there is no avenue to resolve issues that does not involve endless voice mail loops and surly, unresponsive customer service agents. This said, I did have a few very nice agents I spoke with during my day of Verizon nightmare, but none of them could actually do anything for me. One guy told me that if I threatened to drop the service he could transfer me to the department in charge of keeping customers with Verizon, and the person I spoke with there said they would get Geeksquad out for me to get my computers working again, but then, once again, I got disconnected when the Geeksquad rep was searching for the right tech to send out to me. They did not call me back, and neither did Verizon, so once again, the endless phone tree, the endless holds. I called back, and I called back again. Finally I got another guy who sounded genuinely interested in helping me, but who seemed to have his hands tied. He said he would speak with his supervisor and get back to me in the morning. By this time I had wasted the entire day on this seemingly simple problem, and felt utterly defeated.

I sincerely hope that the one guy who said he would call me in the morning with a solution calls me as promised. In any case, I may switch providers just on the basis of this awful experience. Truly ridiculous!

The service is a total loss we have had service with them for two long years and have being fighting them about the bad service Constant dropped calls static can not receive calls and we do not get the voice mail for hours later. They said it was the phones but since the replacement of 5 phones it still is bad or worse. They not do not won’t to talk to us so if you go to a wireless service go around AlTell wireless. I have again placed a compliant to BBB this is not the first time I have do this.

Where to begin? We have had FIOS for 18 months, and have been billed incorrectly for 17 of those months. We signed onto the $99 for all three services and it went downhill from there. As an aside, 3 of my 5 co-workers have gone through this as well. A 100% failure rate with my group of engineers that had the service within the last year.

We have been charged as little as $119, and as much as $704 for the same flipping service.!?! They somehow managed to create a second account at our address with the same name, and we are now being double billed. Our service has been disconnected multiple times for non payment on the bogus 2nd account. Infuriating. Of course they do this on a Friday afternoon and no one will be available to unscrew the situation until Monday.

Sometimes we get charged extra for long distance, and sometimes it is inclusive as it should be. Huh? Either it is or it isn't. They can't seem to make up their minds. My contract says it is inclusive though, but my copy of the contract was obviously abducted by aliens and masterfully altered.

I agreed to take a 10 minute survey via phone and they said if I did they would bump my internet connection up from 10MbPS to 20MbPS. They increased the speed, then charged me an additional $10/month without my consent. We have had multiple customer service managers "assigned to us directly to resolve our ongoing issues". In the last 3 months, we have now had 3 of them. Each one stating that the mgr. prior is no longer with the company.

It has gone way past rank incompetence and now borders on corporate thievery. There is no excuse under the sun for the complete and utter bullying and dishonesty with this company. I rue the day I agreed to sign up. I rely heavily on a stable connection to the internet, as I am a network engineer, and avoidable service interruptions are unforgivable. I often have to remote into work for mission critical tasks, and I have found that I cannot rely on FIOS for this.

My contract is up in 11 months per MY paperwork, but they said I have another 20 months or they will charge me an ETF fee and it will end up on my credit report if I don't pay it. WTH? Corporate bullying at it's worst.

Would some PLEASE kick off a class action against these tools? I am conferring with the attorney that drew up my will and home contracts, and will ask if he can refer me to someone who wants to take a largish bite out of Verizon's posterior.

Avoid them like the plague, or you WILL be burned.

1. It took more 20 telephone calls over a period of more than 4 months, plus an online attempt, all between January and May of 2008, before Verizon came out to do an installation of “triple play”. Several times, appointments were made, then canceled. Other times they simply didn’t show up (March 21st comes to mind). Sometimes, they canceled and rescheduled without contacting me, then canceled again, again without contacting me (I found this out only through later phone call trying to confirm what should have been a future appointment). Once, they even showed up when there was no appointment (I know because that time they did contact me by phone and I had to tell the to leave as nobody was home to receive them).

2. When they finally kept an appointment they made, their installation was, in a word, awful. Why?
a. They failed to procure my current phone number, which I considered essential as I’ve had it for years
b. They wanted to install another phone number. I refused as I had no use for it, so they didn’t, but charged me for that phone service that was never installed nor activated.
c. They didn’t use their own wiring but instead, expropriated the existing Comcast lines, disabling me from subscribing to both.

3. Because of the poor quality of the wireless internet router, the substandard on-demand TV service and the absence of phone service for which I was being charged, I canceled everything within the 15 day period before Verizon obligates a customer to a full year of their incorrigible service. I was told, repeatedly during my 20 some-odd phone calls that I would be charged nothing if I canceled within that 15 days. Nonetheless, I get a $71 bill for 6 [six] total days of service, including an “activation” fee for the phone service that was never activated. Faced with obstinate, rude, billing clerks on the phone, who most common attribute is disconnecting me, I paid the bill knowing that Verizon won’t hesitate to damage a customer’s credit profile by reporting a “delinquent” account to the credit agencies. They did it to me a year ago after I pulled the plug on their copper wire phone service and they failed to send me a “final” bill (I didn’t know how much to pay). For $52, I’d now have trouble refinancing my home.

4. Finally, to add insult to injury, I’ve just received the bill that broke this camel’s back and motivated me to write this letter. They want another $111 claiming I never returned the junk internet router mentioned in (3), above. This is nonsense and I have proof in the receipt I made sure they gave me, then scanned into my computer, then printed a copy and put it in a safe.

I have a phone card to keep my phone bills down
so how does MCI who owns Verizon make money off me three ways when I make a call. I use a verizon calling card because I can get phone service for 3.8 cents a minute long distance. at home when I use the card I'm using a verizon service landline and when I call my family on their Verizon phone it's a cell phone and they get charged. thats three verizon charges all for the same call. If this isn't against the law it ought to be. So VERIZON
when the day comes that phone service can be free over the internet I hope you go by the wayside as thats what all scammers deserve is to go down
under the crowd instead of being trampled on by their newt work three times everytime you call out.
This is one of those class action lawsuit deals too the only thing that gets their attention.

My fiancé and I both have separate Verizon Wireless cell phone accounts and wanted to put them onto one plan to save some money. We've both had our phone numbers for a long time and have different contract renewal dates and different area codes on the phones. Ideally, we both wanted to keep our cell numbers instead of changing them so I did what any logical person would do - I contacted customer service.

I decided to submit my question to them through their website so that I could get a response via email. It's easier for me to check when I have time and it has the added bonus of any response I'd get would be in writing. After a few days I get a weird phone call from a number the call id says is "unavailable" so I let it go to voicemail. Turns out it was Verizon Customer Service calling to confirm that my question had been answered via email and that I had no further questions. Problem being I had never received an email. I received a similar call the next day while at work and I couldn't answer. Still, no email.

First I double checked my spam filters to make sure I was not missing the email. After all, I should make sure the problem is on my end before casting blame. Once making sure the spam filters were not the problem I resubmitted my question, the same as before, adding two key things. First, that this was the second time I had to contact them via this form as they failed to answer me the first time. Second, that I stressed at the beginning and end of my message that I wanted to be contacted only by email and not by phone as it is difficult for me to answer my phone during the day. I don't know how much clearer a person can be.

No email came but I did notice a missed call from number "unavailable" one day during work. The voicemail was from, you guessed it, Verizon saying I could call the customer service number. I double checked my email and still no answer there. Now rather annoyed and really needing to know the answer to my question I called Verizon and tried to be nice to the guy who answered my call since I can only presume he had never set eyes on my account or questions before.

After first telling him on the recorded line that I was displeased that I had received no email answer from 2 queries and had been contacted by phone after explicitly saying I did not want to be contacted by phone I apologized for sounding short assuring him I knew he had nothing to do with that and moved on to my question.

He tells me that I do not need to wait for the renewal date on either contract and that we can both keep our current cell numbers in spite of having different area codes, one of which is not local. He also said, only slightly unrelated, that one can switch to Verizon and keep their current cell number regardless of area code and where you are. This is to my knowledge not the case. Two years ago when I switched to Verizon I had change my number because the area code did not match the region in which I was physically making the switch. Also, if you check Verizon's website it says that you cannot port a cell phone number outside the local area of service. Who am I to believe: the guy on the phone or the combination of experience and what Verizon has in writing on their webpage? Hmm...

So now I have my answer, but I'm not 100% sure I can believe it, and the guy starts pushing me to "update my phone every 90 days." I have no idea what he is talking about as he starts telling me that they recommend updating the phone every 90 days by dialing *228 so I stop listening to the instructions and reasonably ask, "Why do I need to do this?" He says, rather rudely, "Let me finish." Further frustrated I am not really hearing his instructions (because I'm annoyed again) and he then tells me it is to update the roaming areas. Ok...I have first of all never heard of updating my roaming area every 90 days but ok, fine, I'll play this game...why couldn't you have told me WHAT you wanted me to do BEFORE you irritated me by insisting on telling me HOW to do it first? Why should I listen to how to do something if I don't know what it is and the implication of "update your phone" sounds expensive and unnecessary?

Upset again I quickly got myself off the phone, hopeful that the call really was on a recorded line as they claim. I wish other cell companies had been reception where I lived because that is the ONLY thing keeping me with Verizon. I hate the sale calls and random sales text messages (especially the ones that come at 11pm on a week night - you don't know I don't have small children or an early bedtime.) I also can only hope my rude customer service rep wasn't a complete idiot and that my fiancé and I can both keep our numbers and switch our two individual plans to a family plan before the renewal date of our contracts without going through hell...

This is why I wanted a response in email, without having to talk to someone, that I could print and waive in someone's face when they told me otherwise...

Every single night at dinner I receive a phone call from Verizon telemarketers. Just give me a break. I already have DSL and phone service. Do the people not note that they have already called me every night this week. None of the people speak English. Leave me alone. Why not e-mail my account to describe the purpose of calling me?

This telemarketing BS is getting way out of line. If you want to extend an offer to me, do it on my Verizon e-mail, of which I am a part of, instead of bothering at dinner.

We contacted Verizon Wireless on 7/11/08 to ask about our contract with them (up on 7/22/08) and to inquire on any termination fees associated with switching our account over to AT&T for the I Phones we were purchasing. We were told by the CSR that there would be no termination fees since the last bill had gone out and out account was nearing the end of our term anyway. I specifically asked the CSR to repeat that several times to make sure I heard it correctly and she repeated it 3 times that there would be no termination fees.

She lied. Period. Boldfaced lies. We received a billing notice through our bank saying we owed 438.17, which is the last month's bill amount plus termination fees. This is absolutely ridiculous that companies like Verizon are allowed to lie to customers and then screw them over in their billing.

We were also told by the Verizon CSR that even though our contract ended on 7/22/08 (11 days from the date we called) our phone numbers couldn't be released until 8/4/2008, at the end of the billing cycle. I asked about the telephone number portability act and challenged that statement saying that we were told by other carriers numbers could be ported over at any time, not just at the end of the billing cycle. We told the CSR that we would prefer to keep our numbers but new numbers would be obtained if they were going to charge termination fees. 3 frigging times the woman said there were no termination fees to be assessed and yet we are hit with over $300 in termination fees.

Unbelievable. A class action should really be filed against verizon for this kind of crap. Anyone know the regulatory agencies I can contact to file a formal complaint?

From the initial phone order, the wait time for customer service is totally unacceptable. It took several calls and about 3 hours on HOLD to get the service initiated. Half the time I received the wrong information and would have to call back repeatedly. Each call was at least 30 minutes on hold. Recently, I discovered that I had been charged for a premium channel that I didn’t have or order. The monthly charges dated back to my installation date. I tried numerous times to call customer service. When the wait was over 20 minutes, I would hang up... after all I do have a life. Today I tried again and was on hold 46 minutes before I gave up. I tried again and was on hold for 48 minutes before I finally got the error corrected. I am willing to bet it will still be on my next bill. If I could get out of the contract...I WOULD! TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!

Upon installation was initially notified the DVR box was unavailable, which was a notable reason for ordering in the first place. I told the technition to stop the install, he immediatly got on the phone and found a DVR and drove to get it. After the install we were told our free gift of a 19" Digital LCD tv would arrive in 6 to 10 weeks, That was Feburary 12th, it is now July 7th, and have recieved nothing to date. Another follow up call has only further antagonized me in that the now state they can send it, only after threatening to cancel all but the phone service, but will again have to wait an additional 6 to 10 weeks.

This is on par with what I've heard from other people about there service, wish I had known and taken the warnings seriously before hand. One other thing, the $109.00 Phone-TV-Cable service promotion, actually cost $174.00 actually when you recieve your monthly bill.

I live in a small pocket of Verizon surrounded by miles and miles of Pacific Bell/AT&T customers. This is a “funny” joke pulled on my city of 60, 000 people by the idiots on the California Public Utilities Commission. In December 06, I signed up for Verizon DSL. The first time it was offered (much later than other companies, you’ll notice) and the ONLY service available in my little patch of electronic hell.

From 12/06 though 12/07, I logged over 200 service tickets with Verizon for lost connections and inability to get DSL service. Yes, 200 – and I work two jobs and only have one day off a week! So, that should tell you something about their reliability! This year, I finally found out that you could get action if you made connection with the executive offices on the east coast at [protected].

One of the reasons I stuck with the service and didn’t revert back to dial up (my only option, as the cable here is worse) is that I was told that my service would cost $14.95 a month for life.

Verizon raised my rate this past month, so I spent over 2 and half hours on the phone, during my vacation, calling several continents to find out how to get this fixed. This morning, I received a call and was told that in order to provide “customer retention” I was going to be allowed to keep the service for $14.95 for one more year, and then it would go to what ever rate they wanted.

They insist that they never offered that rate to me. They stated that it was only offered during the month of November of 2007 to new customers, that I was not entitled to the rate at all. I, however, clearly remember the conversation. So, warning to all consumers – record every call you make to a utility. I have now purchased a record-a-call handset and am going to do just that.

Customer Service? Are you kidding? What a rip off. They are quick to make promises to keep you hanging so that you don’t tell everyone what crappy service you’re getting and then when they finally get it right and it works – they screw you. You’d think I’d have paid my dues just by putting up with it for so long.

I estimate that the 200 tickets alone took up at least $10, 000 of my time. Plus the times I just didn’t want to be bothered spending hours on the phone to get my service working. Apparently Verizon doesn’t believe customers’ time has value. They can’t even part with $60 a year.

So, before you think of going with Verizon – do you really want to go through what I’ve gone through?

This is a story about how I want to get Verizon FIOS and discovered that I am not good enough for it. It’s a rather long story, the short version is that after over a month, 2 days off, talked to over 30 technicians, over 10 hours on the phone, and appointment rescheduled 15 times, I still can’t get the service fully setup. The last technician that I talked to today said that I did this all wrong from the beginning. Yes, I shouldn’t have called.

Before I start let me say that out of all the people I dealt with, all but 2 are very good. Almost everybody I talked to whole heartedly tried to help. Somehow the Verizon God didn’t like me.

Chapter 1: The Order.

A month ago we bought a new house. I checked with Verizon 2 weeks before our closing date and they say yes, we can get FIOS. Great! I can finally try this exciting new service. So as soon as we closed the deal on 5/22/2008, I called Verizon. The sales rep was nice enough to explain all the options. We discuss for about 45 minutes to pick the package, internet speed, number of cable box, etc. All is fine. At the end, she transferred me to a third party verification agent. That lady asked me one question which I didn’t understand so I said “Can you repeat that?” Perhaps she heard me say something else, she said, “Seems like you have been coached by Verizon and so I have to cancel your order.” She then hung up. What? After almost an hour on the phone I got hung up like that?

I called back right away, I told the rep that I just placed an order and wanted to make sure it’s fine. The guy says they don’t handle Virginia and had me transferred, but he said the office is now closed.” What?” I said. “But I just talked to them a minute ago.” Anyway, I got transferred and left a voice message. I told my wife that this doesn’t make sense, the sales office should be open 24/7. So about half an hour later, I called back. This time the rep was able to find my order. He said that everything is fine and I am scheduled to get installation on 6/10. Cool.

Chapter 2: Week One.

So I waited patiently for the next 2 weeks assuming everything was fine. On 6/10, I took the day off and got to the house early (the appointment was 8am – 5pm). Around 9am I started to worry. So I called, the first person I talked to said he couldn’t find my order. He then had me transfer. The second guy found my order but didn’t know what’s going on. He put me on hold and the call dropped. I called back, expressing that I was on the phone for 20 minutes and still didn’t know what’s going on. This time the rep knows which system to hit. She said that the order didn’t go through as the phone number wasn’t ported correctly because they submitted my new address to my exiting phone company. I said if there is a delay, shouldn’t someone contact me so that I don’t waste my day? Anyway, she apologized and I gave her my old address. She said the new due date (yea, I learn some of their terminologies too) is now on 6/12. I received a rescheduling email right after the call. I was unhappy but was ok to wait for 2 more days.

The 12th was my moving day, so I had to arrange a friend to be at the new house to wait for the Verizon technician. Around noon my friend called me and said the Verizon guy told him that they cannot install as the fiber line was actually not at the house yet. “Am I supposed to know this?” I talked to the technician on the phone. He said he will send a ticket in right away and they should come out in 24 hours and he will come out right away to have it all fix. Fine. Another 24 hours.

That afternoon, someone came to my house and put yellow paint on the lawn to indicate where the fiber lines should go to. I thought maybe they will come out the next day and I may get service before Monday.

Wrong. Week 1 pasted and all I have is some yellow lines on the lawn.

Chapter 3: Week Two.

I called on Sunday and the guy said someone from the control group will contact me when they come to work on Monday.

Early Monday morning (6/16), the Verizon crew showed up, dug up the yard and put the fiber line to my house. I saw them packing up as I left for work. Eager to get it done, I called Verizon on my way to work. The lady was very nice and tried to schedule an appointment for me. “The earliest appointment is 7/4.” She said. “No. no. no.” I said. “Verizon made 2 mistakes on my order and now I have to wait in line again?” She said she will put down on the note that I should get expedited installation as the delay is due to Verizon’s fault. She said she will try her best and will call me back.

About 1 hour later, someone called me back. This lady is bad Verizon employee 1. She said, “They will drop the line this week and I have secured your schedule for 6/24.” I told her they have already dropped the line (put fiber optics underground) this morning and I didn’t understand the wait. All you said was, “You are all set for the 24th” and didn’t even listen to me.

After I hung up I realized I had missed another call from Verizon. It was the nice lady that I was talking to on my way to work. She left a message saying that she had talked to the dispatched department and had secured an installation appointment on 6/21.

At that point I received 2 emails. One said confirm installation on the 21st and the other said confirmed on the 24th. So now I’m confused. 21st or 24th. Of course, I called back. The guy I got said it’s weird that one system said the 21st and the other said the 24th but he had fixed them all. Now everything is lining up on the 21st. “Everything is fine, right? Cause this order has yet to be fine.” I said. He reassured me that I will get installed on the 21st. I received another confirmation email saying that installation is on 6/21. All seems fine. That ended my Monday.

On 3pm Thursday 6/19, I received an email saying that if I don’t call Verizon by 6/23, my order will be canceled. Worried my hard worked will be down the drain, I called right away. The lady who took the call says somehow there is a hold on the Internet and TV and the installation has been pushed out. I told her the entire story again and she said she put everything back on 6/21 and everything should be fine. That same night, at 7:42pm, I receive an email saying that my installation is confirmed on 6/26. Wait, wait, wait. I thought I talked to someone and everything was back to 6/21. Of course I called and the guy was very nice and told me some system says 21st and some says 26th. While he didn’t understand why, he put everything back to the 21st. I told him the story again and he reassured me that the order is now confirmed by the dispatched department and everything is fine on the 21st. That night at 10:19pm, I receive an email confirming my installation on the 21st. That ended my Thursday.

The next day, Friday 6/20, one day before the big day, I received an email at 12:01pm saying that installation is now on 6/26. Called and screamed at the rep. I said I have tried very very hard to work with Verizon and somehow Verizon just doesn’t like me. This time I was talking to the nicest rep of all. He put me on hold for a little bit, came back and said that his supervisor is talking to the supervisor of the dispatch department and everything is truly fine.

Chapter 4: The big weekend.

That night I actually couldn’t go to sleep as I was too excited about getting FIOS the next day. Next morning 6/21, the much anticipated installation day, I woke up early. Well, of course nobody showed up. The appointment was from 8-12. I called around 10am, told the story again and told the rep that this is really unacceptable. He put me on hold and called the dispatched department. After a few minutes he came back and said someone will show up that day. Immediately after the call, I receive the familiar scheduling email saying that installation is now scheduled for Sunday 6/22. Hold on. Did I just talked to someone and said that installation will be on same day? Plus do they even do installation on Sunday? I called immediately. This time again I talked to a very nice person. I told him again how much work I had put into this order and somehow Verizon just didn’t want to work with me. He called the dispatched department and came back saying they are really swamp and cannot take my order that day. I started to scream and told him that I had taken 2 days off, countless time on the phone and had to cancel Saturday party because of the installation and they can’t fit me in? He put me on hold again and came back saying someone will show up before the end of the day.

By noon on 6/21, the same person that I talked to last called back and said they really can’t get my order done that day but they are going to put me on a priority first installation on Sunday morning. He said he will pass my information to his colleague to call me at 8:30am and make sure the tech does show up. He was so nice that I accepted the delay.

Sunday morning 6/22, a lady called around 9am saying that she will be arriving in 45 minutes. Around 10am, she pulled the Verizon truck into the block. This was real. She was really nice and apologized for my inconvenience. I told her everyone that I talked to in Verizon seem to be nice but some unknown entity within Verizon has been messing me up. It took her and another person about 5 hours to get everything setup. By Sunday afternoon, we had Fios TV and Internet. Hurray! Still no landline yet, for some reason, but that’s not important, now that I have TV and Internet. That night we enjoy HD TV on our new TV set and called home from our VOIP phone. I thought that was the end of story.

Chapter 5: Conclusion.

During installation, the lady said that the phone port was delayed but should come through by 6/26. I told her so long as we get Internet and TV, phone doesn’t really matter. On Friday 6/27, after almost a week of enjoying Fios TV and Internet, the installation lady called and said that the phone order still had not came through but she will continue to follow-up. What a nice person.

Today, 7/2, almost 6 weeks after my first call to Verizon, I called again to ask for a status. This time I talked to a below average rep. I told her the port was originally due on 6/10 but someone put in the wrong address. She said what I had done was wrong. I should have moved my COX service over to the new house before switching to Verizon. She said of course the port wouldn’t go through as if this is all my fault. I said someone should have told me at the beginning and not wasted 6 weeks of my time. Now I’m trapped as my COX service has already been canceled. She said the only thing I can do is to call COX, reactivate the service, move over to my new house, then switch to Verizon. And she said it in such a tone that sounded like I was making an unreasonable request.

So I called COX to have my phone reactivated and move over to the new house. The rep over in COX was very nice and said if I really want Verizon, that’s my right, but he just wanted me to give them a chance. I told him go ahead and put me back on TV, Internet and Phone. I am probably not good enough to receive Verizon’s service.