Verizon review: Fraud in billing! 73

Verizon continues to suffer from the attitudes developed when they ran a monopoly and consumers had no other choice. The market is very different today and consumers are in the driver’s seat. But Verizon remains incredibly difficult to deal with, even when you are trying to buy something from them.

Case in point:

I work from home and have Verizon FiOS internet service. It’s a job requirement that I maintain internet service with static (fixed) IP addresses, so this costs me over $100 per month. I have a nice, new HDTV and would like to order FiOS TV service with DVR, etc. for about $115 per month additional. Since the house is already completely wired and already has FiOS internet, it would take Verizon about 15 minutes to deploy a set top box and start billing me.

I ordered the service and waited two weeks for an installation appointment. The night before, I received a voice mail stating that Verizon will not provision FiOS TV with FiOS Internet if the internet includes static IP addresses. Apparently, Verizon considers Internet service with static IP addresses a “business” service and FiOS TV a “residential” service and they have a policy not to provide both on the same fiber. It is not a technical limitation.

I called back and spoke with a supervisor. Trying to think outside the box, I asked that they install a second Optical Network Terminal (ONT) on the side of my house for the FiOS TV. I know that you will be shocked to hear that Verizon has a policy of only one fiber to a structure. I offered to pay for the extra ONT. No luck again.

So, Verizon has literally spent hundreds of millions of dollars installing fiber around the Tampa Bay area, but would rather leave some of that fiber unused and forgo the extra revenue rather than spend $250 for an additional ONT for my residence.

I suspect that Verizon invested more than that just tying to recruit me as a customer.

The supervisor went on to say this is a common problem experienced by many other customers in our area. The only alternatives that Verizon offers are to forgo the static IP addresses or go elsewhere for TV service. While I would like to do business with Verizon, I’m not willing to change careers to do so.

Again, there are no technical limitations against having both signals on the same fiber. This is simply Verizon’s marketing policy. Since the policy doesn’t benefit Verizon or the consumer, why have it at all? Policy-making like that is one reason I celebrate NOT being a Verizon shareholder.

Verizon lost my home and business telephone service sometime ago due to policies and ridiculous pricing. Now I’m off to find a single source for internet with static IP addresses and digital TV.

I really tried hard to be a Verizon customer. Sometimes you just have give up and move on...

I see your Verizon Fios complaint page is gone. One thing you might be interested in. Verizon cuts your service without giving notice that they are about to do so. Thus giving you the opportunity to clear up any problems. In one day your account is closed so that you have to start a new account, extend the contract time and pay a reconnect fee. I knew Verizon was losing a lot of business, but this is an unfair business practice. I'd like to get a lawyer in on a Class Action suit. My initial term allowed me to disconnect at any time without penalty. I lost my credit card and had to change it. Rather than let me know they missed a payment they cut me off. Called the same day, paid and gave the new credit card numbers. Still had to start a knew account, as the old one was closed in one day, with new terms that were not disclosed. Increased monthly fee, and early termination fee. Also, they refuse to send monthly bills, so I did not know I was charged a connection fee. At that time, 3mos ago, the credit card must have been entered incorrectly, because my service was cut off again this week. Again I called the same day, and had to start a new account. Last time I made sure they had my phone number and email address, so they could let me know of any problems before disconnecting. No one contacted me. Again it was resolved the same day, but I had to start a new account. This is a totally bad business practice. I'm looking for other internet service now, if it happens again I will not reconnect.

I was solicitated at my home to change services to Verizon FIOS TV/Internet. I was told the services would be combined on one bill. This was in March and it has still not be done. I have one bill with a huge credit balance and another that is past due. I have called repeatedly to have this matter resolved. The people who I speak with seem generally concerned and promise me that everything will be handled. Guess what? I am without my FIOS TV service. My husband is staring at his 65 inch Plasma TV, and he is furious.

Also, when Verizon originally connected my service the person they sent out thought the order was for Internet only. I had to show him my copy of the order for FIOS TV/Internet. I was without the premium channels and On Demand for several weeks.

Verizon continues to demonstrate why monopolies are bad, even as they lose theirs.

In the Tampa Bay area, people looking for static IP service should check with BrightHouse for RoadRunner Business Class. If you're lucky, you might even qualify for their "Teleworker Program" which for me cost 66% less than FIOS w/static IP.

I have been in disputes with Verizon over billing for almost a year. They just can't get it right.

I have now been given a "new" account number, but it doesn't work either. To this date I have not received a single bill, but only a bunch of past due notices. I pay these, but still... its ridiculous.

I would estimate my time spent on the phone over this issue to be approaching 30hrs.

Dear Sir,

I purchased Mother India prepaid card to call india but i got a verizon bill of 590$ though we did not call directly from verizon residential ph [protected]. Above all I did not sign up with verizon to make a internatinal/long distance calls. without subscribing for long distabce calls with verizon I dont understand why verizon is charging us . Im disputing the bill. I have all the details available that I called from Mother India prepaid card to India by using 1-800 of Mother india which is free on local phones.

I even spoke to Several times with one of the Verizon customer care rep her name is laveria she said that by mistake the mother india prepaid 1-800 no was not registered in their system because something wrong with verizon system. she said all I need to pay $22 instaed of $590.When I spoke to laveria she said that she has verified and made proper as there was something wrong in Verizon system. But when verified online I see the same thing .so untill this matter is not solved I cant pay the bill.
When I went to view my bill online now the bill keep increased to $956, I dont undertsnad whats going on verizon system.

After I spoke to laveria she said to sign up for International package then they will reduce the bill for $22. So Last month I signed agreed, but still they did not do anything with the previous bill of May/June ,still I see that I have to pay that $520.

I really dont understand the tricks that verizon is telling us because of their faults how can we Pay them $590 without even having subscription for International calls how can one make a direct call from Verizon landline? They keep arguing that its their in the system that we had made call to India. We purchased Mother India Prepaid cards from Indian grocery here in Valrico and we made a call. I still dont uderstand why the verizon is not able to understand and insisting us to pay for which we never made a call.

I cant pay this bill because we never made a long distance call ,nor we never signed up for verizon long distance /international packagein the month of May/June..Just because their system did not register theToll free number of Mother India card its not our fault.I dispute the bill I cant pay $ 590 in excess because of verizon's mistake.

Whenever I speak to veirzon customer care they consume my time for 1 to 2 hours to answer and they will put on long holds, inspite of its several times I spoke even yesterday I spoke now they are telling a different story. Please help us.

I have the details availbale with me about Mother india and other prepaid cards which I purchased.

Please do look into the matter seriously in the intrest of justice.

Thanks,

Dan Touchton

I totally agree with the previous complaints, it's been a horrible deal in getting the Verizon TV service. I wish ten times over that I had kept direct TV I had to endure one the highest bill I ever had after they install. The TV service which has not work properly since they installed it. I have called over twenty times with the same problem, to date it has not been fixed. I would not recommend the TV service it is just as bad com cast. I submitting a letter to the cable commission.

I would rather put a stick in my eye than deal with Verizon ever again. Signed up for the Fios, internet, phone package and it was a disaster from day one:

Price quoted by sales was not honored billing discounts did not post on the bill for 3 months, leaving me with over $700 balance due. Repeated attempts to get it straight were met with the usual "ignore it, it will be corrected". Well,they never got it right. Cancelled service, after 2 months of trying to straighten out the bill they never corrected I finally got my $200 overpayment returned. OK, come get your boxes, remotes and router, which they did on Aug 23. FINALLY got a zero balance bill on 9-24. Done right? WRONG. Oct 22 I receive a bill for the equipment ($1300) + internet + a mysterious balance - total due $1428 and a lovely note telling me I am on my way to collections. 2 hours on the phone transfered to 12 people, when transfered to person # 13 they disconnected me.

ENOUGH. I registered a complaint with every media organization that will listen, especially those pesky "consumer" reporters on TV, filed complaint with BBB, and state consumer affairs.

They are enough to drive a person to insanity.

I spent over 2 hours on the telephone just to get my order for service straightened out. They are to ostensibly place service this Saturday, November 24. When I read the comment about the person spending 30 hours on the phone, I have no problem believing it.

I would like very much to have FIOS, but am not willing to pay the cost of dealing with them. Anyway, I've decided to cancel FIOS before they can drive me insane.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to "voice" your complaints. This helped me a lot.

I am at the point where I can say that I hate Verizon Fios TV/Internet. We thought we were so lucky to be the first in our neighborhood to get this great TV service. We immediately signed up for it since they had the best HD programming available and at a great price. But what they did not tell us is that if you get FIOS TV you also have to switch to FIOS Internet. We had a great package deal through AOL-VERIZON DSL for $14 a month and my AOL service for $9.95. Of course when the tech came to upgrade us-he let us know that my Internet service would be $39.99 but of course when I called in to speak to a Verizon rep she sold me on it. She convinced me that my phone, TV and Internet service would be about $150 a month. Ok, so that was fine. But then we received a charge to our credit card within a couple of days and it was for over $100, then 2 weeks later a $75 charge. I called in and was told that it included everything(installation, new service)-they just billed me the connection fees in 2 bills so we wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. Okay-she sold me again. Until 2 weeks later there was another charge for $153.25. I finally called in and requested that they no longer charge my credit card-I wanted a paper bill that I could review and pay for myself. At this time they discovered that I did not have a bundled package. I had 3 separate accounts-phone, Internet and TV. The only one that could be accessed was my phone bill. Somehow my FIOS bills were in limbo and no one could give me a straight answer. I bounced from Verizon rep to Verizon FIOS rep(each service has different customer care reps and neither can access each others information) for over 2 hours until I finally got a hold of a supervisor who could do nothing for me. She had to get a FIOS supervisor and he finally located my lost accounts.And what did we discover? That I owed Verizon FIOS over $500. Amazingly they payments they had been deducting from my credit card could not be located-lucky for me I keep my credit card statements for a year so I had to fax them in ad file a dispute. So, then I was told, after the amounts I was disputing were removed from my bill I was behind $214. I paid this with my credit card. Clean slate... all good to go should receive a bill in the mail for the next month for $120. Did not happen. Instead I received a phone call stating that my FIOS service would be disconnected if I did not pay $159. So, I did and waited patiently for my next month's bill. Well, on Wednesday afternoon I received a call again stating that my FIOS service would be disconnected if I did not pay $129 and that I should have received a notice in the mail. Well, that came on Saturday but it stated that I owed $287. So Monday morning my FIOS TV service has been cut off. I call and I was on the phone for 2 hours. First rep I spoke to could tell me nothing, just that my service was off, so she transferred me to Collections. Which really couldn't tell me anything more that I was behind and none of payments have posted even if I have confirmation numbers. So we again filed a bill dispute and said I needed to go back to Customer care for them to take care of this situation. So now I am speaking to Christine)a very nice lady who seems very concerned and understanding) and she is trying to figure out what is going on and finally she is able to get a hold of a rep in Collections(Charles) who tells me that to restore my service I need to pay $287 and on December first my bill is due for $129.58. Although he was very nice Charles could not really help me-his system is down. He was just able to tell me that I owed from different bills these amounts, $147.15, $122.52, and $157.75. And where have my payments gone? No one at Verizon can tell me. So, this morning I have wasted 2 hours trying to figure out how I ended up with such a high TV/Internet bill. According to Charles a supervisor will look into my account and call me back at 9:00am PST). At this point I have let him know to just leave my service off and I am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I am all for paying for what I owe them but I wish I could get a straight answer from Verizon and an actual bill so that I know what I am paying for and that they have posted my payments. Since I got my service in February, I have had to call them every month with this same issue and each time I have spent over 2 hours on the phone, bouncing from one rep to another and each time getting a different answer. Verizon FIOS has lost my business and I will be spending my day trying to find a new cable company and Internet provider.

Verizon is impossible to deal with. I signed up for the 99.99 bundled cable, Internet & phone package. The first bill was for $362.32. After 54 minutes on the phone the bill was reduced to$ 277.32.I was told that the problem had been resolved, and the next bill would be $127.00 since I had HBO and and extra box.

OK. My next bill was for $214.02, No bundled service at all.
Called the service department. 34 minutes on hold. The rep told me that it is all my fault. I told her that I am 81 years old, still pretty smart, and thoroughly fed up. She told me that my attitude wasn't going to get me anywhere with Verizon.

I traveled to the Verizon store where I signed up. The helpful salesman told me that that did not do any billing resolution,
and directed me to a wall phone where I reached the same service department as previously, and after 2o minute hold, gave up, and went home.

Trying to discuss this impasse with my wife was impossible.

We are terminating our service, and will go with Brighthouse,
who have a reputation for excellent customer service.

I am also selling all of our Verizon stock, and sending a note to the CEO. Verizon has spent billions getting FIOS in the street. Good customer service wouldn't cost very much at all.

When I first ordered Verizon FIOS I was told that my billing would be close to what I was paying for my cable TV-phone-internet bundle. Turned out to be almost $100 a month more. I didn't get a bill for the first month and the first billing I received was $237 higher than it should have been. I called customer service, they apologized and "made things right" and followed up the conversation by turning me back over to "billing" which turned out to be collections. A nasty young man called Jake threatened to cut everything off by Wednesday if the bill wasn't paid. On Tuesday my chronically ill husband discovered out phone was cut off even though he had reluctantly paid them off!

This month I have the same damned bill from Verizon. Unfortunately it's Saturday and nobody at Verizon can talk to me about this. My online account has NOTHING other than "pay my bill" available. It doesn't even list the service I have...but it shows that I owe almost $500 to Verizon including a bill from them to turn my phone back on!

Since verizon has already screwed with my credit over this I am canceling my "contract" with them and going back to cable. I am so disgusted with Verizon I will never trust them again. The picture may be good, the phone service does well and the Internet works most of the time but is it worth ulcers, frustration and twice the money that cable costs? Decide for yourselves but I don't think so.

I never thought I would EVER regret leaving Comcast, but man do I ever! Who would of thought, right?
Wanna hear a story people? Check this ### out...

Im in Ft. Wayne Indiana & my ordeal started out with simply placing an order for a triple play. Easy, right? NOT! These [censored]s are so unorganized, incompetant,arrogant,disrespectfull, patronizing & condescending that it took piss poor customer service to a whole nother level folks! I placed my order December 7th 2007 & it was getting switched from Comcast to FiOS so I could keep the same number. We did the 3rd party verification & I was told that there was nothing more I needed to do on my end accept be at home on the 19th between 1-5...I was thrilled I was leaving Comcast at this point! (Oh & just for ### & giggles folks I am still on hold with Verizon right now..it's 9:31 pm and I originally placed this particular phone call at 8:05 pm...please note that I took the whole day off to iron out their mistakes & have been on the phone with them non-stop since 8a.m. this morning! Just thought I w0uld add that for the extra visual as u read this post!)

Anyways, Verizon would call me before the install date leaving me tons of messages saying "This is Verizon,we are just calling to welcome U back..the 3rd party verification has been completed & there isnt anything else u need to do on your end accept please call us back at [protected] to verify the verification"...

Huh? Verify the verification? Who does this? What is this for and why would U say there isnt anything else for me to do on my end as a "prefix"? How stupid. This took place a total of 3 times each time them acting like it was the first. They came out on the expected date about 10 minutes late (no big deal) accept the fact that it was 5:10 pm and its going to take 6-9 hours, but I was willing to bet they would do a sloppy job. Remember the 3 seperate "verifications" that I spoke of above folks? Well, on all 3 it was a a TRIPLE PLAY! Well, this poor guy shows up and doesnt have an order for the phone, just internet and TV. Oh, Im furious. (By the way folks, Im still on hold..it's 9:46 pm). Well to make a longggggggg story short that all has taken place in a very very veryyyyy short period of time Dec 19th-Jan 3rd I have has issues with my phone, voicemail,calling features,dial tone,making/receiving calls,error messages and my TV flickering the movie. After spending 2 days away from work ($140.00 per day Im away from work mind you) waiting at home for them to come out to install and then the following day to "finish up" they then had to come back out to "fix" more problems which only meant a half of day away from work wich then ended up resulting in 2 more days missed of work so they could try to repair the cesspool of technical issues that was already there. First off, when I first placed my order I ordered inside wire maitence & I was told that ANY jacks that USED to work once upon a time WOULD work again but that proved to be too much work for the tech to sort out all the mistakes that Verizon had made a year before that when they cut and clipped all the wires & manage to cross our phone line with our neighbors, so this FiOS guy said that he wouldnt be able to get all the jacks working, matter of fact it would only be "1" jack & that would work & he was "being nice" for not charging me for "running a seperate new line"...Question, why am I paying for insire wire maintence? Thats supposed to cover that ###, right? Actually, yes I am right but think that it matters? (P.S folks I just spoke with Alphi he finally answered the phone at 10:30 pm and he hung up on me when I asked him what my name was and telephone number after he claimed he was going to note my account of my complaints and concerns even though he never did ask me what my name was...2 hours I was on hold for that ### ### to do that ###)...

Anyways, Im so ###ing pissed off right now Imma just get to the bottom line. A Verizon employee has been pranking me and stalking me & I have proof. I have contacted the authoritys along with the security department for everything that has taken place since Dec 19, 2007. ###ing weirdo creep. I will return later on to add more to this but right now, I done got pissed the ### off because once again, Verizon has shown me that they can and will treat their customers ANYWAY they see fit!

If u want Verizon folks...be prepared to walk on eggshells! They expect u to kiss their ###. With customer service this piss poor they will eventually get bought out by a another company just like how Verizon bought out GTE. Tommorrow I am contacting Frank Gray of the Journal Gazette and the News Sentinel along with all the TV stations. I am also contacting the Attorney General for forms and the Indiana Regulatory Commission to file formal complaints. You people dont know half the story with this [censored]...

BBL

JG

While the working service is great the billing and payment area leaves a lot to be desired. In Dec 2007 they sent mutiple bills via mail and internet. The Internet account does not accurately reflect payments. So I ended up making three payments. Now when I try and contact someone you can not get through to a human. The auto-response routes you different places or it drops the call. When you do get someone they just put you back into the auto-response. after 50 minutes I got someone from another area and she for 15 minutes could not figure out how to transfer me to a human. It was back into the auto-rseponse and endless waiting. I am sending out for lunch, hope they deliver. I am stuck on the phone for almost 90 minutes in the endless loop.

I completely agree with all involved here! I signed up for verizon after a salesman approached my home and offered me $150 in gift cards for switching... well, actually my husband was the one who got suckered in, I told him that I HATED Verizon and didn't want to switch, but of course my husband got suckered in. Well it's three months later, I can't log into their web site, can't get through to a human to ask what's going on, and certainly haven't received these promised gift cards. I've filed a complaint with the BBB and will also file with the attorney general if necessary. Every time I turn on the television or use the phone, I think about how much I hate verizon! I wish I still had Optimum. I liked it so much...

I AGREE WITH ALL. IN NOV 2007 I PUT MY DTV PHONE AND INTERNET ON THE ONE BILL PROMOTION WITH THE AND RECIEVE A 19 INCH HD TV FOR FREE. I HAD MY PHONE AND INTERNET UPGRADED ALSO FOR THIS DEAL. WELL AFTER 2 PHONE CALLS OVER 2 MONTHS WONDERING WHERE MY TV IS AND HEARING ALL KINDS OF EXCUSES. CONSTANTLY HEARING I WAS GOING TO GET THE TV, I FINALLY CALLED LAST WEEK AGAIN[CALL NUMBER 3] AND WAS TOLD THE WEB SIGHT I HAD TO GO TO TO CLAIM MY TV WOULD BE MAILED TO ME AND I WOULD HAVE IT IN 3 DAYS. I WOULD ALSO RECIEVE A CALL BACK NEXT DAY. NEVER RECIEVED THE CALL AND WHEN I CALLED BACK WAS TOLD I WOULD NOT GET THE TV. TALK ABOUT A SCAM. THEY THEN TOLD ME IF I CANCELLED THE CONTRACT I WOULD HAVE TO PAY A CANCELLATION FEE. THEY WERE BILLING ME AS IF I HAD A CONTRACT.WHICH I SUPPOSEDLY SIGNED IN NOVEMBER 2007. AS FAR AS IM CONCERNED THEY VOIDED THE CONTRACT WHEN THEY CANCELLED THE TV PROMOTION. IF THEY WERE NOT GOING TO GIVE ME THE PROMOTION THEY SHOULD HAVE SAID SO BACK IN NOVEMBER NOT END OF JANUARY. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. SENT LETTER TO BBB AND TO THE CEO OF VERIZON IVAN SEIDENBERG. OF COURSE STILL WAITING FOR HIS RESPONCE.

STILL WAITING TO HEAR FROM MR IVAN SEIDENBERG.

I really hate to agree with all the previous complaints but
I also have a horror story to tell. I cann't believe the disorder
and complete incompetence in their customers billing I' m beginning to think its on purpose. How can any company
operate like this. You can never get a handle on what you are
agreeing to or what your bill is going to be and I'm going into
my 6th month with -out a solution. Its frustrating.

I have yet to have a stable speed. Heck at times a 56k modem was faster than what i get w Verizon FIOS. I call they fix it. Two days latter it is back to slow as a snail.
Their staff is doing nothing but reading Q cards...It is not working but they will not devieate from those cards of stock anwsers/fixs.
Love to have a Verizon FIOS person that THINKS fix the problem for good. Or i guess i will by Canceling it all.

I originally signed up and had no problems. That is till I moved. My bill at the old address was running $117 a month. They sold me on using their telephone service said it was a new package deal and I would save money. My first month’s bill was $450. The first four months was almost $1,000. I have called so many times it its funny now. Every time they say it is fixed but I never get the correct bill. The went back and got the credit card info from my old account and stared charging it because I had not paid since it was incorrect. These people are corrupt and incompetent. Never deal with them under any circumstances.

I am disappointed at myself for not reading these comments before signing up for the Verizon Triple-Play Deal. I would highly recommend that anyone thinking about Verizon should read this first.

We signed up for the package deal when the sales guy, Bryan came to our house. He convinced us that the package would be more cost effective.

Really long story short. Verizon did not show up on the installation date. I took off work that day,unpaid, and when I called, they said it was rescheduled for a week later. I never received a call notifying us of the change. When the guy showed up the next week, he was scheduled to be there between 9am-noon. He was at our house from 9:30am-8pm. Our bills are much more than Bryan quoted us. We were promised a $200 gift card that we have yet to receive. I have spent hours upon hours on the phone with Verizon trying to resolve my issues. At this point, I am ready to take this to the news, file formal complaints with the BBB and any other entities that will listen and assist. I have spoken to 11 people at Verizon over the last 3 months including two supervisors. I seriously believe that they think people will just back down. I will not. I will continue to spread the word about my experience with Verizon and I hope others will too.

It is impossible to CLOSE an account with Verizon Fios! I moved out of their service area several months ago and closed my service. I got a confirmation number and was told an envelope would be sent to me to mail the receiver back to them. Then I got another bill a month later, as if I still had service. Funny how they were able to update my address but not cancel service! I called and spent time on the phone to get it closed and fixed. I was assured everything was fixed. Then I received another bill. Saying I was past due on paying and still charging me for future service.

I have spent several hours on the phone and NO ONE is competent and helpful. Some say I have a credit on my account and service is cancelled, others reflect what my bill shows. Some say that it takes 3 billing cycles to close an account! Every month I had the service something was wrong on the bill, I guess I should have expected it to be difficult to cancel service as well!

DO NOT GET VERIZON FIOS!

Hi I am a rep at verizon, I handle FiOS billing, sales, and service.
FiOS is a great product. The billing systems suck. When you call in you will get either type "A" or type "B" rep. Type A is a sales person, we get commission for sales. Type "B" is a customer service person. I am more a type B person. I am happy with my paycheck and happy to fix problems.

Here is some advise on setting up service. Its not bad once its actually good.

#1. NEVER SIGN UP FROM DOOR TO DOOR REP. (They are contracted, they will tell you everything and give you nothing, then disapere.

#2. Never Sign up at a Verizon Plus store. (they get commison, and they do not have returns that effect it. so they will sell you everything, and you get charged for it.)

#3. When you have to call in please be nice, we are people who get cussed out often. And we know the automated system sucks, The best # to call is [protected] for billing/orders/sales, if you have tech problems [protected].

Always get the name and ID # of the person you are talking to, a real id# is called a VZ id. it would be something like V123456, or G123456, or Z123456, if you get a Z# please call back, those people usually suck. generally outsourced people. (atleast in my experience)

I am not trying to Defend the beast.. just give some advise from the other side of the flames.

WE ALL COMPLAIN ABOUT THE BILLING ISSUES EVERYDAY, SOMEDAY.. we hope they are fixed!

Well if anyone wants to see Verizon getting a smack down go to the Tampa FL paper. TBO.com They have done a 3 part article on the company and all the unhappy customers. It actually turned comical when employees started in on the comment section giving numbers to the upper management's office. Here is the link to the first article that was done about a week ago. On the left hand side you'll see links to the next 2 stories.

http://tinyurl.com/2tk84w

Verizon got me also by lying about their price after two years they raised my price from 35$ to 47$ at a slower speed. My credit card expired, just the date not the numbers. (Vontage notifyed us before there was a problem) I had to resign at the higher price just to keep the phone on.

A year ago lighting went off over my house, and because verizon ran the ethernet cable around the outside of my house it took out my router, xbox 360, vonage box, and computer ethernet. The router was supose to stop it but it did'nt. Verizon would not stand behind their mistake.

I guess its back to Comcast in a year.

Some lawyer needs to go after this company, they're crooks! If they spent half as much time truly helping to solve customer's problems rather than their disingenuous apologies, we MIGHT get something done.

Verizon Fios has been a nightmare for us. I took all three offers, phone, tv and internet. signed up for a 2 year package and was promised a Samsung camera. When I called about the camera I was told I was NOT listed to receive it. after nearly 2 hours on the phone, I was told it was corrected. Two weeks later I received an email about my gift of a $100 gift card. When I called I was told that was what I was due to receive. after an hour on the phone I was told it was corrected and when I asked for confirmation of this I was told that the attorney for the company has to approve the confirmation letter and I would recieve it the next day. When I didnt get it, I sent an e mail to the representative and was reprimanded for impatient. Today I sent another e mail to the representative and received a very angry verbal scolding from the representative.I think my next recourse is the Better Business Bureau and FCC.
VERIZON FIOS is unworthy of the old Telephone Company.

In short, we were approached by a door to door Verizon FIOS Rep who told us we'd get the complete bundle (phone, television, internet) for a specific price. Sounded good...hubby signed the contract. After it was installed (which didn't run smoothly but that's a horse of another color) and our bill came in, the fees were NOT what we signed for. People, this is called "Bait and Switch"; a technique that is ILLEGAL. After four months of telephone calls (many to their corporate office) it appears we've finally gotten our bill lowered BUT not to the dollar figure we were quoted initially by the door to door Rep. Happy that we received 'some' fee relief but overall very disappointed with the idea that no one is taking responsibility for the illegal actions of this 'bait and switch' technique. A class action lawsuit is DEFINITELY overdue!

A Rep wrote in this thread:
"#1. NEVER SIGN UP FROM DOOR TO DOOR REP. (They are contracted, they will tell you everything and give you nothing, then disapere."

This is exactly what happened and this is ILLEGAL.

Further, we are not happy with the Internet service. DSL ran better than this FIOS internet service. Web pages don't load any quicker than they did with DSL. We're not happy with FIOS television, either. We lost some childrens basic channels when we switched to FIOS from Direct TV. The FIOS guide is not user-friendly, not easy to read and doesn't give enough information on what the program is about or who the actors are. Don't waste your money on FIOS.

Thank yoou VZrep for your advise. It's easier to navigate customer service if you know the system, being A Victoria's Secret rep I know most companies operate customer service similiarly. But, my Disabled mom was not aware of this prior to signing up for Verizon back in April and has been going in blindly trying to get answers and corrections.

Christian came to my mom's door in Port Richey, Fl promising 99.99 a month for triple freedom, no connection fee, 200 gift card, etc. Service was installed April 17, 2008. Having never recieved no bill, she called and asked why, she was told they would send one. Again never recieved one. Calling about the gift card she was she would receive a letter which would instruct her to log onto the website, enter a code and her Amex card would be on the way. She was also told the letter had already been generated and would arrive within a week.

Still, no letter about card nor a bill, just a voicemail message about disconnection. So, I decided to call to find out what exactly the problem is. I was told that there are two bills, the first month is 194.42 the second is for 218. Service has not even been on for two months yet and 99.99 a month has turned into over $400. Which $35 of which are movies, 3 of which are duplicate movies that were only ordered once but charged 2x. So after 5 hours and promises of somne calling back, being told no supe was available which I know from experience, Customer service reps are told to say that even if a supe is sitting next to them, it's called"call control".

Any customer service rep is told to take control of the call and tell the customer what is going to happen and exit the call as quick as possible. You are taught to word things to reassure the customer without actually doing anything at all.

If you are not receiving a bill an are incurring late charged think about this, if 100, 000 people incur a $5 late charge because they didnt receive a bill that half a million dollars more revenue for the compnay. In the past I have worked for companies that would shread bills so customers would not receive them and late charges could be added.

I encourage everyone to call their state Utilities commsion. Florida has very specific laws about operating a business particularly utilities in the state. If everyone calls and complains, Verizon will have to make effective changes or stop operating in Florida. [protected]

I had the same issues as the above people. I hate verizon and I wish I never got there fios internet service.

I've been on the phone all day just to order this service. I can't seem to do it online due to not having the phone number the previous owners had with their FIOS service. I can't get an answer and I've been holding for over 4 hours. I think I'm going to give up and call Time Warner Cable.

Ha ha...so true! Don't get FIOS/Internet service with Verizon. It took me over a month! to cancel this service. Their so called customer service is non-existent!

DEAR Ivan Seidenberg
Chairman & CEO
VERIZON

I agree 1, 000 times over again, verizon without a doubt, sucks. their new routers suck too. drops me offline all the time now. recently, my old router, which never ever dropped me offline, went out completely. a new different kind of router sent to me, and ever since, drops me offline intermittently. might do it 3 times in one hour, or 3 times in one day. needless to say, it never happened before I got this new router. while formatting the new router several weeks ago, I had another person from another country somewhere that I could not understand at all, and they could not understand me either. while formatting the new router with codes and setting numbers, if it took one time, it took 10 different times for each code, simply due to the fact of the lack of communication, we just could not understand each other. each time I would have them read out the codes to me again, they would be wrong. NOW, I have been on a repair ticket again, for two days now, waiting for someone to call me, of which yesterday, they said do not leave the house, stay by the phone, this after speaking with a woman I could not understand, from India somewhere I suppose, tell me she would have to get a technical advisory person to get back with me, within 2 hours, 3 at the latest. well, 24 hours later, the next day, we are still waiting. I thought this is what I waited an hour for on the phone the first time. NO, now you cannot get technical support person, you must go through some flunkey first, explain over and over to them, then if flunkey thinks you need a technical support person, and only IF you can understand them, they may or may not call you back. I have been with verizon, since before it was verizon, but we will be changing our internet, phone, and anything else we have with verizon as soon as possible. there is no excuse, at the cost of service we pay, that verizon has absolutely no respect for the consumer AT ALL NOW, to the point of which you cannot even get a hold of anyone in the states to help you out. all there fake sites, phone numbers for support, all lead back to the same incompetent people, and there IS NO CONSUMER COMPLAINT site, number, etc. that I could find to even complain too. there is NO excuse for this, and it is NOT acceptable. sadly, I agree with most here, it's time to mover on away from Verizon and there terribly poor service. They simply do not care about there consumers anymore. AND that stupid advertisement of Verizon's, the one that shows you 'THEIR VERIZON TEAM' of hundreds of people following you around all the time that is with each and every one of us for support ? I can't find anyone from my Verizon Team. When I look around me, call, write, email, no one from Verizon is there anymore. what happened with Verizon ? did not use to be this way. ...

I am having billing problems as well. I switched to Cablevision back in july. I paid my verizon bill in july that covered all the way into august. But continued to get billed for the service, even though i spoke to someone at verizon who had told me it was taken care of and that i was owed credit. Now 3 months later i get a notice from a collection agency that i owe verizon money.
If anyone wants to proceed with a CLASS ACTION SUIT, I'm in.

I have had mixed success/failure with Verizon FiOS. The install process was easy, except that they didn't include the phone in the bundle package. This probably relates to the fact that English was certainly not the CSR's first language. After three more days, I had a phone but they screwed my billing up COMPLETELY. I spent countless hours on the phone over a period of 6-8 months to try and get it rectified. It's like they're playing a shell game and you just can't win. I have no doubt that I have overpaid, but I can't even begin to waste any more time to deal with it. What's more, I never got the bundle price discount. This is actually in my favor as I am canceling my TV and phone service. Now, as far as the actual service goes, the internet has been FANTASTIC. Not ONE minute of downtime in over 18 months. The phone has been OK, but in reality we scarcely ever use it. It doesn't seem to be worth the monthly bill. The TV SUCKS. The guide is NEVER right. NEVER! Doesn't seem like a big deal until you set up a recording and it's wrong. The DVR sucks. I had all sorts of problems with it spontaneously re-setting and their advice over and over is just power cycle it. They recently shifted ALL of the channels, so after a year and a half of learning and knowing where channels are, I have to start over again. finally, the lag is atrocious. I can press the up channel button 10 times and the channel doesn't change for 15 - 30 seconds and then BOOM it goes to where it should be. All the TV issues continue to get worse and they couldn't care less. Plus, they have zero sports packages. I am going back to DirecTV.

I am in total agreement. Without boring you with the details, suffice it to say that I had Verizon Cell Phone Service and their billing was a night mare. Every month was hours of phone time just trying to explain to anoother Verizon idiot what I discussed every month since. I then went to Alltel and it's been a year and they are great. No problems and right on the money. I then - stupidly - went to Verizon FIOS. For 2 years I fought monthly with them. Finally my contract was up and I called to cancel. The man on the phone could not have been more agreeable or helpful. He was great! EXCEPT when the bill came it did not even come close to reflecting the agreement we made on the phone. Since then I have talked monthly with idiot after idiot. OR, are they idiots? After my experience with their cellular service and now their FIOS service it is slowly dawning on me that they have concocted this entire senerio - like their complicated bill - to confuse and squeeze money out of their customers. In short, I think this may be the largest case of corporate fraud in America. It appears that the problems and resulting credits and charges that are unknown to the customer - piling up month after month to the point of confusion is designed on purpose by Verizon. I am a victim - you may be a victim to. I know the writer is. Somebody help us please. Someone has to stop this company.

One of the big promotions Verizon touted when they began installing FIOS in our area was their great customer service. I have recently had problems installing MSN Premium on one of my computers. They are totally unresponsive and sent only articles I was able to research myself before I even tried contacting customer service. It was like no one was even reading my comments or that they even cared. It is obvious they will provide customer service if you want to pay for it. They obviously have no vested interest in helping customers who won’t pay for their pay for service plan. I plan to look for alternatives as soon as my contract period is up. They are also promoting FIOS TV but it is more expensive than my Dish Network service. I have Verizon for my home phone, internet and wireless services but I will actively pursue other vendors for all of those services. While I recognize that other providers may not have necessarily have better customer service, the company that provides the best service will win my business!

FIOS installation just cut my electric lines - lost power - had a flood - lost cable service too. VERIZON refuses to take responsibility! And, can't get a telephone # without talking to incompetent reps who insist in filing trouble tickets. Shoddy installation, rude managers, poor service.

Fed up with Verizon - Holmdel, NJ.

This is my horror story that just begun:

I have been using Verizon for quite a while.I am not only a residential customer but a business customer as well.To tell you the truth, I've never had a problem with your service before but now that I have, I'm not happy. On November 3rd, 2008 I called and ordered Verizon FiOS TV to get the installation done. When I called, a woman ( I don't remember her name) told me that it would be done Friday, November 07, 2008. They were supposed to come between 1-5 PM. Since I was expecting them, I took half the day off from work to be there when they came. I waited for someone to show up until 5PM. Since no one showed up, I called them. They said I was scheduled for Sunday, November 09, 2008. I was suprised and angry for this misunderstanding, but I reluctantly agreed for them to come on Sunday. I figured that someone made a small mistake with the dates. On Sunday, NO ONE came and I spent half the day waiting. (They were supposed to come between 1-5PM) Confused and upset, I called to see what had happened on Monday, November 10, 2008. A Verizon worker from Rhode Island told me that someone made the date scheduled for Sunday, November 09, 2009. If November 09, this year, is on a Sunday, so of course November 09 would not be on Sunday next year. That was when I knew there was something wrong.He rescheduled it on Wednesday, November 13, 2008, between 1-5PM. Just to make sure that they would be coming today, I called them to confirm this, and instead, they told me that it wasn't today! It was supposingly scheduled for November 18th, 2008! I asked to speak to a manager but she said there was no one available and as soon as he is, he would give me a call. All this time was being lost by calling and waiting for them to come. So instead, I called the the Chairman & CEO, Ivan G. Seidenberg, and the lady who picked up, told me that somebody would get in touch with me. Later today, I spoke with one manager and he scheduled me another date! So I was thinking, your company, with almost 240, 000 employees, after hearing that story, can't send a crew for a simple installation? That's ridiculous! I'm dissapointed because aren't you supposed to be the "#1 customer service"?

I look forward to hearing from you and having this issue resolved in a manner that not only satisfies both myself as your customer, but you as my provider too.

I would like to be able to tell my friends that you have resolved my problem with speed and accuracy.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Verizon! Billing! Lies! Enough is enough. I am in the process of filing a class action suit against them. Any of you guy's want to join in? Contact me NMI327@cs.com