Verizon Phone - Complaint

[larryinnewyork]

Happy Holidays to all.

Verizon has been very aggressive in selling FiOs (fiber optic) in my area.
And making people pay more for it.
I always tell them I won't pay to watch TV and my internet speed (DSL) is fast enough.

I've had Verizon phone service for 26 years / Internet DSL for 15 years.
Phone & Internet is thru a copper wire.

Dec. 26, my phone had no dial tone / Internet is working.
I filled a Work Order and the earliest repair date is Jan. 4, 2015
That's 9 days without my phone.
I think this is a new tactic from Verizon to get any DSL customers to switch to FiOs.

Dec. 27, I contact Verizon thru Online Chat, they say:
"Jan. 4 is the repair date, can't do any sooner.
Their very busy because of the Holidays and all the snow.
Sorry for any inconvience."

Sure, it may get fixed sooner, but 9 days is way to long for me.

Rant over and once again, Happy Holidays.

 

[bepperb]

Maybe it's time to stop having a home phone at all and just use cellular's?

You don't say if your DSL is also down, and you are posting on the internet. Strange the phone would die but that's still up?

 

[Tdbo]

Sounds like you need to make some more noise. Some examples:

1. Call your state public utilities commission and file a complaint
2. Call the consumer advocate reporters @ your local TV station(s). They are always looking for something to chase.

 

[JHZR2]

Of course you have a disabled elderly person at home who is reliant upon their medicine and doctor...

But seriously we got this a while ago. I complained and we have a permanent credit on our bill that has provided the same pricing as we've paid since moving in in 2006. Except instead of 768k DSL, we have 5MBPS FIOS.

You just need to yell at them, escalate it higher and demand a better deal.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

You need to call them and demand a 33% reduction in your next phone bill, based on 9 days of 30 without service. If they are trying to do any monkey business, this approach makes suffer an economic consequence for the service they are not providing. I would wait until the repair is complete, so I know exactly what percentage of a month that was lost.

 

[raytseng]

i don't think it's a big conspiricy theory, just coincidence.
Losing service isn't a good plan to making you feel confident to go back to them for more services. It'll encourage you to get rid of them altogether and use voip or a cellphone.

Plus, come on, they're humans too. It's holiday season, they aren't looking to do more work, they want to take it easy during the holidays too

 

[matrass]

file a complaint online with the attorney General and see how fast they move. you would be surprised on how that has worked for me :O)

 

[raytseng]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Sounds like you need to make some more noise. Some examples:

1. Call your state public utilities commission and file a complaint
2. Call the consumer advocate reporters @ your local TV station(s). They are always looking for something to chase.


for (2) I guarentee they aren't looking for any stories about people with phone or cable provider issues and that won't go anywhere.
It's pretty much a given that cable providers are the worst industry in customer service. Even the "best" of the big cable providers is just the best of the worst.

 

[larryinnewyork]

i don't think it's a big conspiricy theory, just coincidence

Yes, I agree, but,
I could also see Verizon putting more resources into the FiOs end of their business.
I bet a FiOs customer would not have to wait 9 days.

If they do, Verizon needs to do some hiring.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Uh ... what snow? The snow melted here in NY last week ...

I looked at the price of FIOS and its just not worth it to me. As much as I hate TimeWarner, $15 a month for Internet ... even if it is slow ... is more appealing than $90

 

[Wolf359]

I got rid of my phone a couple years ago and just did a dry loop DSL. Verizon got wise to that and won't do that any longer, but I'm still grandfathered. I just use Ooma as my VOIP, pretty cheap about $110-$130 for the device and you just pay the local taxes which is around $2-$4 a month depending on the area and it's unlimited nationwide calling.

 

[rjundi]

Have you tried complaining to your public utilities commission.

Also call Verizon and make sure they refund you the telephone service charges during the outage. I lost service for 3 weeks including DSL due to flooding of the switching station and got a prorated bill which was fair.

 

[Chris142]

We have a phone line for moms computer and faxes. Its very hit and miss.some days its OK and others its dead.

The repairman said they will no longer be fixing the lines and that Fios was needed if we wanted to keep the land line. Unfortunately there's no fios available here and never will be.

 

[The_Jeff]

+2, complain.

Landline is supposed to have a very high standard of reliability, so you can call 911, etc.

Cable is a "convenience", not a utility, and doesn't have the same regs. I wonder if they somehow got Fios to this newer, looser, standard.

But, FWIW, they should be bending over backwards for you using their legacy service.

As I understand it, military on "ready reserve" need a landline so they can be called up, and the feds keep on the landline providers so this system is nuke-proof to whatever spec.

 

[Donald]

I do not think Verizon cares too much about the old copper wiring to your house. In many areas they have sold that stuff to Fairpoint. FIOS is good but I am not sure Verizon is putting much effort to roll it out to new areas. But to new customers in areas covered, sure.

The old copper wires supplying land line phone only needs to be maintained until 2020, thats not too far away. After that the phone companies could say move to cell or cable or fiber. They can still support it after 2020 but are not required to.

The best hope for many people is G.Fast DSL which allows one to run high speed DSL over copper wiring. The fiber will be run to the neighborhood, but existing copper to the house can be used.

 

[Donald]

I do not think Verizon cares too much about the old copper wiring to your house. In many areas they have sold that stuff to Fairpoint. FIOS is good but I am not sure Verizon is putting much effort to roll it out to new areas. But to new customers in areas covered, sure.

The old copper wires supplying land line phone only needs to be maintained until 2020, thats not too far away. After that the phone companies could say move to cell or cable or fiber. They can still support it after 2020 but are not required to.

The best hope for many people is G.Fast DSL which allows one to run high speed DSL over copper wiring. The fiber will be run to the neighborhood, but existing copper to the house can be used.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: raytseng


for (2) I guarentee they aren't looking for any stories about people with phone or cable provider issues and that won't go anywhere.



They may not look in California, but they cover them in Ohio all the time.
One station here last week covered a complaint that a viewer had with Time Warner regarding their phone service. Problem was rectified.

 

[285south]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo

2. Call the consumer advocate reporters @ your local TV station(s). They are always looking for something to chase.


hahahahaaa

Calling the news channel, I'm shaking my head, the 50s are over.

Best to file a complaint with your state public utilities commissioner

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: 285south
Originally Posted By: Tdbo

2. Call the consumer advocate reporters @ your local TV station(s). They are always looking for something to chase.


hahahahaaa

Calling the news channel, I'm shaking my head, the 50s are over.

Best to file a complaint with your state public utilities commissioner




Shake your head until something rattles loose.