Posts about Verizon FiOS

FiOS Bringing 26 Channels Of Live TV To Xbox 360
As we wrote early last month, the folks at Microsoft had signed some sort of then-nebulous deal with Verizon FiOS to bring more live TV options to Xbox 360 users. Now, as the twosome prepares to roll out its offerings, details of the deal have finally been released. More Â»

From FiOS, To Cablevision, To Hell, And Back Again
Oliver tried to two-time FiOS after he got burned on a bad install. But Cablevision didn't treat him right either, reneging on its promise to pricematch his old bill. Now he's back again trying to rekindle a relationship with FiOS but they're still up to their old ways and not giving him the tender loving he deserves. More Â»

Which Internet Provider Is The Best For Streaming Netflix?
How well you'll be able to stream season two of Breaking Bad on Netflix may depend largely on which company you're paying to provide internet service to your home. Netflix has just released the results of its own study on network performance and the results may not surprise you. More Â»

Verizon Loses FiOS Equipment, Sends You To Collections
Leon liked Verizon's FiOS service when he had it. It wasn't until he moved and sent his equipment back that he had any problems with them. He sent his router and CableCard back via UPS, and the card was taped to the side of the router. Verizon received the router, but the CableCard is still missing. "I have visions of the router at some new customer's house with the cablecard still taped to it," he writes. More Â»

How To Say No To Arbitration With Your Cable Company
Here's something neat. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision/Optimum actually let customers opt out of arbitration when they sign up. If you don't want to give up your right to personally sue them in a court of law and be forced into a kangaroo court overseen by a judge whose fees are paid for by the company you're suing, Cablevision will let you. The caveat is that you have to tell them within 30 days of signing your contract. Here's the links and relevant contract language to opt-out: More Â»

2 Years, 12 Calls, 3 Installation Appointments And I Still Don't Have FiOS
More than two years ago, Consumerist reader Stephen spotted a Verizon FiOS box tacked to the side of his neighbor's house. The two properties share a driveway and a telephone pole, so it should be no problem to get his house hooked up for FiOS service, right? Of course not. More Â»

Xbox 360 Finally Getting More Live & On-Demand TV
It's been reported for quite some time that Xbox 360 users would eventually get access to more streaming video options. Earlier today, Microsoft announced that it has partnered with a number of content providers to bring content from HBO, SyFy and even more for Comcast and Verizon FiOS subscribers. More Â»

Verizon Internet To Share Your Location With Advertisers So You'll Get Ads "Of More Interest"
As a favor to you, Verizon internet says they're going to start sharing your local geographical location to advertisers so you'll get ads "of more interest." For instance, "a pizza chain may want to deliver their ad to give a special offer to people living in a particular area." Here's how to opt out. More Â»

Verizon Makes Online Chat Just As Crappy As Calling In
Verizon FiOS has done an admirable job with their online chat-based customer service, making it seem incredibly real and human. You almost forget that you're not talking to a person over the phone. One of the ways they make this simulacrum seem so life-like is that you can be transferred from one agent to another, and then there's silence on the other end because there's no one there — just like the real thing! Reader Michael shares a recent chat transcript to illustrate: More Â»

Verizon Takes Away FTP Access, Charges For It
Star commenter GitEmSteveDave contacted me this morning with a relatively minor but still irritating problem: he didn't have FTP access to his webspace anymore. While all customers with Verizon as their Internet service provider have a small amount of storage space to put an entire web page or just a few files online, they can now only access that space through a web-based site-builder tool. The change is supposedly for "security" reasons, but somehow security is no longer a concern if you pay Verizon an extra six bucks per month. More Â»

Verizon FiOS Won't Stop Billing Me For Phantom Cable Boxes
Heath exchanged his two Verizon FiOS set-top boxes for two shiny new ones, but Verizon was unable to let go. They just couldn't get the idea through their billing system that Heath has two boxes now, not four. So they kept billing Heath for all four, until he gave up and got rid of FiOS entirely. Now they're trying to get him to pay $900 for the boxes that he already returned in January, even though he's provided them with the equipment return paperwork. More Â»

What Would You Want To See On A Cable Customers' Bill Of Rights?
Over at our former sibling site Gizmodo, they have cobbled together what they believe is a list of the basic rights any cable customer should have when it comes to service, billing and selection. We wanted to throw it out there to see if you agree. More Â»

Report: Record Number Of Cable Customers Cutting The Cord
Hear that snipping sound? No, it's not squirrels nipping at your FiOS cord. It's a record number of Americans cutting ties with their cable and satellite providers. More Â»

Verizon Keeps You Up Until Midnight, Still Can't Provide Internet Access
Brian has a very simple problem. He has Verizon FiOS service. He moved within the same apartment complex, and checked with Verizon to see what he could do about moving his service. Only now the move is done, Verizon's instructions didn't work, they can't get a tech out until this weekend. Brian works from home, and this isn't acceptable when all that needs to happen is having a switch or two flipped in the basement. More Â»

How I Finally Convinced Verizon That "Price For Life" Doesn't Mean "Turn My Service Off When Price Goes Up"
Telecom companies often have a hard time grasping the subtleties of single words like "unlimited" or "guarantee." So a three-word phrase like "price for life" is likely too complex for a company like Verizon to begin to parse. This is what Consumerist reader Karen recently found out when trying to sort out what should have been a simple problem with her bill. More Â»

Comcast, Verizon, Others Hop On Board Anti-Piracy "Copyright Alert System"
We know, because you've told us, that a number of you prefer to get your movies and premium TV via less-than-legal internet sources. We're not going to judge you for that, but you may soon begin seeing notices from the new Copyright Alert System to let you know that they are aware of your dirty downloads and would you kindly stop. More Â»

FioS Install Rips Up Your Azaleas, Cuts All Your Lines, And Disappears
Well at least they didn't start a fire. That seems to be the only thing Verizon FiOS didn't mess up with they did an install for reader janvir. They destroyed our reader's new flowerbeds, mucked up the mulch, and cut several lines going into their house. Phone, alarm, TV, and internet were all cut. Despite promises to fix it, FiOS was a no-show. Oddly enough, Comcast actually had better customer service than FiOS, coming out and promptly fixing the lines FioS had cut. Here's Janvir's complaint letter: More Â»

Verizon's Excuse For Continuing To Bill Dead Customer: "No One Is Perfect"
Last September, a woman in California contacted Verizon to set up internet access at the home of her ill mother. It won't surprise some of you that Big Red, despite promises to the contrary, never managed to properly set the service up. In December, the mom passed away and the daughter called Verizon to cancel all service — including phone — to the house. So of course Verizon continued to charge for internet access it was never able to provide in the first place. More Â»

AT&T, Comcast Rank Last In Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The folks at the American Customer Satisfaction Index have released their annual report on the various elements of the information sector. And it probably won't come as a surprise to Consumerist readers that AT&T's wireless division and Comcast each brought up the rear in their respective fields. More Â»

Verizon Teases Me With FiOS Discount It Knows I'm Not Qualified For
Consumerist reader James pays a decent chunk of change every month for his Verizon FiOS service, so when he got a letter from Big Red offering to save him $4/month on his bill — "no strings attached" — by bundling his two HD receivers into one payment, he jumped at the chance, only to find out he was never entitled to the discount in the first place. More Â»

One E-Mail To Verizon CEO Accomplishes What 6 Calls To Customer Service Could Not
Rob has been an internet-only Verizon FiOS customer for years and recently decided, since he hadn't really experienced any problems with that service, that he'd take the plunge had get FiOS cable TV service too. Since his house was already wired, it shouldn't have been a big deal but the all-too-familiar happened and Rob found himself staring into the customer service abyss. More Â»

Worst Company In America Round One: AT&T Vs. Verizon
Telecom's two biggest bruisers are finally set to duke it out in the ring. And don't expect this pair of pugilists to just phone it in. More Â»

No One Said Verizon FiOS Pricing Schemes Had To Make Sense
James would like some fast Internet tubes running to his house. Faster than the regular access that Verizon sells to consumers. He's willing to pay more for the privilege, but frustrated that it would actually cost less to have two separate lines run into his house and use a load-balancing router than to have a single line that's twice as fast. More Â»

Here's Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2011!
For the sixth year in a row, we asked Consumerist readers to send us their nominations for our Worst Company In America tournament. And this year's response was the greatest by far. More Â»

FCC To Reconsider Rules For Negotiations Between Broadcasters And Cable Companies
In recent years, the disputes between cable companies and broadcasters have gotten especially ugly as boardroom squabbles have spilled over onto the airwaves and online. And in the end, it's always the subscribers who get hurt with blackouts and eventual price hikes. That's why the FCC voted today to reinvestigate the rules and its role in these negotiations. More Â»

Verizon Refuses To Believe That They Have Your Router And DVR
Andre has had issues with a Verizon equipment return spanning almost an entire year. Verizon claims that they never received the FiOS equipment that he sent back in March of last year. Andre sent the equipment back, and has the UPS tracking information to prove it. Verizon doesn't think that he did, and has sent a collection agency after him for the $1800 he supposedly owes. More Â»

Man Develops Cobwebs Waiting For Verizon FiOS To Lookup His Address
It should not take numerous minutes for Verizon to look up John's address just to see if he might be eligible for FiOS. All told it took them 27 minutes just to locate his address and say, nope, you can't get FiOS. So he served them by talking trash about their database. Oh snap!

Guy Tries To Give Up Cable, Wimps Out In Under A Month
A Cnet editor and his wife tried to "cut the cord" and ditch his pricey FiOs cable bundle, and either get their content free or through online downloads. Less than a month later, he's back on the sauce. What a milksop! More Â»

Update: Couple Waits 7 Months For FiOs Refund. Instead, They Get A Debt Collector.
There could be some relief on the way for the couple, who, after waiting 7 months for their $144.81 refund from Verizon FiOs, got a call from a debt collector instead. More Â»

Couple Waits 7 Months For FiOs Refund. Instead, They Get A Debt Collector.
Tony and his wife have been waiting for 7 months for their $144.81 refund from Verizon FiOs that they've repeatedly been told is coming their way. It hasn't showed up, but the debt collector trying to collect on that amount has. More Â»

FiOS Is Fast Except When You Can't Upload Anything
Matt hasn't been able to upload anything for 10 days now which is a bit of a problem when you have a home business built around uploading stuff for clients. More Â»

Verizon Can't Help Me, Accidentally Gives Me Phone Sex Number
Spencer says Verizon has trouble helping new customers who don't yet have a phone number on their accounts, and the problem led to him being passed around by unhelpful customer service reps until one of them mistakenly gave him a number that connected to a phone sex ad. More Â»

Verizon Was Just Kidding About Charging You $3.50 To Pay Your Bill
Verizon was on the verge of charging landline, FiOS, and DSL customers $3.50 for the privilege of paying their bill by credit card, but has apparently reconsidered. More Â»

Verizon Fixes Billing Quagmire, Overnights Refund Check After Consumerist Post
On Wednesday, we shared Mike's Verizon billing horror story. Instead of putting all of his Verizon and Verizon Wireless services on one bill as they were supposed to, the company pummeled Mike with a half-dozen different bills that added up to $1,100 for about a month and a half of service. He spent hours on the phone trying to fix this mess before writing to Consumerist. Then a higher power interceded: Verizon's Executive Support and Media Relations departments, who we had passed Mike's story on to in addition to publishing it. More Â»

Verizon's FiOS "One Bill" Service Is More Like "Six Bills, None Of Which Make Any Sense"

MIke writes that he's having some catastrophic billing issues with Verizon. He's never had good luck with their customer service, which was fine with him because he never really had issues with his account. The simple act of choosing a new home service bundle set off a chain reaction ended up with Mike receiving multiple bills with different charges for different things, totaling about $1,100 for a 45-day period. 

When he threw up his hands and asked Verizon to just cancel his service, waiving the early termination fees for his trouble, they couldn't handle that, either. Update: Verizon has fixed the accounts and given Mike a full refund.  More Â»

Man Wants Verizon FiOS, Keeps Getting Credit Score Dinged Instead
Todd's subject line to us was, "Verizon FiOS hates me," and maybe he's right. Each time he tries to sign up for their package deal, they check his credit score, proceed with the sign-up process, then cancel everything at the last minute due to a "technical glitch." They say he can try a third time if he wants. More Â»

FiOS Demands $500 Deposit For Transferring Service, $500 To Cancel Transfer
Consumerist reader Beth is a telecommuter who needs something more than the standard residential internet connection. So she decided to spring for the business-grade line for the apartment she shares with her boyfriend. However, since their TV has nothing to do with her business, they opted to keep the cable service on their residential account. I probably don't need to tell you that trouble ensued. More Â»

Reader Gets $40 Per Month Knocked Off FiOS Bill
Reader Shelve says he was able to get Verizon to give him $40 per month off his FiOS bill. How? More Â»

Verizon Stuck Me With Early Termination Fee Because I Moved
Robert wanted out of his Verizon FIOS contract when he made a move and made sure his new home was not in the coverage area. Despite his reasonable assumption that he would avoid an early termination fee, Verizon stuck him with an ETF specifically because he's moving to a non-Verizon area. More Â»

Verizon Offering Trials Of FiOS With No Cancellation Fee, Cheaper No-Term Contract Bundles
Even though Verizon might have throttled back on expanding its FiOS network to new areas, the company still needs to make sure the networks it's spent millions installing start making money. That's why the telecom biggie has made two moves to attract reluctant consumers. More Â»

BillShrink Shows You How To Save On Cable Bills
This morning, BillShrink delivered a karate chop to the cable cabal with a new service, currently in beta, that shows you how to get the best cable/tv/satellite/dish package for the best price. More Â»

Verizon FIOS Pulled The Old Switcharoo On Me
Dave says he was lured in by the promise of a low rate when he switched from Cablevision to Verizon FIOS, but the bills have been much higher than expected and when he called to complain he was told the promotion he signed up for didn't fit anything Verizon offers. More Â»

Verizon Rubs Comcast's Face In Worst Company Win
For anyone who thought that mammoth megacorporations behaved anything like adults, they should just check out the Twitter account for Verizon, who saw fit tonight to have a little fun at the expense of Worst Company In America winner Comcast. More Â»

Verizon Won't Install FiOS Until You Email The CEO
This is actually a happy story, despite my inability to write cheerful-sounding headlines, so pay attention if you've ever been told that your whole apartment complex can get cable/FiOS/whatever, but you can't because you are special and not allowed to be happy. You'd be surprised at how many letters we get from people who have this problem. One such person, Andrew, Consumerist Reader, decided to email the CEO. More Â»

I E-Mailed The Verizon CEO And Got A Free Month Of FiOS
Mike was having trouble getting Verizon to actually show up and install his FiOS. He wasted two Saturdays and a Sunday waiting and fruitlessly calling Verizon customer service. But after a nice e-mail to the CEO, Mike says his FiOS was installed immediately. More Â»

Worst Company In America: AT&T VS Verizon
It's a battle of the telecom titans today, as AT&T — better known as the company that didn't think New Yorkers would actually get iPhones for Christmas and the ones responsible to those ads that made us dislike Luke Wilson — takes on Verizon, home of $350 ETF and those ads that make us want to give the FiOS guy a swirly in the boys room between classes. More Â»

Hey Boston, You Want FiOS? Too Bad
If you live in the city of Boston, those "FiOS Guy" commercials are about close as you're going to get to Verizon's fiber-optic cable/phone/internet service in the foreseeable future. More Â»

Time Warner Launching WiFi Hotspots In NYC
Earlier today, Time Warner Cable announced their plan for placing WiFi hotspots in NYC that will be free to subscribers of their Road Runner internet service. More Â»

Verizon Accuses Cablevision Of Patent Infringement On Cable Boxes
Just as it's finished its battle with ABC, Cablevision looks like they're about to lock horns again. This time it's with Verizon, who have accused the NYC-area cable company of infringing on several of its patents for set-top receivers. More Â»

Reach Verizon FiOS Executive Customer Service
Lisa Charles 212-321-8463.

Impossible To Fix Address Problem Prevents You From Giving Money To Verizon FiOS
Reader Lindsay wants to give money to Verizon FiOS because she likes the product so very much. Sadly, there's some sort of glitch with her address and Verizon won't fix it, or call her back, no matter how many times she calls. More Â»

HBO, Verizon Fios Team Up For 'HBO Go' Online Service
While most of the major TV networks and several basic cable channels have been ramping up the amount of programming they make available online, premium cable channels have steered clear of the Internet. That could change with today's announcement that Verizon Fios and HBO have teamed up to create HBO Go, a service that makes the pay channel's offerings available online. More Â»

FiOS: Lock In A $20 Per Month Price Increase With A Two Year Contract! Huh?
Our buddies over at the CR Money Blog noticed something odd about a new offer from Verizon. You can get FiOS for $89.00 for a year! Sounds good, until you realize that the prices goes up after 12 months— but the contract doesn't end for another year. More Â»

NBC Blocking Certain ISPs From Online Olympic Streaming
If you connect to the internet via Verizon DSL, don't expect to be able to catch your triple axels in real time. Robin complains she and her husband have been ring-blocked since NBC didn't put the ISP on its approved list. More Â»

Google Creates Experimental Fiber Network, Moves Closer To Becoming Cyberdyne Systems
In a move that surely has some folks at Verizon looking for a change of pants, Google announced today that it is planning to build and test a ultra-high-speed broadband network that would deliver data at 1 Gb per second, up to 100x that of current Internet connections. Oh, and they want to offer it on the cheap. More Â»

Verizon FiOS Early Termination Fee To Double This Week
Are you planning to sign up for Verizon FiOS service? If you wait until this Sunday to sign up, you're going to be liable for a higher early termination fee. The fee for ending a two-year contract will more than double, from $179 to $360. More Â»

Verizon Tried A TV Service Bait-And-Switch On My Parents
Corey, who is trying to help his Brooklyn parents improve their TV setup, feels his folks were baited and switched by Verizon, displaying a cheap deal on its site that went away after he entered his parents' address. More Â»

Verizon FiOS Customer Service Thinks You, A Human, Are Voicemail
Verizon's customer service is operated by robots. Apparently, these robots are not too skilled at determining whether or not you are also a robot. This might be useful to know during the upcoming robot apocalypse (see this educational film about the subject,) but for reader Carlos it had no practical application. More Â»

Switch To FiOs An Unmitigated Disaster

Do you know that Comcast commercial where this homeowner gets FiOs installed against his will and then all these bulldozers tear up his lawn and bumbling contractors cause an electrical short? Lelah's letter describes a process that's very similar, except worse and much longer. And then this salesman just picks up her guitar and starts playing it and singing without even asking first. No wonder, by story's end, she's been driven to the brink of insanity, demanding compensation for 5 missed days of work. So far, they're offering her $25.  More Â»

New Jersey Sues Verizon Over "Free LCD TV" Disaster

—>The State of New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against Verizon, alleging that its marketing, sales, billing and customer service practices for its FiOS television, telephone and internet services are deceptive and misleading. The lawsuit is partly in response to the now-infamous "Free LCD" disaster.  More Â»

Reader Saves $230 On Cable And Phone Bills By Rocking The Cancellation Threat

—>Here's how Stephanie saved $230 on her cable and phone bills after following the tips in "3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills"  More Â»

"It's Been 35 Days, Can Someone PLEASE Properly Install FiOS?"

—>Reader David has been trying to get his Verizon FiOS installed and running for 35 days now. He's escalated his complaint to the highest level and it seems that Verizon is simply powerless to fix the problem. We'd ordinarily suggest he cancel and use another company — but he's locked into Verizon by his homeowner's association. Even if he doesn't use it (and currently, since it's not working, he's not using it) he has to pay for it.  More Â»

When 9 Phone Calls Can't Get Your FiOS Installed, Email The CEO

—>Reader Bill was getting the run around from Verizon— but he wasn't even a customer yet! His dramatic ordeal started on October 9th, and by the 16th he'd taken a full day off of work, called Verizon nine times and still he was without FiOS.  More Â»

Verizon Told Me Their FiOS Gift Card Promotion Never Even Existed

—>Reader Jacob says that he's been getting the runaround for months after signing up with Verizon during their free $200 Circuit City gift card promotion, but he finally reached his breaking point when a Verizon rep told him that the promotion never even existed. Too bad it did exist, and we wrote about it.  More Â»

Dear Verizon: I Am Canceling FiOS Because Of Your "Ridiculous And Unacceptable Billing Practices"

—>Reader Rob has cc'd us on the Executive Email Carpet Bomb that he launched on Verizon due to the fact that he has been unable to get them to send him a bill. Each month (for the past 3 months) Verizon has been deducting random amounts of money from his checking account, and when he asks them to send him some sort of bill (electronic or paper) they assure him they will — and then they don't. By his calculations, Verizon has overcharged him $117.68 over the last three billing cycles.  More Â»

Upgrade FiOs Speeds From 5/2 To 10/2

—>Verizon FiOs recently doubled its download speed for consumer and small businesses from 5 to 10mb, but reader Lindsay says she wasn't automatically upgraded. Luckily, if you're in the same boat, you can upgrade by calling 800-688-2880, entering the phone number on your account, pressing 3, then 5, then 2. Lindsay writes, "I got to a rep very quickly and she got everything switched. It cost me $3 more due to a rate change since I signed up, but that’s not too much to ask for double the download speed."  More Â»

4 Confessions Of A FiOS Support Agent

—>A FiOS Support Agent has kindly written in to share some insider tips to getting the most out of your FiOS support experience. Of particular interest: Make sure you know (and approve of) where they've buried your cable so you know wherenot to dig in your lawn!  More Â»

Verizon, It's Been 4 months, 16 days Since FiOS Was Installed. Where's My Free LCD TV?

—>Reader Chris had Verizon FiOS installed back in January, and like so many other Verizon customers, he's been unable to get the free LCD he was promised. Chris sent us a timeline of his struggles with Verizon. It's a long, frustrating read...  More Â»

Verizon Infuriates Baseball Fans With "Misleading" Blog Post "Announcing" MLB Extra Innings On FiOS

—>Back in February of this year, Verizon posted the following message titled "MLB Coming to FiOS, Mom and Apple Pie Rejoice!" on their Policy Blog:  More Â»

Verizon: Cancel Vonage And Cablevision Phone Lines Or You Can't Have FiOS

—>Here's an odd little letter. For once a customer was actually pleased with the salesperson that came to their door and convinced them to try FiOS. Yay! The trouble came when the nice salesperson called in and Verizon refused to activate the account unless the customer canceled their phone lines with Vonage and Cablevision and switched all three to Verizon.   More Â»

Verizon CSR: My FiOS Bill Is Always Wrong, Too

—>The Tampa Bay Tribune has a fascinating article about the sales-centric culture at Verizon's customer service call centers. The CSRs are given large bonuses (sometimes thousands of dollars) for selling services to people who call in looking to correct their bills.   More Â»

Comcast Degrades HD Quality To Make Room For More Channels
When you order Hi-Def TV, you expect it to be on the shining Excalibur level, but it looks like Comcast is degrading the quality of some HD channels in order to make room for more channels. To test this theory out, Avsforum member bfdtv recorded the same shows from the same channel at the same time on both Comcast Hi-Def and Fios TV. The left is the FiOs. The right is the Comcast. As you can see, the Comcast signal looks like crap. The forum thread has more screenshots, a signal analysis, and some source videos. So far the Comcast channels receiving extra compression are: Discovery Channel, SciFi, USA, Food, NatGeo, UHD, A&E, HGTV, Starz, Cinemax, HBO, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater, and History HD.  More Â»

FiOS Swaps Customers' Account Details, Still Won't Fix After 8 Months

—>Whenever Andru logs into his Verizon FiOS account, he sees the personal information on some other guy's account, including name, address, email address, last four digits of credit card and social security number. He's contacted the other guy, and the other guy also sees his. Verizon has said they will fix it in the next 24 hours. They've been saying that for the past eight months. This is supposed to be the future of the internet and they can't even fix a simple account error?  More Â»

FiOS Router Constantly Rebooting? Here's The Fix

—>Are you a a FiOS customer with your Verizon-supplied Actiontec MI424-WR router that keeps rebooting itself? Apparently a recent firmware upgrade, the software that runs the router, is buggy, but there is a solution. You can get it if you call and complain, that is, if you're able to make it through the phone lines that are all bogged up from other customers calling about the same issue. Reader Jarrod writes, "My entire neighborhood is experiencing this issue and the only resolution I can find online says to call them and complain and then they will fix it. Too bad the support lines are jammed and after I did get through I have been on hold for over 1 1/2 hours."   More Â»

The speed sounds great, but did you know Verizon also removes all your old copper phone lines when they install FiOS?  More Â»