I had been a FIOS customer for more than 3 years. I called to discuss my rates, etc. as they had gone up dramatically without any notice that would happen. After being told that I could reduce my bill by removing a few channels (a handful of channels were mentioned that I didn't care about so I agreed), I came home two days later to find out that HBO and SHO were removed without anyone ever telling me. I wasted a lot of time on the phone with the retention dept. only to be told that they would not honor the pricing they had given me and restore those two channels only (again, I didn't care about the ones the rep had actually mentioned on the phone). So, I cancelled my service and returned my equipment. I then received a bill for $350 for cancellation of a 2 year contract I had purportedly entered into. I called to explain that I had been misled about what channels were being removed and that is the only reason I agreed to the new pricing and a new agreement. It was as soon as I found this out (2 days after that call) that I called again to discuss the situation. It was at that time that I cancelled my service as the rep said she was unable to make any further adjustments.
The rep used channel package names that were completely meaningless to me as they did not list channels and they sent me a confirmation email stating that I agreed to XYZ package (which again – I had no idea what channels were contained in XYZ package vs. ABC package vs. PDQ package). As with most things these days it seems, Verizon relies on opacity and could care less about making customers happy (even those who have been long term customers).
Verizon will not get my $350 for this nonsense. I do not expect that anything I do, any letter I write, any complaint to regulators or consumer groups I register will make any difference in their behavior. But, I will do all those things anyway. Beyond the fact that they are part of a small oligopoly, they rely on our collective laziness and silence to continue to abuse consumers. Someone at Verizon, will waste far more than $350 worth of their time on dealing with me. I promise.
