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Poor Treatment of Existing Customers

I have been a Verizon customer for 15 years. My 2-year agreement ended last month and I just renewed it 3 days ago and the only thing Verizon could do was to keep the same rate for the next 2 years. 2 days later, I received a mailer that I can upgrade to FiOS 1 gigabit Internet (Tripple Play) for $10 a month less than what I was offered on my 75MB internet plan!

I called Verizon customer service and talked with them for an hour and the bottom line was that since I'm an existing customer, they cannot honor this deal and if I want to take advantage of it, I will need to terminate my 3-day old agreement and pay $240 termination fee. They told me as an existing customer, I don't get a 30-day money back gurantee.

This is pure **bleep** and shows lack of focus on existing customers. No wonder why many customer are fleeing Verizon and going with Xfinity or other providers.

Very disappointed at Verizon and its practices and their customer service reps. Can't wait for the agreement to end so I can get out of this horrible provider.

Comments

jonjones1

The customer service rep is wrong.

under General Business Obligations rules you have three days to back out of a contract. Albeit you were an existing customer under a renewal you could simply explain that to Verizon.

in cases like yours you can just cancel and go to cable and when they send an invoice to you send a letter of disputed amounts and this should get their attention. Don’t back down. It is possible that after you have your certified return receipt requested delivered Verizon will counter with an offer.

There are other quicker options which I can explain in a private message.

good luck

CRobGauth

Unfortunately, most providers treat existing customers the same way.

You will typically find the same for not only cable, but cell phones as well.

Providers knowonce they have a customer, they typically dont change.

So they work hard to get them, not as hard to keep them.

stephen7141

Don't believe for a minute that cable treats customers any worse than Verizon. I've been a customer of Verizon and it's former name company for 40 years and they get worse and worse. For several years, I eagerly awaited the arrival of FIOS. Now that it's here, ordering and contacting Verizon is far worse than anything Comcast has ever done. The offers differ from minute to minute which is a sleazy way to do business. The combination offers are a racket but you'll not find that out unless you call often enough to finally get an honest person on the phone. The people on the phone do their best to perpeuate the lies in the initial offers and that sucks. Out of habit, I've kept Verizon for other services, gradually cancelling those services as they become obsolete. I still have one of my land lines going and it's time to kill that too, as it serves no purpose except to reach my alarm company and that technology is changing. I have just been lazy when keeping my cellular service with Verizon and it's time to take time to see the other companies who offer better service and much cheaper rates. The line access fee charged by Verizon is a pure racket and no other company I know of still charges that fee. Data is less expensive almost everywhere else and reaching a Verizon rep is almost impossible. I call the number provided in text messages about FIOS and they tell me wrong department and reconnect me but never come back. This also sucks. As a matter of fact, I cannot think of anything about Verizon that does not suck. When they were Bell Atlantic there was more accountablity and more corporate responsibility unlike the haphazard ways of today.

jonjones1

Just to pick a few points.

1) All Cellular companies charge a line access fee. They may call it ??? Per line but it is a access fee none the less. ( I have been with them on cellular since they were Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Mobile And before that Bell Telephone/NY Telephone

2) although you are correct that paying more for Verizon is foolish today, you have to remember when their wireless and data services were the best anywhere else. And although Cellular One was the first working cellular service Bell Atlantic had to provide a better product and service to become the leader. Yes today they are complacent in that the old days of we are the best for the most part is not applicable today. The others are catching up. However not in Sprints case. If Sprint did what they first envisioned with a “Personal Communications Service” the little repeaters on building and homes all over this more than likely would have worked great. However they did not pursue that. But read on them now and they are doing something like it.

3) The Fios pricing is different in every foot print they are in. And if there is real competition in that area. That is how business works. You may get a great deal or you may get taken to the cleaners. That is the same with cable services and satellite services. You have to decide what is best for you and your budget.

Verizon may not be the best for customer service in that they are huge today. So with millions wanting services or tech support the call times will be longer and you may get a bozo that is not trained properly or thinks ripping off the customers is the way to go. Just remember people like that never get ahead.

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