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FIOS TV upgrade (1/12) is AWFUL

I have been a Verizon FIOS customer for 4 years and 4 months. Your service has come a long way since then, but our start was very rocky. There were so many bugs and problems that I didn't think I would continue as a customer. I made some calls, sent some emails and I was put in touch with someone on the west coast – his name was Joe – and he and I worked together to get the bugs cleared out. Everything that I had asked for (except reducing the size and duration of the banner) was done when they did an upgrade onJanuary 6, 2009and the past 3 years have been pretty good. However, after your latest upgrade from a couple of weeks ago, I am really thinking about canceling my service with Verizon. It's just too much work and very inefficient, never mind most of the changes make no sense whatsoever! I'm starting to regret referring friends and family to Verizon if this is the way we have to deal with watching TV, which should be a simple task!

Here's a list of problems that I have encountered.

1 - It's ridiculous that every time I fast forward, rewind, change channel and search the low battery icon flashes to tell me I have a low battery for the remote control. I DO NOT care that the battery is low. I DO NOT want to know it is low. When the batteries are dead, I will replace them. Do you expect that we should just change the batteries because of this? What should we do with the batteries once they have been removed from the remote control? They are still good until they are NOT!! This needs to go away, ASAP!!

2 - When I have finished watching a DVR'd program, I delete it (if I don't want to watch it again) except now I have to delete it 3 times!! I have to go to History and delete again (thank goodness there is a DELETE ALL) and then to have to go to Recent Deletes and delete AGAIN! Why? This makes no sense at all and takes up valuable space on the DVR if I don't remember to delete it 3 times!

3 – The banner!!! It takes up more than a third of the screen!! It was a pain before and now it's just incredibly annoying. There's no reason that the info can't be condensed to use much less space.

4 – The guide is just awful. Now we can only see one hour of programming instead of two as before! The other way to look at more than one hour for one station isn't any more helpful.

5- When you press the MENU button, the cursor used to go to SEARCH. The upgrade done previously moved the SEARCH up one spot. Now you have to scroll down 4 spots!! Then, when you have found what you were searching for the first choice is TUNE TO CHANNEL?? Why? Especially if I am looking for a future program, which is always! Now I must scroll down past WATCH IN HD to finally get to RECORD EPISODE.

I had a technician here today because since the upgrade a couple of weeks ago, my DVR would just shut off. No pattern was established. I could be fast forwarding, searching or just watching a show. The technician was great, he swapped out the DVR and now I am in the process of re-entering all of my shows to record. Which reminds me of all of the issues that are stated above.

I would really, really appreciate hearing from someone to help resolve these issues. I am sure others feel the same way as I do, but just haven't taken the time to call or write.

Please change FIOS TV back to what it was. This upgrade is awful and I am seriously considering getting rid of Verizon.

Comments

Justin46

I don't know that I can fix your problems with FiOS, but I will give some of it a try:

1) I guess I really just don't understand this one. I have found over the years that when the battery in my remote gets low, some functions quit working, while others work just fine. Why not just replace the batteries and move on? And FWIW, I have had the new Guide since August, have not yet seen a battery warning, so I don't even know what it looks like. I believe Verizon added this warning because they got lots and lots of calls to support that the STB was not working and it turned out to just be low batteries; seems like a reasonable solution to me.

2) Why do you want to delete them 3 times? Yes deleted programs take up space, but only until that space is needed, then those deleted recordings will be automatically deleted to make space available. In the meantime, they are there in case you accidentally deleted something you didn't mean to, or you did it on purpose and then later realize you want the recording back. Verizon implemented this because customers asked for it.

3) Agreed, the banner is too large and stays on the screen too long. Verizon is aware of this complaint, hopefully there will be some solution coming, I would like to see a smaller banner plus an option for you to set the time it is displayed (including off I hope). In the meantime, the only solution I know of is to hit the Exit button when the banner appears, it will then disappear immediately.

4) This does not make sense to me. The old Guide displayed 1 1/2 hours, the new Guide on an HD STB and HD TV, other than when using the QIP6xxx STBs, displays 2 1/2 hours. What model STBs are you using? And what type of TV, HD or SD? Your equipment makes a big difference in what you are going to see. And if you do have QIP6xxx STBs, you will not ever get the longer Guide until you replace those with 7xxx boxes or Cisco boxes. Plus there are settings in the Menu that can affect what you see in the Guide, you may have something set incorrectly.

5) You can easily get to Search now while watching a program by hitting the B button on the remote (near the bottom of the remote).

I am pretty sure (99.9%) that Verizon is not going to change back, and I hope they don't, I personally love the new Guide and the new functions. Tell us more about your environment and maybe somebody can help you with any other issues you may have.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, 25/25 Internet, and Digital Voice user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9
Keller, TX 76248

CUSTUSER

I share your upsetment. When Verizon came out with the upgrade many months ago I was extremely upset especially with the banner. Awful is being gracious. I called technical support immediately and was told that this matter would be looked into. Considering the state of technology, this feature should be configurable. Personally, I like a 1 second one liner at the bottom of screen about 1/3 the current size or none at all. Will it be changed? Who knows? I am very disappointed with Verizon doing this. I am now a very dissatisfied customer.

beetlejuice2

I agree with Justin. I havent had a low battery light issue unless my battery is really low and I dont get why you have to delete a show 3 times. I delete mine once and it frees up space.

I personally love the new guide. I can see it better, it takes up the whole screen unlike before, and I find it easier to use. I have a 37 inch tv though so dont know how it looks on smaller screens.

Why do you have to hit menu to go to search? When you are in the guide just hit the blue "b" button on the remote.

I hope fios never goes back to the old style. It was dull, boring, ugly, and the img 1.8 had serious "hand shake" issue with hdmi cables. That is gone on my end now. I dont miss that.

I'm not trying to be rude, but I think a lot of the issues are just from not knowing how to use fios. I would suggest going to the fios channel and watching some of it. It can come in handy.

Justin46

@beetlejuice wrote:
I agree with Justin. I havent had a low battery light issue unless my battery is really low and I dont get why you have to delete a show 3 times. I delete mine once and it frees up space.
I personally love the new guide. I can see it better, it takes up the whole screen unlike before, and I find it easier to use. I have a 37 inch tv though so dont know how it looks on smaller screens.
Why do you have to hit menu to go to search? When you are in the guide just hit the blue "b" button on the remote.
I hope fios never goes back to the old style. It was dull, boring, ugly, and the img 1.8 had serious "hand shake" issue with hdmi cables. That is gone on my end now. I dont miss that.
I'm not trying to be rude, but I think a lot of the issues are just from not knowing how to use fios. I would suggest going to the fios channel and watching some of it. It can come in handy.

Or go read the document linked here:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Interactive-Media-Guide-1-9/FiOS-TV-Getting-Started-With-Interactive-Media-Guide-1-9/td-p/407095

Sorry for tooting my own horn but helping other customers learn more about how to set up and use 1.9 was the driving force behind my writing the document.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, 25/25 Internet, and Digital Voice user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9
Keller, TX 76248

Dbrat1

I too have been a fios customer for years coming from TIVO which in my opinion is still the best. Having said that fios has been great during weather of all kinds, normally had no big problems just irksome things. After the upgrade - that all changed. I really dislike the service now: I block some channels- now I can't even see what the titles are because they are all called 'adult titles', even something like LUCK. 1. This is ridiculous! It'll cant even see what the movie title is pressing info : big mistake! 2. Lately my DVR just stops (!) during a recorded program if I put in pause. I cannot play, rewind or fast forward, I have to totally exit and start over -MADDENING!! And this is a 'NEW' recorder! 3. Did I mention the new recorder sounds like a clock?! It actually ticks, I can't believe it. 4. I HATE the banner, it obscures everything 5. The guide is hideously ugly who designed it anyway? Did they ask customers what they'd they'd like? Maybe what's good on the eyes, brightness, color wise?? And yes, less info on the screen. 6. When I pause something, it hesitates then pauses. It does not respond quickly. 7. I notice less and less shows are available on demand now too unless you pony up $$$ which sucks I M unimpressed and I pay a small FORTUNE for these services. If I didn't have my neighbors trees in the background I would still have TIVO. FIOS definitely beats cable. But my friend has direct tv, their new upgrade is quite nice.

[Deleted User]

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