Fios Activation Fee Waived, But I was Charged
jennifersage
Enthusiast - Level 1

Upon signing a lease on a new apartment, I was excited to finally have Fios service again! I had it in two previous apartments but have been staying with family and (I don't want to name names, but) their service is slow, fails for days for no reason at all, and has terrible customer service. I wanted to have internet upon moving in, so I called to set it up as the address I was moving into was not showing up online. The representative was very nice, gave me the same promotion that I had seen online, and waived the activation fee. She also reassured me that I had 30 days to cancel the service with no charges or penalties. Well, the service was installed smoothly but that day several other things went wrong at the apartment (no heat, overhead light fixtures all went out, etc). After another day of inspecting the place and more things going wrong, I decided to pull out. I informed the landlord I would not be moving in and he refunded my deposit, cancelled the utilities in my name and that was easier than I thought, too. I called Verizon and they were very understanding, assured me as long as I returned the modem, as promised, I would be charged nothing. I thanked them and assured them when I find a new apartment, I will be sure to have Fios installed again as they have been such a great company. (I have had their mobile service for years and have always been pleased.) 

Well, today I checked my bank statement, and a $75 fee was taken out. I signed into my account on Verizon, and saw that I was billed two days after the service was cancelled and autopay took it out of my account ten days later. I called customer service, explained the situation, and they transferred me to financial services for a refund. Finacial services transferred me to billing to dispute the bill. Billing transferred me back to financial services, who transferred me to customer service, who transferred me to... After over an hour and about ten transfers, I was told that "this is a non-refundable activation fee, since my account is closed [they] can't see any details or notes from when I activated it, and that [they] never waive activation fees anyway". I VERY CLEARLY asked several times when I cancelled it if I would be charged anything, and was reassured as long as I returned the modem, there would be NO CHARGES. But since "there are no notes that [they] can see,  there is nothing [they] can do". 

I'm extremely upset over this. I have no way of proving what I was told, and if I was going to be charged the activation fee, I wish I had at least been told at the time that I cancelled (WHEN I ASKED ABOUT ANY CHARGES) so I could have contacted the other roommates I was supposed to share all fees with, they are now in the wind. (Plus why would they give me money at this point anyway?) Verizon's excellent customer service has always been my deciding factor in choosing their services but this feels almost like a scam, especially upon seeing other forum posts about similar experiences.

0 Likes
3 Replies
ElizabethS
Moderator Emeritus

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you.Please go to your profile page for the forum, and look in the middle, right at the top where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.
Under โ€œMy Support Casesโ€ you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe".
Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

0 Likes
Verizon_Support
Customer Service Rep

Hello!

As per our converstation on your private support case this issue is now closed. Please let us know if we can do anything else for you. Thanks for choosing Verizon.

-Mitchell

0 Likes
nedrah128
Newbie

I have moved to venice ca  and have a fios already installed and I have called three different times to get it internet service and every time they want me to pay a 75 activation fee. I am signing a two year contract and since their is no installation fee I refuse to pay 75 dollars for  verizon to flip a switch. Do you have a promo code I can use to get free activation ?

0 Likes