No home phone for 6 weeks.....does anyone at Verizon care anymore???

I am writing this on behalf of my 84 year old mother in Brooklyn who has been without landline service for the past 5 weeks or so. Her line has had static and after calling for service on several occasions, the technician said he could not gain access to the utility pole which is located in a neighbor's yard 2 doors down. These are attached row houses. The neighbor has a vengeance against Verizon and has slammed the door in their face on more than one occasion. They refuse to admit them into her yard. Therefore, Verizon said the only way to regain service would be for my mother to switch to FIOS. I have a case filed with the Public Service Commission and her local congressman. And at this point I am ready to file a lawsuit.

There were so many FIOS installation dates set up for her between 2 to 6 weeks away, no one gave us the correct date,and we finally argued that she lives alone, is not well, and other than her cell phone which is difficult for her to use in the first place, she needs her phones back ASAP. Finally, her install date was moved up to this past Friday, Oct. 7th.

The tech came,, said he did his part of her TV installation, but said he needed the neighbor's yard to do the phone service. Well, here we go again, she refused admittance and we were back in Square One!

The Tech called for help and another tech came and they decided to install the FIOS on a different pole. My mother questioned and tried to understand why this wasn't done in the first place and I tried to explain to my mother that copper is no longer used, and she was getting fiber optic wiring now and blah blah blah. She didn't understand much.

9 hours later, the tech finished and said, "I'm so sorry. I cannot get the telephone to work. I cannot get a dial tone. My work is done, the rest is up to Verizon on their end. The trouble seems to be them, not you. No one has to come anymore. The work is from their office. I can't stay here any longer to get your phone working. I'm not paid for my overtime (b.s.) You will have service by 7:15pm tomorrow night." haha Right.

Needless to say, nothing happened Saturday. I called and there was no open trouble ticket. They said the tech CLOSED the matter. He should have left it OPEN but someone closed it. I then spoke to FIOS and they said they'd have the problem fixed by Sunday, today. Well, no one has shown up. I called and was told it's now Tuesday, and FIOS was going to have to redo the entire installation and troubleshoot again. This just can't be possible.

There have been at least 50 calls since early September til now, which I won't go into, back and forth, with so many mixed messages, so many promises, so many lies, so many excuses, that I have now decided I am calling the Mayor's office on Tuesday to find out where we go from here. Does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing here?? How do we get telephone service back? I just hope she doesn't have any real emergency because no one can really reach her. Truly a disgrace.

Accepted answers

irbrenda

After finally contacting the Consumer Advocate's offices in NYC, I had a personal call from their offices and my issue was immediately looked into, sent to an escalation team, and resolved Thursday afternoon. The person I dealt with was outstanding and I commended her in a written letter to her superior.

However, by Friday, I ran into a new issue......they connected her new digital voice phone but disconnected her FIOS TV premium package and my mother just had standard TV channels. I had to fight with billing for nearly 2 hours for them to see she had ordered nearly every premium channel. Took 3 hours to get her services reinstated! Whew!!!! Hope this ends our issues.

All comments

[Deleted User]

I'm sorry to hear about your recent issue. I've copied your message to an employee monitored board, where a Verizon representative can assist you. You will be contacted by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account as soon as possible.

Thank you for your participation in the Verizon Forums!

KaLin

irbrenda

Well, thank you but I called Verizon this morning only to find out they DISCONNECTED service on my mother's phone after all this time. No one knows what happened and now there is no phone service to be fixed. They have an order to disconnect her FIOS TV service too for tomorrow. I have been on the phones all morning with FIOS Customer support, FIOS Tech support, etc., and after several technicians and transfer after transfer, there is no help or solution to my mother's situation. We are still getting story after story with each tech we speak to. Does anyone know why her phone number is now disconnected???? Where do we turn to now????

irbrenda

Well, since stories have been changing everytime we call Verizon, I have contacted the FTC, the NYS Attorney General's Office, Ivan Seidenberg's office - Verizon's Chairman/CEO as far as I know, and the Brooklyn Borough President's office. My mother has no phone, no phone number after 35 years, no sign of pending service, and an order to disconnect her newly installed FIOS TV! Thanks, Verizon, for no customer support for an 84 yr old sick senior!

Travis_VZ

Good afternoon! Let me apologize for the experience you've had, first and foremost. I want to help you resolve this matter as quickly as possible. I've sent you a PM so we can get some more information and work on this.

abbyten

Do any of your local TV stations have something like what one of ours calls 12 On Your Side? If people have problems like this the station (REPORTERS) will investigate and will usually get action. Of course, it also is a story on the local news. These kinds of stories really do affect businesses and can get lots of things done. We have one station with a reporter who handles these things exclusively. He lives for this stuff.

I've seen amazing results. Big (or small) companies do not like this kind of thing aired. It hurts their image. Try calling any of the reporters or emailing them at any of the stations (normally all) in your area that do this kind of investigation. I've never seen it not work yet.

smith6612

I'm surprised that you had to go through all of that just to get telephone service back. While FiOS is nice, you just need to ensure the power isn't out for extended periods of time if your mother happens to have corded phones. Of course, if all she has are cordless this point might be moot anyways. FiOS has been dependable for a ton of people, so it shouldn't fail her.

I'm also surprised as to why Verizon wasn't able to get to the pole in which they have a right of way to. While the neighbor probably was very upset at Verizon over something, in most areas a person cannot deny a Utility (Verizon) access to the easement/poles in which the particular utility owns. If you try to fight the utility that has an easement you're bound to lose every time for as long as they are operating within the easement. Outside of the easement, yes the Utility must ask permission. Now, it depends on the municipality but I know this is the case in my area, and is probably the case in all of the New York City Boroughs as well. Sure, if the utility messes things up you can go after them to get it repaired, but you can't block them from getting to their network. In this case, you could have gotten the neighbor to shape up and stop hassling Verizon and neighbors by not letting them access the pole. The alternate pole was always an option, as it seems to be for FiOS, but honestly they didn't need to go through that.

trizi01

Sadly, I am not surprised at all and no, Verizon does not care at all. I have been a Verizon customer for over 20 years and have always been their biggest cheerleader. No matter how many offers cable made to me I refused to leave Verizon. Since May, my phone Verizon service has gone out 6 times, one time they left me without service for 27 days. It was finally resolved to go out 2 more times after that, each for 48 hours. Let's not even get into how it happens at work at least once a month also and they have no problem leaving a business with no phones for multiple days - nothing is ever a priority. It has become an ongoing joke with my friends and family but it is actually embarrassing to keep telling people I have no phone AGAIN. It's not like I live/work in the middle of nowhere, we're talking about NYC.

I have become totally disgusted with the lack of customer service that I am finally saying good-bye to Verizon and I'm really not happy about it. I have 2 more days of wondering if my phone/DSL is working when I get home, then I am done. C'mon Verizon, it's not rocket science. These are phone lines that continue to have the SAME problem...too bad you don't care enough to resolve it and now it's time to say bye-bye.

Williek4

I have been charged for long distance for almost a year, matter fact feb of this year will make a year, i have the freedom package and all blocks have or suppose to have been put on the account so that this does not happen. I have had to call every single month and every time i call i get the same answer that we have fixed the issue and when i get the bill same issue and they even sent a letter saying the phone was going to be disconnected if not paid ....I have talked to supervisors and begged for this to be fixed but not fixed is there anyone that can tell me what to do i have emailed and written letters begging for help but no reply or same reply we are fixing the issue Mr, Keene....

KH-OrnEsh1

I'm sorry you are having difficulty. An agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information or to help you resolve your issue.

@Williek4 wrote:
I have been charged for long distance for almost a year, matter fact feb of this year will make a year, i have the freedom package and all blocks have or suppose to have been put on the account so that this does not happen. I have had to call every single month and every time i call i get the same answer that we have fixed the issue and when i get the bill same issue and they even sent a letter saying the phone was going to be disconnected if not paid ....I have talked to supervisors and begged for this to be fixed but not fixed is there anyone that can tell me what to do i have emailed and written letters begging for help but no reply or same reply we are fixing the issue Mr, Keene....

Prpete011

Verizon is getting worse. I upgraded my sevice a few days ago and cannot no longer contact them for help. They are really jerks and care more about profits than customer serice<

KH-OrnEsh1

If you are having an issue with your Verizon service, you can use the Verizon Troubleshooter to fix and report issues with your Verizon Phone, FiOS TV, or Internet Service. You can also schedule a repair. Here is the link: http://www.verizon.com/repair

You can also find tools on the Verizon Residential Support page that may help you diagnose your issue: http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp

Poorfellow

@Smith6612 wrote:
I'm surprised that you had to go through all of that just to get telephone service back. While FiOS is nice, you just need to ensure the power isn't out for extended periods of time if your mother happens to have corded phones. Of course, if all she has are cordless this point might be moot anyways. FiOS has been dependable for a ton of people, so it shouldn't fail her.
I'm also surprised as to why Verizon wasn't able to get to the pole in which they have a right of way to. While the neighbor probably was very upset at Verizon over something, in most areas a person cannot deny a Utility (Verizon) access to the easement/poles in which the particular utility owns. If you try to fight the utility that has an easement you're bound to lose every time for as long as they are operating within the easement. Outside of the easement, yes the Utility must ask permission. Now, it depends on the municipality but I know this is the case in my area, and is probably the case in all of the New York City Boroughs as well. Sure, if the utility messes things up you can go after them to get it repaired, but you can't block them from getting to their network. In this case, you could have gotten the neighbor to shape up and stop hassling Verizon and neighbors by not letting them access the pole. The alternate pole was always an option, as it seems to be for FiOS, but honestly they didn't need to go through that.

Smith,

One of the reasons Verizon plant in Brooklyn is poor? Access. There is too much 'Philadelphia Wire' attached to the rear wall of homes, protected by private fences, for most I&R technicians to access all facilities. Couple that with an immense attitude of entitlement to a quarter acre of concrete, and there are massive issues maintaining a decent level of service in this borough.

I've lived it as a customer, I understand it as someone who has worked in the Bell System, and it isn't completely Verizon's fault. I do agree that the city and state should do a *lot* more to enforce the easement and allow Verizon to execute repair.

Anthony_VZ

Hi,

We're showing that our business Representative was able to make the necessary corrections to the account, and will make the follow-up on the next months bill.

I apologize again for the delay in this. Please let us know in tech support if there is anything else we can assist with.

Kim C

irbrenda

OMG! I am the person from October 2011 who started this thread and I got excited for a moment when you responded to the post before this, about the long distance charges and no resolve!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, let me say that since October 2011 my elderly, almost 85yr old mother, has not gotten one correct FIOS bill!!!!! It has taken me at least 4-6 calls since Feb 2012 to still correct her bill. We have redone her entire FIOS account (Double Play - Ultimate HD and Verizon Freedom phone) several times to try to see why her landline phone was never connected to her FIOS TV account. It has taken so many supervisors month after month, with promise after promise, that the May 2012 bill would FINALLY be correct!

So, I got her new bill this month - one month: $378.00!!!!!!!! with no internet. She doesn't own a computer or know how to operate one. I'm glad she can use her cell phone at most!

Back to the supervisors last week: took several calls and several days, redoing her account again, plus 2 days of me going thru Verizon verification prompts, to get her new bill, which is still only an approximation.

I can't wait to see what June surprise is in store for us!!!!!!!

irbrenda

And to follow up from my previous post: My mother's June bill was an absolute joke. Now, they have now once again taken her home phone and billed it separately from her FIOS TV bill......after lordy knows how many supervisors promised they rectified her billing problem. I truly have given up!