Activation will not work

[black_hound]

I swapped out my DVR after the free promotion was over for a regular box. The activation on the new box will not work. The box is a Motorola HD QIP 7100.

I've been on the phone support line 3 times. Each time I was told the activation was being pushed and to wait on the line. Three times I was disconnected and the activation still hasn't been pushed. 

Does anyone have any idea how to make the activation work? I've followed the instructions in the included instructions to the letter. Nothing. I've given up on the customer support line.

I have also tried to activate via the internet and every time it fails. Probably because the serial number that the internet activation displays is not the serial number of the STB. Yo.

I am not enamored of the prospect of having a FIOS tech out to the house as every time we have had one out here there has been DRAMA and damage (including significant damage to the exterior of my home), but that appears to be the only solution because there is no where to actually get a new box face to face, no one can seem to activate the box remotely, and no one has an answer as to why.

(I'll give Comcast props on one score. You can actually go to an office and do an equipment exchange. This no storefront STB service is frankly, crappola.)

If anyone has any idea -- at all -- as to how to get this box to activate, I will sacrifice a goat to the gods in your name. Please save me from an on-site visit.

B.Hound

[black_hound]

After 5 hours on the phone over 2 days with the {alledged} tech support people we have finally gotten the STB to activate. 

It is not helpful on a tech support call to have the young lady taking the call ask you to hold after every sentence so she can relay what you just said to someone else. Repeated requests to connect us with the tier 2 support (or the Verizon equivalent) went unheeded. Just saying.

I discovered when I was trying to activate the box online that the serial # associated with my account for the STB was wrong. I cross checked the number on the Verizon Support page under my account and found ANOTHER serial # that was also not correct for the STB we had in our possession, so they were pushing the activation to a box we didn't have. Getting this across to Verizon tech support? It was like moving mountains with a teaspoon. 

First I was told our problem was that we had a "fallout order", which I gather is internal slang for "we have no paperwork on our end for the STB we shipped you". Then after a lot of back and forth and back and forth and back again, we were told that STB was not scheduled to be activated until December 15th. That did not even pass the laugh test. Although at this point, I wasn't laughing because ..... you couldn't make this up. It was also suggested that we return the STB to a Verizon store and get one that worked, although where we live? You can't do that. There are no Verizon stores that accept STBs.

Early on in this process (as in the first day) we tested the cable line by swapping out the non-working STB for one of the small receivers/converters/whateveryoucallthem that are on the upstairs televisions. When they were hooked up to the cable line and put into the main television downstairs? VOILA. We were connected to FIOS TV. Getting this across to tech support? Impossible. They kept insisting we had a line fault. 

Hours into this fiasco on day 2 we finally got them to agree to push the activation to the serial number we had given them on day one, i.e. the one THEY HAD SHIPPED. It looked like it wasn't working, so we just pulled the plug, plugged it back in to let the firmware reboot, and ..... ACTIVATION.

All I can say is Good Luck to anyone swapping out an STB.

B. Hound