I want to share the absolute nightmare of my recent upgrade away from my legacy set top boxes.
Like many, I had the Motorola boxes, and knowing that sometime in April they would no longer work, I contacted Verizon in early January. I have learned, the hard way, to be very careful when making any changes, because there is always a problem. Well, this time, despite my being careful, it was awful. Because of auxilliary equipment I own, I needed coaxial connectors on the set top box. When I talked to the representative in early January, I made that clear, and she shared a picture of the back of the 4100 boxes (also called Fios TV One), and after discussing it with my husband and son, we were comfortable that these boxes would work ok.
So, fast forward to installation day, and I got many text messages verifying that I was going to be home. No problem. The technician arrived in the stated window. So far, so good. But, I should have known there was going to be a problem, when I saw the size of the boxes he had with him. Half way through the installation, I realized these were not the 4100s! I told him to stop. He said that the order was written for the Quantum boxes, the teeny ones, which lack the component connections I need.
At this point, I asked him to put everything back, to give me time to figure out what to do. He told me he could not, that he had already deactivated the equipment, and that was that. After many phone calls to his "supervisor" and a whole host of other folks, still with the same answer, I told him I wanted to talk to a supervisor. He put me on the phone with someone whose name I did not get, and after a lot of discussion, she told me that "I got you" and would send someone out the next day with the 4100s. She also told me she would call me back to confirm. Neither of those things happened.
The next morning, I got up early, and was on the phone to customer service when they opened at 8. I was transferred around, and *every single person* I spoke to told me something different. Some said the 4100 boxes were not available, that what I had, which BTW do not work properly - they continuously buffer despite being hardwire connected, so I can only see about 2 minutes of live tv before it gives me an error and must be reset - was all there was. Someone told me there was an adapter, and sent me back to customer serivce where I spent 2 hours on hold.
Finally, in desperation, after 5 hours on the phone, either on hold or being transferred around, I called customer service and said I wanted to cancel service, having looked at the Xfinity boxes that do have composite connections. The first person I said this to told me that I could get the 4100s, but if I wanted to not wait a week, I would need to go pick them up. She gave me three locations near me, all Verizon Wireless stores that also have Fios equipment. She told me to call the store first, and I did, but the guy there would not open the ticket to look at what I needed without seeing my ID first. So, I trudged to the store, and the dude opened the ticket while I stood there, without asking me for my ID, and then told me he only had part of the equipment listed. I still do not understand why he could not have done that over the phone. He gave me some mealy mouthed answer to that question about if he opened the ticket Verizon would know, but that is exactly what he did!
So, back home, and back to customer service. Again, I used the disconnect service response, and the next person I spoke to said the technician could have put my equipment back - but remember, everyone so far had told me something different! Anyway, she told me the HD box I had was not being phased out, just the two SD boxes, which is wrong. The next dude I spoke with told me that the Fios TV 1 minis do not have composite connections on the back, which his a problem, and that I could not get two Fios One TV boxes, regular size, because they are considered servers, and I would have to pay for premium DVR service, adding another $30 per month. The next person I spoke with not helpful at all, and told me all stores should have the equipment I need.
I am sure I am leaving out some of the many responses I get over the course of the day, but finally in desperation, I called a second store, and the fellow there was happy to look up my order number and check if he had the equipment I needed. He did, I went, and now tonight we will try and hook up the new equipment.
In the meantime, we have gone two days with no viable TV connection, for which no one along the way offered me a refund for - only more ways to spend more money.
So, if anyone out there needs to see a picture of the back of the backs of the Quantum boxes, or the Fios One boxes, let me know. That was one of my ultimate frustrations in all this - no one had a good picture of the back of these boxes to show me!
And, this is based on just my personal experience, do not get stuck with the Quantum boxes. They are terrible!
