The new program guide is TERRIBLE and it's kind of unbelieveable that Verizon would deploy in this state.
The guide colors are now like baby blue and white. The color scheme is awful on the eyes, the font has changed and just looks crappy and as a result there is less info on the screen.
The guide is now soooo sloooow don't even bother. It is also as deplorable as the color scheme.
This is an obviously untested rollout. U N T E S T E D.
This is really sad as software goes. Time to switch providers maybe if this issue doesn't just dissapear in 48 hours.
I AGREE WHOLE-HEARTEDLY.
Not only that, as a frequent channel changer I find that my beautiful pioneer elite is now useless because every time a channel changed the bottom 30% of the screen is blocked by all kinds of unwanted information.
Small font characters in light colors on light colored background? Can't see anything. It is absolutely annoying.
Whose brainchild is it to fix some that is NOT broken? It was actually, simple and perfect. But, some hotshot decided to fix it. Whoever you are, you certainly fixed it.
Beacuase, I will start by canceling HBO and and showtime and then I am going to check Comcast, Direct TV and Dish network to see if their gudes are any better. If they do, I will move to whoever is better.
I am now very very seriously thinking about CANCELING FIOS TV, because the new changes to the guide have completely degraded the FIOS TV experience and watching anything even on my Pioneer Elite useless.
Their Marketing Deoartment will be informed my reasons for quitting FIOS.
Plus just as bad... the "info" screens.
What's with "TUNE TO PROGRAM" instead of "WATCH"? "WATCH" seemed fine to me, why CHANGE it? I guess using "Watch" and "Watch in HD" would have made far too much sense.
Ha Ha ha, guess what? The fools are CHANGING it right now.
YOUR NEW GUIDE IS EVEN HARDER TO NAVAGATE THEN YOUR OLD ONE. BOTTOM OF T. V. IS HALF COVERED. JUST GIVE US A CH. # ON A THIN LINE AND REMOVE IT IN 2 SEC.
I totally agree, The new program guide is very hard to read, and the response time is rediculously slow,
The colors are nauseating and the guide is at least 30% smaller due to the extra information on either side.
You still can't do a day/date search without having to scan throught many days worth of guides.
May I please have the old format back until your IT department learns how to make changes that really help the viewer.
Of course I started my own thread before reading this one. Please feel free to contribute there as well. Frankly this thread is much more kind to Verizon than I was.
Are they bored? Do they have people sitting around with time on their hands? Is that why they come up with these ridiculous changes??
Who looked at this Guide and said... "Yes! That's it. Customers will love this. It's easier to read. Better to navigate. Way to go!"????? They should be fired...
Since they haven't bother to fix this yet... and just btw. This is "breach of contract" to fail to provide services as established.
{word filter avoidance} that that think thi is ok.
D u m p in i g verizon. losers
I agree. Totaly sucks! Wasn't broken no need to fix. Time to explore other cable options!
I was watching TV in the middle of the night when this "CHANGE" actually took place. I couldn't believe what I saw....or COULDN'T see would say it better. I thought it was a mistake but it didn't go away. I immediately called VERIZON and asked WHY anyone in their right mind would do such a thing. I told the customer service rep my opinion of the "NEW & IMPROVED" Program Guide but as usual when talking to VERIZON that means next to nothing. Even on my large flat screen the program guide is SOOOOOO difficult to see and/or read. And really !!!...white on powder blue???? Does anyone at VERIZON know anything about design or use of color? The "old" program guide was just perfect. And I must agree with others that there must have been someone at VERIZON who had a lot of idle time on their hands that brought about this very ill-informed change. Oh...and yes, it does take forever to scroll down through the listings and then you can't read the information anyway. GET RID OF THIS CATASTROPHE AND RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS PROGRAM GUIDE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BEFORE I GO BLIND TRYING TO SEE THE THING WHILE TRYING TO FIND A PROGRAM TO WATCH. And while you're at it get rid of all of the junk that surrounds the guide and takes up space. And one last thing VERIZON...replace the channel logo's next to the channel numbers the way they were before you screwed this up. UNBELIEVABLE !!!!!!...or not, after all it is VERIZON and they just don't seem to listen to good advice from the consumers.
I AGREE TOTALLY WITH GTSFER! New directory sucks prune pits! Why couldn't they have incorporated changes without changing the guide. The guide was fine the way it looked and showed more channels as you scrolled. Stop trying to justify some programmers' jobs and leave alone what is fine!
Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.
@nferno wrote: Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.
You're in the majority. Despite all the threads complaining its "terrible" a current poll running on DSLREPORTS has 80% seeing the guide as an improvement. Note that doesn't even count the non-guide improvements in 1.9.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a-
That doesn't mean some additional changes wouldn't be nice.
It seems as if the "Techies" are reveling in the NEW VERIZON PROGRAM GUIDE as witnessed by reading their techno-web site BROADBAND DSL Reports.com (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a).
Perhaps the technological aspects of this NEW and IMPROVED Program Guide are a step forward but in REAL LIFE the Techies are missing the boat by a few miles. You can have all of the most wonderful new technological advances but if they are not USER FRIENDLY they become of very limited use in the marketplace and will actually cause poor consumer relations when forced upon consumers in the name of technological advancement.
If those of us Non-Techies who actually hate the new Program Guide,
(and I feel that a strong word such as HATE is actually justified here after a statistical analysis based on the comments about the NEW Program Guide, collected from the various web sites, shows that the majority of people have commented in the NEGATIVE),
were rating it on new and improved technology maybe things would be different. BUT those of us who are not "Techies" are commenting on what is actually important to us as end users, (the consumers who subscribe to FIOS), i.e., the plain and simple aspects related to EASE OF USE such as bright white lettering on a powder blue background which is extremely difficult on the eyes, too much "stuff" jammed into a limited space making it difficult if not impossible to utilize, not to mention the size of the "stuff" jammed into the space makes them almost impossible to read let alone use, as well as a myriad of other negative aspects. And I'm not talking about using this guide on a hand held receiver but on a 48" screen.
The bottom line here is that although the Techies are reveling in the technological "improvements", (which for the most part only the Techies can really appreciate), the actual "upgrade" has removed the ease of use which consumers had previously enjoyed and has made viewing and use difficult when previously it was easy.
It is also more frustrating, as well as disconcerting to end users in that the company from whom we purchase this service (VERIZON) has taken a step backward in terms of product improvement for the consumer.
And the suggestion placed on the website by a VERIZON facilitator that giving the New Program Guide "a little more time" in the hope that the consumer will come to appreciate it is NOT a viable option because the NEW Program Guide's "dis-ease of use will NOT change over time.
The VERIZON subscribers have spoken and never before has there been such an immediate overwhelmingly negative response such as has occurred in response to this change in the formatting of the Program Guide. Today's consumer expects to be listened to as well as heard by the companies whom they choose as recipients of their limited disposable income. VERIZON could take this as a huge opportunity to show the world how it responds when the consumer speaks. When Coca Cola changed the recipe of it's much loved product and the consumers spoke...Coca Cola listened to the people and responded. They admitted publicly that they made a very poor decision in changing a good thing that hadn't needed changing and would correct the problem immediately. And if you didn't already know...Coca Cola's profits soared, not only in the United States but around the world. Their positive reputation was further enhanced without paying another cent in advertising for this benefit. Will VERIZON listen? Will they take action on what the consumer wants? Or will they assume that an improvement of any kind, wanted or not by the consumer, is best based only on the fact that it is AN IMPROVEMENT and will further enhance the image of the company?
Think about it.
I agree completely. My husband and I are dumbfounded how FIOS could take such a big step back. We've always said we couldn't go back to Cablevision (who has customer service 10x better than FIOS and no billing issues) because the FIOS guide and menus were so much better. This recent 'update' has us seriously reconsidering. We are completely fed up with repeated billing errors and horrible customer service. We can't believe how unresponsive the new guide is and how visually unappealing it is. It also buries info that used to be more easily accessed such as actors names and year.
@tns wrote: @nferno wrote: Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.You're in the majority. Despite all the threads complaining its "terrible" a current poll running on DSLREPORTS has 80% seeing the guide as an improvement. Note that doesn't even count the non-guide improvements in 1.9.http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a-That doesn't mean some additional changes wouldn't be nice.
Hahaha hahaha hahaha.
Seriously?
Techie A: Oh look guys, we've gathered a bunch of votes on an offsite forum that says the majority of users like this new upgrade!
Techie B: Do you think we should put a vote on the actual program guide to see accurate statistics instead of votes purely from people who suggested a new guide, while those satisfied never voiced their opinion as they had no need to register?
Techie A: Of course not.
Give me a break. If the "majority" wanted this, where are they defending this new guide? From what I gathered some users had an issue with the old one, registered, and a "poll" was made if anyone preferred the old one. Well guess what? If we all liked the old one, we had no need to register, and thus NO NEED TO VOTE TO KEEP IT, as we had no idea it was about to disappear. That's a very biased and limited scope of a poll you have there.
If you want accurate statistics, put a poll on the program guide. I already get enough widget spam.
I noticed I couldn't vote on this "poll" someone made.
Here are some theories I have:
I'm guessing whoever wanted to get user feedback never thought about making a poll widget in fear all of his hard work in making a horrendous baby blue powder layout would be put to waste by the mass votes against it. Adding a post widget to the program guide could change this "majority opinion" in a heartbeat.
This is incredibly embarrassing to me. It's obvious the majority of customers (NOT a small group of people on an offsite forum) dislike the new program guide, and the only means of defending it is showing us a poll where we have to register on yet another site which we shouldn't have to to get some sort of footholding.
Here's a hint. We didn't know our program guide would be changing. Had we known I'm sure the majority of us would have voted against it. The only reason so many votes are for it is because there apparently was a discussion and feedback gathering about change it. Well of course the people discussing a new change would vote for it, and of course those who dislike it would have no idea of this poll on an offsite forums not even on verizon.net.
Sorry if I sound rude, just finding this whole ordeal comical and handled poorly by Verizon.
If you look at almost any site for a product or service, the number of people who logon to complain heavily outweighs those who praise a product/service. So anaylysis of those is fairly unlikey based on those alone to be accurate. Polls are somewhat more accurate as those who don't want to enter into the argument will still often respond.
I put a poll up on the other site because I don't know how to put one up here. The best I know you can do here is put up a item and ask for Kudo's. You would have to put up two or more seperate items (like, neutral, dislike, hate, etc).
DSLREPORTS site is the largest independent site I know of that has a large number of Verizon users discussing verizon. Actually more active then here in its FIOS TV discussions.
we'll look into the widget. We're interested in all the feedback we can get about the recent changesand what people think about them.
The changes are terrible . Please return to previous system. I am elderly and the new color makes it difficult to read Dont make me sorry I CHOSE VERIZON AS MY CABLE PROVIDER.
I whole heartedly agree. I was astonished when the new program guide appeared. My wife and I had so much trouble reading it that I find it almost useless for older customers. The colors are all wrong. The channel numbers are almost obscured. I hope Verizon corrects this issue. The old format was not perfect but adequate.
I agree the Guide is unreadable. The screen and typeface has become smaller, and the contrast between the background and the channel number is indistinguishable. Before I could read both, now I need my glasses to read the shows from any distance(and I have a 55 inch TV) and/or I have to walk up to my TV to read channels.
At night, in my bed, watching a 35 inch TV, the situation is even worse. I can't read either the channel or show selections without getting out of bed with or without my glasses. Before I could see the choices easily without glasses from my bed.
Clearly, this new guide was not tested in real home settings.
I also see that the first comment was dated 9/28/20011, and I just got the new Guide yesterday. So I am shocked that it is now more than 3 months since the first updates occurred and no corrections have been made. This is disheartening!
And to the few favorable commenters - all I can say is that you must have a 60 inch or better TV, have better than 20/20 vision and never watch TV at night in bed in the dark.
Also, I called Verizon before posting here and wasted 20 minutes waiting for a service person and talking finally to a representative who was not even aware that there was a new Guide. After 20 minutes, he said that he had no way of forwarding my product complaints and that I would have to go online.
Also, he gave me no info as to where online to give my comments, and I had to waste another 20 minutes searching for the right place and then registering, etc.
This is a sad comment on Verizon customer support.
Looks to me like Verizon decided to save some of the hard-earned money we pay, and outsource the guide to TV Guide. Of course, we customers lose value because of the reduced functionality that everyone has mentioned...but I'll bet we won't be seeing any of the savings passed on to us. Thanks, Verizon, for your commitment to customers!
Agree completely. Its totally awful and I want the old version back.
