Two days ago, I came onto verizon.com intending to remove a dead cable box from my account.
It died over a year ago, and at that time I was told to replace it I'd have to upgrade my entire environment, which I really do not want to do (over 30 devices connected to it..) And my wife won't be happy. (Happy wife, happy life.) So I just left it busted, it's on a TV that I only watched getting dressed in the morning to see what the weather was supposed to be. I found it easier to look out the winow and see what the weather IS instead.
Finally I decided to do something about it, and I came on the FIOS site, and selected a page that showed my devices. I clicked on the dead box (been paying $8/month for it) and selected "Remove"
It came back with the following screen:
I'll explain the screen.
Nice screen, Lady leaning back, laughing, another set of knees next to her with that person covered by a box telling me my monthly account charge dropped by about $15. So - good, the dead box off my account and, a reduced charge.
Nothing about how to send the old box back, but I figured I could drop it off at the official FIOS store next time I was in that area. Or they'd tell me later. I clicked "Checkout"
It next showed me a screen that asked me if I agreed with all of the terms and conditions (about the length of an average novel) with Verizon. I clicked "Place Order" This screen ALSO showed me the great savings I was getting by removing a dead box from my account. Who wouldn't click on "Place Order"??
The next screen "verizon.com/inhome/change/checkout showed a list of my equipment, with one being listed as REMOVED (white letters on a blue background - all the others were normal text.) Again - this looked like what I wanted to do so - I hit "Continue".
This opened a screen with "Thanks for placing your order" - and a message they were sending a confirmation email - to my son's email address. My son hasn't been on this account in about 15 years. And he was never selected for a confirmation email. And it also had his phone number for verification.
Wondering what was happening - I clicked on "Account" at the very top of the page, and got an error message, orange background, white text I believe - telling me they couldn't complete my request. Repeated attempts to review what my account had got the same error page/message. SO - it was dinner time, and I gave up.
IMAGINE my SURPRISE when the next morning I get an email message from UPS, sent the night before, that a package from Verizon would be arriving - today (next day from making the change above.) Sure enough - big box on the porch. Brought it into the house - and inside are TWO of the new style display-less cable boxes. No instructions, just a sheet telling me to return my old ones using a UPS sticker that was in the box.
So today I tried contacting Verizon. I tried using chat first - and I got a charming young man, who insisted that I tell him the date my installation was done before he could access my account. I asked what installation?? Since most of the installations have been done by me, and those done by Verizon - some dated back to 4 wire POTS lines from the 1970's. I could give him the year for those ones - but that's as close as I could get.
He repeatedly asked for the same information, but apparently was deaf when I asked "What installation" - he never answered me, and eventually disconnected. On a customer satisfaction scale of 1-5, he was a 1.
So next - I figured I'd try a telephone call (this is a telephone company right? Communications?) - well, I did it so I would get a callback. The first one timed out and hung up after 30 minutes. The current one has been waiting for a callback going on an hour and displays "Your call is scheduled for: as soon as an agent is available" - that's so far been over 45 minutes. I wonder if they're calling my son? Wouldn't surprise me.
SO why am I here? Why did I get this shipment of 2 cable boxes and what am I supposed to do with them? If I log into Verizon 5G/LTE Home Internet - I get sent to a page for installing the cable boxes. Installing them where?
HELP!
BTW - in the FIOS/Home internet part of the website are the two contact entries wrongly set to my son. I attempted to "edit" them - and it opens a screen to edit them, I entered the correct info, hit ENTER - and am left with an endlessly (30 minutes+) spinning widget, and nothing is changed. That's also broken. It's probably sending a message to my son's phone asking him if that's OK to do.
This makes me look at Optimum a bit closer. They offer cell service right? Whose network are they using?
