RedZone is not working!

[arodriguez1]

I had the same issue today. Here I was with my fantasy line-up all set and ready to watch the early games. I changed it to channel 835 and got nothing but the screen telling me to order. I shouldn't have to order anything, my package comes with RedZone. Like you I tried calling customer service only to be hung-up on many times in a row. I'm upset with Verizon and looking to call tomorrow for an explanation.

[UnnDunn]

I subscribe to FiOS TV Ultimate HD. I was able to activate NFL RedZone on my STB a couple of weeks ago, and this morning I tuned in at 11:30 to watch NFL Fantasy Live and NFL RedZone with no problems whatsoever.

That said, I am truly stunned at the sheer incompetence displayed from nearly every department at Verizon FiOS over this issue. This is an issue that has been brewing for two weeks, with the first reports of people being unable to activate NFL RedZone since the splash screen showed up. The mere fact that Ultimate HD subscribers had to manually "activate" the channel is mind-boggling on its face. But then customers couldn't activate the channel, and were given misleading or inaccurate information when they called. That is simply inexcusable.

Even so, the calls should have triggered some sort of technical investigation to find and fix the problem before game day. That didn't happen. So we've gone from "inexcusable" to "downright shameful" territory.

And it gets worse. Game Day rolls around and the problems are still not fixed (with nearly two weeks' worth of customer calls and complaints.) Every avenue of customer service becomes inaccessible. Those who call are met with 90+ minute hold times or disconnections. Online chat is down. Email goes unanswered. No announcements are made until a single half-hearted tweet appears almost an hour into gameday. There isn't even an announcement here on the forum, or a phone hold message. The entirety of Verizon's communication is this single, worthless tweet. Meanwhile, those who can get through to customer service are still given misleading information ("it's an outage!") or buck-passing ("it's a billing problem! no, it's a technical problem!")

Finally, once the problem is resolved (after up to 2 hours for some people), all we get is another half-hearted twitter non-apology.

When I signed up for FiOS two years ago, I was one of its staunchest fanboys, because at the time it was clear that Verizon "got it". It was clear that they were focused on providing a pay TV service that is truly a step above the competition. Picture quality was great, customer service was well above average, customer communication through twitter and other sources was stellar, and the service itself had features and technology that the competition did not. But over the past year, it has become clear that Verizon has lost it. Picture quality has declined. Customer service has gone sharply downhill, as has customer communication. The technology, while still better than most, is not showing any improvement.

Nowadays, I keep FiOS simply out of inertia. I am satisfied with it, but I no longer feel any sort of passion for it. Prices have climbed, but the level of service has declined. Two years ago, I couldn't have been happier to dump Cablevision. Now, when they call me offering deals to go back to them, I actually listen.

I'm usually quite tolerant of outages and other glitches; I realize nothing is perfect and sometimes things break down. But the true test of a company, in my opinion, is how it handles situations like this. Verizon has utterly, utterly failed.  I'm staying with FiOS for now, but if the level of service remains this low, I won't stay with FiOS for long.

[Schadenfreude2]

Back to the same **bleep** splash screen again!!!

[WJB2]

2nd weekend in a row that you've managed to screw up the Red Zone Verizon. OUTSTANDING JOB!  I wish I never left DIRECTV!

[ArtemisG]

I tryed it all.. pressing ok and it keeps telling me to call.  so i call and i get disconneted when I reach the prompt for customer service.  I try to see it I can do it on line, but I cannot find how to do it.   Not good 

[WJB2]

Red Zone on FIOS has been an EPIC FAILURE through week 2. Two weeks in a row I've spent over an hour and a half on hold while staring at a Red Zone Screen Saver on CH835. Think they resolved the problem around 4PM EST week 1. So far we're  just under 3 hours into week 2 and still no Red Zone! Customer support has been a joke. On line support has been unavailable due to volume.  Wonder if the fact that they laid off 1700 workers last year has anything to do with that. The CEO made makes over $23 Mil though. Nice to see Mr McAdam's still getting paid. They've got a nerve changing anything for this service.

[WJB2]

Red Zone on FIOS has been an EPIC FAILURE through week 2. Two weeks in a row I've spent over an hour and a half on hold while staring at a Red Zone Screen Saver on CH835. Think they resolved the problem around 4PM EST week 1. So far we're  just under 3 hours into week 2 and still no Red Zone! Customer support has been a joke. On line support has been unavailable due to volume.  Wonder if the fact that they laid off 1700 workers last year has anything to do with that. The CEO made makes over $23 Mil though. Nice to see Mr McAdam's still getting paid. They've got a nerve changing anything for this service.

[Schadenfreude2]

Activate Redzone on channel 335

you're welcome

After last week when Redzone went off air it went back to that subscription screen. Tried to activate on 835 and it said I was subscribed. Went to 335 and activated no issue a few days ago. Been working since 11:30am no issues

[Motormouth]

When RZ wouldn't come on today, I just spent 35 minutes in chat with Verizon CS. Lots of **bleep** but after he sent commands to my STBs, I was able to activate. Before, all I got when I tried was a message that said "unable to process..."

However, I will have to wait at least 30 minutes for it to be active, even if this actually works.

Baby steps.

Follow Up: It did come on and worked great in about 15 minutes. I love it. I don't care about pop-ups, but I got to watch all 4 games at 4PM.

[KaLin]

Moved for greater exposure