I have officially fallen into the Rabbit Hole of FIOS Customer Service. What a joke. I actually switched from Comcast to FIOS because Comcast customer service was poor. Now that I have experienced my first interaction with FIOS customer support, I long for the days of Comcast!
I had a seemingly simple request: for FIOS to send me the same 500 GB DVR upgrade that half the people on my block were getting emails about. I have not gotten the email, so I figured, no problem, just call FIOS and they should be able to send me the box or, failing that, at least send me the email, right? Is that asking too much?
Apparently, yes. NONE of the three separate divisions I spoke with (sales, billing or tech support) could do that. One rep gave me two separate URLs that I could go to, to sign up for the DVR, and when I told them the URL they gave me would not work, and asked them to go online with me and walk me through it, they could not!
What the heck?!? In ANY other encounter with customer service for any other company I've had dealings with, if you had a question about their web site, they go online with you and walk you through the process. How the heck do you guys not get how frustrating it is for customers when you can't do this?
Or simply generate a darn email??? You can't do that???
Also, I've had tech issues with my existing DVR. So customer support says they will send out a replacement OF MY OLD DVR! Huh?? I tell him., if I can scale the 500-foot wall of your company's horrible customer support and somehow figure out how to get the 500 GB DVR, I'll just have to replace the old one you're about to send me. So how about you just send me the new 500 GB DVR instead? After all, I'm paying nearly $200 bucks a month for service--I think I deserve that basic level of support, don't you? "Sorry, sir, that's a different division. I can't do that." So he transfers me to billing. Guess what? "Sorry, sir, I don't know anything about your level of service, terms of service, what type of DVR you're supposed to have, so I can't help you with that."
ARRRGH!!!!!!
Congrats, FIOS. You are officially one and done--the MINUTE my first year of service is up, I am RIPPING OUT your equipment and going back to Comcast. Or maybe I'll just start reading books more. A heck of a lot cheaper and infinitely less frustrating.
I don't know where you are located but I never heard of such a box. I'm here in NY and they just recently opened up the USB port on the presently provided boxes to support certain Western Digital externals that would act as the primary recorder host and than switch to provided Verizon box when capacity of said external is reached. Furthermore this content on said external drive would be propriety formatted to accept said recordings and content would be inaccessible except when connected to same Verizon box. Also be wary if said external drive is ever removed it may again be reformatted to accept to recordings again as content is propriety encrypted hence formatting may be the only way to be recognized by Verizon's box. This may or may not be the answer you expected but that the word here in NY.
The fastest and simplest way to get a 500gb DVR is to simply call the nearest Verizon store (if there is one within reasonable driving distance), and ask if they have them in stock. They usually do. You then just hand carry your old box into the store, and they trade it out over the counter. Takes less than 15 minutes. If you aren't within reasonable driving distance, then this method doesn't work, and getting a 500gb box via the upgrade path (website/email) can be very frustrating..
Welcome to customer service in the 21st century. There isn't any from most suppliers. Fortunately I have had very few intereactions with Verizon's Customer service, and the few I have had, have been very unimpressive. However my experiences with cable providers were even worse.
@pkegney wrote:I don't know where you are located but I never heard of such a box. I'm here in NY and they just recently opened up the USB port on the presently provided boxes to support certain Western Digital externals ....
Don't know where you get your information but it is eSATA not USB for external storage expansion. Please be careful as others may go out and purchase a USB drive only to find out IT WON'T WORK!!!!!
Keyboards, In truth it's both... eSata is the drive-type however it plugs into the USB port on your box. Call it what you will but it's a USB drive with eSata interface (i.e. Controller) located inside the actual external drive. As such there are only a few such drives that exist that will actaully work if you read Verzion's requirements for said drives.
That said, if you actual read my post I only stated that they recently opened up said port for access. I said nothing of any such drive type that was to be utilized, so yelling just makes you look {please keep your posts courteous} If you are {please keep your posts courteous} enough to write:
"Please be careful as others may go out and purchase a USB drive only to find out IT WON'T WORK!!!!!"
...then you are probably the one who should have research this first before you spent your money!!!!
Lastly, at the time of my actual post there were only 3 such externals being support by Verizon, 2 by Western Digital and only 1 by Seagate, which by the way plug into the STB's USB access port. I'm sure that has changed since the newer STBs contain a larger storage drive (500GB) from the onset, similarly of which was not available in my area at the time of posting.
@pkegney wrote:Keyboards, In truth it's both... eSata is the drive-type however it plugs into the USB port on your box. Call it what you will but it's a USB drive with eSata interface (i.e. Controller) located inside the actual external drive. As such there are only a few such drives that exist that will actaully work if you read Verzion's requirements for said drives.
....
?? Plug into USB port??? You plug a esata drive with a esata cable into a esata port.
I think the OP was here just to complain.
There are only 2 ways to officially upgrade to QIP7232-P2 500GB DVR.
Process 1
1) Go to Verizon FiOS TV Central.
2) Use your primary username and password to login (same as your vz e-mail address).
3) Look for "Settings" on the horizontal bar and select "Set top boxes" from the dropdown.
4) If you come across a page to sign up for "Web Remote DVR", do so. It is free service that lets you access DVR online.
4) Once you are on the set top boxes page, you should be able to see all set top boxes currently on your account.
5) Look for the "Want to Upgrade?" or "Want more DVR storage?" banner on the right side half way down the page. Click on it.
6) It should take you to a page to enter your name and e-mail address. This generates the e-mail. Note that the e-mail is not instantaneous. It could take more than 24 hours.
7) Once you get the e-mail, follw the instructions. There is a 39.99$ upgrade fee.
Process 2
Call 800-837-4966(800-Verizon). Select option 2 for tech support and tell the rep on the phone that you want to upgrade the dvr to 7232 dvr and that you have already tried this on the verizon site and you couldn't find the page or say something else. There is a way that tech support can dropship you the upgraded DVR. If the rep on the phone says that you need to talk to billing or someone else, they are not sure how to do it. Ask for a supervisor or ask the agent to look up his resources..
------------EDIT-----------
Didn't see that this was an old post. Sorry.
@pkegney wrote:
Keyboards, In truth it's both... eSata is the drive-type however it plugs into the USB port on your box. Call it what you will but it's a USB drive with eSata interface (i.e. Controller) located inside the actual external drive. As such there are only a few such drives that exist that will actaully work if you read Verzion's requirements for said drives.
That said, if you actual read my post I only stated that they recently opened up said port for access. I said nothing of any such drive type that was to be utilized, so yelling just makes you look {please keep your posts courteous} If you are {please keep your posts courteous} enough to write:
"Please be careful as others may go out and purchase a USB drive only to find out IT WON'T WORK!!!!!"
...then you are probably the one who should have research this first before you spent your money!!!!
Lastly, at the time of my actual post there were only 3 such externals being support by Verizon, 2 by Western Digital and only 1 by Seagate, which by the way plug into the STB's USB access port. I'm sure that has changed since the newer STBs contain a larger storage drive (500GB) from the onset, similarly of which was not available in my area at the time of posting.
Perhaps you should re-read your post to which I responded before going off on a tirade. To re-quote a portion of your original post:
"I'm here in NY and they just recently opened up the USB port on the presently provided boxes to support certain Western Digital externals that would act as the primary recorder ..."
They did not open a USB port, they opened an eSATA port. It is an eSATA plug not a USB plug - if you plug into a USB port on one of the boxes nothing will happen - you must plug an eSATA cable into the eSATA port on the back of the STB. And I have been using one of the WD drives for a year and a half (was part of the the beta test group) so I never wasted my money on anything, just emphasizing the the correct ports for others who might read your post and purchase the wrong type of drive / interface. So my "yelling" (large font in reality, not a post in all caps) was effective as it did catch your attention and I can respond without resorting to censored commentary (violation of the posting TOS) as you have.
"I heard it when I heard it" and "I heard USB" but never bothered to attach anything or bother investigate the matter further because Verizon's equipment is horribly infferior and faulty at best. So I use TIVO or Live video feed direct from my TV set for all my recording because its of better quality not subjected to Verizon's glitch fest and its all fully accessible outside of Verizon's equipment for my use i.e. computer, DVD player/recorder. So you enjoy your stored up inferior crap with no way to access it outside of FIOS and I'll enjoy my quality DVD and Blue-Ray recordings on my own setup. Right or wrong it still works like crap.Chao
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