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Verizon FiOS False Advertising


Here’s another example of horrendous customer service from a cable company, in this case Verizon. I helped my father (who happens to be an attorney) order FiOS service today. On verizon.com, he had entered his new service address and was given a promotional price of $39.99 per month. The screen capture of this offer is below (click to view full size). I have redacted his home address for obvious reasons. When we clicked on the “Order Now” button, the price of the service jumped up $10 per month to $49.99. Clearly bait and switch. So we completed the order with a sales phone representative named Lucy Chang. Lucy was courteous and confirmed the $39.99 price several times.

We were quite surprised when the email confirmation of the order was sent to us. The price jumped up again to $49.99. We called up the FiOS support number and spoke with Tarnesha. She couldn’t help us, and also gave us an extremely hard time when we wanted to speak with the supervisor. She had the nerve to ask us why we wanted to speak with a supervisor after it was already clear she couldn’t help us. She kept repeating (at least three times) that there would be a 20 minute wait for a supervisor. Each time, we said we would wait.

After about 20 minutes, the supervisor Devoris (ID: 2541189) in the Tampa service center came on the phone. He was very condescending and disinterested in solving our problem. He refused to visit the verizon.com web site to see the problem first-hand. He also reminded us that we were on the phone for over 30 minutes, as if it were an inconvenience for Verizon. As of today, the problem is not solved, and Verizon committed bait and switch.

Update 8/10, afternoon: After posting to Twitter, Verizon asked me for additional information to confirm my identity. They could not assist further until they contact a department that wasn’t open today.

Update 8/11: Verizon gave my dad a $10 discount per month, for the next 24 months. According to the support representative, the reason the discount wasn’t originally given was because the quoted internet speed, 25/25, isn’t available in his home. Common sense would suggest that 20/10 speed is slower, therefore should be less expensive. But Verizon had charged more. Gotta love it. Throughout this saga, no one at Verizon could explain why the ad, which is tailored specifically for my dad’s address, doesn’t reflect the reality of what Verizon could deliver. In any case, it seems that the only way to deal with these big companies is to have recorded phone calls (check your state laws) or screen captures. The customer is no longer right, unless there is evidence admissible in the court of social media.

VerizonScreenShot

8 replies on “Verizon FiOS False Advertising”

I have the same issue I’m going through right now. The online quote was $44.99 and I have a screen shot of my purchase and my order. Now my bill is $104.99 , I contacted customer service several times and they promise to call back but they never do !! This is the 4th time I’m calling them and they escalated my case to a supervisor whom yet again never called me back, I emailed her but never replies back ! IDK what to do anymore.

The same thing just happened to me. The on-line “agent” guaranteed me the price that had first come up on the screen. He assured me that even though a different price was showing at check out, that I would get the lower price if I just kept clicking continue. Once I checked out, and the higher price was still showing, he told me to call customer service. I was on the phone with them for an hour, they finally told me I would get the lower price. I just checked, and the price is even higher than what it was at check out.

Verizon should be investigated also for their bait and switch with their ‘Visa Gift Cards’. I was told I would get a $200 gift card after 90 days of service. I don’t have anything in writing and have gone as far as even opening a case with the BBB. Verizon of course has ‘no record’ of anything, so clearly they are telling me I’m making this all up.

For spite, I’ve since lowered my cable plan to save $20/month. The only reason to have the higher plan was HBO, which now you can get from Amazon Prime for $99/year and it includes free shipping and other benefits.

May 2016 cannot come fast enough, I will go back to Cablevision while not much better, at least their pricing is known from day 1.

Verizon has designed a sophisticated marketing program to induce you to switch to them. They have teams of well trained reps who are well versed in giving you a beautiful presentation.

What happened to me and seems to be happening to others is that something is missing in the presentation or there is some kind of misdirection.

You then are left without many channels that require additional selections… it is hard to explain and in the course of many phone calls I discovered that they give you misinformation… at some point they explain to you that the initial two year promotion is no longer valid and that you have to select a new promotion.

be very careful!!!!

of course the new promotion is not as good as the original one… the employees working there are very good at trying to convince you that they are doing their best for you but they apologize that they can’t override the computer

Taking this Verizon FIOS out of my home today. The whole experience was atrocious. The internet speed is very slow, the area of WiFi coverage is very limited. The system is unusable.

Good afternoon! I wanted to get in touch with you about Verizon. We currently are mounting a class action lawsuit and would like you to be apart of our movement against the predatory nature of Verizon’s bail and switch.

Please email me at d.unypo@gmail.com if you want some more info, or would like to organize in the face of bait and switch tactics against the consumer!

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