Customer Disservice

Well I picked on AT&T in a post below. Verizon’s turn in the barrel. Verizon had a satisfied customer in FIOS till he signed up for FIOS TV service. Part of the sad tale below –

For a detailed history of all the problems I have experienced with FiOS since March 2007, see my full review of the service at dslreports.com: according to technical support, I have 55 unique support tickets under my name, the majority of which are related to problems with FiOS TV.)

Since March 2007, I have been forced to use the “nuclear option” - contacting Verizon’s “Presidential Appeals” department - on two separate occasions, as their first-level technical support was unable to resolve anything in a timely manner. So far, the appeals department is 0 for 2 - each time, the problem was not resolved.

I contacted the presidential appeals department because HBO video on demand would not function properly; signs of tiling would appear every few minutes. Numerous technicians were dispatched and were unable to resolve the situation. Several weeks passed before the representative working for the appeals department came across an internal Verizon document stating that this was a “known issue” and a fix would be implemented in August 2007. To this day, this has not yet been fixed; according to a Verizon employee who posts on the FiOS TV message board, a fix is supposedly still being tested.

Weeks later, I was forced to contact presidential appeals for a second time when the normal levels of support were unable to resolve issues with the image quality; once again, several technicians were dispatched but were ultimately unable to resolve the issue. At one point, in an act of desperation, the local group decided to replace most of the components up to and inside the home. The measures were ineffective; the problems continued. A local manager was eventually dispatched out to the home; he claimed that the sub-par image quality was a result of “electrical issues” having to do with the wiring inside the home. End of discussion, case closed. (A visit from an electrician several weeks later would show that this claim was incorrect.)

The litany of his complaints is detailed in this DSLReports thread. Sadly, one of the reasons that Verizon took the plunge with fiber was to be able to reduce costs. Unlike copper, fiber is unaffected by most environmental issues. But this guys tale seems to indicate that though the fiber line is less vulnerable, the ancillary support equipment is not. Nox Nix?

HT: Consumerist

[Piling on Update]: Looks like VZ Calif has pooped the pooch. 74k customers can’t retrieve voicemails — link.