Verizon FIOS door to door salesmen?? (Arlington) (sales, apartment)

[CityCat28]

Early this evening a guy knocked on my apartment door and asked me a few questions about my FIOS service. He claimed to be a FIOS / Verizon representative checking to see how people's service was in the building.

He came back a while later to ask if I wanted to sign up for a new FIOS package (or transfer my service, when I told him I was moving soon). I was willing to listen to what he was pitching, and then he called his "manager" to assist him -- supposedly the manager guy was also walking around knocking on people's doors.

The manager guy came down and they started to tell me about the great deals I could get by re-upping my service through them. They couldn't explain why their deals were better than what I could get by signing up online... And they kept agreeing with me that Verizon's regular customer service totally sucks. It was odd that they were trashing the company they're supposed to work for.

Their deal included a free $100 Visa prepaid card and pretty good rates, but I started to get suspicious and said I would think about it. They were nice enough, but the whole thing was totally weird.

They had some official looking brochures with FIOS channel lineups, but no business cards or any official brochures or price sheets.

Were they total scammers? Or were they actually employed by Verizon in some capacity...???

[jzcrandall]

I did this for three weeks (it was three weeks for a reason). We had an ID card to show to people, and most representatives had a computer in which to enter orders. I don't know about Virginia, but many area require their employees to carry a peddling permit, so ask to see a copy.

[nepats1012]

Can't say whether they were legit, but around here we get people from Comcast coming to our door, at least once a year, trying to get us to switch back to Comcast.

So whether your specific encounter was legit or not, I don't know, but I do know that reps from other cable companies do go door to door.

[hilsmom]

I signed up for FIOS originally with a door to door person, but it was MANY years ago and I don't remember how official they were.

[CityCat28]

I asked one of the guys to email me a writeup of their "offer". The email address he wrote on his little FIOS brochure was his personal gmail address! So I asked him if he could send me the offer from a real Verizon email. Wonder if it will ever materialize? I feel stupid now for giving them any amount of personal information....

[boyd888]

The email address on the brochure is probably so that he gets his commission for getting you to signup under him.

My guess is that were likely contracted from an outside company to sell FIOS and that is why it all seemed a little off - the salespeople probably have very little sales experience.

job description for a fios sales position in arlington:
http://weknowtalent.submit4jobs.com/...1631&cid=85330

[CityCat28]

Okay, so maybe they were semi-legit. I hope!! They didn't get any super confidential info out of me, but it still felt shady and not exactly inspiring. Like, why did they know about a secret "better" 800 number to call for customer service? If Verizon has a new & improved number, how come u can only learn about it from these random guys...?

[jillybean720]

When we first moved into our house a year ago, we were constantly bombarded with tv/internet service providers at our door. It was ridiculous and very frustrating (we had a newborn baby and 2 dogs who go crazy when someone knocks on the door). Comcast, Verizon, and probably others...

The "better" 800 number is probably just directly to a sales team for tracking purposes.

[Carlingtonian]

Why do you guys answer the door when you're not expecting anyone? Just ignore it.

[vermonter16]

I'm pretty sure what you experienced was legit. I signed up with Verizon when there guys were going door to door in my area and that was less than 2 years ago and I've seen other Verizon guys since. They are offering a prepaid Visa card right now as a promotion.