Verizon doubles early termination fees for cable, Internet, phone service...and more bad news! (sales, neighborhood)

[ozlo]

One of my favorite providers is Linksys. No customer service available and the coverage can be spotty, but you can't beat the price!

[bentlebee]

I agree quality was a little bit better with Verizon but dealing with cutomers service was so bad that I rather settle for a little bit less picture quality.

I wonder who these horrible customer service people are because they people in my neighborhood are nice but work at Verizon, they claim to do a different job over there and by the way 2 already left them for other companies....

Maybe the customer service people never will admit they are working there

[Brad P]

I live on Harbour Island and have had phenomenal difficulty with getting fast and consistent service from Brighthouse. Internet freezes repeatedly and when it is up has poor bandwidth rates. I don't watch much TV, although the times I do I have had difficulty with the menu freezing requiring me to restart the cable box. For what it's worth, neighbor is actually a Verizon employee and he swears by their internet, but listening to people who work at Verizon is basically asking them how much they like their job, not how good the service is. I work at a hospital, and at least that's how people talk about the workplace here.

The first time they said "No problem we will send someone over tomorrow to pick the box up." No call, no follow up. Looked at my bill, still the same numbers, same service. Called back today a week later, hung up on me while on hold after I entered "Discontinue Service" on the telephone prompts.

When they did pick up, they were pleasant and offered to credit my account retroactively for the extra week. This was after a series of questions and attempts to convince me not to cancel my service, which was fairly annoying.

Bottom line is their connectivity is so poor that I will be switching to Verizon's fiberoptic next week. I connect to work after hours from home and not having consistent internet connectivity could put me in a very risky situation should it happen at the wrong moment (and it has). I will update if I continue to have problems after switching.

From friends, it seems like complaints about Verizon are more about their customer service and those about Brighthouse are about their actual service.

It could also be related to which part of town people are located. Anyone in the Bayshore area or south Tampa?

[Sunscape]

"From friends, it seems like complaints about Verizon are more about their customer service and those about Brighthouse are about their actual service. "

All the complaints I know about have always been around their cust service. It has never been around the service itself.
I have Verizon wireless on my cell phone because it has always been the best. No complains at all about the service.

[kbrkr]

I'm unbiased; I wanted Verizon FiOS when I moved down here because I heard great things about thier Internet speeds, reliability, and throughput. I was not disappointed with a whopping 35mbs speed it rocks. I did have two issues with customer service; one with installation they never hooked up my phone when they installed my internet and TV. Luckily I called them just after they left when I check for dial tone and they were only down at the corner store getting gas. They came right back and fixed the phone.

The second issue was with packages and programming; the salespersons did not know the details of their lineup and thus jerked me around a bit. To their credit (and mine) they gave me $15 off one of their packages for a year for my troubles. That works for me!!

So far FiOS HD TV is stunning and the internet just plain rocks. I couldn't be happier.

I thought about the 2 year contract issue, but why would I change providers in a year anyway??? I'd have to relearn another channel line up; give up my high-speed internet, etc.

I'm a happy camper....

[craigm1841]

my cable bill varies from month to month with verizon. I dont have the time to haggle with their aweful customer service, so i just pay whatever the bill is, sometimes is 20 bucks more then the month before. I do not buy anything on pay per view.

Like many people, I dont have the time or patience to deal with verizon, dont want to cancel my contract because it is so damn expensive, and couldnt if i wanted to, as I am in a verizon only community.

if 40,000 people in the tampa bay area have verizon, and they try to charge everyone 4 bucks more at some point, and only half haggle with them- they have still made $80,000 extra. Verizon is a scam- especially when it is your only option.

[Soorena]

I'm happy with FIOS, but Verizon's customer service is a joke. Every time you call them, they try to sell you their crappy virus protection and keep redirecting you to different people and departments. So now, if I need to call them for anything, after the second call transfer I just ask to talk to a supervisor since their customer service is totally incompetent and useless.

[The716]

I have Directv and will Never switch... excellent customer service, the bill is always the same... and the best part: No fee to add or drop a package.

Wait, I was wrong about the Best part: NFL Sunday Ticket

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by kbrkr

I'm unbiased; I wanted Verizon FiOS when I moved down here because I heard great things about thier Internet speeds, reliability, and throughput. I was not disappointed with a whopping 35mbs speed it rocks. I did have two issues with customer service; one with installation they never hooked up my phone when they installed my internet and TV. Luckily I called them just after they left when I check for dial tone and they were only down at the corner store getting gas. They came right back and fixed the phone.

The second issue was with packages and programming; the salespersons did not know the details of their lineup and thus jerked me around a bit. To their credit (and mine) they gave me $15 off one of their packages for a year for my troubles. That works for me!!

So far FiOS HD TV is stunning and the internet just plain rocks. I couldn't be happier.

I thought about the 2 year contract issue, but why would I change providers in a year anyway??? I'd have to relearn another channel line up; give up my high-speed internet, etc.

I'm a happy camper....

Sorry I don't want to be sarcastic...but I had Verizon for 5 years and it was plain missery dealing with their customer service to get the bills corrected time after time...and when you move, 2 weeks without service although we informed them 4 weeks ahead...the second time when we moved we called Bright House the 3rd of the Verizon guy not showing up and Bright House told us they would come right away and 2 hours later we had all theservice we needed

Not that I the price changes with Bright House....but over all I take it all because i don't have to deal with being transfered over and over and giving my info over and overP

[craigm1841]

Originally Posted by Town&Country

I have Directv and will Never switch... excellent customer service, the bill is always the same... and the best part: No fee to add or drop a package.

Wait, I was wrong about the Best part: NFL Sunday Ticket

yeah, but satellite internet is brutally slow compared to FIOS