Verizon Fios - Constant billing errors

PAY YOUR BILL I have found the best way is to get them in the pocket book. Pay them $1.00, then pay $1.01, then $1.02 etc... this way they will pay excessive transaction fees to the credit card companys, revenge is sweet

I should be clear that other companies like are just as bad as Verizon sometimes. Why do I even bother?

This is still absurd that companies like this〈Verizon〉 get away with this stuff every day. I had Verizon back in the early 2000s and I hated it then. Now I'm on AT&T. The signal is weak, but at least the customer service is good.

I totally agree with the problems. It seems like the customer service people don't know what the promotions are at any time. I have had to explain each promotion to the person on the phone. Why can't Verizon train its staff right?

:uhh: I have had the fios internet for a little over a year happily, when we moved she said we should bundle our internet with fios tv. We compared with what we paid now to direct tv and said ok since it was cheaper. Then the problems started. I was told my first bill would generate around Dec. 10. On Dec 2 I started getting collection calls and threats to suspend my service.I had been with them barely a month...how can i be past due $300 when my bill is supposed to be $180??? Well, I call agent one who says they owe me $1.80 for overpayment before we move. Not to worry about the call. Then 2 weeks later it starts again. For 2 hours I got passed to 6 different agents who all gave me different amounts I owe ranging from $75-$492....uhhhh? What? Finally one girl says looks like u were never bundled properly and ur bills are going to the old address...well since I have updated it like 5 times at this point I am VERY ANGRY. So I am told a supervisor will call me in the next 1-5 hours...well they call when i am n the bathroom. He left a direct line on my v-mail and a message he would call me back the next day. Just to be safe I call him and leave a message. Next day...no call. So the next day after that I call him again...leave 2 messages....It has been over a week with no reply. Finally I just pay the $500 yesterday and figure I will figure it out when they send me the copies of the last bill in the mail. I woke up today...no tv....call customer service. Apparently I have several accounts with them none of them are linked because they messed up. Finally an answer (kind of) But they are having a supervisor call me. Fingers crossed. By far the worst management of an account I have ever seen. Nobody knows what is going on. Wish I had stayed with direct tv...4 years never an issue. 2 months with fios tv, $500 later...I have no tv!!

Don't count on the 90 day thing. They cancelled my account, I got a new one.. and they cancelled this one while still charging me again. 

 

Now they send me a $99 charge for early cancellation of my 3 year old account, and a $30 bill for a month I couldn't use. And they sent me to collections right away for it!! I need to call them, but everytime I pick up the phone I remember my spending 3-5 hours a day for 6 months on the phone.. and just say "Send me to collections again for your made up accounts, I don't care anymore. My credit isn't worth enough to me since you guys started messing with it." 

So yeah, I rather have bad credit than pay them hundreds, or spend months on the phone with them. They basically took what I said in my initial post, and duplicated it nearly exactly.

By RICHARD MULLINS 

 

The Tampa Tribune 

 

Published: April 8, 2008 

 

Updated: 04/08/2008 09:49 am 

 

TAMPA - Anthony Girit has won thousands of dollars in Wal-Mart gift cards, digital cameras and other prizes for his performance since joining Verizon's downtown customer call center seven months ago. 

 

Last month he won $2,140 in bonuses, he says, but none of those perks came from answering customers' questions or untangling their bills. 

 

"All that came from pushing customers to buy things," Girit said. "I understand every company says, 'Let's make money.' But that's the job of a marketing department, not service. I'm supposed to be there to help them, the customer." 

 

Once, he said, he was disciplined for not selling broadband Internet service to someone with no computer. Managers try to keep customer calls short, he said, listen in on calls and send pop-up messages onto his computer screen such as "Why aren't you selling them? Get off the phone." 

 

Customers may be calling Verizon for help, but Girit and more than a dozen other Verizon employees interviewed describe conflicting pressures at work. On one side, customers call to have problems fixed. On the other side, managers can discipline employees who can't quickly transform those calls into sales. 

 

Pressure from both sources seems to rise monthly, they said, as do sales "threshold" quotas employees must meet to receive bonuses and avoid discipline. 

 

This kind of pressure is becoming more common, say call center experts, especially in markets such as telecommunications and banking, two industries that have recently deregulated and can cross-promote more services. 

 

Verizon executives said they aim to fix customer problems first with each call, then sell new products, and they do compensate workers for selling well. 

 

"Customer service means a tremendous amount to me, personally," said Suri Surinder, Verizon's regional president. "One of my first jobs was as a taxi driver in New York City, so I learned service from the ground up." 

 

In such a competitive environment, any company must meet profit goals and shareholder expectations, Surinder said. 

 

The risk, customer service experts say, is the fate of Verizon's massive investment across the Tampa Bay region. Verizon will spend $1 billion in this area by the time it completes a state-of-the-art FiOS fiber-optic network. 

 

Tampa and Dallas suburb Keller, Texas, are the first cities in the nation to receive FiOS from Verizon, so many eyes in the telecommunications world watch what happens here. 

 

Verizon has won top marks from organizations, such as Consumer Reports, for its technology and service. That goodwill with customers can flourish or evaporate quickly, say service experts, and it can hinge on a company's ability to fix customer problems well enough to prompt a recommendation to a friend. 

 

Prizes Only For 'Great Sales' 

 

In its call centers, where Verizon fields customer issues of any sort, Verizon is clear about the rewards for selling well. It has handed out dozens of gift cards and has online catalogs where employees can redeem reward points for prizes like fondue makers. Verizon often has daily contests to see who can sell the most DSL lines in an hour. This year, a top prize is a trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. 

 

Dawn Livingston, a shop steward with the IBEW local union at Verizon, said she has won trips, including one to the Mall of America near Minneapolis. "It was very cool," she said. "Verizon got us a hotel room right there so we could drop off our shopping bags and rest." 

 

"But that stuff is only for people who get great sales," not for fixing customer problems, she said. "I could have 15 customers in a row say 'She's doing a great job,' and not get a trip anywhere." 

 

The company is also clear about disciplining workers who don't sell enough. 

 

For example, employees said customer calls are timed and count toward an employee's average call handling time, regardless of the customer's issues. Employees said they need to average no more than 11 minutes with a customer. Managers dispatch "coaches" to stand behind poor-selling workers and issue disciplinary "Work Sheets." 

 

Girit said managers disciplined him 13 times in 7 months for not trying to sell a long list of Verizon products. 

 

"I once got written up for not trying to sell TV to an 80-something-year-old woman who called to change her phone number," Girit said. "And she was in a nursing home, moving from one room to another, and couldn't even get our TV. I'm not going to offer something like that." 

 

Even more frustrating, he said, is that he can't get his own Verizon bill fixed. "I'm a FiOS customer myself, and I have to call every month because the bill is wrong. I'm on the phone with these people for an hour every time I call - and I am 'these people.'" 

 

Frank Leonetti, an 8-month employee at Verizon, said that "even if people are calling, trying to lower their bills, I get in trouble for not trying to sell them more things and make their bill higher.

We start the Fios triple combo( Cable,internet and phone) on June 2,2008. We pass the initial credit check and we dont have to pay any fees like intallation,deposit and dont required a credit card,that why we get the service for $99+ tax = $120 a month. Five day later we get the first bill, we call to find out why the bill so early, they say they bill one month in advance.Ok sounds about right. Yeah right! 

We pay the bill off $128. On July 7, we get a new bill for only $68. That was wierd to me but I really dont pay attention to it into July 16, My bank account was charge $200.06 from out of the blue. I try to contact them to inquire about the charge. After many day calling and talking to representative that do not know what to tell me and tell me alot of different reasons,finally on July 29 I find out the true. For some reason Verizon run my credit for a second time, and this time I dont pass the credit check. They change my service,prices and separate them into 3 accounts, all this with out my knowledge. Then with out my authorization they use the information from a one year old Verizon DSL account( already close ) to optain my credit card number and charge the $200, such no one can tell me what was for, ones again many different reasons. My first bill end to be $368 instead $128. No even the rep. that toke the order and run my credit the first time understand what is going on, all this after him calling the billing department. Now on August 1, we going back to Brighthouse(Time Warner) and cancelling Fios for good,with one paying for breaking the 2 years contract thanks to a 90 days guaranty. I hope 

I agree to stay away from Verizon