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Showing posts with label verizon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label verizon. Show all posts
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Sunday, May 16, 2010
And Again, with Verizon...
Just included in my monthly Verizon bill payment. Let's see if they respond.
"16-May-2010
Dear Verizon,
Let's just get this out there: I don't like you one bit. You probably have the slightest bit of interest in me, because you've managed to fleece me out of $17 per month for solely providing me a dial tone. I personally find that utterly ridiculous. The only reason I have your land line service in the first place is that I am unable to get DSL service at my apartment otherwise. You insist that I have a land-line, but also have the gall of charging my DSL provider $2.88 per month to use your network. If my $17 per month is not covering usage of your network, then it seems like you need to seriously re-evaluate how you are doing business.
You should consider yourself lucky that I find Comcast an even more distasteful corporation than you. Otherwise I would likely just get cable internet from them, and bypass the need for a landline. Alternately, if you hadn't so offended me by requiring that I spend $17 per month for a dial tone, I would likely have purchased FiOS from you by this point, which would have you receiving far more per month than the $17.14 & $2.88 you extract from me each month. Now, your uninformed and poorly qualified salespeople might have dissuaded me from making that purchase, but that's a whole separate string of complaints.
Now, FiOS leads me to my next series of complaints: the ludicrous amount of sales literature you send me for FiOS. I am not interested. Your sales people, though trying to be helpful, were wholly unable to answer some fairly basic questions I had about the service and thus, I am unwilling to switch internet service. Now, despite explaining that to salesmen, I continue to receive several brochures in the mail each month. This is why I occasionally miss a bill payment: your bills and your junk mail look the same, and it all goes into the trash.
In conclusion: I do not want to be your customer, but you have forced me into it. I would honestly appreciate if you cut off the torrent of FiOS literature. It just fills up my trash and surely throws a wrench into any claims you might make of being a “green company.”
Screw you guys,
Alex Belton
P.S. I pay my bill in my own envelope by check simply to spite you. It's worth the stamp every month to stick it to you. You're welcome."
"16-May-2010
Dear Verizon,
Let's just get this out there: I don't like you one bit. You probably have the slightest bit of interest in me, because you've managed to fleece me out of $17 per month for solely providing me a dial tone. I personally find that utterly ridiculous. The only reason I have your land line service in the first place is that I am unable to get DSL service at my apartment otherwise. You insist that I have a land-line, but also have the gall of charging my DSL provider $2.88 per month to use your network. If my $17 per month is not covering usage of your network, then it seems like you need to seriously re-evaluate how you are doing business.
You should consider yourself lucky that I find Comcast an even more distasteful corporation than you. Otherwise I would likely just get cable internet from them, and bypass the need for a landline. Alternately, if you hadn't so offended me by requiring that I spend $17 per month for a dial tone, I would likely have purchased FiOS from you by this point, which would have you receiving far more per month than the $17.14 & $2.88 you extract from me each month. Now, your uninformed and poorly qualified salespeople might have dissuaded me from making that purchase, but that's a whole separate string of complaints.
Now, FiOS leads me to my next series of complaints: the ludicrous amount of sales literature you send me for FiOS. I am not interested. Your sales people, though trying to be helpful, were wholly unable to answer some fairly basic questions I had about the service and thus, I am unwilling to switch internet service. Now, despite explaining that to salesmen, I continue to receive several brochures in the mail each month. This is why I occasionally miss a bill payment: your bills and your junk mail look the same, and it all goes into the trash.
In conclusion: I do not want to be your customer, but you have forced me into it. I would honestly appreciate if you cut off the torrent of FiOS literature. It just fills up my trash and surely throws a wrench into any claims you might make of being a “green company.”
Screw you guys,
Alex Belton
P.S. I pay my bill in my own envelope by check simply to spite you. It's worth the stamp every month to stick it to you. You're welcome."
Monday, January 11, 2010
Verizon, the Glove is Thrown Down.
Just submitted to the BBB. Thake that, Verizon.
Explanation:
"I do not want to purchase this service from Verizon. However, due to their monopolistic practices, I have no other options for land line service at my apartment. I only purchase this land line service so I can purchase DSL service from a third-party provider (DSL Extreme out of Salt Lake City UT, who have provided nothing but excellent service at good prices). Verizon does not provide the service level and features I want at what I consider to be a reasonable price.
To this end, I purchased what I believe to the the cheapest and lowest possible level of service from Verizon. I do not even care if I am able to place or receive local or long-distance calls. Unfortunately, even this most meager service, which includes per-minute rates for local calls, costs in excess of $24.00 per month.
I find this utterly outrageous. They are providing me with literally just a dial tone. That service alone costs $8.27. Then there are $9.82 of various taxes and fees. I do not dispute these. However, what I find reprehensible, is the 'Verizon Long Distance Shortfall' charge. I did not intend to, nor did I want to, sign up for long-distance service. Especially not for $5 per month when I do not use the service. When I called to dispute this charge, I was informed that there was no way to remove or eliminate this service. What they have done, is advertised a 'free' or 'no monthly charge' long-distance option while it really costs a minimum of $5 per month. On my last bill, this was increased to $6 with no warning or explanation.
Prior to this increase, I had received telemarketing calls (all of which were nearly indecipherable due to poor call quality - which only furthers my disgust for them as a corporation) to ensure I was getting 'the best services at the right value'. When I tried to explain that the 'best service and value' for me would be to remove this feature of my calling plan, I was met with verbal shoulder-shrugging and refusals. I was told that the only way to remove the 'shortfall charge' would be to purchase an 'unlimited' long distance plan, which would increase my monthly expenses (and also their revenues).
If telecom was actually a free market, I'd take my business elsewhere over a year ago. However, I am left with no other option but to file this complaint in an effort to get what I feel that I deserve as a paying customer."
Desired Resolution"
"I want my long distance service removed from my bill and not recur. I do not require the ability to make long distance calls from my land line."
Explanation:
"I do not want to purchase this service from Verizon. However, due to their monopolistic practices, I have no other options for land line service at my apartment. I only purchase this land line service so I can purchase DSL service from a third-party provider (DSL Extreme out of Salt Lake City UT, who have provided nothing but excellent service at good prices). Verizon does not provide the service level and features I want at what I consider to be a reasonable price.
To this end, I purchased what I believe to the the cheapest and lowest possible level of service from Verizon. I do not even care if I am able to place or receive local or long-distance calls. Unfortunately, even this most meager service, which includes per-minute rates for local calls, costs in excess of $24.00 per month.
I find this utterly outrageous. They are providing me with literally just a dial tone. That service alone costs $8.27. Then there are $9.82 of various taxes and fees. I do not dispute these. However, what I find reprehensible, is the 'Verizon Long Distance Shortfall' charge. I did not intend to, nor did I want to, sign up for long-distance service. Especially not for $5 per month when I do not use the service. When I called to dispute this charge, I was informed that there was no way to remove or eliminate this service. What they have done, is advertised a 'free' or 'no monthly charge' long-distance option while it really costs a minimum of $5 per month. On my last bill, this was increased to $6 with no warning or explanation.
Prior to this increase, I had received telemarketing calls (all of which were nearly indecipherable due to poor call quality - which only furthers my disgust for them as a corporation) to ensure I was getting 'the best services at the right value'. When I tried to explain that the 'best service and value' for me would be to remove this feature of my calling plan, I was met with verbal shoulder-shrugging and refusals. I was told that the only way to remove the 'shortfall charge' would be to purchase an 'unlimited' long distance plan, which would increase my monthly expenses (and also their revenues).
If telecom was actually a free market, I'd take my business elsewhere over a year ago. However, I am left with no other option but to file this complaint in an effort to get what I feel that I deserve as a paying customer."
Desired Resolution"
"I want my long distance service removed from my bill and not recur. I do not require the ability to make long distance calls from my land line."
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Seriously, Verizon Sucks
I ended up calling them right after this bill arrived, trying to get some answers. I wanted to verify that I had the absolute barest-bones plans (I do) and that there's nothing I can do about the "Verizon Long Distance Shortfall" charge aka making my "free" $0.00/month Long distance plan, which can not be removed from my service, actually cost $5/month.
After that phone conversation (for what it's worth after about 20 minutes on hold the rep I spoke to was very friendly, knowledgeable and apologetic. Which only continues my experience of Verizon people being very nice and helpful, but the company as a whole is terrible) I called my DSL provider to see what they could do about setting up a "dry loop" DSL line. This is DSL service without the need for a dial tone on the line. 25 minutes of investigating later, it was clear a dry loop service was not possible , as far as I can tell because Verizon said-so. Neither was wholesale Fiber, which they do in some areas, but not mine. Even though my apartment is already wired for FiOS.
Amusing side-note:
A few weeks ago I got a telemarketing call from Verizon trying to get me to switch to FiOS to "save me money". I decided to humor the guy. I mean, if I could get 50MBps fiber service for the same number of dollars I'm currently spending, I'd be up for that.
First though, I wanted to tackle the whole "blocking port 80 etc" issue. I can't find reliable information anywhere about whether Ports 80, 25 etc are blocked on FiOS. I know they are unavoidably blocked on residential Verizon DSL lines (which is what differentiates their Resi/Commercial services, as far as I can tell). The telemarketer got flustered and said he'd have to check. After a minute or two on hold he got back to me saying he talked to someone in tech support and told me that when the installer shows up, I should just tell him what port I wanted to use in my apartment and he could set that up. I then proceeded to inform him it was not a physical device but rather a portion of the software used in networking protocol. He put me on hold for a few minutes again and then came back, apologizing that he couldn't find anyone that knew about these "ports" and that I should just ask the install tech.
Next we covered the "saving money" angle. I currently pay a total of around $70/month to Verizon and my ISP for what amounts to just my internet connection. $24 (phone bill) + $2.88 (Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee tacked onto my DSL bill by Verizon) is paid to Verizon, who's services I do not use, and I don't appreciate being forced to pay them for services I neither receive nor want from them (yes, I get phone service, but only receive calls for other people on it).
The telemarketer was only able to offer about that much per month for just internet and phone (and free installation of a first and second computer(!)). Combined with my general dislike for the company and absolutely no answer on the blocking port 80 question, I decided to decline the "generous" offer.
Again, what really gets me about this, is my total lack of options. If I want home internet, I can either keep doing what I am, which seems overly expensive, as I'm paying almost $30/month for services I don't need or use. I could switch to FiOS, essentially rewarding Verizon for having excessive control over the phone network, or go with Comcast digital cable/voice which just seems like trading one huge telco for another which sets arbitrary bandwidth caps and may or may not be filtering/throttling connections.
Sigh. All I want is reasonably priced internet, without paying for services I don't want. Is that too much to ask?
After that phone conversation (for what it's worth after about 20 minutes on hold the rep I spoke to was very friendly, knowledgeable and apologetic. Which only continues my experience of Verizon people being very nice and helpful, but the company as a whole is terrible) I called my DSL provider to see what they could do about setting up a "dry loop" DSL line. This is DSL service without the need for a dial tone on the line. 25 minutes of investigating later, it was clear a dry loop service was not possible , as far as I can tell because Verizon said-so. Neither was wholesale Fiber, which they do in some areas, but not mine. Even though my apartment is already wired for FiOS.
Amusing side-note:
A few weeks ago I got a telemarketing call from Verizon trying to get me to switch to FiOS to "save me money". I decided to humor the guy. I mean, if I could get 50MBps fiber service for the same number of dollars I'm currently spending, I'd be up for that.
First though, I wanted to tackle the whole "blocking port 80 etc" issue. I can't find reliable information anywhere about whether Ports 80, 25 etc are blocked on FiOS. I know they are unavoidably blocked on residential Verizon DSL lines (which is what differentiates their Resi/Commercial services, as far as I can tell). The telemarketer got flustered and said he'd have to check. After a minute or two on hold he got back to me saying he talked to someone in tech support and told me that when the installer shows up, I should just tell him what port I wanted to use in my apartment and he could set that up. I then proceeded to inform him it was not a physical device but rather a portion of the software used in networking protocol. He put me on hold for a few minutes again and then came back, apologizing that he couldn't find anyone that knew about these "ports" and that I should just ask the install tech.
Next we covered the "saving money" angle. I currently pay a total of around $70/month to Verizon and my ISP for what amounts to just my internet connection. $24 (phone bill) + $2.88 (Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee tacked onto my DSL bill by Verizon) is paid to Verizon, who's services I do not use, and I don't appreciate being forced to pay them for services I neither receive nor want from them (yes, I get phone service, but only receive calls for other people on it).
The telemarketer was only able to offer about that much per month for just internet and phone (and free installation of a first and second computer(!)). Combined with my general dislike for the company and absolutely no answer on the blocking port 80 question, I decided to decline the "generous" offer.
Again, what really gets me about this, is my total lack of options. If I want home internet, I can either keep doing what I am, which seems overly expensive, as I'm paying almost $30/month for services I don't need or use. I could switch to FiOS, essentially rewarding Verizon for having excessive control over the phone network, or go with Comcast digital cable/voice which just seems like trading one huge telco for another which sets arbitrary bandwidth caps and may or may not be filtering/throttling connections.
Sigh. All I want is reasonably priced internet, without paying for services I don't want. Is that too much to ask?
Saturday, August 29, 2009
An Illusion of Choice is No Choice at All...
So, I'm basically fed up with Verizon.
When I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I knew I wasn't going to get bundled Phone/Internet/TV from Comcast, and FiOS was not yet available at my apartment complex so that was not a consideration.
I signed up for the barest-bones Verizon home phone line I could set up, which still somehow amounts to over $20/mo basically for a dial tone and the ability to place outgoing calls.
Having a dial tone allowed me my choice of DSL providers. I chose DSLeXtreme, who have provided me excellent service and support since my DSL was activated. They actually resell FiOS service, but that does not appear to be available in my neck of the woods, yet.
I got my bill today, after believing I had unsubscribed from my long distance service. As far as I can tell, both from the website and the bill I had, but there's still a $5.00 'VLD Shortfall Charge' which apparently they can tack on to the bill of anyone they feel isn't already paying them enough.
"A spokesperson for Verizon told KING 5 that even if a person doesn't make long-distance calls, they still have access to the phone network. The "shortfall charge" helps pay for maintenance of the network."
If so, then why do you charge me $8.27/mo just for a dial tone? What does that pay for?
I'm not complaining about the $9.94 per month in taxes in fees which, if they're not labeled deceptively, are all federal and state charges that have been passed through to me.
To add insult to injury, when I "canceled" my long distance, I was unable to also demote my local service from the 'unlimited' to the 'pay per minute' level since I'd already initiated one change to my plan that day.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that I can't currently login to my account page after telling them I was 'very dissatisfied' with the website in the customer-service survey.
So, anyway, do I even have any options for local phone service (that will allow me to keep my DSL service)? It looks like AT&T might be an option, but I can't fathom them being any more pleasant than Verizon.
Any suggestions?
When I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I knew I wasn't going to get bundled Phone/Internet/TV from Comcast, and FiOS was not yet available at my apartment complex so that was not a consideration.
I signed up for the barest-bones Verizon home phone line I could set up, which still somehow amounts to over $20/mo basically for a dial tone and the ability to place outgoing calls.
Having a dial tone allowed me my choice of DSL providers. I chose DSLeXtreme, who have provided me excellent service and support since my DSL was activated. They actually resell FiOS service, but that does not appear to be available in my neck of the woods, yet.
I got my bill today, after believing I had unsubscribed from my long distance service. As far as I can tell, both from the website and the bill I had, but there's still a $5.00 'VLD Shortfall Charge' which apparently they can tack on to the bill of anyone they feel isn't already paying them enough.
"A spokesperson for Verizon told KING 5 that even if a person doesn't make long-distance calls, they still have access to the phone network. The "shortfall charge" helps pay for maintenance of the network."
If so, then why do you charge me $8.27/mo just for a dial tone? What does that pay for?
I'm not complaining about the $9.94 per month in taxes in fees which, if they're not labeled deceptively, are all federal and state charges that have been passed through to me.
To add insult to injury, when I "canceled" my long distance, I was unable to also demote my local service from the 'unlimited' to the 'pay per minute' level since I'd already initiated one change to my plan that day.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that I can't currently login to my account page after telling them I was 'very dissatisfied' with the website in the customer-service survey.
So, anyway, do I even have any options for local phone service (that will allow me to keep my DSL service)? It looks like AT&T might be an option, but I can't fathom them being any more pleasant than Verizon.
Any suggestions?
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Suck it, Verizon
Recently I hackzored my phone and deleted a sum total of three letters and a period from a login string and the following resulted:
Now I have internet everywhere. I checked Red Sox scores and standings on the way home the other day (I wasn't driving). I can also boot up Google Maps for my PDA and plot traffic data and my current position over maps or satellite imagery.
Now I have internet everywhere. I checked Red Sox scores and standings on the way home the other day (I wasn't driving). I can also boot up Google Maps for my PDA and plot traffic data and my current position over maps or satellite imagery.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Hello, Verizon?
Yes, I would like some fatter pipes.
So we were being charged $39.95 for 768k DSL from Verizon. I called up about getting and upgrade and the sales tech was confused because they don't even sell 768k anymore, as I recall.
Note: our DSL modem says "Bell Atlantic" on it. So we've obviously been subscribed for a number of years.
Anyway, Shaun at Verizon pointed out that for only $29.95 we could get 1.5-3.0 Mbps DSL. He also looked at our land-line service and saved us $12/month on that too.
I guess it pays to call service providers occasionally about your plan.
Also, our Bell Atlantic Westell DSL modem has gotten flakey lately, requiring periodic resets. To that end, we also just ordered a new DSL modem. It looks pretty nice and hopefully it'll be a tad more reliable.
[UPDATE(6/5/07)]:
Sure beats the 768k/64kish I used to have.
[UPDATE(6/7/07}]:
Looks like the new modem doubled my upstream bandwidth.
So we were being charged $39.95 for 768k DSL from Verizon. I called up about getting and upgrade and the sales tech was confused because they don't even sell 768k anymore, as I recall.
Note: our DSL modem says "Bell Atlantic" on it. So we've obviously been subscribed for a number of years.
Anyway, Shaun at Verizon pointed out that for only $29.95 we could get 1.5-3.0 Mbps DSL. He also looked at our land-line service and saved us $12/month on that too.
I guess it pays to call service providers occasionally about your plan.
Also, our Bell Atlantic Westell DSL modem has gotten flakey lately, requiring periodic resets. To that end, we also just ordered a new DSL modem. It looks pretty nice and hopefully it'll be a tad more reliable.
[UPDATE(6/5/07)]:
Sure beats the 768k/64kish I used to have.
[UPDATE(6/7/07}]:
Looks like the new modem doubled my upstream bandwidth.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Right, Verizon....
...because I don't already think $50-$80 per month for broadband access from my phone is outrageous:Verizon Bans P2P, Streaming Services and Online Gaming.
Seriously, Verizon. It doesn't cost you that much per-user on your EVDO network. The cheaper you make it, the more people who'll use it and, if it actually works, the more we'll hype it to other people.
As it stands I think it's stupid that I can't get any internet access on my phone without paying at least an additional $5/month. I want to know it works before I start paying a lot for a service, especially one with so many complex electronics involved (my laptop/pda, my phone, your network). Just give us a teaser amount, 50 MB/day?, to whet our appetites, and then perhaps people will see the use in paying you exorbitant amounts to use the services you so happily tout on the equipment we buy from you.
My phone is a very popular one. Right alongside with the regular signal strength indicator, there's one for the EVDO network. How many people will ever use EVDO who own that phone? Not many, to be sure, and certainly a small fraction of that will be doing anything other than your obnoxiously omnipresent 'Vcast' features.
Seriously, Verizon. You can keep your streaming movies and TV and whatever, I honestly don't give a soaring piece of poop about downloading media to my phone from teh interweb, especially when I can't watch it anywhere else after I pay for it. Just let me use the internet on my phone!
Seriously, Verizon. It doesn't cost you that much per-user on your EVDO network. The cheaper you make it, the more people who'll use it and, if it actually works, the more we'll hype it to other people.
As it stands I think it's stupid that I can't get any internet access on my phone without paying at least an additional $5/month. I want to know it works before I start paying a lot for a service, especially one with so many complex electronics involved (my laptop/pda, my phone, your network). Just give us a teaser amount, 50 MB/day?, to whet our appetites, and then perhaps people will see the use in paying you exorbitant amounts to use the services you so happily tout on the equipment we buy from you.
My phone is a very popular one. Right alongside with the regular signal strength indicator, there's one for the EVDO network. How many people will ever use EVDO who own that phone? Not many, to be sure, and certainly a small fraction of that will be doing anything other than your obnoxiously omnipresent 'Vcast' features.
Seriously, Verizon. You can keep your streaming movies and TV and whatever, I honestly don't give a soaring piece of poop about downloading media to my phone from teh interweb, especially when I can't watch it anywhere else after I pay for it. Just let me use the internet on my phone!
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