After moving to a new apartment my Wife and I decided to give Verizon FIOS a chance after seeing their ads on bundles.  We called on our move in day, a Tuesday.  They must have been busy, because we were on hold for 41 minutes.  We decided to call back.

When we did we were greeted with a pleasant 15 minute wait time and finally a customer service rep.  She seemed very enthusiastic and we were immediately disarmed by her good nature.  We signed up for the Bundle for Internet, TV, and Phone.  We also agreed to get the DVR.  Life was good, and we were looking forward to our new service.

2 weeks later a Verizon technician arrived to install our service.  I had to take the day off to wait for him, which I did for about 6 hours, but that happens with everyone, right?  No biggie.  I welcomed this gentleman into my home, grimacing at his muddy shoes on my carpet, hoping that he would be in and out as quickly as possible. 

3 hours later my Television and Internet were up and working.  He started packing up his tools (I was helping!  Get out now!) when he mentioned to me that everything was good to go, with the exception of my phone.  He explained to me that my phone lines were set up incorrectly and that I would have to get my maintenance department to re wire my phone lines in my apartment. 

I remember thinking “what a hassle”, and I asked the technician if I was able to correct the issue would he be able to come out an install my phone?  He told me to call Verizon and make an appointment with service installation. 

He left.  My TV worked great, my internet was blazing fast.  So I was missing a phone.  So what?  I’ll get it fixed within the week.  Right? 

40 weeks later, it was still not fixed. Here’s the timeline:

1 week) I had my maintenance department go through my phone lines and learned something interesting: the previous tenant had Verizon Fios and his phone worked just fine.   

2 weeks) I had a friend of mine who is a fiberoptic and telephone wiring technician take a look at my lines.  He told me that they worked fine, and demonstrated this by hooking up a machine that showed each outlet worked great.

4 weeks) I call Verizon.  They set up a time for a technician to come out.

6 weeks) After waiting all day, no technician shows.  Call Verizon.  Put on hold, hang up after 30 minutes.

7 weeks) Call Verizon, service center tells me they will send another technician out, tell me there will be ANOTHER service charge.  No Way!  I’m not paying for another service appointment!  They claim they will open a ticket to research my issue and call me back.

10 weeks) Still no call.  Call Verizon because I cannot see my bill online anymore and do not receive paper statements, yet I’m still paying them through my banks Bill Pay site.  Verizon is unable to help me because I do not know my account number.

11 weeks) I pretty much give up.

18 weeks) I call Verizon and ask them to cancel the phone that I have been paying for.  The customer service rep tells me that they need to open a ticket to research the issue.  I tell them I will HOLD while they look it up. 

18 weeks and 3 hours) After speaking to 4 different account reps I have a resolution.  They will Cancel my phone line and refund my money in the form of credits to my account, beginning on the next bill cycle.  I’m satisfied with the resolution.

22 weeks) My account has been credited but I am still paying for the phone service.  Again I call, again I’m on hold, again my account is credited and I am assured the phone charges will not be applied again.

30 Weeks) I receive a credit to my account and my bill pay tells me nothing is due.

32 weeks) I receive a check in the mail from Verizon for refund for excess charges.

39 weeks) My service is shut off due to non payment.  I call Verizon, am put on hold for an hour, reach a customer service rep.  I explain the situation.  She transfers me to a rep in the finance and collections department.  She pulls up my account by name / address and DOB (since I do not have my account number).  She tells me I have missed 2 months payment and owe them near $400.  I explain that I have been credited and do not know which payment I have missed.  She explains that she will open a ticket to research the issue (!!!!!!!!!!!)  I have to fax proof of payment to Verizon.  I ask to be transferred to someone who can assist me with canceling this god-awful service.  She “politely” transfers me to a dead line that hangs up on me.

I finally get through to the customer retention department.  They are very clever:  they use names such as “Mr. Smith” and “Mr. Wainwright” to hide their identities to avoid negative feedback and confrontation.  And their supervisors are all conveniently out to lunch (even at 10:30 in the morning).  “Mr. Wainwright” is unable to assist me because I do not know my account number.  He tells me very not-so-politely that if I don’t know it then I “have a problem” and I “should always know your account numbers.”  I ask again to be transferred to a supervisor.  He transfers me to a dead line.

The next day I received a call from a Verizon Account Supervisor.  She tells me that my account is past due (which still makes no sense).  I asked her to give me some information on cancelling my account (contract should be up in 2 months!  Thank you LORD!).  

You know what she told me?  When I had CANCELED my phone service (that they could not install for me!) I was automatically signed up on a NEW BUNDLE CONTRACT that does not expire for another 7 months.  I’m pretty sure that is ILLEGAL.  “Slamming”, maybe????  She said she would open a ticket to research my issue and call me back.  No Lie. 

Verizon opened up numerous “tickets” to research the “issues” that I experienced.  Not one of them resolved correctly.  I can’t say I’m optimistic about this last one.  My entire experience has been battling to be served CORRECTLY.  I made my payments, paid for more than I was receiving, and never once complained about it.  However, as soon as I start asking some questions the answers become more and more veiled, the responses are sharper and harsher, and the staff is suddenly incompetent and outright mean.

VERIZON is cheating its customers and practicing illegal contracting.  They want to charge me over $600 to get out of my contract.  Be WARY of this type of practice!  Be WARY of Verizon.  I have been paying over $160 a month for a DVR , TV, and Internet and have been screwed around every corner of the block.  I can get the same service for HALF from a competitor if I could only get out of my contract!!  They can only cheat the little people if we let them!  They will NOT be receiving another dime from anyone I know!  I’m vowing to keep Virginia CLEAN of Verizon scum.  You should too.

Terrible service. Does not respond to emails or calls after you have sent money. No receipts, not itinerary and small claims court to get money back 

I could not believe when I got online an I saw this on another review site, posted only a few months ago “In planning our trip to Alaska, Stephanie Porter was fantastic! But as time went on, and we had to ask for receipts, she sent these receipts on letter head from the cruise ship company.” 

We also asked for receipts for well over 2 months. I emailed and called continually, but no reply. Finally I received an email that said, “Have you tried to reach me? This is the first I have heard from you. I just tried to call your number and received a busy tone. Please call me today, I will be in all day. If I do not answer, leave a message and I will return your call.” I find this VERY funny since I work IT for a living and my email was being sent through to everyone else fine, and no on else had an issue calling my number? Plus I have call waiting and voice mail, you would NEVER get a busy tone. 

When I finally talked to her again, I was very nice and acted like it was no big deal. Once again asked for a receipt, she PROMISED it would be in my email in a few days. Once again I waited weeks and began to email and call again. Same deal, no reply, no call back, no answer. So I left a very to the point voice mail saying that I was sick of it and this was unacceptable. OH MY GOODNESS, a call back within 10 minutes telling me MY ACTIONS AND TONE were unacceptable….. 

“Hi its Stephanie, I guess I can appreciate your frustration but I don’t appreciate your tone. And if you would like me to refund you money I would be happy to do that. It is just not the way that I operate, I get great deals and try to get stuff to people, especially … third world countries that can be difficult to get that stuff out. So I don’t think this is a good situation for me to be in… so why don’t you let me know how to get this money back to you and you guys can go from there.” 

Not a good situation for HER to be in huh? How is needing to send a receipt not a good situation for a travel agent to be in? Aren’t they supposed to send you receipts, aren’t they supposed to work with you? I think we were the ones on the bad situation. ANYWAY, I ask for a refund and have been told it would be taken care of within a couple days, then one more reply that says, sorry didnt have time this week, will take care of it next week. Now it has been three weeks and once again, no replies or calls. I am now taking this to a lawyer and to small claims court to get my money back. DO NOT USE TRAVEL NEGOTIATORS

I purchased a laptop from Best Buy on April 15. I also purchased a RAM upgrade from 2 gig to 4 gigs. I ask if I am allowed to install it myself and was told it would void the warranty so I paid almost $40 for someone to do something I could’ve done. Later I am told that what he said was untrue and the RAM slots are “user accessible” slots and that I should feel free to mess with the RAM whenever I want.

June 2009 the hard drive died. I took it in and they ran a diagnostic, I asked if they would be able to load the Operating System on the new drive and was assured that it would be returned to me “in working order.” They sent it away, put in a new hard drive, and sent it back. (When it arrived the power cord had been pulled so tight that the black insulation is now a lighter color – very bad because this usually breaks the wires inside and makes it not work and increases fire hazard. I point this out, they don’t care). It was at this point that a different Geek Squad representative informed me that, no, they could not install the Operating System unless I bought the disc and then they would charge me for the install. So waiting two-and-a-half weeks for my computer I have to wait another week-and-a-half for the dics to arrive and load the OS myself. (If they had told me I needed the discs I would have ordered them while my computer was away.) 4 weeks without a working computer.

The second time I brought it in was for a screeching noise my CD burner had made a couple of times right before it stopped burning CDs. The tech looked at it, burned a DVD, told me it was fine and gave it back. I took it home, it would still not burn CDs and it was at this point that I noticed the disc he burned was a DVD, not a CD (he sent it home with me).

Third trip, I take it back in for the CD burner and it is replaced. When I get the computer back it has a rattle and a distortion in the monitor that looks similar to when you hold a magnet to a tv — also the case no longer fits together and there is a huge crack running down the side of it, I point these things out to them and the technician opens the computer (where I can’t see what he’s doing) and “fixes” the crack in the case by jamming it back together and removes the rattle by taking out a “random piece of metal” that he refuses to tell me what it is or where it came from. Great job guys, you’re really strutting that stuff! At this point I ask about the lemon replacement because the glow on the screen is still present and this was the third time I brought it it. He said it needed to have “three repairs,” before it would count and since the second time I brought it in they didn’t fix anything so it didn’t count but I already had 2 replacements so one more and it would be a “lemon.”

Fourth trip, I already ran the diagnostics at home and learned I had a bad mother board. Because of the complaints I had previously (I also point out the glow on the monitor that was never fixed) this order is expedited (meaning they ship it a little faster) I take it in and the technician tells me it is the ram. So I tell him that I tried two other sticks of RAM and had the same problem. So he goes and takes out one stick of RAM and it boots fine, he puts that one back in and takes out the other and it no longer boots, he says it is the stick of RAM. I told him to take the “known good” stick and try it in the other slot to be sure, he does and the computer will not boot. He determines that it is the motherboard because of this and sends it for repair. I figure this is the 3rd part replacement and therefore next time I get a new computer.

Fifth trip, upon picking up my laptop I am told that it is the RAM and not the motherboard. So I inform this technician about the stick switching done before it was sent off and that it was determined in store to be a motherboard problem. He does the RAM switch thing and determines that it is the motherboard. It gets sent out again (this time they do not expedite it). The motherboard is replaced and it is returned to me after 2 months in the hands of Geek Squad and the people they send it to for hardware replacement. The manager informs me that the next problem I have with the computer will get the “lemon” replacement and this one doesn’t count because it was sent off twice for the same problem. (They tell you verbally that it’s “after the third repair” done they give you a new one. After the third repair they THEN told me that it’s, “after the 3rd time they have to replace a part.”) So, assured that the next time they will just hand me a brand new computer I take it home. I call Corporate Headquarters on the way home to be told that, “well, whatever the technician says is probably true.” I point out that I’ve gotten several different stories from them and I want to know what is “true” because I feel like I’m

getting pushed off until it becomes someone else’s problem. Short run I am told that it is not their problem and I should feel free to talk to their legal department.

Sixth trip, I am told that, “No, one of your hardware replacements doesn’t count,” towards the lemon policy. I am not given a good reason why, some crap about having brought it into the store before for the same problem (though it was replaced once so shouldn’t ONE of the instances count?!). ONE: harddrive, TWO: CD burner and case, THREE: motherboard. Not to mention I’m annoyed because the glow on the monitor is getting worse and my wireless card seems to be dropping the signal quite a lot; I had been using my husband’s computer (also wireless and on the same network) to confirm this and his was not dropping signal while mine was. In fact, his was working perfectly. Repairing the connection and even going so far as to restart the whole computer did not fix this problem. Also, the battery no longer charges. After about a minute plugged in the computer says it is charged but lasts less than a minute once the cord is unplugged. The technician check this, plugged it in, tried to show me that it did say it was fully charged and saw no problem there. I told him to unplug it, it took 45 SECONDS before it flashed a warning and died. It dropped power so quickly that Windows did not have enough time to go to stand by and the warning was shown for only a fraction of a second. Technician runs an in-store diagnostics and tells me he thinks it is the motherboard because the BIOS says the battery is fine. It gets sent off for repairs.

Today, I pick up my computer (which has spent more time at Best Buy in the last 8 months than it has with me) to find that the slot for a removable/external wireless card has been busted up. The “plug” that sits in it to stop dust build up will not lock in place. I show the technician, who confirms it. Also, the power cord is once again pulled so tight when wrapped around itself that the insulation is very obviously discolored by the stretch I’m angry but have homework to do so I take it with me and tell him I will bring it back the next week. [in case you are wondering they replaced the: battery, keyboard (which was working fine), and, finally, the LCD panel (aka Monitor)]

I get home and set my computer back up on my desk. I bought a new printer while my computer was away and I set up the printer, I go to put the CD in to install the software to find that the CD drive has been physically broken IN ADDITION to the external card slot. Extremely angry now, I call the store and talk to the manager. The best he can do is tell me someone will call me tomorrow.

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM BEST BUY! Their customer service is crap and they will use every ounce of balogne to get out of their end of the Warranty you purchase. If you DO purchase something (or already have and now regret it) take a tape recorder with you. I don’t suggest hiding it from them, but maybe it will encourage them to start telling the truth and to quit jerking their customers around when they pay a couple hundred dollars for a service.