Friday, May 23, 2008

Beware Verizon FIOS Customers!

My bill just arrived and I discovered I was charged $30 for a 9 minute phone conversation with my brother in Germany. I always use 10-10-987 for my calls, since I can't afford "standard" rates. I am beyond furious, as a FIOS rep just told me "sometimes the 10-10-987 doesn't get 'picked up' with FIOS and that's not Verizon's routing problem." Too bad, so sad, I'm out $30. I'm so angry. Every available penny of every pay check is taken up in living expenses. I haven't been able to put a dime in savings for months. I still have $0.77 there. If something bad happened to me today, someone might as well smother me with a damn pillow in my hospital bed because I couldn't afford to do shit to take care of myself.

You know, I keep the FIOS service because the bundle is cheap, cable TV is my main - and 98% of the time, only - affordable remaining vice, and the Internet I use for working at home. But I have to figure out now what I can cut out for next month in order to pay this extra on the bill. Goddamit. What do I skip? Laundry? Gas? A prescription? A doctor's appointment? Fuck!

I'm running out of "good stuff" I can try to sell on eBay or on the Intranet at work. That cupboard is pretty damn bare. And no one wants the crap I have left over.

I really need to talk a walk now and cool down, but I'm not supposed to be walking far.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuckety fuck!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so not acceptable. Call back and ask to speak to a supervisor. Insist on having the charge removed or at the very least reduced

Cyn said...

Maybe if you called back and talked to another rep you might get a better outcome? Our experience with Verizon is that every person you talk to has a different answer.

We got Fios about 4 months ago and were supposed to get a HDTV for signing up. My esteemed husband has probably spent at least 10 hours on the phone (most of it on hold) trying to find out when that TV is actually going to get here. One rep actually told us that she was going to circumvent the usual procedure and have one shipped out the next business day...I think that was 2 months ago -- evidently she completely made the whole thing up to get my husband off the phone.

Another time we got an automated phone message saying we should look for a voucher for the TV in the mail in the next few days. Never came, of course.

Last time he checked in with Verizon he asked to speak with a manager -- and at least someone pretending to be a manager promisted that she got things straightened out. Of course, it all meant we went back into a queue with another 4-6 weeks wait. (Or was it 6-8 weeks? Whatever - still no TV or reasonable facsimile yet.)

Also, it took 3 billing cycles for the bill to be the proper bundle amount. Said husband had to call each time a bill arrived and they would refund the overcharge each time -- but you have to wonder how many people don't bother to correct it?

Oh, sorry, venting too much in your comments. I guess the point was that we've had better luck getting our bill corrected than getting that darned little TV. So if you have some pestering time in your schedule, I think you should not give up until Verizon gives you credit for that phone call.