I have had FIOS for about 5 years with the 'Verizon Freedom Essentials' voice plan. My contract has lapsed and I can create a new bundle which (apparently) maintains my FIOS TV Extreme HD plan, actually upgrades my FIOS 10/2 to 15/5, and (apparently) replaces my 'Verizon Freedom Essentials' with FIOS Digital Voice.
When I added this bundle to the Cart, I got a message thanking me for choosing FIOS - eventhough I already have it, and then a warning message that selecting FIOS Digital Voice would change my account number and I would have deal with any affected financial institutions.
Is this warning message correct? If memory serves, the ccount number did change when I first went to FIOS, is it going to change _again_ if I select the bundle which, by definition, includes FIOS Digital Voice? TIA.
Mark
Yes, it is correct and I've not been able to get a straight answer from Verizon about why the account number changes--I recently signed up for triple play of broadband, phone and tv from my double play of broadband and phone (Freedom Essentials). My account number did not change when I switched to FiOS (broadband/phone) in 2009.
I received an email from Verizon's FiOS Customer Experience Team for the Mid-Atlantic Region welcoming me to FiOS (although, as noted, I've been a FiOS customer since 2009). I replied to that email asking why my account number changed, what my new payment date would be (that also changes fro some bizarro reason) and also that I wanted to go back to Freedom Essentials since Digital Voice is NOT state regulated (no protection then if there are problems, no regulations as to price increases, etc.). While I received a reply, my questions have never been answered and my "customer experience" has been extremely poor with respect to any help/response from Verizon's Mid-Atlantic region team. I have not yet received my first bill for the new account.
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I'm not anxious to change account numbers and 'upset the apple cart'. I presently have Verizon electronically sending the bill to the bank where I can choose a variety of payment options, e.g. pay in full if amount < entered value, else email alert to me.
Changing the account number shouldn't cause me to lose the capabilities, but it might.
I spent some very ineffective time 'chatting' with Verizon; the bandwidth of chat/IM is so low as to make it's use a waste of time. An actual telephone conversation is far more effective! (The same is true in other businesses, not just product support).
When it's all said and done, I guess the only options are (1) do nothing and (2) Press and Pray 🙂 and get slightly faster Internet for 5 bucks less a month. I'll have to sleep on that choice.
Mark
>>Thanks for your prompt reply.
You're welcome...
>>Changing the account number shouldn't cause me to lose the capabilities, but it might.
I'm clueless as to what effect changing the account number would do to your current payment method with your bank as I currently pay my Verizon bill online via Verizon's website--I'm quite happy to allow direct deposit at my bank but I'm not interested in bank-based auto-billpay systems...'-}}
>>I spent some very ineffective time 'chatting' with Verizon; the bandwidth of chat/IM is so low as to make it's use a waste of time. An actual telephone conversation is far more effective! (The same is true in other businesses, not just product support).
Due to my hearing loss making the phone difficult to use, I find live chat more effective and, with my admitedly limited experience with Verizon phone support, I find that chat gets me more useful info and help than calling Verizon ever has. I'm extremely unhappy about the switch to Digital Voice after reading the Verizon TOS I received in the mail after I made the change and would very much prefer to go back to Freedom Essentials but Verizon is aggressively pushing DV because it's not regulated and they can then do pretty much whatever they want with no restrictions. On a practical level, the differences between DV and FE may be non-existent but it's the principle of the thing...
<<I'm quite happy to allow direct deposit at my bank but I'm not interested in bank-based auto-billpay systems>>
If it was _only_ auto then I would agree. There are multiple levels of interaction possible down to a simply email from the bank saying the bill has arrived and requiring a manual payment authorization from the bank website. Very convienient to have a single interface for bill payments if you're on the road for several weeks.
What in the TOS (which I have not read) is different for DV as compared to FE?
Mark
>>Very convienient to have a single interface for bill payments if you're on the road for several weeks.
Yes...I can imagine that it would be very useful under those circumstances...
>>What in the TOS (which I have not read) is different for DV as compared to FE?
I always read the TOS for stuff like this...'-}}
There are a number of differences like not being able to call numbers with certain prefixes which I had to research to figure out what the problem was--from what I can gather mostly porn type numbers--none of which I would probably ever call but somehow, having the phone company tell me that I'm not allowed is pissy-inducing because the last time I checked, the phone company was not my mother. DV will not allow collect calls to be accepted--again...Verizon is not my mother...
DV is not state regulated--this is the biggie for me--so Verizon can do anything it wants from raising its rates every day to deciding that I can no longer use their services with no reason needed to be given and no recourse for me.
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