Home Phone (Landline or Digital Voice)

[#1]

Yesterday, I re-upped my two-year FIOS contract and this morning, I went to make a local phone call and it said I needed to enter the area code first.

I called Verizon and they said that when I renewed, my phone was converted into VOIP. 

That's ridiculous ... if I wanted VOIP, I'd use Skype.

Does this mean that there's no more 8-hour window where if my power goes out, I can still use the phone?  That's really the only reason I even want a land line - it's a backup in event of emergency.

[#2]

You still have 8 hour service.

From q&a for fiosvoice.

Q: If I lose power or have a broadband outage, will I still be able to use FiOS Digital Voice?

• A: In the case of an electrical outage, your FiOS Digital Voice service will continue to operate on battery power for up to 8 hours. If electricity has not returned by that time, and your battery has exhausted, it will not be possible to make or receive calls using FiOS Digital Voice,including emergency calls to 911 and your alarm system will not be able to call out.
• During an electrical outage, your battery will not provide power to your computer. If you cannot access your computer and internet service during an electrical outage, you will not be able to access your FiOS Digital Voice Account Manager from that computer. Your FiOS Account Manager can, however, be accessed from another working computer and internet connection.

[#3]

Holy excrement, this is unacceptable. My Internet went down this evening - that happens once every few months or so and is an annoyance, but I live with it. 

But now, my phone is down, too!

HELLO VERIZON - I did not want VOIP and didn't sign up for VOIP. The whole bloody reason for even having a ome phone is so I can dial 911 in event of an emergency. And now you're taking thawe away from me?

This is absolutely unacceptable. I like FIOS and have been williing to accept a few annoyances because The benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but not having an always working landline is a pretty f'in big drawback. 

[#4]

They are not directly connected.  But obviously you have some other problem that is causing your FIOS connections to go down.  You should work to get them to fix that.

[#5]

Well, there are three separate issues.  

The internet going down the other night was a widespread outage in the area, not something specific to me.  I talked with some friends who had FIOS and their internet was down or slow as well.  So I chalk that up as one of those things that happens and it doesn't really bother me.

Separate from that, my internet has probably gone down maybe 10-12 times since I have had Verizon and when I call in, they always go through some troubleshooting thing they have (I forget what they call it, recycling something) and it fixes the problem.  The last time it happened, they sent me a new router and told me, the next time it happened, to replace my old one with the one they sent me and see if it solves the problem.  (Obviously, that didn't help the other night since it was a widespread outage that had nothing to do with me.)  But while this is slightly annoying, it really isn't that big of a deal.

What is a big deal and what is a deal killer is that my phone went down the other night during the outage.  I'm currently playing the transfer game with Verizon where everyone I talk to assures me that it's not possible for this problem to happen and then transfers me to someone else.  It's absurd and insulting for them to tell me it's not possible - it did happen.  I was on my computer at the time the internet went out and the little network icon popped up to say I had no internet access.  I picked up my phone to dial Verizon support and had no dial tone.  I then checked one of my regular (non-cordless) phones just in case it was a problem with my cordless phone and it was out too.  When the internet came back up an hour later, I had a dial tone again.

I don't need to hear, "it's not possible", I need to either hear that they're going to switch me back to what I had before, that they are fixing the problem, or I'm going to drop at least the phone service with an eye towards dropping FIOS all together if I can arrange to get Cox out here before my 30-day recission period is up.

[#6]

A little box has appeared that says "This message is being resolved in a private support area."  If that's the case, I have no idea how to see that resolution - I don't have any private messages or emails from Verizon.

The end result of my phone call was that a manager said that this should never happen and if it happens again, they will waive the 30-day recission time limit and let me cancel the phone service without penalty.  While not a thrilling answer, it is enough of one to retain me as a customer.

I'm relieved, at least, to know that this behavior isn't by design.

[#7]

HokieDave,

You received an email at the email address your registered on your forum account with a link to your private support case.  You can also click on your forum username at the top of the forums when you're signed in to go to your profile.  You will see a module in the middle of the profile that says "My Support Cases".  The link to your private support case will be below that.

[#8]

Okay, thanks.  It got caught by my spam filter and coming from "Community Mailer", it wasn't something I noticed right away.  It would be nice if they would put Verizon in the subject line or the from name ... "Community Mailer" sounds spammy.