Very Negative Experience Transferring Internet Service

[dak38]

I'm still working with a Verizon representative to have this issue resolved, but this message is to other curious users about a recent negative set of experiences I have had while trying to transferring internet service from my roommate's name to my name.  I have already been on the phone with 6 different agents during 6 separate calls, and the whole process has taken probably around 10 hours of my time so far.  Here's the story:  

Last year, my roommate and I made a contract with Verizon for 25/25 FiOS internet for $45/month, with no activation fee and no early termination fee.  My roommate took the bill under his name.  This year, my roommate moved out and I got a new roommate.  We decided to transfer the internet service to my name, otherwise he could have just continued to pay the bills and I would have written him a check for them each month.  We talked to a very helpful Verizon agent who told us that the transfer wouldn't be a problem, and we could even keep the router (he said the only potential problem was that we needed to exchange the router, but he worked it out for us to keep the same one).  There would simply be a brief period of no internet as the service was transferred.  After that, a new contract would begin under my name for 2 years, but under the same terms as my roommate's contract for the same $45/month fee with no early termination fee.  The problems started when he got off the phone with me and an automated voice came up announcing the terms of the contract that I had to agree to.  Some mistake had happened, since the voice suggested a $230 early termination fee, contrary to what the Verizon agent had offered.  With no other options than to replay the message or accept the terms, I hung up and called back.

When I got called back, I was put on the phone with a different customer service representative.  I asked to be transferred back to the one I had worked with previously, but he said that he couldn't transfer me.  When I explained the situation, he told me that the previous agent had lied because I had to pay an early termination fee.  Then at the end when I continued to explain the situation he said that he would email the first agent to call me back.  This is exactly what I had wanted him to do in the first place.

The next day, after not being called back by the first agent, I tried calling customer service again.  I got connected with a new agent, who I explained my problem to.  He didn't understand what I was telling him (that I couldn't agree to the terms outlined by the automated voice) and kept putting me on hold to try to figure out my problem.  After over an hour, he determined that I needed to accept the terms of the contract, as I had explained to him from the outset and as I had repeated as he had me go through his other proposed fixes, such as restarting the router.  So he finally transferred me to someone who could help.

I explained the situation to the new agent, and how we weren't supposed to have an early termination fee.  He offered to reduce the contract to one year, which would have been alright with me, as long as the price stayed at $45, which I clearly told him.  So that's what we were going to do.  Just before he had completed the change of contract, I asked to confirm the price with me.  $75 a month.  I'm not sure how he could have agreed to a one year $45 contract and then only tell me it would be $75 right before making the switch.  Anyway, I told him that I didn't approve, and went back to asking for the termination fee to be waved, as the first Verizon agent had agreed to.  He checked my records and told me that this was already in the current contract, and that there wasn't going to be an early termination fee.  So now I had the service that I wanted, only after being told conflicting information by a voice recording and another Verizon agent, spending an hour with another Verizon agent to fix problems that I didn't have, and being offered a different contract for a hidden higher price.

Now at least everything was okay.  That is until I got my first bill two days ago.  The $45/month internet also now included an activation fee of $23.33 for the first three months ($70 in sum).  This was not part of the initial terms that I was offered.  I called Verizon yesterday to ask about it.  The agent told me that this fee is charged to all new accounts, and she was sorry but there was nothing she could do about it.  It definitely wasn't charged to us when my roommate first opened his account, and also wasn't agreed to when the first agent called me and told me that I would have the same terms after the transfer took place.  What I'm saying is that this fee was not mentioned anywhere, not even in the fine print.  It was tacked on only after I had begun the contract.  I hung up with the representative to talk to my roommate about this.  We had both agreed that we wouldn't have made the transfer in the first place had we known about such hidden fees involved.  My roommate could have just kept it under his name and I could have forwarded him the payments.  

Today I called back and asked the new Verizon agent for one of two things: wave the activation fee as the first agent had offered me, or if the first agent had given us false information about the ease of transferring and that there was no way around the activation fee, to go back to square one, reactivate my roommate's account, deactivate mine, go back to the old contract, and pretend like this whole transferring business had never happened.  She repeated again that there is no way around the activation fee, but offered the second option, to transfer back to my roommate and resume the service that we had prior to this whole mess.  I am now waiting for her to call back at 11am so that we can undo all of the work that we had gone through with Verizon.  I really find it striking that Verizon would have such a hard time accepting the terms that their own agent had laid out to and charge hidden fees after the contract was signed.  I will update once the agent calls back about the renewal of my roommate's service, but I am a bit frustrated with the amount of time that I have had to spend with Verizon only to find out that the best solution would be to go back to where we started.

[dak38 · Accepted solution]

Update:

I received a call back from the Verizon agent to go about reverting to the previous contract.  My roommate got on the line, but before beginning the process she mentioned a $130 early termination fee and that the transfer back would count as a new contract.  I wasn't about to go through this process again and have Verizon draft a whole new contract for me with harsher terms than the current one because of it already overcharging on the current contract.  I see this as Verizon's mistake for lacking transparency before we verbally agreed to transfer service, ultimately resulting in Verizon and I agreeing to two different sets of terms.  She appologized twice that there was nothing more she could do, and both times I questioned why Verizon does not take on the responsibility for failure to make clear terms that it expects in a contract before agreement (I'm no lawyer, but I'm fairly certain that this is how contracts work).  Finally she talked to her supervisor and had the fee dropped, allowing me to keep my current contract.  This issue has been resolved, but not before much frustration and time wasted.

[321Cars]

I had the same problem.  We got a letter in the mail telling us our service was about up and we needed to renew.  We called the number on the letter.  Talked to someone who may have been new or didn't know what they were doing.  We talked about the getting one service for a price, he checked about the price for the Essential package, then we asked about the Ultimate package.  He said he had to talk to his manager, put us on hold, came back said we could get the Ultimate package for the same price.  He would send us an email with the information.  The next day, I open the email, it's for the the Essential package for the quoted price.  I tried to call, put on hold for over 10 minutes, auto message comes on they are extremely busy, call back in 2 hours.  I call back the original number, get told, I have to call another number, call the other number and it's billing, billing is not open.  Today, I call and get someone who doesn't have access to the service I order, I have to send the email I received about my new service.  She says that I ordered the Essential package.  I did not order that package.  I also point out that Verizon sent me a new router, why would they send me that if, I am not getting faster service.  I ask to speak to a supervisor.  According to the supervisor, a vendor could have sold me the plan. How does Verizon not know what there vendors are selling.  She tells me there is nothing she can do about the new service, she has no proof that they sold me this package.  Why would I want to go through all this to get a service.  I want the service they said they would give me when we spoke to the "Verizon" representative.  We have no recourse because we need the service.  I can't believe Verizon's business model, I guess because we don't have a lot of choice, Verizon can treat their customers any way they please because they have the business.

[LawrenceC]

Hi 321Cars,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. The title of your post is the link. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.