Why does Verizon charge money to come fix their hardware?

[ealexhaywood]

Please route this complaint to where it needs to go.

I called Verizon today because our internet was out (all other services working fine). I tried restarting the router and the battery without any luck. I called Verizon customer support and had to sit through 6 minutes of automated voice to tell me to restart my router and battery again. Then I talked to a human and we also restarted the router and battery a 3rd time (again, without luck). This is fine -- I understand these were standard troubleshooting steps.

We came to the conclusion that a technician needed to come out and fix it. I thought this was fine too, but the help desk told me "oh by the way you're going to be charged a $70 maintenance fee and an additional $100 if any wiring needs to be replaced". That's insanity. I'm paying a premium for TV and Internet and I should not have to pay ANYTHING if your service breaks.

For peace of mind, I tested a different ethernet cable and boom, that fixed it. I was about to be forced to pay $170 for someone to come out and change the ethernet cable.  I immediately closed my service ticket.

Just a terrible experience overall, really disappointed in Verizon's repair policy.  Why should I get charged money when your crap breaks?  I'm paying for a service, if anything I should get a credit to my account for your service being unavailable.  Thank goodness I had a spare ethernet cable laying around and checked.  But seriously, it woulda been $170 for someone to come out and swap out a $7 ethernet cable.  I still can't wrap my head around that. 

[Edg1]

There isn’t a charge to replace bad Verizon equipment. But inside wiring has always  been a chargeable thing. No different than an electrician coming to fix a circuit breaker or a plumber to fix a pipe. They would charge you too.