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I am taking time to post this as a warning to everyone with High Speed Internet or HSI as Verizon calls it. I want to warn
everyone not to let Verizon modify your account. It can be very costly in time and money. If you like and enjoy your DSL then
leave it alone and don't call Customer Service or you can lose your DSL - it happened to me.
This is a true story - this really happened to me.
I have had Verizon phone service for 15 years. DSL service for 4 years. I had up to 7.1 M DSL whiich I paid $39.99 for 5mps
service since 2009 until I made the mistake of calling Verizon Customer Service.
Wednesday, July 27 - I called customer service to ask a simple question - why did my land line phone bill go from the normal
$20 per month to $31. After keeping me on hold for a long time, (checking my account) the person said that it was for a long
distance call). I had not made any long distance and asked for details. She said she could not provide that. I told her I had
online billing and auto payments and I could not see my bill. She had no answers for me.
Then the problem started. If I knew what was about to happen I would have hung up the phone, but little did I know that my
life was about to become a nightmare.
The customer service agent suggest I "BUNDLE" combine my DSL and phone into a bundle. They would offer me a "special"
deal and I would get more services for less money. She wanted to offer me the Verizon Freedom Bundle of enhanced phone
services which included free long distance. She said that I would not have to worry about extra long distance charges and my
total bill for internet and phone would drop about $15 dollars a month.
I sensed trouble and protested. I didn't want this. Why would Verizon offer land line phone, free long distance and 5 mps
High Speed Interent for just $5 more per month over what I was paying for DSL alone. . She said it was a special offer for
anyone not eligible for FIOS service and that they were bundling everyone they could.
I told her that I worked at home and required high speed internet for my job, this is what keeps food in my family's mouth
and I had to keep my up to 7.1 mps DSL that was actually only 5mps for $39.99 a month at all cost. I didn't need long
distance as we all have cell phones and long distance is included in that - the phone line was only for the DSL.
She went on and on about why I needed to do this. And that she could guarantee that my DSL would not be affected and
that it would be very convenient to have just one bill and not two and how this would help me and save $180 a year. I
repeated to her at least five times that I would agree to this but that I had to have at least 5mps DSL service and that I didn't
mind paying for it. She assured me that my DSL would NOT, I repeat NOT be affected.
I agreed. This was Wednesday morning July 27.
Thursday July 28, I receive an email in my Verizon email (that my new Verizon Freedom is set up. Promptly my DSL goes out
at 10:30am on Thursday July 28.
I call customer service and ask if bundling has something to do with my DSL going out. They promptly deny this as they
would continue to do for 5 days. They put me through to Verizon DSL support in India, Pakistan, Philippines and a variety of
other places where for the next 5 days I get nothing but a run around.
I call twice, three times a day. I spend hours every day trying to get something to happen. All I hear is that my request for
service has been escalated to Superivisors, then escalated to "Home Office" . Sometimes I have on the phone for 45
minutes or more before anyone even talks to me to tell me that the can do nothing everything has been escalated to
someone else. Everyone insists that this has nothing to do with my services being bundled. One customer service agent at
Verizon even argues that they would never make such a mistake, They all insist it is a technical issue. It would be 5 days until
someone finally admits that they canceled my DSL service because of bundling.
Long story short I spend the next 5 days sitting in McDonalds (they have free DSL Wi-Fi) doing my work to earn money to pay
my DSL and phone bill that I don't have - while I have a new part-time job of trying to get my DSL back on. Everyone tells me
it will be back on in 24 to 48 hours - it never is. It just keeps getting "escalated". Or they tell me they will call me back. In five
days no one called except one person who said it was fixed and was working. It was not.
Finally six days later it is turned back on, but instead of the 5 mps speed - I now have 1mps service.
One fifth the speed, 20% as fast. My nightmare continues, I can't upload files fast enough so they don't make it through. I end
up driving 60 miles to work to upload files I am working on.
Many, many, many phone and chat messages later after being escalated again for at least 3 or 4 times a "supervisor" calls
who is brought in from out of state calls. This is the first real call I get about this. Not once did anyone offer to refund me for
disruption of service. Never once did anyone say they made a mistake. We screwed up.|
This is ten days later or more after my service has been upgraded to one-fifth the
speed. She says she has been brought in from out of state to work back-log for the work stoppage. Thank goodness for the
strike, I finally get some service.
She says my line is capable of 10mps but I am only able to get 3mps, she sets it to 3mps from 1mps - this takes her about 5
mins. For this I waited for over 10 days for 5 minutes of someone to fix this. I thank her profusely.
She tells me to get 5mps service back I will need to place a new order for 5 mps. I tell her I have tried that but customer
service keeps telling me that it is not available in my area even though their records it indicates I have had it for years at
5mps. One customer service person tells me that it must be a clerical erro or typo. I tell him I have the original email
stating that I have 5mps of service. and I have done speed test for years and it shows 5mps. He says it has to be a
mistake. Their system is correct.
She says to keep trying to get new service but not now as they are not taking new orders but maybe when the "work
stoppage" is over I could try and convice them to give me a new DSL account.
So the moral of this story to all who read this - is do NOT let Verizon bundle your service. You will be very sorry as I am.
if you do then best of luck to you, I don't wish what happened to me on anyone. Just try sitting in McDonalds for 5 days
straight .
Thank you.