Re: Copper service replaced by digital without our authorization
acraftylady
Specialist - Level 2

Oh so you never signed up for fios and they just switched you over? I was curious because you said no phone with power out and here people do have phone when the power is out so was wondering if the battery back up was specific to our area or what. My mom just signed up for time warner phone and they have no battery back up and she is 85 with no cell. Why she decided to do that I don't know, cheaper than the plain. Old verizon line service she had I guess. When we had the bad October storm here in buffalo Ny 6yrs ago that took down trees and power lines we had no landline or power for 6 days so was glad we had the cells to call family out of state. Mary

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Re: Copper service replaced by digital without our authorization
madasheck2
Newbie

I understand EVERYONE'S complaints.  I live in Irving, TX and I signed up for FIOS after being harassed so badly by Verizon.  I was PROMISED that I could go back to DSL if I didn't like it and that the price wouldn't go up that much if at all after the 1yr contract.  HA!  I signed up way back in 2002.  I have tried and tried to switch back to DSL as it was better than FIOS - and cheaper.  They say that I can't because they removed all of my copper wiring.  BUT, I watched them do the whole setup and NOTHING was removed.  I am now stuck either dropping them or going cable which I will NEVER do - horror stories there too.  I was NEVER told by anyone and repeatedly told them that I would switch if I didn't like it and go back to DSL and not ONCE did they say I couldn't ever again.  THIS IS A SHAM.  I am stuck paying a very large monthly bill for something I do not want.  I too am looking for an answer.  This should be illegal - if it's not already.  I am forced now to never go back to DSL if I want and with the economy the way it is, I need to. 

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Re: Need to revert back to copper service
manhattanNYC1
Contributor - Level 2

No, in my building, when you use the FiOs internet and phone service, you can not switch back to Verizon DSL,and cooper Phone service. I live in NYC.

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Re: Copper service replaced by digital without our authorization
hevero
Newbie

We now have a "temporary" phone number and some scratchy, staticky connection, which is an improvement over our 13 days without phone service. But, it seems that when we lost service (or our wires were removed by Verizon?) two of our three phone jacks were rendered inoperative. What a mess. Verizon has been in touch but there are no last names used, no callback numbers and no real explanation of what happened or what is going to happen. I'm glad someone is listening, but this is not my idea of how a public utility should operate.

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Mi-5 (was: Copper service replaced by digital without our authorization)
hevero
Newbie

This might be a plot for Mi-5....

It has been more than a month since our phone service disappeared.

My handler, Natasha, (not her real name) calls me every week or so to tell me she is on the case. Her phone number does not appear. She does not have a last name. I can neither call nor email her. Of course I cannot call her supervisor. She has "escalaed our case twice now after replacing our phone number (not something we wanted) with a temporary number. Today we discovered that even the new line is not working. (and the phone jacks that stopped working have not been restored). Natasha said someone would be over to look at those if they coul dnot be fixed remotelly. So far we haven't seen anyone ....

Natasha is very polite but she says she cannot access our account records. She has no idea why we have had no phone service. She says she does not work in our area. She says she has been relying on another department that does work in our area to help her solve our problem. She said last week she escalated our "case" to management. So far the only difference we have noticed is that the "temporary" number doesn';t work and we can't call in our out.

We seem to be lost in a sea of plausible deniability.

And as for the online support services, we cannot avail ourselves of them because, according to the dialogue box,  there in no information about our phone number on My Verizon.

And of course when you call either of our numbers, there is no message telling you the number has been temporarily changed or is out of service. There is however a recorded voice that comes on after many rings on the old number  that asks if we want to access our Verizon voice mail box, which would be fine if we had not canceled that service three years ago.

OK, Verizon fans and other seekers who ask no more than to get what we are paying for .... until the next exciting episode, don't call us, and we can't call you..

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Re: Copper service replaced by digital without our authorization
Lauriebug
Newbie

Let's all file complaints with the FCC!  I just filed one.  It was easy online at fcc.gov/complaints

I want to have a copper back up to my FIOS just for safety during power outages.

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Re: Need to revert back to copper service
Hubrisnxs
Legend
From my experience, out takes an Act of Congress to go back to copper. Verizon is moving away from copper service entirely, so soon you won't even have the option even if you want to.
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Re: Need to revert back to copper service
buffalonyguy
Newbie

at the time verizon originally started phone-harassing me to switch from copper / dsl  to fios, I was promised the same price, in fact the friendly verizon agent on the phone said it would cost less, since one of the taxes would be eliminated since there was no longer an actual "wire" to tax.  Of course, the package turned out to be $20 more than what the copper/dsl cost. I grinned and beared it.   However, a little over a year into the contract i was on the verizon site and thought I'd try out a faster internet speed, promised that if i could always return to my cheaper/slower speed if i wasn't completely satified.  Well, after a few weeks I determined that the old speed was just fine with me, the higher speed wasn't worth the money.  When I called to restore my original contracted speed, they said that they don't even offer that speed any more! This was just barely a year into my 2 year contract. They said that in order to restore my service to the slower speed, they would have to charge me more or less the same amount as the faster service.  I got really angry and told them to cancel my fios and put me back on copper/dsl.  They of course said that it's not available anymore in my location, which was a total lie. I was about to tell them to cancel all my verizon accounts when the agent told me that although it would cost nearly the same for either the slower or faster net speed, I would now be on a month to month billing rather than the contract which still had 11 months left.  Hooray!  now I'll just wait until next month and can Verizon's thuggish service.  I'm not a complaining sort of person, but Verizon has pushed me to my limits of patience, both with Fios and their Wireless division.  Good bye verizon!

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Re: Need to revert back to copper service
blegs38552
Contributor - Level 1

Fully agree. We lost our phone service 8 hours after we lost our power, just as Verizon said we would. We did not have power for 4 days folliwng Sandy, nor did I have cellular service (not Verizon). I had to use my neighbor's landline phone - she is smart enought not to has a FIOS phone connection. We will be calling Verizon to try and get our landline back, but I am not optimistic, eespecially after reading this thread.

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Re: Need to revert back to copper service
acraftylady
Specialist - Level 2
Every storm is different though. 6yrs ago when we had the October storm here in Buffalo we didn't have copper service for a week with verizon but our verizon cells worked the whole time. Now we have no land line and only cells. Mary
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