Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
thebooze
Newbie

I AGREE TOTALLY WITH GTSFER! New directory sucks prune pits! Why couldn't they have incorporated changes without changing the guide. The guide was fine the way it looked and showed more channels as you scrolled. Stop trying to justify some programmers' jobs and leave alone what is fine!

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
nferno1
Newbie

Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
tns
Master - Level 2

@nferno wrote:

Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.



You're in the majority.  Despite all the threads complaining its "terrible" a current poll running on DSLREPORTS has 80% seeing the guide as an improvement.  Note that doesn't even count the non-guide improvements in 1.9.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a-

That doesn't mean some additional changes wouldn't be nice.

Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
LadyNurse
Enthusiast - Level 2

It seems as if the "Techies" are reveling in the NEW VERIZON PROGRAM GUIDE as witnessed by reading their techno-web site BROADBAND DSL Reports.com (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a).

Perhaps the technological aspects of this NEW and IMPROVED Program Guide are a step forward but in REAL LIFE the Techies are missing the boat by a few miles. You can have all of the most wonderful new technological advances but if they are not USER FRIENDLY they become of very limited use in the marketplace and will actually cause poor consumer relations when forced upon consumers in the name of technological advancement. 

If those of us Non-Techies who actually hate the new Program Guide,

(and I feel that a strong word such as HATE is actually justified here after a statistical analysis based on the comments about the NEW Program Guide, collected from the various web sites, shows that the majority of people have commented in the NEGATIVE),

were rating it on new and improved technology maybe things would be different. BUT those of us who are not "Techies" are commenting on what is actually important to us as end users, (the consumers who subscribe to FIOS), i.e., the plain and simple aspects related to EASE OF USE such as bright white lettering on a powder blue background which is extremely difficult on the eyes, too much "stuff"  jammed into a limited space making it difficult if not impossible to utilize, not to mention the size of the "stuff" jammed into the space makes them almost impossible to read let alone use, as well as a myriad of other negative aspects. And I'm not talking about using this guide on a hand held receiver but on a 48" screen.

The bottom line here is that although the Techies are reveling in the technological "improvements", (which for the most part only the Techies can really appreciate), the actual "upgrade" has removed the ease of use which consumers had previously enjoyed and has made viewing and use difficult when previously it was easy.

It is also more frustrating, as well as disconcerting to end users in that the company from whom we purchase this service (VERIZON) has taken a step backward in terms of product improvement for the consumer.

And the suggestion placed on the website by a VERIZON facilitator that giving the New Program Guide "a little more time" in the hope that the consumer will come to appreciate it is NOT a viable option because the NEW Program Guide's "dis-ease of use will NOT change over time.

The VERIZON subscribers have spoken and never before has there been such an immediate overwhelmingly negative response such as has occurred in response to this change in the formatting of the Program Guide. Today's consumer expects to be listened to as well as heard by the companies whom they choose as recipients of their limited disposable income. VERIZON could take this as a huge opportunity to show the world how it responds when the consumer speaks. When Coca Cola changed the recipe of it's much loved product and the consumers spoke...Coca Cola listened to the people and responded. They admitted publicly that they made a very poor decision in changing a good thing that hadn't needed changing and would correct the problem immediately. And if you didn't already know...Coca Cola's profits soared, not only in the United States but around the world. Their positive reputation was further enhanced without paying another cent in advertising for this benefit. Will VERIZON listen? Will they take action on what the consumer wants? Or will they assume that an improvement of any kind, wanted or not by the consumer, is best based only on the fact that it is AN IMPROVEMENT and will further enhance the image of the company? 

Think about it.

Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
caz0307
Enthusiast - Level 1

I agree completely.  My husband and I are dumbfounded how FIOS could take such a big step back.  We've always said we couldn't go back to Cablevision (who has customer service 10x better than FIOS and no billing issues) because the FIOS guide and menus were so much better.  This recent 'update' has us seriously reconsidering.  We are completely fed up with repeated billing errors and horrible customer service.  We can't believe how unresponsive the new guide is and how visually unappealing it is.  It also buries info that used to be more easily accessed such as actors names and year.

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
MTheriot
Enthusiast - Level 2

@tns wrote:

@nferno wrote:

Looks like i'm in the minority, i love the new guide. I like the color scheme and don't find anything harder to read than before. And I like that things now take up the full length of my screen instead of majority of them being designed for the 4:3 aspect ratio.



You're in the majority.  Despite all the threads complaining its "terrible" a current poll running on DSLREPORTS has 80% seeing the guide as an improvement.  Note that doesn't even count the non-guide improvements in 1.9.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26108146-IMG-Do-you-like-the-guide-in-IMG-1.9-a-

That doesn't mean some additional changes wouldn't be nice.



Hahaha hahaha hahaha.

Seriously?

Techie A: Oh look guys, we've gathered a bunch of votes on an offsite forum that says the majority of users like this new upgrade!


Techie B: Do you think we should put a vote on the actual program guide to see accurate statistics instead of votes purely from people who suggested a new guide, while those satisfied never voiced their opinion as they had no need to register?

Techie A: Of course not.

Give me a break. If the "majority" wanted this, where are they defending this new guide? From what I gathered some users had an issue with the old one, registered, and a "poll" was made if anyone preferred the old one. Well guess what? If we all liked the old one, we had no need to register, and thus NO NEED TO VOTE TO KEEP IT, as we had no idea it was about to disappear. That's a very biased and limited scope of a poll you have there.

If you want accurate statistics, put a poll on the program guide. I already get enough widget spam.

I noticed I couldn't vote on this "poll" someone made.

Here are some theories I have:

  • Do you really expect everyone who dislikes this new guide to register on an offsite forum to voice their discontent? Why not do it at verizon.net like we are already? I have yet to see a poll for the new guide on the home front, here. Wonder why.
  • Do you consider those votes accurate? Votes on a offsite where Verizon users just joining have never heard of? You don't even need to be a Verizon customer to vote on that site, let alone have a Television.
  • http://www.dslreports.com/ ? I haven't even heard of this site. Believe it or not I don't just randomly search Google for a poll involving the future of my channel guide layout in the off chance it will be gone the next month.
  • What the heck? It's a broadband site. What does this have to do with Verizon's channel guide at all? I've never even heard of this site and nor has the majority of us who dislike it.

I'm guessing whoever wanted to get user feedback never thought about making a poll widget in fear all of his hard work in making a horrendous baby blue powder layout would be put to waste by the mass votes against it. Adding a post widget to the program guide could change this "majority opinion" in a heartbeat.

This is incredibly embarrassing to me. It's obvious the majority of customers (NOT a small group of people on an offsite forum) dislike the new program guide, and the only means of defending it is showing us a poll where we have to register on yet another site which we shouldn't have to to get some sort of footholding.

Here's a hint. We didn't know our program guide would be changing. Had we known I'm sure the majority of us would have voted against it. The only reason so many votes are for it is because there apparently was a discussion and feedback gathering about change it. Well of course the people discussing a new change would vote for it, and of course those who dislike it would have no idea of this poll on an offsite forums not even on verizon.net.

Sorry if I sound rude, just finding this whole ordeal comical and handled poorly by Verizon.

Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
tns
Master - Level 2

If you look at almost any site for a product or service, the number of people who logon to complain heavily outweighs those who praise a product/service.  So anaylysis of those is fairly unlikey based on those alone to be accurate.  Polls are somewhat more accurate as those who don't want to enter into the argument will still often respond.

I put a poll up on the other site because I don't know how to put one up here.  The best I know you can do here is put up a item and ask for Kudo's.  You would have to put up two or more seperate items (like, neutral, dislike, hate, etc).

DSLREPORTS site is the largest independent site I know of that has a large number of Verizon users discussing verizon.  Actually more active then here in its FIOS TV discussions.

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
Malcolm_Stanley
Contributor - Level 3

we'll look into the widget. We're interested in all the feedback we can get about the recent changesand what people think about them.

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
LadyNurse
Enthusiast - Level 2

As a "civilian" I would have no idea of the existence of the website called DSLReports. I came upon it by accident reading this blog. I think that a better place for a "VOTE" on whether or not a Verizon customer likes the new Program Guide would be on the VERIZON web site itself or even better yet...send out an email to VERIZON customers asking them to click on the link to the VERIZON voting site where they can elect to vote either "YES, I like the new Program Guide" or "NO, I do not like the new Program Guide" . In that way everyone who has been subjected to the new Program Guide gets to voice his/her opinion. This should be an easy thing for VERIZON to do and it precludes those "techies" who frequent the DSLREPORTS site from causing skewed feedback.

But it would also be good to have an independent web site whose only function is that of accepting and tabulating votes ...but not the one that always says that "VERIZON has been voted #1 in Customer Service another year in a row" because I couldn't trust them to be fair and equitable in counting the vote if they expect people to believe that VERIZON has ever truly been chosen as #1 in Customer Service.

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Re: New Program Guide is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE
bobliard
Newbie

The changes are terrible . Please return to previous system. I am elderly and the new color makes it difficult to read   Dont make me sorry I CHOSE VERIZON AS MY  CABLE   PROVIDER.

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