Bizarre / Incomprehensible Business Practices?

[Martinusher]

We had FIOS installed a couple of years ago for just Internet and phone serve. We don't watch much TV and we already had cable, albeit a rather creaky analog connection that wasn't very reliable. So when someone from Verizon called and offered us a deal on FIOS TV "to try it out" I took the bait.

I've been regretting it ever since. The package didn't so much add TV as screw every thing else up. The phone went to 10 digit dialling, the voicemail disappeared, the Internet still worked (with a small drop in speed) and our billing went from automatic back to paper. The TV added was a so-so package consisting of a clunky old cable box with ultra-slow menus, (literally) thousands of meaningless channels, most of which we're not subscribed to and,of course, no HD. The monthly cost also rose significantly, far more than was promised.

We got this sorted out, sort of, and then lulled into a false sense of security I ordered a cable card for our TiVo (because I was thinking of cancelling our analog cable). Overnight the phone lost everything again -- back to 10 digit dialling, no voicemail.

Customer service is not very helpful because they're bound to the computers in their cubes. They can't do anything except promise the moon and then tell us after the even that, sorry, they can't do anything, their hands are tied.

Let's get real about this. First, there's no technical reason why the phone, internet and TV should interact. Its all business practice, and crap business practice at that. Its the same reason why I abandoned Verizon as my cell provider; the technology worked but the company didn't, it just got to be too much hassle to deal with them. We really only need Internet service; we keep legacy phone just because we've had this number for decades, so maybe the thing to do would be to ditch the TV completely and  just use Internet with a VoIP service from some company that actually cares about what its selling. As for the connection, there are alternatives......I like the fiber but I'd trade a slower Internet connection for freedom from aggravation (you really don't need much more than 5MBits/sec anyway -- more is nice but its not essential).

And for anyone who reads this and thinks that adding FiOS TV to their Internet package would be a good idea......DON'T......you will be so sorry.......