Upgraded to FIOS and am being billed by DirecTV for early termination fee?!?!
radhiap
Enthusiast - Level 1

Hello,

I am fairly new to Verizon. My story in a nutshell is this: I signed up with Verizon for the triple play bundle at the end of February. With this bundle came the high-speed enhanced deal, which was incredibily slow and frustrating, and DirecTV, which sucked when it rained a few times.

At the initial sign up, I placed my name on a wait list for FIOS, which I was told would be soon. After several calls to Verizon complaining about the internet problem, I was told it's probably the wiring in the home that is causing the problem.

Then, probably three weeks after, I received a call from a representative informing me that FIOS was available. He asked if I would like to upgrade. I said yes, without hesitation. After being assured by the rep that I would not incur any early termination fee from Verizon or DirecTV because I was not changing from Verizon to another company, we set up an installation date.

Verizon came in did some re-wiring and replaced all the receivers, etc. Everything worked fine...it was all coming together, finally. They handed me the DirecTV equipment and said I have to call DT to return the equipment as they don't take it.

I called DirecTV to return the equipment, spoke with one of their reps and told her why I was returning the equipment. She took the info, spoke with a supervisor and came back on the line to say that her supervisor will disconnect the service after she hung up with me and I should be receiving a kit in the mail to return the equipment. We went over not having to worry about any early termination fees and she said if that was what I was told, then I shouldn't be billed for any. She also said check my account in a few days, and I'll see the disconnect message.

I check my DirecTV account and lo and behold! I am being billed for $499.89 in early termination fees. Why should I be billed for early termination fees when I am only upgrading my very short service with Verizon When I signed up DirecTV came with the bundle service, it was part of the whole package -- not something I had a choice of. In order to get the discount for the bundle I had to take it. Upgrading with the same company should not cause the consumer to be penalized -- that should be between Verizon and DirecTV. 

This is very poor business practice on Verizon's part and I will dispute it. Since signing up with Verizon, I've had nothing but problems.!!

Re: Upgraded to FIOS and am being billed by DirecTV for early termination fee?!?!
radhiap
Enthusiast - Level 1

This issue has been resolved somewhat and here's why: I received a credit on my Verizon account of approximately $435.00 (rounded) but now my Verizon bill has several charges that are questionable. Before this credit was added, my next bill would have been just over $210.00. 

After the credit was added, my next bill went up to $340.00!! With the credit of $435 and some more charges, I now have a credit of $115 on my account.

Please don't get me wrong, I really appreciate Verizon working with me and having the good grace to credit almost all of the early termination fee for Direct TV  but seeing my bill inflated is a serious headache.

My befuddlement now lies with my current bill -- it shows several  charges for FIOS from the end of March. I did not have FIOS until mid April.!! I had the Verizon HSI Enhanced bundle from 3/27/12!

I work on a very busy unit in a hospital and am constantly surrounded by doctors and patients -- there is absolutely no way to hash this out at work, it has to be on my very lunch break. However, I keep playing phone tag with the nice people at the Customer Advocacy Group for Verizon.

Whenever I call, a voicemail picks up, then I leave a message and wait for someone to call me. But we keep missing each other and by the time I get out of work, the call center is closed.

Is there any other way of to fix this?

0 Likes