Verizon advertising very misleading
lmcguire656
Newbie

We keep getting phone calls and mail advertising Fios triple play bundle prices at 84.99, 94.99, 109.99…Etc. But what they don’t tell you is that you HAVE to have set top boxes, which is an additional cost of $12 per month per TV!  Seriously!  How can you give those prices and not include the information on the required equipment.  Granted that if you turn the printed letter over and get a magnifying lens you will see in faint grey print the disclaimer on the set top boxes, but the phone sales rep will not tell you about them.  I’ve had the sales rep do their spiel, and when I ask is that the total price then they start back pedaling….well there’s taxes that are not included in that price.  Ok so tell me what the price is with the taxes - - oh I can’t tell you how much the taxes will be you will have to look at your bill.  If your the sales rep why can’t you tell me- -- uh uh we just can’t.  Ok so other than the taxes is there any additional charges - - no.  Oh really, well I have a cable ready digital tv, so I don’t need any kind of set top box correct - - - well yeah you will need one of those for each tv.  Hmm, so how much does that cost - - -$12 per box.  I thought you said that there was not any additional cost other than the bundle and taxes - - - no answer just stammering.

I would add the Fios tv package if I could get a straight answer and straight pricing but they are trying to set you up so I won’t give them any more money.  They call now several times a day and I just hang up on them.

And don't get me started on their web site and how crappy that is to navigate.

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Re: Verizon advertising very misleading
Justin46
Legend

I have had FiOS TV for 7 years now so I dont bother to read any of that printed stuff, but every piece of advertsing that I have read in the past has very clearly stated that you need STBs to be able to use the FiOS TV  service (as you said, in small print, but then I am a read-the-small-print kind of guy Smiley Very Happy ). And peridocially Verizon has special offers of free STBs for periods of time that can reduce the cost, at least for a while. Now phone calls, I bet those are not actually Verizon employees but contractors who only care about getting the sale, I would do what you do and hang up on them. I would want to only deal directly with Verizon.

I can somewhat understand the lack of any fee and tax info, it apparently varies a whole lot depending on where you live. It is unreasonable to expect printed material distributed in the newspaper or U.S. mail to have that kind of info IMO, but someone calling should surely be able to at least give you some kind of estimate (but then again, hanging up on them is the right thing to do).

I agree with you about the website, very poorly organized, and very poorly implemented. Hopefully Verizon will make some changes in the future.....

Despite your frustration with the website, it still is probably the best place to go to get a reasonable idea of the cost. I don't think it will give you the taxes and fees, but if you have a neighbor that has the service, find out from them what they see. Or call, despite the complaints you see here about billing, etc,, I have had very good experience calling the ordering folks.

Verizon has some significant problems with billing and customer support, but the product itself is really very good IMO. I had cable before I got the FiOS triple-play, and it really, really sucked, I just can't imagine going back to cable after experiencing FiOS.

Just my $0.02 worth.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, 25/25 Internet, and Digital Voice user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9.1
Keller, TX 76248

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