Is there a way to PROGRAM OUT channels that I do not subscribe to?

[wklink]

---

First, I'd like to say that the broken channel up/channel down is the least of my concerns about Verizon.  The response, however, is very typical of Verizon and the thing that is far more likely to drive me away.  I've never dealt with a company that called me foolish for using them before, but somehow it doesn't surprise me when it happens with Verizon.

Clearly there is a problem with the way channel changing works.  As you said, every provider is different.  So why aren't there tons of questions about how to skip non-subscribed channels on other services?  Because the answer is (1) obvious; and (2) you can do it. Specifically, you just select the favorite you want to program then select, from the STB, "add all subscribed."  You don't need to do it from a computer and you don't need a printout.  It even flags when lineups change.  You can program the TV from the TV.

And, once programmed, you can use channel up/channel down to move through the channels.  This is the functioanlity that Verizon is missing.  Maybe programming Favorites is fixed in the next version, but does it fix channel up/down?

DirecTV has many faults and, overall, I'm happier with what I get from Verizon (in terms of what is provided, not in terms of customer service).  Verizon TV has far more features and, in terms of price and quality, it is a better deal.  But complain about a misfeature and you get called foolish!  This is par for the course from Verizon.  I've only been a customer for 45 days and my vast dealings with customer support have been endless and frustrating.

The first question I asked the installer was how to skip non-subscribed channels and he told me about the favorites.  I read the manual and forums and I knew this to be true.  I only replied to this thread because I thought someone at Verizon might not comprehend how broken their system is.  It reminds me of software companies that give you long, elaborate workarounds to bugs in their software instead of just fixing the problem.

But maybe you're right.  Why should I have assumed that the phone company would know how TVs work?  The next time I buy a DVD player, I'd better check and make sure it has chapter skip functions like every other DVD player ever made before.

Even if I had known that Verizon couldn't make channel up/channel down work, I would have still ordered it.  As I said, the price is right.  I was really switching for the internet and not TV and with the bundle (which Verizon screwed up and accidentally billed me unbundled) it makes no sense to stick with DirecTV.  And the OnDemand and multi-room DVR features are nice (even if the web remote DVR has gone down on me again).  Digital Voice is nice, even if it wasn't available when I was hooked up and no one thought the tell me.  It was eventually rolled out and, after 4 calls to Verizon to get the bundle straightened out, the phone is practically free.  You can even use the numbers on the phone to dial a number without any elaborate workarounds.  It took two calls with three escalations to get the web interface working, but it works now.  It could be better, but I'd better not complain now that I'm a customer.

So yes, I'd have still signed up even knowing that I can't change channels like every other television I've owned for 40 years.  But how, may I ask, was I supposed to try out your customer support?  I guess I could have read the forums and complaints, but I don't think anyone realizes just how awful it is dealing with Verizon until you actually have to do it.

Sincerely,

A foolish-for-choosing-Verizon customer

@Justin wrote:

---

---

If you would bother to try to understand how Favorites can be set up with FiOS, you would find that you can do exactly that. Interested? Then do some research. Here might be a starting point (don't get all hot and bothered by the link, it was the only place I had available to store the PDF when I wrote it two+ years ago):

http://www.lakekiowatx.com/picture/fios_favorites.pdf

Now, if it really is that difficult to figure out which channels you are subscribed to and which you are not, why not go to this Verizon site:

http://www22.verizon.com/Residential/FiOSTV/Overview.htm#channels

Enter your zip code, then sort the list however you want (click on the option), and then use the resulting list while you program your Favorites on the STB. Or, for a DVR only, go to MyVerizon and log in, go to My Services ==> TV ==> My TV, then click on Favorites and program them there. Or, for any STB, start with an empty Favorites list and add to it as you go: on the STB, when you find a channel you want to add (or delete), hit the Options button, go down to Favorites, and select the correct list to add to (or delete from).

And finally, with the newest level of the Guide on the STB, 1.9, which is available in limited areas now and will probably be delivered to the rest of the country over the next several months, there are additional options for setting up Favorites. I do not have 1.9 myself so I can't give you details, but a "subscribed" option is supposedly included.

I have never had DirecTV, although one of my sons does and he and hist family are not all that terribly enamored with the Guide and its functions, but you know, it really shouldn't matter. Every one of the cable and satellite services is different, and if you switch, it is your responsibility to reseach first to ensure it meets your needs, and to adapt to whatever differences exist. Complaining after the fact accomplishes very little except maybe make yourself look foolish - instead, I encourage you to look for alternative ways to meet your needs. And if you can't do so with the new system, go back, simple.

IMO, the question really should be "why don't people even bother to look for solutions before they complain?"

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

---

[Justin46]

@wklink wrote:

---

First, I'd like to say that the broken channel up/channel down is the least of my concerns about Verizon.  The response, however, is very typical of Verizon and the thing that is far more likely to drive me away.  I've never dealt with a company that called me foolish for using them before, but somehow it doesn't surprise me when it happens with Verizon.

Clearly there is a problem with the way channel changing works.  As you said, every provider is different.  So why aren't there tons of questions about how to skip non-subscribed channels on other services?  Because the answer is (1) obvious; and (2) you can do it. Specifically, you just select the favorite you want to program then select, from the STB, "add all subscribed."  You don't need to do it from a computer and you don't need a printout.  It even flags when lineups change.  You can program the TV from the TV.

And, once programmed, you can use channel up/channel down to move through the channels.  This is the functioanlity that Verizon is missing.  Maybe programming Favorites is fixed in the next version, but does it fix channel up/down?

DirecTV has many faults and, overall, I'm happier with what I get from Verizon (in terms of what is provided, not in terms of customer service).  Verizon TV has far more features and, in terms of price and quality, it is a better deal.  But complain about a misfeature and you get called foolish!  This is par for the course from Verizon.  I've only been a customer for 45 days and my vast dealings with customer support have been endless and frustrating.

The first question I asked the installer was how to skip non-subscribed channels and he told me about the favorites.  I read the manual and forums and I knew this to be true.  I only replied to this thread because I thought someone at Verizon might not comprehend how broken their system is.  It reminds me of software companies that give you long, elaborate workarounds to bugs in their software instead of just fixing the problem.

But maybe you're right.  Why should I have assumed that the phone company would know how TVs work?  The next time I buy a DVD player, I'd better check and make sure it has chapter skip functions like every other DVD player ever made before.

Even if I had known that Verizon couldn't make channel up/channel down work, I would have still ordered it.  As I said, the price is right.  I was really switching for the internet and not TV and with the bundle (which Verizon screwed up and accidentally billed me unbundled) it makes no sense to stick with DirecTV.  And the OnDemand and multi-room DVR features are nice (even if the web remote DVR has gone down on me again).  Digital Voice is nice, even if it wasn't available when I was hooked up and no one thought the tell me.  It was eventually rolled out and, after 4 calls to Verizon to get the bundle straightened out, the phone is practically free.  You can even use the numbers on the phone to dial a number without any elaborate workarounds.  It took two calls with three escalations to get the web interface working, but it works now.  It could be better, but I'd better not complain now that I'm a customer.

So yes, I'd have still signed up even knowing that I can't change channels like every other television I've owned for 40 years.  But how, may I ask, was I supposed to try out your customer support?  I guess I could have read the forums and complaints, but I don't think anyone realizes just how awful it is dealing with Verizon until you actually have to do it.

Sincerely,

A foolish-for-choosing-Verizon customer
___________________________________________________________________________

1) You seem to have stuck your head in the sand and refuse to listen or read. As I previously said, you can fix the specific issue with Channel Up and Channel Down using the Favorites function. If you choose to ignore that, certainly it is your right, but you are 100% wrong.

2)  This is a user-helping-user forum, in case you haven't bothered to read. When you post here, your comments (really, it would be so much better if you would actually just ask questions!) are being viewed and answered by other customers, except in rare instances. I am a customer, just like you, and I really am trying to help, but for some reason you refuse to listen. That of course is up to you.

3) I don't really care about whatever history you have had getting everything the way you want it, bundle, digital voice, etc. If you are now happy, great. But it is not important to me, or I suspect to most of us here, why include it?

4) Customer support? Sure at times it is lacking, although my experience is far better than what is apparently experienced by some who post here. Although I have never tried it, the Live Chat seems to be a popular way to get good support, you might try it if you haven't already. I would say that for the almost 6 years I have had FiOS TV, internet, and phone, the support I have received has been generally better than most any other company I have dealt with during the same period, and the techs who have come onsite have been universally great.

Good luck in the future.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

[ElizabethS]

Just a reminder folks that we ask you to be courteous and respectful of other users and their opinions while discussing topics on which you may disagree.

[wklink]

---

wklink's comments in blue

@Justin wrote:

1) You seem to have stuck your head in the sand and refuse to listen or read. As I previously said, you can fix the specific issue with Channel Up and Channel Down using the Favorites function. If you choose to ignore that, certainly it is your right, but you are 100% wrong.

You really don't understand the problem, do you?  Yes, I can select favorites and go into the guide and only see those channels.  But that doesn't make channel up/down work right.  That just means if you want to go to the previous channel, you have to go to the guide, move up, and hit select.  The buttons on the remote labeled "Ch +" and "Ch -" still scroll through every channel, not just the favorites.  I don't want to use the guide to change channels.  I have programmed my favorites and I do use the guide, but only because you can't use "Ch +/-". 

2)  This is a user-helping-user forum, in case you haven't bothered to read. When you post here, your comments (really, it would be so much better if you would actually just ask questions!) are being viewed and answered by other customers, except in rare instances. I am a customer, just like you, and I really am trying to help, but for some reason you refuse to listen. That of course is up to you.

Somehow, I thought the fact that you signed your message with "Verizon" that you were an employee.  I'm sorry that I thought your were officially calling me foolish for choosing Verizon.

3) I don't really care about whatever history you have had getting everything the way you want it, bundle, digital voice, etc. If you are now happy, great. But it is not important to me, or I suspect to most of us here, why include it?

You expressed concern that I had made a mistake in choosing Verizon.  You seem extremely defensive of them.  I posted my praise and complaints to show balance and because hopefully some of the other foolish people out there will read this before they make the same mistake.   

4) Customer support? Sure at times it is lacking, although my experience is far better than what is apparently experienced by some who post here. Although I have never tried it, the Live Chat seems to be a popular way to get good support, you might try it if you haven't already. I would say that for the almost 6 years I have had FiOS TV, internet, and phone, the support I have received has been generally better than most any other company I have dealt with during the same period, and the techs who have come onsite have been universally great.

Oh, I thought you didn't care about anyone else's history.

Good luck in the future.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

---

[Justin46]

OK, one last time. You wrote :

"You really don't understand the problem, do you?  Yes, I can select favorites and go into the guide and only see those channels.  But that doesn't make channel up/down work right.  That just means if you want to go to the previous channel, you have to go to the guide, move up, and hit select.  The buttons on the remote labeled "Ch +" and "Ch -" still scroll through every channel, not just the favorites.  I don't want to use the guide to change channels.  I have programmed my favorites and I do use the guide, but only because you can't use "Ch +/-". "

I'm sorry, but you are absolutely, positively 100% incorrect. I am absolutely, positively correct when I state that I can (and do) use Favorites in my environment, and I use the Ch + and CH- buttons to change channels up and down, and I see only the channels that I have in the Favorites list I currently have selected, and I am not using the Guide when I do that. 

Did you read the document I linked? If not, if you will do so, you will see how easy it is to set it up so that it will work the way you want (at least the way I think you want).

How about this? You tell us what settings you have set under Settings that relate to how Favorites works: the Favorites Button setting, and the Flip by Favorites setting. And then I or someone else here will be able to tell you what you have done wrong. Is that fair?

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

[wklink]

What a fool I've been.  There's an extra step that I missed to tell it how Ch +/- work that I hadn't seen.  In my defense, I went through all this with the installer and he showed me how to setup the Favorites but said they don't affect Ch +/-.  You're original reply said "Using the Favorites function is the ONLY way to do so," which I mistook to mean that you had to use the "favorites" function.  I had followed the link, which begins with telling you how to set up favorites.  I didn't read beyond that because I had already set up favorites.  The "Flip by Favorites" setting is what I was missing.  It's not very intuitive (even the installer didn't know about it), but it is there and I missed it.  Thank you.

---

@Justin wrote:

OK, one last time. You wrote :

"You really don't understand the problem, do you?  Yes, I can select favorites and go into the guide and only see those channels.  But that doesn't make channel up/down work right.  That just means if you want to go to the previous channel, you have to go to the guide, move up, and hit select.  The buttons on the remote labeled "Ch +" and "Ch -" still scroll through every channel, not just the favorites.  I don't want to use the guide to change channels.  I have programmed my favorites and I do use the guide, but only because you can't use "Ch +/-". "

I'm sorry, but you are absolutely, positively 100% incorrect. I am absolutely, positively correct when I state that I can (and do) use Favorites in my environment, and I use the Ch + and CH- buttons to change channels up and down, and I see only the channels that I have in the Favorites list I currently have selected, and I am not using the Guide when I do that. 

Did you read the document I linked? If not, if you will do so, you will see how easy it is to set it up so that it will work the way you want (at least the way I think you want).

How about this? You tell us what settings you have set under Settings that relate to how Favorites works: the Favorites Button setting, and the Flip by Favorites setting. And then I or someone else here will be able to tell you what you have done wrong. Is that fair?

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

---

[Justin46]

---

@wklink wrote:

What a fool I've been.  There's an extra step that I missed to tell it how Ch +/- work that I hadn't seen.  In my defense, I went through all this with the installer and he showed me how to setup the Favorites but said they don't affect Ch +/-.  You're original reply said "Using the Favorites function is the ONLY way to do so," which I mistook to mean that you had to use the "favorites" function.  I had followed the link, which begins with telling you how to set up favorites.  I didn't read beyond that because I had already set up favorites.  The "Flip by Favorites" setting is what I was missing.  It's not very intuitive (even the installer didn't know about it), but it is there and I missed it.  Thank you.

---

You are welcome. And you are 100% right, Flip by Favorites is certainly not intuitive, that is why I wrote the document, once I finally figured out how the *&^%$ stuff worked I thought it might benefit others to have more complete documentation than Verizon provides.

There is a thread about using Favorites that I started back in Dec. 2008 and includes the link to the document in the first post; here is a link to the thread:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Technical-Assistance/Exploiting-FiOS-TV-Favorites-IMG-1-8/m-p/9...

If you read through that thread you might find some additional useful info.

And there is other "stuff" in the interface that is not intuitive either. So I encourage you to search here in the Forums if something doesn't work, or you are looking for additional function or how to do something. And if you don't find what you need, then ask questions, there are lots of people here who know lots of stuff and can probably help (and nicer than me I guess  ). And keep in mind that the new STB software, the 1.9 level, will definitely introduce new capabilities that may very well address some of your issues. It hopefully will not be more than a month or two before you have it, and it may only be a few weeks, depending on where you are located.

I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I guess at times I am somewhat intolerant when I know how something works and someone says it doesn't work that way. But despite what you may think, I really do want to help people.....

Oh, I have changed my signature thingy. I had no idea that having 'Verizon" in it would make anybody think I work for Verizon, but if you look below you will see I have taken out the "Verizon" part and added "user." FYI, you can easily identify Verizon employees here, they have a Verizon avatar by their names.

I hope you enjoy your FiOS experience more from now on.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

[VBprtl27]

That's a great question. It's only the most obvious thing Verizon should do if they cared about their customers. I don't watch TV anymore because I HATE that "you're not subscibed" message. I'm sure they don't let you do that because they want you to see all those wonderful channels you're missing out on and upgrade to the next level. In fact, I just want to be able to see what I'm paying for without wasting time endlessly clicking on channels I don't get. Ridiculous. Come on Verizon, just provide that filter already.

[walleeme]

I think we should be able to program the STB's using our computer (point and click with ease rather than fumble with remote buttons) and then be able to export the settings to our network devices, err, I mean STB's.

Favorites blows. I don't want to set up three boxes just to find out in two weeks that everything got moved on me.

I want to set my stuff up and be done with it.

And it sohuld filter my susbscribed channels at least.

And I painted it red, and bold, so that maybe somebody will take notice. I actually called in to support to request this. They thought it was a great idea. So why don't we have it?

[steinie02]

After subscribing to Directv for 11 years and just recently switching to Fios I also found the "Favorites" button to be a work around instead of proper behavior.  When I program a list of Channels I want viewed in a guide that is the list I expect when turning on the receiver. I do not see why a user must use the Favorites button each time.  There are certain Channels I do not want my kids to see and that is after setting up Parental Controls. The Menu Button should behave the way I want it to not the way Verizon thinks it should. Other Companies have figured this out why not  Verizon?