Hi everyone,

My wife and I have Verizon FIOS for Internet and TV service. We're in contract until late fall of this year. That means, the cost of our Internet service and programming aren't going to change until the contract expires. However, and it's a big however, "incidental" fees changed earlier this year. What does that mean to us? It meant nothing until we returned one of the boxes.

Since we transformed our spare bedroom from an office into a nursery, we no longer wanted or needed a TV in it. Baby M is going to be playing, using her imagination and reading instead of watching TV. I figured, since she isn't going to need a TV, I may as well return the box and save about $13 per month.

I returned the box to Verizon and, lo and behold, our FIOS bill increased!

Yes.

Our bill increased.

The increase was about $0.40 but still... Verizon wanted us to pay more for fewer boxes?

Apparently, in the fine print in a note filled with legal gobbledycrap they sent to subscribers, if you make changes to your account _after_ there is a price increase, the cost of your incidentals (FIOS HD boxes in our case) automatically change to the going rate which in our case is noticeably higher than what we've been paying since fall 2014.

I didn't catch that bit of fine print, else I would've just kept the box. Why pay for the same amount for 3 boxes that we'd previously been spending for 4 boxes? That and I didn't think it was particularly fair considering we are in contract with them for service.

Several calls to customer service got me nowhere. I finally resolved the situation with a call to the executive customer relations team. After a brief discussion, Verizon agreed to restore my previous box rental rates. That I was exceedingly polite and also brought up concerns about constant issues with Video on Demand probably helped.

No doubt, other people aren't so fortunate.

Robert



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2016 02:06PM by Robert M.

I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder at their ability to use an event like the return of that box to trigger a change to the terms of existing contract. Don't sound kosher to me.

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It is what it is.

did they show you the fine print? and where you agreed to it?

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FiOS... I been involved in a billing nightmare with them for over three years now. Finally, got an attorney involved.

I enjoyed their service, but the customer service! Geez...



I would have thought the same as you, that you would have save a few bucks/month returning a box.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2016 02:32PM by SKYLANE.

N-OS,

That's how I broached it. From what I can see, the contract only covers the cost of Internet service and the programming itself. It doesn't cover the cost of boxes.

Still, I made a fuss over it since it's definitely unfair and told three different regular customer service people to cough up the agreement and my physical or verbal signature. Since this was via Live Chat, all they did was copy and paste the fine print from the note, not the contract. They didn't seem to understand me when I said a copy and paste of the note doesn't equate a copy of the contract. That's when I got fed up and called the executing customer relations team and got the issue resolved.

To me, it definitely doesn't seem legal for a company to increase the fees for existing service just because you change something on the account, or, in my case, return a box. But, no doubt Verizon (and other companies) get away with it because people don't come after them for it.

Robert

fwiw, i canceled my fios 'contract' early and had no memory of entering into a contract that specified cancelation fees. they said they'd get back to me with the agreement and never did. i made a few more calls and was refunded the cancelation fee.

hold their feet to the fire.

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Three words. Social media shaming.

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1: Tell them to give you the box back and return you to your former rate

2: File a formal complaint with your state's Public Utilities Commission.

AAA auto insurance: I owned two cars for a while. When I sold the lesser of the two, my rates went UP! Yes, it costs more to insure one car than two.

I quit them before the next billing period

Autoclub of Southern California....

We added a car to my Grandaughters policy, and the policy went down.

Quote
Microman
Autoclub of Southern California....

We added a car to my Grandaughters policy, and the policy went down.

It happens a lot. Mostly when you have one expensive newer car and add a very cheap second car. The multicar discount on the expensive line is for more than the cost of the insurance on the cheap car.

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C(-)ris
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what is this "multicar discount" you're all talking about? if there is such thing on my insurance, it must be really small since I didn't notice it.

Also if I buy only liability, and I have 2 cars and 2 drivers, my insurance is X. if I buy a 3rd car, and I have still 2 drivers, one car is always parked. Why is my rate 1.5X (roughtly)? it's like having a 3rd car AND a 3rd driver, which is not the case. The chance we make an accident and are liable for someone else's damage or medical bills is the same as before, since one car is always parked. We never drove 3 cars at the same time.

The car insurance is right up there with health insurance.

Hi everyone,

No need to go further with Verizon. The Executive Relations team resolved it for me and the rental fee per box is restored to its proper amount. However, we'll see what happens come fall when our contract is up for renewal. Likely, we'll retain our existing service.

I checked into how much we'd save by changing the programming. Since we have such good rates already, the amount would be minimal and we'd lose a significant amount of content including a slew of regular channels and two sets of premium movie channels, all of which we enjoy immensely.

Next time, if Verizon doesn't give way, I'll definitely take harsher action. This assumes I don't make reasonable progress via the normal roues and the Executive Relations team. If neither of those works, all bets are off.

Robert