Well - it’s long overdue but here is a review of my Verizon FiOS Installation:
Here was my final installation package:
Verizon FiOS 15/15 Service
Verizon FIOS Television Service with HBO, Showtime & Sports packages and 3 HD DVR’s and 1 HD STB
Verizon FiOS Phone Service
Things that I liked:
Excellent service with 2 technicians and a supervisor (If only every customer got this treatment Verizon would get high marks and start each FiOS relationship off on the right foot).
Willingness to run the wiring where it needed to go and fully set up all of my set top boxes.
Excellent HD picture quality (expected) and SD picture quality that was far superior to my old Comcast picture.
Solid Internet speed that showed pretty close to 15/15 bandwidth.
Things that I didn’t like:
The technicians could not get the Verizon FiOS HD DVR STB to play nice with my Samsung HDTV when using an HDMI connection. They attempted to troubleshoot for quite some time until I eventually resolved the problem myself several weeks later.
The base telephone package does not include Call Waiting ID. I find this frustrating.
All in all I would say I am generally pretty happy with the features, especially the picture quality and my substantially improved upload speed. The upload speed is great for uploading pictures and videos to my blog. Even my wife noticed the improvement in SD picture quality after installation (which was unusual because she rarely notices anything about the TV except when it doesn’t work).
Post your own reviews or questions in the comments.
I am excited to report that I am proceeding with installation of the Verizon FiOS Triple Play service. I can’t comment about any details of the agreement with Verizon that allowed me to continue with installation (so please don’t ask), but am glad to be moving forward and getting the Verizon FiOS phone, TV and Internet service up and running. I am confident that the FiOS installation process will go smoothly from this point and will review both the install and the service once it is up and running.
Look for my review of the installation and service plus new features on the site very soon!
They promised me that it would happen within 5 days.
I got the “investigation” call for the first time on January 11th, 2008 - a mere 14 business days after the call. - Haven’t connected with the investigation department yet.
Although Vonage promised me they would recapture my phone number by January 6th it still hasn’t happened. - I called them last week and they are saying that they can’t force the capture because their system still indicates that they control my phone number. My initial surprise with Vonage Customer Service appears to have been misguided. I am giving up on getting help from Vonage to resolve this situation.
Verizon Executive Customer Service is trying to facilitate an mutually agreeable solution based on how badly my Triple Play Order was mishandled and the resulting disconnection of phone service. This has left me conflicted in that it is refreshing to deal with competent professionals that care about the customer experience while also discouraging that the general FiOS customer base gets such a different level of service.
Traffic to the site has leveled off since initially getting a lot of Internet exposure regarding my situation. I have gotten a total of 5,347 visits and am still getting about 100 visits per day from Google and other search engines. The most popular searches that have lead to the site include:
After 100 votes (including my own) I stopped collecting responses to our first poll. Below is a link to the results:
I’ll let others draw their own conclusions and certainly this is not a scientific opinion poll but here is how it pertains to my situation:
93% (including my vote) believe that an order should be able to transition from a 3rd-party order taker into Verizon’s Customer Service Systems within 1 week. 1 week is the amount of time between when I placed my Verizon FiOS Triple Play Order and when I called Verizon Customer Support and was told that my order didn’t exist.
84% believe that the order should be accessible by Verizon FiOS Customer Service within 24 hours of a 3rd party taking the order for Verizon.
So even though Verizon explained how this could happen because of the checks it seems from this (highly unscientific) poll that it doesn’t meet most customer’s expectations.
Still playing the waiting game with Vonage - they said it would take 8-10 days to get my number back again.
Although the Internet buzz has died down since the incident started yesterday marked a milestone for marketing the site with 104 visitors finding the site from Internet Search engines (99 from Google). This includes kewords like “order fios”, “verizon fios deals”, “fios triple play” and others.
Keeping my fingers crossed that my phone service will be restored shortly.
I received communication from Verizon Executive Customer Relations that they are going to facilitate fixing my problem.
Verizon has created a standard (copper) telephone account using my home phone number. Unfortunately copper phone service isn’t hooked up into my house (I disconnected it on the outside of the house) and as a result these phone calls don’t actually ring my home phone. At least they are no longer getting the “Number has been disconnected” message.
I called Vonage to re-initiate the porting of my phone number back from Verizon FiOS Phone to my existing Vonage account. Unfortunately, given the length of time (10 days) since Verizon FiOS disconnected me, it will now take 8-10 more business days before I will be able to receive phone calls again.
Due to the length of time for my phone calls to be actually ringing on my Vonage account, I asked Verizon to setup voicemail on the copper account they set up. Now callers can hear a message from me and leave a message for me that I can retrieve remotely.
Verizon also did offer to send installers out to the house to hook up the copper service but I didn’t think that was prudent given that:
The account had no bells & whistles (Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Long Distance, etc.) so I may actually restrict my ability to call out.
I already initiated a transfer back to Vonage so I didn’t want to disconnect all of my Vonage equipment only to have to reconnect it once the number capture is completed.
Verizon has openly told me that it is likely I will receive a bill for this account but will not be “responsible” for paying it. I don’t want to make this process any more complex than it already may be (Am I wrong to think there will be more phone calls to Customer Support in my future?)
All told it is much more progress than I have made in the previous 10 days and I am thankful to know that even through it may take another 8-10 business days I should be able to get my phone service back with my old number intact.
3,164 visits in total to verizonfioshelp.com by 2,879 unique visitors.
Average visitor spends 4 minutes and 11 seconds and views 4.12 pages on verizonfioshelp.com
Fantastics exposure of my story on larger sites with summary articles on Consumerist and DSLReports.com. Also has been posted to personal blogs and Digg (although Digg hasn’t been very popular - If only Verizon had set my house on fire instead of disconnecting my phone).
204 visits from six different Internet Search Engines on 127 different keywords. I am especially pleased the top 10 keywords include many related to potential new sales so people are exposed to my story before making their own decision. Here are the Top 10 keywords driving traffic to the site:
I am pretty pleased with how many people are reading my story since the site was only created 8 days ago. The results have been somewhat of a mixed bad, however. I am sure this attention has helped since I am probably talking to people at Verizon that never would have contacted me if I hadn’t published my entire situation on the Internet. On the other hand, my phone is still disconnected 9 days later with no end in site.
As always, if you are from Verizon and can help me get my number back then please email me.
Still 9 days without a working phone number. After finally being contacted by Verizon last Friday, I tried calling back on Christmas Eve morning. The customer service representative that initially called me was out for the holidays but left the name of a co-worker on her answering machine. I called her and the following summarizes how our interactions went:
She agrees with Vonage that the best way to get my phone number back is for Verizon to create a new phone order. She seems confident that she can get the number back for me quickly. She says that she needs to figure out which system it would be best to create the order in (POTS Telephone, FiOS, etc.) but that she will call me back once the order is created. Additionally, she states that all fees will be waived for the order! I am glad because she seems confident that she knows what to do and that she can get an order placed quickly.
4 hours later she calls back clearly discouraged. She says that every time she tries to associate my phone number with the order it tells her the number is not available to be used. She is concerned that the number is “in limbo” between Vonage and Verizon but confirms that the carrier code that Vonage quoted me is a Verizon code.
Given that the Verizon systems are not allowing her to place an order that recaptures my phone number, she can’t tell me when or even if I will ever be able to get get my number back. She promises to follow back up with me when she knows more (but doesn’t know when that will be). Clearly I am not getting my number back working for Christmas.
Christmas Day is a great day other than my wife and I spend at least five minutes explaining why our phone number is disconnected to about a dozen different relatives. I also had three relatives that called around to each other trying to find out why my phone number was disconnected before settling on calling our cell numbers or just waiting for us to call them. Most of the relatives I talk to understand that the majority of the frustration lies not in the fact that the number is lost but in the time and effort needed to deal with Customer Service to try and correct Verizon’s own mistakes.
I am grateful that I am getting some help but it has now been 9 days with a disconnected phone number. If you are from Verizon and think you can help then please email me.
Quick post to bring up to date on where we stand since my Verizon FiOS triple play order caused my number to be disconnected. First, I shouldn’t have been so hopeful that Vonage could help. I got an email from them stating:
Your number has ported out to Verizon. To bring the number back to Vonage, you will need to contact Verizon and setup an account with the number on the account. We can then request the number be returned back to Vonage.
So it looks like I am going to really need Verizon’s assistance to get back my number. My number is still dead to inbound calls for the 5th day in a row. However, I have finally been contacted by Verizon!! First, a woman called me and left a message on my cell phone early Friday afternoon about having “no dial tone”. I called her back twice between 3-5 pm she must have been gone for the day. I don’t know if it is to investigate my claim on slamming but I am glad people are calling.
Second, I got an email from a man in the Public Affairs office leaving contact numbers and we touched base after 6 pm Eastern time on Friday. He said that my issue had been escalated to a level above him but he wanted to call and talk with me. He left me his cell phone number so I called him back and we talked at length about my situation. He was cordial, apologetic and accepted responsibility for the poor handling of the entire event and also explained how it could have happened. Here is the gist of the cause:
They have “partners” (non-Verizon contractors) that take orders and these orders aren’t entered directly into Verizon’s sales systems because of the significant numbers of checks that have to occur to validate the orders. This is, most likely, why the order wasn’t in their system when I called customer service a week later to see when the installation would be scheduled.
I really appreciated his call, the time he took to explain how it happened and his personal concern for the situation even though the issue had been escalated. While his reasoning for how this whole situation started certainly explains the initial cause I am still somewhat baffled as to why:
Why the inside installer insisted on calling in a customer cancel when all I wanted (since I finally had the order number) was 24 hours to call in to customer service again and straighten things out.
I understand the need to use 3rd-party order takers, but I also think that it is reasonable to expect that order to be in Verizon’s system within a week (even if it still needs to get through some checks). Tell me what you think about this - answer the poll in the top of the left-hand column.
I am really glad that I have finally been contacted but I also really want my phone number back for Christmas. I am anticipating that a number of friends and family members that I don’t frequently talk to will be calling that day and experience the “Number has been Disconnected Message.” If you are from Verizon and think you can help with this then please email me.
Well - there has been some progress and some regression over the last 30 hours (It has now been nearly 4 days since my lost Verizon Triple Play Order resulted in Verizon slamming me and disconnecting my phone service. First the progress - my story has had great exposure on the Internet after being live with the site for only 3 days:
The bad news is that I called Vonage this morning. Like before, Vonage was both very concerned and helpful in trying to address my problem. However, the Vonage rep stated that “Verizon will not allow us to recapture the number” and that the “number is not in Verizon’s database to be recaptured.” They are continuing to investigate and have followed up with me twice via phone calls just to tell me that they are still trying to get more information. Thanks Vonage!
I am beginning to wonder if I should just bite the bullet and switch to a different number using a service like Grand Central. Can anyone (from Verizon or elsewhere) help me get my phone number back?
