Verizon DSL Consumer Reviews - Page 5

NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK -- For the last 2 years I have been having problems with Verizon's DSL service in regards to their billing practices. I send their modem back and they never shut off the service. They are now trying to make me pay for 2 months of DSL that I did not use. I have been turned over to various collection agencies and have fought every single one but the core problem is Verizon itself. I have attached the letter that I sent to Verizon and the most recent collection agency. Since I sent the letter Mrs. "**" has been working on resolving the problem. We'll see where she gets.

I have changed all the names to letters of the alphabet to illustrate how many people I have had to talk to. There are a few more who are unlisted because, dumbly on my part, I didn't get names when this whole thing started. There are probably 4 or 5 more people that I spoke with prior to keeping better records. I made it to "O" within the letter, add the other estimated 5 people, I have had to go through around 20 people to even attempt to get this fixed!! Very frustrating. I will never use Verizon DSL ever again.

I am writing in regards to a persisting problem that, until very recently, I had believed was resolved as a result of numerous telephone conversations with various collection agency and Verizon employees. Details of the past attempts at resolution are described herein.

I and a roommate lived in New Rochelle, NY for 7 months from July of 2003 to January 2004. During this time we contracted both telephone and DSL internet service from Verizon (Account # XXXX). At the end of our lease term, January 6, 2004, the internet service, along with the telephone service, was cancelled via telephone call and the DSL modem was mailed to the local Verizon service center prior to December 31, 2003. Unfortunately I did not retain the confirmation number from the cancellation.

In early February 2004 I received a Verizon bill in the amount of $34.95 for February DSL service. I called in once again and described the situation to the operator who told me that the DSL had not yet been turned off. The service was scheduled for shutoff as of March 2, 2004 (confirmation #XXXX). The operator informed me that I would receive another bill for the service until March 2 and that I shouldn'€™t worry as the charges would be reversed in the next billing cycle.

All was well until March 8, 2003 when I received a letter from Collectech Systems stating that I had been remitted to a collection agency because of a past due amount of $34.95 from Verizon. As I was away at college I did not receive the letter until I had received the next bill from Verizon for the service until March 2, this time for the amount of $69.90.

I called Collectech and made a complaint. Collectech then insisted that they could do nothing about it until it was resolved with Verizon. I called Verizon who assured me that there was a pending credit and that the charges would be removed in a few billing cycles. The representative, "**", noted my account. (Confirmation # XXXX)

On March 23, 2004 I received another letter from Collectech Systems stating that I owed Verizon for DSL service, this time in the amount of $69.90. I held out on calling as I was assured by Verizon personnel that the charges would be reversed.

When I received a third letter on April 9, 2004 I, again, called Verizon and spoke with a Ms. "**" from Account Collections (Confirmation #XXXX) who connected me with "**" from Final Accounts. "**" said that the last credit was not sent properly. I was referred back to Ms. "**" and connected for a three-way call with "**" from Collectech. "**" explained the situation and all was, supposedly, resolved.

On May 7, 2004 I received another collection letter. This time, however, it was from National Financial Group, Inc. stating that I owed Verizon $69.90. On May 17, 2004 at 5:00PM EST I called Verizon's billing department and spoke with "**" who transferred me to DSL billing where I spoke with Ms. "**". Ms. "**" said that the DSL Department had issued a credit but the credit kept getting reversed. Ms. "**" spoke with the Residential Office and was directed to call National Financial Group, Inc. to explain the situation.

The call was intercepted by an answering service saying that the National Financial Group, Inc. employees would be back in 45 minutes. Ms. "**" reissued the credit and said that she would call the collection agency in the morning (confirmation #XXXX).

On June 1, 2004 I again called DSL Billing to follow up. The call was answered by Ms. "**" who said that she was showing a credit of $69.90 on my account. Ms. "**" brought the Residential Office on the line. Mr. "**" from the Residential Office brought up my account and spoke with a supervisor who directed him to transfer us to the in-house collection agency. We spoke with "**" from the Syracuse Collections Office. She said that she would contact the collection agency tomorrow and will call me back with the results. She also agreed to send a written confirmation when the credit to my account cleared and have the Supervisor, "**", return my call the following day.

After receiving no return phone call I, once again, phoned Verizon on June 24, 2004 and spoke with "**". She informed me that the best time to call to speak with Mr. "**" was on Friday between 8 and 4. On Friday, June 25, 2004 I called again. I spoke with the Billing Department who transferred me to "**" from Collections. Collections, apparently, had no record of the credit. "**" called the Billing Department which informed us that "It shouldn'€™t be a problem, even though the account is finalized."€

"**" and I then spoke with the DSL Department when we were told that it takes 2 to 3 billing cycles to clear and that it should show up on the next statement. I then asked "**" to call Ms. "**" from National Financial Group. At the conclusion of our conversation, Ms. "**" said that she would put a 60-€“ 90 day hold on the account until everything cleared up.

On December 5, 2005 I received yet another collection letter from I.C. System, Inc. which was attempting to collect, yet again, on my "€œdelinquent"€ account in the amount of $69.90. On December 22, 2005 I called I.C. System, Inc. to make contact to prevent further damage to my credit, explain the situation, and procure a contact fax number to send my formal written contest to the charges. I spoke with ** from I.C. System, Inc. and explained that I was contesting the charges and obtained a contact fax number of (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

I, then, proceeded to call Verizon DSL Billing where I spoke with a Mrs. "**". She said that the records on my account were so old that they were no longer on file. I was placed on hold while Mrs. "**" searched for the account information. A short time later Mrs. "**" returned and explained that there had been a credit issued on the account but, since the phone number that I had had been reissued, the credit had been applied to another customer with the same phone number.

Mrs. ** said that she would work on the problem over the course of the December 22 -€“ December 28 period and contact me once the issue had been resolved. I also obtained a fax contact number for the DSL Billing Department. To say the very least I am extremely dissatisfied with the way this situation was handled. I feel that the large amount of time that I spent on the phone with both Verizon representatives and collection agency was a waste of my time and patience. I would hope that, if this type of problem happens to occur in the future, your organization will be better equipped to remedy the error. Thank you.

BONHAM, TEXAS -- Verizon DSL has recently hiked their prices 10% and halved their speed. Connection speeds drop to a few bytes per second regularly at peak hours. That was not a typo, I said BYTES! You get a lost connection every other week or two that requires you to turn off the modem for three hours. Ridiculous. You might as well go dial up. It's almost the same peak speed, and MUCH more reliable, and a hell of a lot cheaper.

NEW JERSEY -- My Verizon email Inbox Has been jammed with SPAM for several weeks. I have contacted Verizon several times. Either they do not care or they are unable to fix this. For an international corporation they are useless.

DALLAS, TEXAS -- Verizon DSL customer support is absolutely the worst customer support organization I have ever encountered. I have managed large technology groups and worked with technology for many years and they are, really by far, the worst.

I could write pages covering the endless, frustrating encounters in trying to solve problems - which has, IN EVERY CASE, been a result of Verizon equipment failures or misconfigurations. These included port failures at their local switching office (took 4 days and about 7 people to finally find a person that did not tell me it must be my problem - even though ALL EVIDENCE pointed to it being their problem). And, I was able to get the right tech support person from their Accounting/Billing support and she was not supposed to tell me the number (it was actually a support group for other ISPs that obtain bandwidth and Internet connectivity through Verizon).

They have also had router misconfiguration problems in their network which again took days for me to find the right person - this time in their California high-level tech support center (866-281-5763 - requires a password which changes every month to get in as they are now being swamped as everyone tries to get around the absolutely worthless first-level support). If you can reach smart, tech savvy people (and there are some in Verizon) then you can usually get things accomplished.

However, the living hell a customer has to go through to find these people is not worth the effort and takes many days if ever. The first response from their customer support is 1) unplug your modem, 2) restart your computer, 3) if that does not work then it must be your problem and that is all we can do. If you ask to escalate or talk to someone else - they ask you who you want to talk to but will not forward you to anyone that is more knowledgeable or a higher-level support organization. THEY HAVE NO DESIRE TO HELP and their high-level tech support knows how terrible the first-level support is.

UNION, NEW JERSEY -- I've been a landline customer forever, signed up for cheapest $15/mo 1Mb DSL in August 2011. I've had problems with landline before, mostly very bad static and I could faintly hear my neighbors (we both use corded phones). Static happened on and off, at times for longer than a month. Before I learned from Verizon static was due to stress on faulty wires outside I had to waste hours on the phone doing automated line tests and troubleshooting.

I checked internal phones and wiring and could not find any problems internally. Still hesitated but asked Verizon to send a repair tech. Turned out problem was with the wiring outside. Still get static on the line occasionally. No interference with neighbors.

When first signed up for DSL my speed was around 800Kb. Due to static on the line I could not get 1Mb as advertised and customer service told me anything over 500Kb is acceptable speed and within the range. Line/wires can't handle faster speed. Also DSL disconnected randomly. My new modem was replaced with the same model but disconnect issue was not resolved.

CS never offered to inspect the line out on the street until one day CS person told me I'm paying for 1Mb and no reason why I should get less, sent out a tech, again problem was due to faulty external cable. That was taken care of but within a few days DSL disconnected randomly, but only for a few minutes at a time. Lately I've been getting static again and more frequent and longer disconnects. Extremely annoying.

Does Verizon offers better quality service in larger bandwidth plans and tries to get customers who don't necessarily need more bandwidth to sign up for more expensive plans? This is only a temp setup for me. Will dump Verizon DSL and landline as soon as I move out of this area.

I have had reliable DSL service at my home office for many years, provided by a small, local internet service provider through lines maintained by Verizon. Last week, however, I made the grave error of signing up for a Verizon high-speed DSL and voice package. The process was a disaster from start to finish, and is emblematic of the problems with a large, bloated corporation with no apparent centralization of responsibility.

First: Verizon seized control of the phone line from my old ISP fully two days before they were scheduled to do so, leaving me with no internet service at all. I rely on the internet as a freelance journalist, and my children use it for homework. Second: When they hooked up the DSL service (at the Central Office) they connected it to a second (fax) line that I had asked Verizon, at the same time that I ordered the DSL, to disconnect. I could not get internet service from this line.

Third: When they hooked the DSL up to the correct phone line, they switched the wire pairs at the Central Office, meaning that I still had no DSL service. This took more than a week to fix. Additionally, I never spoke to the same customer service agent twice, spent more than 5 hours on hold, and on four separate occasions the automated response system gave me telephone "help" numbers that were either disconnected or, as a stern automated voice told me, that I was "not authorized to use."

I finally called my old ISP and asked them to please regain control of the line, but it still took Verizon four days to get it right. Despite my insistence that nothing at my house had changed, they had to send a technician out to test the line, which showed that - as I had told them all along - the problem was with their Central Office switching. Several times, the customer service people tried to sell me on Verizon fiber-optic service (FIOS), but as I pointed out to them, we don't have or want cable or satellite TV, and how can I trust Verizon FiOS service when their DSL service and installation services are so abysmally poor?

In fairness, Verizon offered me a $25 credit for my inconvenience, which just happens to be the cost of reconnecting to my old ISP. It's not nearly enough to compensate for my time or agita, but I accepted it. In the United States we have been making the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy, but if Verizon's services in my case are in any way representative of this new economy, I tremble for our country.

In a nutshell, if you are an existing customer and try to sign up for a Verizon special advertised on the Internet, you will not be given the advertised price. Various reasons are given. When I initially signed up for Verizon home service online and got my first bill it was a higher price. When I called CS, no one knew anything about the price that was advertised on the Internet. Verizon local CS will try to tell you that only Internet services can give you that price but when you call Internet services they can never "find" that advertised special. That has happened to me twice.

I tried again because my contract ended and I don't need a landline, only DSL, but they won't give me any plan with a lower price. The DSL price they offered me was the same price as my bundle with phone and Internet. Unfortunately, AT&T or Time Warner does not service my area. Everyone says Comcast and Charter are worse. My solution is - class action suit. Who would like to join me?

PS: For those of you who have only DSL, you can get free landline service (VOIP) through Google Voice for free calling/texting to US and Canada through your computer. That includes voice mail and ability to receive calls and messages at your mobile phone. You can even receive email notifications to your mobile phone. I use it for my business. Oh, if I could only get rid of Verizon!

PS #2: Regarding quality of service, when they installed my land line they charged me about $80 and left the phone cable sprawling across the kitchen floor. When I asked them to staple it to the wall they said they would charge me extra. On a previous installation I used a private company that ran the phone line entirely across two rooms, did a very meticulous job and charged me $75. Verizon gave me a $30 credit on my first bill but the phone wire is very tackily taped to the kitchen floor and has to be replaced every couple months because the tape picks up dust and dirt.

GREENPOINT/WILLIAMSBURG, NEW YORK -- I have been paying for "high speed" DSL for 10 years, the only reason I have not switched to a cable modem is because of my neighbors complaints of outages and lag he11 for no reason and ZERO customer service with Time Warner.

I have never received more than 2.7 Mb/s on my "Up to 7 Mb/s" plan. I switched to the 7 Mb/s plan because on the 3 Mb/s or 5 Mb/s plans, you can't get more than 1.2 Mb/s. The reason? There is no central office anywhere near north Brooklyn or south Queens. So Verizon is in effect, selling goods that they can't deliver. I think this is probably against the law. Anyone with Verizon DSL service in Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Long Island City area that wants to sue them for a refund with me, let me know.

The maximum speed that a Verizon DSL customer can receive in Greenpoint is 3 Mb/s with the most expensive plan and the best modem. They don't have the equipment in place to deliver any better, yet have salesmen on your ** telling you lies that the equipment has been upgraded. The line is also noisy and the internet drops out every time it is rainy, or windy or sunny.

There will be so much static on the line that you can't even hear and your modem will be flashing red and the foreign fellow with the fake name like "**" will tell you that "dee liegn tebist shoween norbmadl staddus!" (The line test showing normal status). Poor guy, I should not make fun, he has a job answering to people who are already very angry when they call. I am probably funding some fat jerk's swimming pool by being ripped off paying for DSL service that I will never receive.

The options are Time Warner with zero customer support and random blackouts and bandwidth black holes, Verizon DSL slower than my AT&T dialup was in 1995 or... no internet. Verizon is a ripoff, do not get Verizon in north Brooklyn or south Queens. Verizon sucks in Williamsburg. Verizon sucks in Greenpoint. Verizon sucks in Long Island City.

Again, I have been listening to them promise to resolve my latency issues for 10 years only to find out this week from the new technician who visited that Verizon does not actually have the equipment in place to provide residential DSL at speeds higher than 3 Mb/s to the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area. Please join me in posting this information wherever you can so Verizon either remedies the situation or gives us all our money back.

ALPENA, MICHIGAN -- I ordered Business DSL for a business friend. They checked the number for DSL compatibility and everything was OK. Our local phone provider is Verizon, but we use UTMI for billing and they said UTMI was not a problem. When I called to follow up after 3 weeks I discovered the first order somehow was lost. They expedited the order and we received the installation kit. When I tried to install it would not work. Technical support informed me that I had a roll over number and that would not work (same one they tested).

We asked to change the number to one in the office that was used for only a FAX. They said OK and it would be done in 7 days. After 7 days tried to install again and it failed. Another hour with technical support and they found the installation order had been dropped with no reason. After apologies they said I could install after another 7 days. Another 7 days later I attempted to install again. Same result as the last time, only this time the support said because we were using UTMI that was the problem.

Called back next day because they had said the first time that UTMI had no effect on the DSL. This technician said that was not the reason, but could not find any notes on why the install failed. I was transferred to sales and after the usual apologies they said I could do the install in 7 days. GUESS WHAT? Checked the Verizon website to see the status and they say it has been delayed, and no explanation. I am writing this out of frustration because you cannot complain to a higher authority at Verizon.

If you order Verizon DSL be careful, because you may be waiting a long time. I do not even have a mail address to complain to so I let this forum provide a possible list in the hope that ever who gets this will forward this to someone at Verizon who cares.

ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA -- We tried to get internet service through Verizon because we were going to bundle with our new Verizon landline. Well after 8 weeks of trying to deal with this lousy company they said we don't exist on the map so no internet. Meanwhile my neighbors beside me, and across the road from me have it. But we don't exist for internet. Meanwhile while this was going on they installed a landline phone at our home... but we don't exist. What a laugh (not really).

Everyone I spoke to gave me to another person who didn't know anything about anything. Meanwhile they sent us the internet equipment but we don't exist! So when we finally got told we can't give you internet because we don't exist, they said they would send a return label so we could send their lousy crap back that we didn't need. Well that took 3 months to get and many phone calls from us to ask where the label is. They said, "Don't worry we will hold the bill till we get the equipment back." Well I personally took the equipment to ups. They delivered it and lo and behold Verizon sent my bill to a collections agency.

Much to my surprise (not) I was on the phone with ups. They tracked and found that Verizon received the equipment someone signed for it and now it was a dispute. The collections agency called Verizon and 2 days later Verizon called me to say, "Oops, we got it. It was our mistake." Well their mistakes cause people such grief. The company is way too big to care about the people that make their paychecks. Shame on you Verizon you don't deserve the business of hard working people!

Also I know for a fact that they have big expensive parties for their employees reward them for coming to work when there are super bowl games with expensive gifts. They are wasting their customers money. Let me also say most of Verizon's employees are smart mouths. They speak very rudely when you aren't going along with what they tell you. Go AT&T! Now that's a good company. VERIZON... YOU SUCK!