 Review by dataice 
UPDATED: 9 days ago
member for 7 years, 1374 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Crisfield,Somerset,MD
 $40 per month
 about 14 days
 Verizon
 "Connection reliability"
 "Customer Service is poorly trained"
 "Great, as long as everything runs smoothly, otherwise you'll be forced to deal with a poorly trained outsourced tech support."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
08/14/08: I have had Verizon Online DSL since 2004 with hardly a hiccup in all that time. Well, that was about to change. I Called Verizon billing office on August 14th to order an upgrade from 3/768 to 7.1/768. The rep says there is no such speed for FIOS?!? Um, I'm not calling for FIOS, I am calling for DSL. So, I figured that I would wait a week and try again.
08/21/08: I Called them back today to give it another shot. The rep that I spoke with was obviously from India, as her accent was so strong that I could barely understand her. I explained to her that I currently have DSL 3/768 service and was interested in upgrading to 7.1/768. She checked her system, and said that it was available in my area with a 1 year contract and that voice service was also required for $39.99 a month, then $42.99 a month after the first year was up (after renewing with another 1 year contract), at least this rep knew what 7.1 DSL was. Fine, I said sign me up. She gave me a service ready date of August 26th, said I could continue to use my current Actiontec router/modem, and that I needed to be home.
08/26/08 OK, 08/26 comes and goes, no upgrade.
08/27/08 I called them back today on the 27th and opened a trouble ticket. The rep I spoke with said that the last rep that placed the order for me, didn't enter it properly, and it was never dispatched to a local field tech. Ok, fine set me up again please. The rep gave me a new service ready date of September 2nd, and asked me to be home as the tech "may" have to do what is called a home run (place a filter at the NID). I said ok.
09/02/08 I took the day off and guess what? another no show. Ok, now I was not a happy camper.
09/03/08 Called back the next day on September 3rd, that rep said the same thing the last one did, the order wasn't placed correctly. Ok, set me up again please. The rep did so, and gave me a service ready date for September 9th (what is up with ONLY giving me Tuesday's, don't the field techs work more than one day a week?), anyway I said fine, and stayed home all day on the 9th, guess what?
09/09/08 You guessed it, NO SHOW., BUT, he did go to my local central office, and he CUT OFF MY INTERNET COMPLETELY., ok now I had had it. Called back that same day, was told that a rep would come out on the 16th some time between 8 am - 12 Noon, now I was fuming.It was bad enough I was missing time from my duties by taking off all day, but now I had no internet at all. When asking why I was cut off he said they have to do that first in order to upgrade my line to the new 7.1. That sounded fishy so I demand a supervisor, he says no that is not normal and said it must have been a mis-communication (yeah, no s*it).
09/16/08 The 16th comes, again a no show.
09/17/08 Called them the next day on the 17th and demanded a supervisor, who could barely speak english. He apologized several times and said he was escalating my problem to a dept for supervisors, and that someone from that dept. would be calling me within the next 24-48 hours to set up an appt. They actually called that same evening, and they set me up with a new service ready date of September 18th. They asked if I could be home. I said yes, I would be.
09/18/08 September 18th comes, NO SHOW! Now I am truly livid, as I have missed five days of my duties and stayed at home for nothing AND with no internet. I came here to DSLR and found a toll-free number to Verizon Customer Advocacy group, but guess what? they don't help you with a Verizon DSL problem, only a problem with your landline service. So I was back to square one. I called the outsourced call center in India and demanded to speak with yet another supervisor. Apparently none of the former reps or supervisors added ANY notes to my account, so they would know this is an ongoing issue, so I had to explain my lack of customer service issue to him from the beginning, he said to wait for someone to call me back from the same escalations dept. Finally someone from the USA got involved this time around, and returned my call a few hours later. The agent I spoke with said he would handle it personally and that someone would come out on the 19th and that I needed to be home, OK.
09/19/08 19th comes and again another no-show, called (you know the deal by now) and was given a new date of September 22nd (great,another weekend with no internet) Not like I really have a choice in the matter, Ok, fine I will be home on the 22nd
09/22/08 FINALLY a field tech shows up on the 22nd, but , not to my residence but to my local central office instead (field tech told supervisor I didn't need to be home after all, no home run required), since I reside in an large apt. complex, and doing a home run in a multi-dwelling unit can be troublesome and very time consuming, so now I had missed 7 days for nothing. This tech finally gets me up and running with 7.1/768 speed. He stopped by my apt. before heading out of town, and asked me to pull up my stats on the gateway to make sure I was getting good numbers. He was satisfied with the transtats, so all was good. I asked him if he knew what in the world happened with my upgrade. He explained to me, that apparently the first field tech who was dispatched to my local central office, moved my line over to a different card in the rack at the DSLAM but he didn't provision it properly once he moved it over. At least that was the gist of it, since it was nearly 7pm and past his normal quitting time, and the man was tired, as I was as well. So I didn't ask him to go into great detail.
09/23/08 I called Verizon Online billing/sales dept. today to complain about what I had been through and how I was being treated as a paying customer, and the retentions dept said they would give me 4 free months of service for all of my trouble, and being without internet for 2 weeks. So, I will update when my next bill arrives and let you know how that went. But I am not holding my breath with the billing dept., especially after what I had just experienced.
10/17/08: Well, bill cycled online today, and guess what? Yep. No 4 month free credit!I was charged the full $39.99 for the service. To late to call today, since the retentions dept. is currently closed. Will try to contact them on Monday when they reopen
10/20/08: Called retentions dept. today (was hung up on the first 2 times). Rep that I spoke with was very friendly and said she would handle this immediately. She said the original rep that entered the 4 month free credit, did enter it into the system on September 23rd, but she didn't enter WHEN the credit was suppose to actually begin. So, basically it just fell out of the system. She said she entered it again, for the credit to take affect asap, and that I would receive a statement in the mail confirming that my last 4 months paid service would be credited back to the account. I assume that they will just hold off billing me for the next 4 months, I could barely make out what she was saying, since I had to go through a rep in India first to get transferred back to retentions here in the states, so the connection was very bad. Hopefully it has been taken care of this time. I will update again sometime in the next 30 days to confirm if the credit went through as the rep promised.
10/24/08: Received phone bill in the mail today. Apparently Verizon Online credited the $39.99 back to my account on the same day that the paper bill cycled and was mailed out to me, just barely making it on the bill at the very last minute. Good thing I called on the 20th or I would have had to wait another month for the credit. So, I did get at least one month free, but I am not holding my breath that they will credit me for the other three. I will update in mid/late November when my next bill cycles.
11/20/08: Received latest phone bill by e-mail this morning. Verizon charged me the full $39.99 this month. So much for receiving a credit for the other 3 months. Unless they do what they did last month and apply the credit literally at the last minute before the paper bill mails out to me. I will update when I receive that bill by snail mail to let you guys know if that is what happened. At this point however, I am so frustrated dealing with them every month for the credits that I am just going to be thankful that I got at least one month free credit for the 14 days I was without service. I never did receive that so called statement in the mail, confirming the 4 months of credits.
11/25/08: Received latest phone bill by snail mail this morning. Sure enough, they charged me the full rate of $39.99 this month. So, apparently one month of credit is all I am going to see. I've decided to let it drop, its not worth the hassle of dealing with retentions yet again.
03/25/09: After not hearing anything more about my so called 4 month credit, my bill that I received today in the mail showed a credit of $171.96. Apparently I am going to get the 4 month credit after all, 4 billing cycles later. I must say I was VERY surprised after not hearing anything back from them since last November. After contacting billing, the rep said I was given a credit of $171.96 to cover 4 months of service at $42.99 a month. However I WAS paying $39.99 a month with a 1 year contract, which they were taking $3.00 off on the regular $42.99 a month, so I am not sure where the extra $3 dollars suddenly came from. I also noticed that they quietly extended my contract from September to December 2009. After the pure hell on earth that I went through last fall I will just let this slide, since by the time I fight them to get them to put it back the way that it was originally before applying the 4 month credit, my contract would have expired by the time it was all worked out. This company never ceases to amaze me.
07/31/09: I contacted Verizon Business Office today, after seeing on the portal that I was eligible for a bundle discount, by combining my POTS and DSL on one bill. Apparently I can get both Freedom Essentials and 7.1 DSL for $79.99 a month, which is called Verizon Double Freedom. I am paying $45.99 a month now for Essentials and $42.99 for DSL, so this would save me $8.99 a month off of my bill. The best part about this, is that the rep that I spoke with said I would be able to come off my 1 year contract, and would be placed on a month to month on the DSL portion. I can lock this price in for the next 12 months with no ETF if I drop the bundle. I would just go back to my previous billing. I took them up on their offer, so I guess I will see what happens to the billing when I get my next bill in late August.
08/21/09: I checked my online billing today. The paper bill went out a few days ago, which hasn't arrived yet, but I was able to view on the DSL side at verizon.net what Verizon Online was going to submit to the POTS billing as my current billing cycle before the $79.99 Double Freedom bundle reset it. Apparently I was taken off the $39.99 a month DSL billing. They reset my DSL billing by taking me off of my old billing agreement and entered me into a month to month agreement. They treated it as a new customer agreement, and basically reset my billing in January of this year under the promo that was running at that time for the 7.1 tier for new customer signups. The first 4 months are free and then it bills at $42.99 a month. I was placed on a month to month billing, which would run through December. Then the regular price would be $52.99 month to month with POTS. Of course this is all moot now since it will be reset yet again under the $79.99 Double Freedom promo that I recently signed up for. I then went to their main verizon.net signup page to find out exactly what they charge for the 7.1 tier at the full price month to month, with and without POTS. The current billing info for the 7.1 tier list it at $62.99 month to month dry,$52.99 month to month with POTS, $39.99 with a 1 year contract and POTS or $37.99 with a 2 year contract and POTS. No wonder they can't seem to keep the billing straight, they have so many different billing scenario's, there's no telling what you may end up with at the end of the day.
08/25/09: I received my bill in the mail today, and I was billed correctly under the Double Freedom bundle at $79.99 plus $12.01 in taxes and fees, for a total of $92. You gotta love those damn unfees! I can't believe they actually got it right this time on the very first try. Go Figure! 
11/15/09: Connection has been pretty much rock solid since January of 2009, with the exception of a couple of minor outages that each lasted for maybe 3-4 hours. Bottom line is this, obviously there is very poor communications between the different departments at Verizon Online AND Verizon Business Office, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and that is unacceptable with a so called telecommunications company. Usually when you want to give a company more MONEY, they don't require that you jump through hoops first to do so! As long as everything is running smoothly, and you never have to contact them for any reason, they are great, but god help you if you do have to call them! If you don't need hand holding and rarely have a need to contact support,unless something goes terribly wrong, then Verizon should do just fine. If you do need hand holding, I would suggest searching for another provider, IF that is an option.
Attachments:
Followup comments:  
Mactron
el camino Real
Premium
join:2001-12-16
CM94sv
| Well trained.. "Great, as long as everything runs smoothly, otherwise you'll be forced to deal with a poorly trained tech support dept"
Accurately their well trained to always blame the customer and say everything is fine on their end. Think of all the money they save not actually providing service. 
--
If only the Verizon CSRs worked this well.  | |
|  |
dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Well trained.. haha. You got that right. I miss the good ol' days when they actually employed people from the U.S.A. When I recently upgraded my speed from 3 Mbps to 7.1 Mbps, the rep told me there was no such speed for FIOS., uh, duh! who said anything about FIOS? I am talking about DSL over copper! Unreal. I had to call back a total of 8 times to get someone who knew what was going on. Avoid them at all cost! | |
| 
The Blue Hag
join:2008-08-25
Winchester, CA
·Verizon Online DSL
| their teir 1 phone techs are the worst I am so tired of having to call DSL tech support and having to deal with those hard to understand robots, the voice-automated system is just as bad as the overseas employees too....
Would be nice if they brought jobs back to the USA and gave us customer service as imagined in their commericials.
I am fed up with Verizon phone support to be honest, they are the worst. | |
| |
dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: their teir 1 phone techs are the worst You got that right, they have gone out of their way to program the automated system to make it so difficult to reach a live rep,that you will just throw your hands up in the air and relent. God help you if you try to get your local business office involved in it, they will just refuse to deal with you and transfer you back into automated hell, but before doing so trying to sell you on at least a dozen different products and services. It's really sad to see what has happened to a once helpful customer support center, and I feel sorry for the few U.S. support people they have left, knowing if they don't push those services, they will be fired. :-( | |
| | | 
OftenOily
@verizon.net
|  Re: their teir 1 phone techs are the worst
Tech support is nothing other then an insult..11229 under dial up speed now for 3 weeks even with the modem turned on | |
|
icepunk6
@verizon.net
| headaches for sure! i decided awhile back to go with verizon dsl 3/768 on a dryloop, tech came out, hooked everything up (came at like 6am when was told they would come between 8 and noon, i know it was 6am because he left a voicemail on my phone, i never answered the door due to sleeping at that time) long story short. i was without my new service (although i had dsl connection lights on modem) for 3 weeks. ended up that they didnt have me hooked up in the hub office, this was also after literally 10 calls of me saying "this is on your end, not mine" they even told me i needed to upgrade my modem/router and it would cost 100$. HORRIBLE customer service, i got exactly the same amount of time i was out of service, 3 weeks credits. so dont hold your breath on 4 months, you were lucky getting 39.99 | |
| |
dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
1 edit | Re: headaches for sure! Yep, I figured that as well, that I was lucky to get at least one month credited back to the account. If they don't credit me for the other three I will probably just let it drop. I don't feel like jumping through hoops again with support and dealing with the long hold times to get them to give me what they already promised. I tend to have a short fuse when it comes to those people, and my blood pressure is already high to begin with.  | |
| 
Hpower
Roflmao
join:2000-06-08
Glendale, CA
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Damn Man I feel your pain. I'd die 3 weeks without connectivity. I already was going nuts with 2 weeks of no service for getting charter pipeclog pipeline.
Seems like Verizon does a horrible job with their DSL service but does a much better job with FIOS.
--
The Internet is about to go down....it is actually. | |
|
stefanie2530
@verizon.net
| DLS Tier 3 phone# I'm truly thankful that I'm not the only person who has such problems with Verizon...I'm not happy about your problems, I'm just happy that these things don't only happen to me!
Does anyone have the Tier 3 DSL phone number? I had it and now a friend needs it and of course I can't locate mine...she's calling Tier 1 asking for Tier 3 help and they claim to have no clue what she's talking about and hang up on her...
Thanks! | |
| |
dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
4 edits | Re: DSL Tier 3 phone# Those Tier 3 direct #'s don't work anymore. Since Verizon now outsources its entire DSL support overseas. They use to work when they were still based here in the USA, but I haven't reached a US based CSR since at least 2007, much less a Tier 3 based rep. So, unless you subscribe to their premium support plan, which I am not even sure if that isn't outsourced as well, you probably will be unsuccessful in getting one of the Tier 1 CSR's in India to transfer you to a Tier 3 rep. That's if they even have any Tier 3 reps on the staff in India, and even if they do, I seriously doubt they will know any more than the Tier 1 script robots manning the front lines. Most of the reps that I spoke with when I had my recent problems, didn't know anything more than what was on the script in front of them, no matter how high up the ladder I climbed. | |
| radiomaze
join:2009-10-25
Curwensville, PA
·Verizon Online DSL
| Tech Support, yeah if you want to call it that I called not long ago for some help with modem/router issues . The tech said, in that barely understandable broken english, sir I'm going to send you toour expert support. Well I knew there was a fee but didn't know how much so I asked the "expert" how much will it cost? She replyed its a one time fee of ONLY $89:-() I said no way I think I can figure this out myself. You have a nice day. Then hung up the phone. | |
| |
dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD | Re: Tech Support, yeah if you want to call it that I would keep a VERY close watch on your bill for the next few billing cycles. It would not surprise me in the least bit if those clowns tried to bill you anyway for the $89. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Verizon Online DSL |
|
(139)
