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Pucnot
@verizon.net

Pucnot to onlyzuul

Anon

to onlyzuul

Re: [connectivity] rumors/mentions of forced DSL->FIOS changes

What's deceptive about these letters? They are encouraging users to migrate so they don't need to maintain 2 networks. Maintaining two networks costs money which are passed along to customers.
said by onlyzuul:

I know the topic is a few months old, but Verizon is still sending these. And someone wanted to see what this particular deceptive marketing stunt looked like exactly, so ... here it is.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/414/verizonc.jpg

People should be sending these to their state PUCs with big bowties on them, if you ask me.

onlyzuul
join:2011-04-25

1 recommendation

onlyzuul

Member

said by Pucnot :

said by onlyzuul:

I know the topic is a few months old, but Verizon is still sending these. And someone wanted to see what this particular deceptive marketing stunt looked like exactly, so ... here it is.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/414/verizonc.jpg

People should be sending these to their state PUCs with big bowties on them, if you ask me.

What's deceptive about these letters?

"SECOND NOTICE"

Who mails people letters in official-looking company envelopes with "SECOND NOTICE" printed on them in 20 point bold caps? Oh right. Bill collectors, financial institutions, insurance companies, divorce lawyers, tax collectors, courts... and service providers contacting customers who've failed to do something important with their service that's mandatory, and who're going to experience trouble of some kind if they don't do it.

Sure, had I owned an analog cellphone just before the analog cellular cut-off date, and if I was sitting on my butt and not doing anything about going digital, my provider could've legitimately mailed me an "IMPORTANT NOTICE" and then a "SECOND NOTICE" and then even a "FINAL NOTICE." But an impending shutdown isn't the case with Verizon's copper. Verizon's copper isn't being shut down in any of the areas they're deploying FIOS to, and Verizon still even takes new copper orders for dialtone in each of those areas. So what they're doing here is using language designed to put people on alert, and make them think they've failed to do something they have to do -- and all over a service that's completely optional (not to mention luxuriously-priced, post-introductory prices).

That's deceptive.

"NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE"

More deceptive language. When something undergoes an "upgrade," that means something about its fundamental workings is being changed -- often with usability consequences for those who don't adapt, as a result of older and inferior ways of doing things being thrown out. That said, sending someone a "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" pretty much tells that person he'll experience trouble if he doesn't adapt to a change that's about to happen to the network he's using. Well, exactly which network do the recipients of these letters use? Why, Verizon's copper network, of course. And does FIOS spin that copper into glass, thereby upgrading it? Or does FIOS in any other incidental way cause Verizon's copper network to somehow become improved? No and no. Turns out not a single thing about Verizon's copper network is being upgraded. FIOS is, after all, a brand new, completely separate, and unrelated network. So in fact, no "upgrade" of any kind is actually happening to the copper network the recipients of these "notices" are using. And yet these "notices" are telling the users of that copper network that "an upgrade" is underway. Not that a new and better service is being offered, no. That "an upgrade" is happening.

And so, this is also deceptive; especially when you combine "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" with "SECOND NOTICE" – with the implication of hurry-up-because-you're-failing-to-do-something-you-have-to.

"This notice is to inform you that Verizon is currently migrating customers to our 100% fiber-optic network, Verizon FiOS."

Yet more deceptive language. Migration means a mass movement made out of necessity. Animals don't migrate because they're tourists: they migrate to escape inhospitable feeding grounds and climates. And masses of people don't migrate because they like uprooting themselves: they migrate to escape things like dust bowls and potato famines. And in modern-day information technology, systems administrators and services providers don't "migrate" masses of users to new systems unless the old ones are about to be shut down. If your employer has SMTP/POP3 and adds Webmail merely as an enhanced option, it doesn't tell all its employees that they've been "migrated" to webmail. It just announces the webmail interface as a new alternative.

Migration implies necessity, yet Verizon isn't shutting down its copper infrastructure. At worst, it sells its copper infrastructure to other companies, and its former customers simply become former customers: with no defunct infrastructure to migrate in mass away from. Yet here it is, Verizon, telling its copper customers that they as a group are being "migrated." This is deceptive. And it's especially deceptive when you combine the claim of a group of migrating customers with "SECOND NOTICE" (the implication of hurry-up-because-you're-failing-to-do-something-you-have-to), and with "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" (the implication that not adapting will cause you trouble).

"You must call to request this upgrade" (underlined and bold in their letters)

Even more deceptive wording. It's deceptive because, in the context framed so far by "SECOND NOTICE" and "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" and "migrating customers," it's completely indistinctive as to whether it constitutes a mandatory instruction the recipient must follow in order to continue receiving service, or if it's merely telling the recipient what he must do in order to act out an optional choice for a different kind of service. It is worded so that the naive, the gullible, people with learning difficulties, the senile elderly, and just about anyone else who isn't paying attention to things will misread it as "I'm required to call them." I say "will misread it" because people who lack the ability to see through these "notifications" will fill in any doubts they have about the meaning of "must call" with the general context of the "notifications" themselves -- that general context being "SECOND NOTICE" (hurry-up-because-you're-failing-to-do-something-you-have-to), plus "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" (the implication that not adapting will cause you trouble), plus "Verizon is currently migrating customers" (the implication that something new is replacing -- rather than just complimenting -- something old).

And that is incredibly deceptive. (Seriously, this one is on the razor's edge of outright lying, and I can almost picture the meeting that probably took place between Verizon's lawyers and sales executives to discuss whether the profit potential of this vocabulary could be outweighed by losses incurred from potential PUC fines or states' attorneys general suing for false advertising. It reminds me of Lionel Hutz from The Simpsons using a marker to change "WORKS ON CONTINGENCY, NO MONEY DOWN" on his yellow page ad to "WORKS ON CONTINGENCY? NO, MONEY DOWN!" when Homer Simpson walked into his office.)

"Hurry! The clock is ticking on a complete Verizon network upgrade. You must order FIOS if you wish to upgrade with us."

Yawn. The deceptive wording continues. Only now, we have "complete" (in "complete Verizon network upgrade") to help seal the deal as far as Verizon's attempt to subtly misrepresent its copper network as the network that's being upgraded -- assuming their directing these "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" letters at their copper network customers fails to do so. And look -- their mention of this "complete upgrade" comes with another "must", too. One specifically saying you "must" order FIOS. Gee.

If you don't consider any of this deceptive -- if official-looking envelopes ... bearing alarming-sounding "SECOND NOTICE" and "NOTIFICATION OF NETWORK UPGRADE" warnings in large boldface ... accompanied by mentions of customer migrations ... added to mandatory-looking ordering instructions ... if all that doesn't strike you as something designed to manipulate vulnerable people into buying an optional service, then you might be interested in the many career opportunities available these days for medical insurance company loss retention attorneys and paid internet astroturfers. Because this letter isn't just deceptive, it is actually borderline malicious. It was written with the goal of manipulating the vulnerable into unnecessarily parting with even more of their money. I mean, are these "notifications" not being written down to the lowest common denominator? Would you say that intelligent people would believe they constitute mandatory migration notices? If not, then the vulnerable are the only remaining targets. And for the record, no, I am not claiming these "notifications" are the worst, most malicious cases of deceptive advertising ever. Far from it. However, the level of deception being employed in them is still pretty grotesque -- about equal to what one would expect from some 2:30 AM infomercial on KRAP-68 selling silver lungs generators. And I'm very sure that big, multi-billion dollar national public utilities aren't supposed to conduct business that way. Very, very, very sure.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. Because nobody will do anything to stop this. Will they. Maybe someone will gripe about it on a forum, and maybe that person will even articulate exactly how and why these marketing tactics are wrong. You know, just in case The Obvious isn't so obvious to everyone. But then, all that'll happen is that a big argument will break out ... and maybe some name-calling will ensue ... and then the corporate astroturfers will move in ... and then the flamewar that conveniently changes the subject will start ... and that'll be the end of it. And then Verizon still get all its pigeons anyway. (And in a few months, your mom or grandmother will call you, asking why her Verizon bill has doubled ever since she did what Verizon told her to.)
said by Pucnot :

They are encouraging users to migrate so they don't need to maintain 2 networks.

Except for one thing. They seem to have forgotten to mention that their "notifications" are just "encouragements" in the "notifications" they're stuffing in official-looking envelopes and mailing to millions of people with "SECOND NOTICE" splattered on them.

Well, "SECOND NOTICE" ... or the other, even more deceptive envelope phraseology they're also using for these FIOS "upgrade notifications":

URGENT ACCOUNT INFORMATION:
YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED


http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/3207/urgent.jpg

No. Nothing smells about that at all.

Also, incidentally, in terms of Verizon having to maintain two networks? I doubt very much that that burden weighs heavily if at all on the minds of anybody outside Verizon. People have enough of their own burdens to worry about than to care about some faceless, monolithic corporation's.
said by Pucnot :

Maintaining two networks costs money which are passed along to customers.

Oh no! We'll all pay more unless we help Verizon by paying more with FIOS. Everyone! Quick!

But anyway, all I see are Verizon DSL prices dropping, and copper POTS prices holding steady. Judging by the post-introductory-rate FIOS bills my neighbors get, I'd say any superfluous costs Verizon incurs from running two networks get passed on to the FIOS users exclusively. The ones who don't bail the moment their introductory rates run out, I mean. (That is, assuming they can bail. Let's not forget that Verizon won't take you back on copper once you've touched their fiber. And let's especially not forget all those millions of people who had their copper drops cut, to make sure their homes would show in the databases as "no copper service," precluding any possibility for them of fleeing FIOS to even CLEC dialtone and DSL.)

Personally, I would love to have FIOS for its technology, and it even happens to be running right past me, a mere 20 feet above my head in the back yard. But Verizon's DSL is staying put here because (a) the local cable behemoth's (Slime-Warner's) service quality and prices are unbearable, and (b) because there are no affordable DSL alternatives in my area. (You know how it goes with that. Want to punish your ILEC by rewarding a smaller, more honest CLEC with your DSL and dialtone business? Then you pay the CLEC's bill and the CLEC's hidden tithing to the ILEC. Or in other words, you pay more to do nothing at all.)

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

said by onlyzuul:

But anyway, all I see are Verizon DSL prices dropping, and copper POTS prices holding steady.

POTS is regulated whither it is on glass or copper. The copper is going to go away; they can do it the easy way or the hard way.

I still love you people because you people are the reason municipal FTTP projects fail. Keep up the good work.
Bobcat79
Premium Member
join:2001-02-04

Bobcat79 to onlyzuul

Premium Member

to onlyzuul
said by onlyzuul:

But anyway, all I see are Verizon DSL prices dropping, and copper POTS prices holding steady.

Huh? What? My POTS price has gone up around 30% in the past couple years. More increases are already on the way. Plus, the state legislature has proposed deregulating POTS, which would mean even higher prices.