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vee130
join:2013-01-16
Dumont, NJ

vee130

Member

Verizon FIOS Battery Backup

I need to complain/vent about how Verizon is handling the replacement of their battery back up in their FIOS box. They want to charge me to replace a battery that is part of THEIR equipment of which i dont rent, and also i am paying for the service on my bill which allows me to have phone service for a certain amount of hours when there is a power outage and if the battery back up is dead then the service doesn't work HOWEVER I still pay for the service on my bill??!! So basically I am being charged 2x, once for the monthly service + once for a battery to provide the monthly service. When i did contact them I requested a copy of their service agreement or something in writing that states if something happens to their battery then i have to pay for a new one but if something happens to their box or service and the box needs to be replaced then they do so at no cost to me. I am still waiting for a copy of this agreement, because unfortunately I dont keep a copy of every service agreement that they send me, they are always changing and updating them and honestly who reads every word of those agreements anyway? I mean really, they make it so that when you are in these situations, they know that most people dont read word for word in their agreements until something happens, but what they fail to tell you up front is certain things or procedures that the company charges or is not responsible for that if were to happen it may make you hesitate to sign up with them. AND THAT'S UNFAIR! THESE CORPORATE COMPANY'S NEED TO STOP TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

PoloDude
Premium Member
join:2006-03-29
Aiken, SC

PoloDude

Premium Member

Then go to your local cable supplier that does not EVEN supply a battery backup unless you pay extra for it. I don't have a link to the document but, VZ guarantees the battery for the first year. In most cases the battery will last you several years ( 4 - 5 it depends) . The replacement cost is around $32 dollars . If you get 5 years out of it ,that's about 53 cents a month.
You don't have to replace the battery if don't want to.

stevek1949
We're not in Kansas anymore
Premium Member
join:2002-11-13
Virginia Beach, VA

stevek1949 to vee130

Premium Member

to vee130
The warranty is stated here:

»www22.verizon.com/Suppor ··· 1498.htm
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky to vee130

Member

to vee130
All the phones in my house are cordless so the battery backup is completely useless. I disconnected it to silence that annoying alarm.
crgauth
join:2004-05-18
Glen Burnie, MD

crgauth to vee130

Member

to vee130
How is this any different than the car warranty you get that says it won't cover tires, batteries, windshield wipers etc.
Their documentation says it is covered for a year. After that, it is up to you.
uresponsible
join:2013-01-16
Pittsburgh, PA

uresponsible to vee130

Member

to vee130
So...With that reasoning, I guess that Verizon should also replace the batteries in your remote when they go bad.

matcarl
Premium Member
join:2007-03-09
Franklin Square, NY

matcarl

Premium Member

The reason why it's so confusing is because Verizon has changed the policy on it a few times. They used to make service calls for it and still should. How can an elderly person who lives by themselves go looking through their basement to find it and take the panel off and disconnect the wires? That thing is a bit tricky I must admit. And what happens if they connect the battery to the wrong terminals? And that battery is pretty heavy for some older woman to be lifting above her head if that's where they located it, like they did in my basement. It's not easy to get to.

PoloDude
Premium Member
join:2006-03-29
Aiken, SC

1 recommendation

PoloDude

Premium Member

Minor point, It's impossible to hook up the battery wrong. The negative has a standard spade lug , but the positive has a fitted connector. Also the connector to the BBU is keyed.
DGGSLF
join:2007-04-14
Lynn, MA

DGGSLF to matcarl

Member

to matcarl
Matcarl. I agree with you and was just thinking about my own parents. I have to do the simpliest thing for them like tightening their glasses arms etc. They could not replace this battery if/when it dies and so a long time ago, I told them to stick with Comcast and resist the FiOS hard sell when the guys showed up just about every week, though I like the FiOS service myself.

Verizon is now pushing fiber for the folks in NY/NJ area after Sandy. Are they gonna now expect all of the older folks in these areas that only wanted POTS, to do self maintenance on these batteries? If so, they should at least offer a service plan, like they do for inside wiring.
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL

Member

Does anyone know what really happens when the battery dies? Once you've disabled the sound, doesn't everything else work just fine (except for the backup upon primary power failure)?
uresponsible
join:2013-01-16
Pittsburgh, PA

uresponsible to matcarl

Member

to matcarl
Verizon has some 2 million customers, how are they supposed to pay for all the service calls to have batteries replaced and continue to grow the FiOS network? - Without increasing the bill?

PoloDude
Premium Member
join:2006-03-29
Aiken, SC

PoloDude to PJL

Premium Member

to PJL
said by PJL:

Does anyone know what really happens when the battery dies? Once you've disabled the sound, doesn't everything else work just fine (except for the backup upon primary power failure)?

Everything works just fine without the battery even connected.
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

ansky to PJL

Member

to PJL
said by PJL:

Does anyone know what really happens when the battery dies? Once you've disabled the sound, doesn't everything else work just fine (except for the backup upon primary power failure)?

Yes it's fine. I disconnected my battery six months ago and never had a problem.
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL to vee130

Member

to vee130
Then the solution for me is to not spend money on a new battery and forgo the battery backup period of phone service. Or borrow one from my home alarm system and use it when I need to. Or just buy a battery myself. Or use my cell phone when the power goes out. Not a tough set of options to me. A certainly not worth a rant, IMHO.

rtcy
FACTS only please
Premium Member
join:1999-10-16
Norwalk, CA

rtcy to PoloDude

Premium Member

to PoloDude
said by PoloDude:

Minor point, It's impossible to hook up the battery wrong. The negative has a standard spade lug , but the positive has a fitted connector. Also the connector to the BBU is keyed.

I have been a chill/shill ? police for a long time. so , you know they have to supply te power to pots phone. and this battery is a back up for the power so you can dial out in a ememrgency. this is their responsibility, and if our reps and senators were not bought and paid for they would have already extended the rugulations afforded to POTs to FIOS.save your rsponse that will go along the lines of "most people have cell phones etc.etc.etc"

most of us are paying 150.00 minimum , so they can send most of us a 10.00 replacement battery, and NOT charge us, and do it for the elderly for FREE.

AARP where are you ?

PoloDude
Premium Member
join:2006-03-29
Aiken, SC

PoloDude

Premium Member

Again,why are the Cable Cos not held to the same standard?

matcarl
Premium Member
join:2007-03-09
Franklin Square, NY

matcarl

Premium Member

said by PoloDude:

Again,why are the Cable Cos not held to the same standard?

Because they don't have the same system as Fios. They don't install battery backups as standard equipment.
crgauth
join:2004-05-18
Glen Burnie, MD

crgauth

Member

So it is ok for them to provide no backup, versus a system that has a backup but it requires the customer to replace a battery every 4-5 years?
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL to matcarl

Member

to matcarl
said by matcarl:

said by PoloDude:

Again,why are the Cable Cos not held to the same standard?

Because they don't have the same system as Fios. They don't install battery backups as standard equipment.

But their local neighborhood feeds do use power supplies, and when the electricity goes out so do the feeds, at lease until they hook up temporary power generators for their line amplifiers.
mark_e
join:2009-03-09
Columbia, MD

mark_e to vee130

Member

to vee130

4 batteries in b/u!

When I added a 3rd phone line, my ONT was swapped and a GIANT (14" x 24") power supply installed. There are 4 batteries with space for 4 more.

Which leads me to 2 questions:

1) Will I be responsible for replacing all 4 when time claims their life? (I would guess YES)

2) For the VZ techs, will installing 4 more batteries double the run time and/or keep the data service up?

The only good news is that there's a switch to turn the audible alarm on and off!
matthewh16
join:2010-05-21
Culver City, CA

matthewh16 to vee130

Member

to vee130

Re: Verizon FIOS Battery Backup

I don't know about you guys, but I just waited till I saw a tech across the street, walked up and said "Hey, you have a spare battery? Mines Dead", he said "Sure, here ya go". Free, no hassle.
zippoboy7
join:2006-06-18
USA

zippoboy7

Member

said by matthewh16:

I don't know about you guys, but I just waited till I saw a tech across the street, walked up and said "Hey, you have a spare battery? Mines Dead", he said "Sure, here ya go". Free, no hassle.

That was the same experience I had with them on the first battery replacement. They replaced it again a few months back when I upgraded to 150/65 and they installed all new equipment.

As to the original point of this thread, if you are too cheep to spend ~$35 on a battery every 3-5 years then I wish you luck trying to find another option that will provide you what you need. The only suggestion that I have is you spend some real money and put in a standby generator so that you do not need a battery when the power fails as going forward that will be the only option to ensure you have continuous power.
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned) to vee130

Member

to vee130
This is becoming an issue more and more since we are provided equipment that does need some maintenance from time to time. Like a car battery, these battery backups need to be changed. I had a friend who had an APC backup for his computer and was ready to toss it out and buy another one just because the battery died in it after 2 years. I told him all he needed was another battery but even at half the cost, he said he wanted another one. Took his old one, put in a new battery and used it myself.

Face it, if the power does go out, people would still blame Verizon for the service not working because "it used to work when I had a phone years ago."

And I do keep a regular phone on hand just in case the power goes out and I need to make a call. To not do so would be unwise.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt to ansky

Premium Member

to ansky
said by ansky:

All the phones in my house are cordless so the battery backup is completely useless. I disconnected it to silence that annoying alarm.

Put your cordless phones on their own back up. I've been doing this since the 90's. And been able to use my cordless phones during a power outage.
aaronwt

1 edit

aaronwt to mark_e

Premium Member

to mark_e

Re: 4 batteries in b/u!

said by mark_e:

When I added a 3rd phone line, my ONT was swapped and a GIANT (14" x 24") power supply installed. There are 4 batteries with space for 4 more.

Which leads me to 2 questions:

1) Will I be responsible for replacing all 4 when time claims their life? (I would guess YES)

2) For the VZ techs, will installing 4 more batteries double the run time and/or keep the data service up?

The only good news is that there's a switch to turn the audible alarm on and off!

If it's the same size batteries as the smaller BBU, they are very inexpensive. Around $14 each online. Since they are the same batteries my APC backups use. I get them in pairs for around $28 a pair. Last year I replaced a couple dozen of the APC batteries in my UPSs. And I also replaced my BBU battery. But when the FiOS power supply died, they replaced the power supply and put a new BBU in as well with a new battery so I got my battery back.

But I also have the FiOS BBU connected to my own UPS which gives me 16 to 18 hours of runtime before the ONT BBU will have to use it's own battery. I could remove the battery from the ONT BBU but I see no point since the batteries are so inexpensive. The last battery lasted five years. So $14 over five years is only 23 cents a month. If people can't afford that then they really should not even have cable TV or internet service.

danclan
join:2005-11-01
Midlothian, VA

danclan

Member

The larger issue here is that it's a change from the 100+ year old status quo. The Customer is now responsible for ensuring up time, whereas before the supplier was.

While not a huge deal in the big scheme it reflect a significant shift to your average consumer.

Could V have added a 2nd battery and doubled the up time? Sure but to what end. The average power outage was just under 3 hours in the US and is on the decline. The "super outages", those affecting 50,000 or more had a huge increase, but even those are very short lived and are back on the decline due to increased federal oversight.

Only special events (hurricane, tornado etc) warrant longer up time than the 8hrs they expect the single 12v batter to provide. You can argue that copper may be up after 8 hours as some suggest but it's typically on the same power as your home and even with generators it may be out as well due to damages infrastructure. Overall copper is more unreliable than fiber even if it is cheaper. And, in areas struck by infrastructure damage outages, fiber is far faster to restore due to fewer strands needed to supply service to many to be repaired.

I'd beat this horse some more but im all out of whips this week...

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926 to vee130

Member

to vee130

Re: Verizon FIOS Battery Backup

I skimmed through this so if the point is being repeated, I apologize.

The FiOS BBU battery has ALWAYS been the customers responsibility after one year, but the gray area is this: if someone has a regular , regulated phoneline (not digital voice) on FiOS, Verizon could be responsible for the battery. In NY, Ive heard that Verizon is regulated to provide at least 8 hours of battery backup for the phone service, whether its on copper or FiOS.

As an example, Verizon is migrating copper customers to FiOS, when they do this its NOT digital voice. (voice service only) Taxes and fee's are still the same, calling features, etc. Why would they be exempt from supplying 8 hours of Battery backup?

Now keep in mind, its not economical to keep a regulated phoneline over FioS, you will save a lot more on taxes and fee's by swithcing it to "digital voice" . These batteries can last as long as 6 years, thats like .25 cents a month for a new one. Set up a direct deposit savings account for your next battery.
hubrisnxs
join:2009-12-30
Fountain Valley, CA

hubrisnxs to vee130

Member

to vee130
ALLLL this heartache and raised blood pressure, over a $12 dollar battery huh?

smh

a1234b
@bellatlantic.com

a1234b to PoloDude

Anon

to PoloDude
said by PoloDude:

Again,why are the Cable Cos not held to the same standard?

It's called regulation - same reason POTS lines are taxed. Cable Cos are not regulated.
mets18
join:2008-10-15
Cranford, NJ

mets18 to aaronwt

Member

to aaronwt
said by aaronwt:

Put your cordless phones on their own back up. I've been doing this since the 90's. And been able to use my cordless phones during a power outage.

Or just buy a regular old corded phone for $10 and keep it handy.