Don’t Sign Up for FiOS

I’ve been a loyal FiOS customer for about a year and a half. I pay $69.99 a month for a 25/15 Mbps pipe. Aside from one absolutely miserable experience trying to speak to someone in billing who was able to update the expiration date on my credit card (it took four people, one of whom literally did not speak English, and about 45 minutes), I’ve been pretty happy. The connection is pretty reliable.

But then they randomly raised my rate from $69.99/month to $79.99/month. No idea why, no explanation given. Worse, if you visit their site, $69.99 is the rate advertised, with no fine print about $79.99/month. They just randomly jacked up my rate to see if they could.

So I just logged into my Verizon account, intent to do something about this. And lo and behold, I found this:

So there are actually two problems here. One is that the $69.99 plan — the one I signed up for and have been paying for all along — randomly jumped in price on me, but is still being sold. It’s not a case of the rate rising to meet inflation or something; it’s a case of them suddenly charging me more money for the same service. Second, this isn’t even accurate. It states that my plan is $74.99/month. It’s actually $79.99/month:

(My history actually goes back much further. In total, I’ve paid Verizon nearly $1,250.)

While scratching my head over this discrepancy and what could be going on, a Live Chat window popped up. Perfect, I thought!

They hung up on me:

So now I’ve gone from being a little confused about why my rate went up to being incensed. They’re overcharging me, and when I asked them about it, they disconnected.

More confusing still, when I went back and selected the 25/25 plan for $69.99, it implied that I was signing up for a one-year contract, when the drop-down on the page indicated I was viewing a month-to-month plan.

So I really like the fast 25 Mbps download speed, but I really can’t understand paying more than $70/month for Internet. RCN and Comcast both send me several offers in the mail, and can greatly undercut the prices Verizon is offering, albeit for slightly slower service. I think Verizon has just lost me as a customer.

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