| Changed out bad box now I have to pay more O.K. so heres my story; I've been a customer of Verizon for 4 years now. Signed up in 2008 with a "triple bundle". I have been mostly satisfied except for the occasional billing squabble (like the reason for this post) and have not tweaked my service much.
I have 4 STB's connected. An HD DVR, an HD box, and two SD boxes. The two HD boxes share content, the service is called Multi-room DVR package-2 room. I have had this configuration from the start four years ago.
I have been paying $230 a month for the last year. My HD DVR started to fail so I thought I'd bring it in for replacement. I also had a SD box sitting in the closet that I have had for four years and never set up (I know, pretty stupid to be charged all that time, but I knida forgot about it) so I brought that in.
My thinking was; I'd swap HD DVR boxes, and turn in the SD box and my monthly rate would drop because I would no longer be charged for the SD box. Well as you might have guessed, that would have been far too easy.
I returned home and found a bill in my email inbox that indicated that my estimated monthly charges would now be $241. What is that all about? Not only did my bill not go down it went up! I just wanted to exchange the box that quit working for a box that did work, and now I will pay more!
6 days ago I looked at my "plan" and here are the STB details:
STB (1) $9.99
SD STB (3) $14.97
Multi Room DVR $19.99
The email I received indicates the following:
These are the recent updates to your account:
New High Definition DVR rental $16.99
Remove 3 set Top Box rentals
New Multi-Room DVR Package-2 Room $27.99
Remove Multi-Room DVR-High Definition
Remove HD Set Top Box rental
So now I am completely confused about what I am renting and what I am paying for. According to the email I will no longer be charged for the 3 STB's but now the HD DVR with 2-Room capabilities will now cost pretty much what I was being charged before.
Why does have to be this ridiculous? I wanted a box that worked and I wanted to return a box that I was being charged for that I diodnt use to save money and somehow I'm now going to have to pay more.
The CEO of Verizon made $26 million last year, does he really need more of my money?
This is to say nothing of the 3 digital converters I received when I signed up that I was told I would not be charged for that find their way back to billing from time to time, prompting an aggravating phone call each time. |
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| Couple of things. Did you call tech support before returning the defective box? If not, that may be part of the problem. Then they have discounts for bundles boxes, so maybe by eliminating one you raised your price due to loss of bundle pricing.
In my experience, in order to avoid new charges for broken boxes I call tech support and they have me go thru some pointless testing and then approve a replacement, which they mail to me. Then I can mail the broken one back or return it to my local store. But just walking into the store and leaving boxes can result in confusion.
And also, it takes them about 2 weeks to get the boxes sorted out, so an initial letter isn't binding.
Check your account online, go to where they show number of boxes you have and see if that's correct. If so, wait a few days and call to have your account adjusted. And hold on to the receipt the store gave you for the returns just in case you need proof. |
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| Thanks for the reply.
Your thoughts are along the lines of what I was thinking, but for goodness sakes, the best we can expect is confusion when entering the Verizon bricks and mortar store with a broken Verizon component?
I waited an hour in the store to be helped. I find it funny that people have seriously bad attitudes about the post office and exalt private companies, but I've gotta say that an hour at their store was way longer than I've ever had to wait in a post office.
I dont know how much longer I'll put up with Verizon. I've been a good customer and every experience I've had in dealing with Verizon "customer service" has left me seriouslt not happy.
No joy |
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| reply to rocks911
I had a similar problem when I renewed a few months back. The plan was to get my outdated standard definition boxes on the free plan. I was OK using the old boxes on some of my TV’s. The renewal agent said I would need to exchange my three 2500-3 boxes and pick up the same units coded to be free. When I got to the store they said we don’t carry the 2500 and gave me the new black boxes. I’m thinking that’s cool with me, I got the new energy efficient boxes and all HD to boot…. Wrong. A few calls later I managed to get three free HD boxes plus the free MDVR for life. The HD boxes are only free for two years. I’m not too concerned as I plan on going with the Ceton Q and Echo when my contract expires in 2014. Bottom line when dealing with Verizon is don’t trust anything they tell you, get it in writing! |
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