- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
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Oye. I'm a little... heated... right now.
Based on three factors, primarily this Hot Deal thread, and additionally the fact that I had VOL DSL last year at a different location, and because I'm suffering though dial-up right now, I decided to sign up for DSL again here.
When I signed up the first time, last year, it was under a month-by-month plan. As far as I understood, from reading here and elsewhere, VOL had stopped requiring yearly contracts, and was month-to-month now, period.
Well guess what I found. The UPS guy just dropped off the self-install kit, and I glanced at the "T&C" for the service. (How nice of them, to not provide the full text of them until you actually order the service. Good thing that the first month is basically a free trial.) It's a map-folded piece of paper, and I noticed down at the bottom, the code "Part #: DSL1YRAGR". Above it is "(c) 1998-2004 Verizon, All Right Reserved." and "Version: 0604". Guessing that the code stands for "DSL One Year Agreement", I decide to take a closer look. (The copyright being 2004 is also relevant too, and I wonder if "0604" means last revised 06/04?)
Along with the usual legal mumbo-jumbo, here is the juicy part (in CAPS in the printed version):
Follows is a paragraph mentioning a "termination fee waiver" exception, in the case that you discontinue service after 30 days, due to poor service and Verizon's inability to correct that poor service, and then:
So not only do they charge an early-termination fee for the contract, but they also charge an equipment fee if you fail to send the DSL modem back to them when terminating your service. (That's not new, but the fact that they also charge an $100 early-termination fee, over and above the $100 equipment-return failure fee, is new.)
Also, a few paragraphs down, I found this as well, regarding "Termination and/or Suspension by Verizon":
This runs completely contrary to what has been published in the online news, and in other online forums regarding the recent availability of "dry pair" or "naked" DSL. What that paragraph basically says is, if you order DSL, cancel your POTS service, then they have the right to cancel your DSL service out from under you too, and then hit you with the early-termination charge to boot!
I feel angry. I feel used. I feel fraudulently mislead by Verizon, they DID NOT state, during the online signup process, certainly at least not in any clearly-depicted way, that signing up for this service required a one-year contract. Nor did signing up for DSL service require a one-year contract last year.
These onerous T&Cs also seem to put a kabosh on my idea of getting DSL then cancelling POTS, based on reports of VOL offering "naked DSL" in MA. Altogether this is very, very, uncool.
Congratulations Verizon, you turned what should have been an easy new-customer experience into a a terrifying one. Way to make an impression.
Feel free to lock this mods if you must, I don't care. I posted this as a seperate thread rather than a reply to the existing Hot Deals VOL thread, because I thought that it would get more exposure broken out as a seperate topic, and not everyone reads all of the pages of some of the longer threads, as that one is. I felt that it was important that other potential customers swayed by that Hot Deal would not get mislead, as I (apparently) was. Thanks.
Based on three factors, primarily this Hot Deal thread, and additionally the fact that I had VOL DSL last year at a different location, and because I'm suffering though dial-up right now, I decided to sign up for DSL again here.
When I signed up the first time, last year, it was under a month-by-month plan. As far as I understood, from reading here and elsewhere, VOL had stopped requiring yearly contracts, and was month-to-month now, period.
Well guess what I found. The UPS guy just dropped off the self-install kit, and I glanced at the "T&C" for the service. (How nice of them, to not provide the full text of them until you actually order the service. Good thing that the first month is basically a free trial.) It's a map-folded piece of paper, and I noticed down at the bottom, the code "Part #: DSL1YRAGR". Above it is "(c) 1998-2004 Verizon, All Right Reserved." and "Version: 0604". Guessing that the code stands for "DSL One Year Agreement", I decide to take a closer look. (The copyright being 2004 is also relevant too, and I wonder if "0604" means last revised 06/04?)
Along with the usual legal mumbo-jumbo, here is the juicy part (in CAPS in the printed version):
Follows is a paragraph mentioning a "termination fee waiver" exception, in the case that you discontinue service after 30 days, due to poor service and Verizon's inability to correct that poor service, and then:
So not only do they charge an early-termination fee for the contract, but they also charge an equipment fee if you fail to send the DSL modem back to them when terminating your service. (That's not new, but the fact that they also charge an $100 early-termination fee, over and above the $100 equipment-return failure fee, is new.)
Also, a few paragraphs down, I found this as well, regarding "Termination and/or Suspension by Verizon":
This runs completely contrary to what has been published in the online news, and in other online forums regarding the recent availability of "dry pair" or "naked" DSL. What that paragraph basically says is, if you order DSL, cancel your POTS service, then they have the right to cancel your DSL service out from under you too, and then hit you with the early-termination charge to boot!
I feel angry. I feel used. I feel fraudulently mislead by Verizon, they DID NOT state, during the online signup process, certainly at least not in any clearly-depicted way, that signing up for this service required a one-year contract. Nor did signing up for DSL service require a one-year contract last year.
These onerous T&Cs also seem to put a kabosh on my idea of getting DSL then cancelling POTS, based on reports of VOL offering "naked DSL" in MA. Altogether this is very, very, uncool.
Congratulations Verizon, you turned what should have been an easy new-customer experience into a a terrifying one. Way to make an impression.
Feel free to lock this mods if you must, I don't care. I posted this as a seperate thread rather than a reply to the existing Hot Deals VOL thread, because I thought that it would get more exposure broken out as a seperate topic, and not everyone reads all of the pages of some of the longer threads, as that one is. I felt that it was important that other potential customers swayed by that Hot Deal would not get mislead, as I (apparently) was. Thanks.
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