Updated: Verizon Raising Rates $15 A Month For FiOS, Here Come The Cancellations

I've been a customer of Verizon's FIOS service for more than five years and I've written a lot of posts here on the blog talking about how just good their Internet and TV service is. As good as it may be, in today's fragile economy, cable TV is a luxury for many people. The economy isn't great right now and consumers are trying to save money whenever possible and cancelling cable or downgrading their service to a lower tier is one of the many options they look at to save costs.

But apparently Verizon seems to think the economy is great right now and has decided it's time to raise rates by $15 a month. For my triple play bundle, the price is jumping from $95.99 a month to $109.99 a month. Verizon isn't offering any extra bump in speed for that price and in fact, when I called the company, they suggested I could keep the price I currently pay by downgrading my Internet speed from 25Mbps to 15Mbps. What a crappy sales pitch. So Verizon is basically saying that my rates don't have to go up, but I can now only get about half the speed I use to, for the same price I have always been paying. This is Verizon's best sales pitch? This is how they value customers who have been with them for years?

When companies make really bad mistakes like this, at a time when the economy is doing so poorly, you really have to wonder how the execs who make these decisions get to keep their jobs when they are so out of touch with the market. I guarantee that plenty of Verizon customers are going to cancel their service and switch to someone cheaper or downgrade their service and pay Verizon less each month. It's one thing to raise rates by $5 a month, but to raise them by $15 a month, that's simply bad business and it's going to come back to bite Verizon you know where.

I use to tell people all the time how good Verizon is, how they should use FiOS and that cable was really no alternative. But when Verizon thinks they can raise rates by $15 a month, and only guarantee that rate for one year, not two, they can no longer be trusted.

Update: Someone suggested I try calling a supervisor, which is always a good idea. So I called back to speak to one, but after waiting on hold for 2 hours and 9 minutes, I hung up.

Update 2: I called Verizon the next day and complained about the rate increase and they gave me a $5.99 credit each month. So at least now the rate increase is only $9 a month instead of $15 a month.

Comments

[Rob Sandie]

They were the new good guys too! Who can still be trusted in the cable industry?

[Jared]

Consider yourself lucky that you're not stuck paying $145/mo for a Time Warner Double Play Package that's 10mbps slower... I'm still waiting for FiOS :-/

[Steve Lerner]

FIOS cancellation is only $200- you can cancel and it only costs two months of service...

[Marty From North Dakota]

Get used to it. To pay for endless wars, government prints money leading to price inflation. This is just the beginning. $1.6 Trillion in new debt just this last year. Audit the Fed, then End the Fed: Ron Paul

[ken goodhue]

I just sent them this letter...
We are in receipt of your undated letter this month, advising that our pricing will be going up to $109.99, effective for one year. (So I guess next year you will raise it again).

You have got to be kidding, right? In the mail, the same day we received your undated form letter, we receive a solicitation in the mail from “Deirdre Robinson” from Verizon, advising that we can get the triple bundle for $79.99 for a year, with a free set top box for life, if we are a new customer.

Isn’t that really wonderful for the new customers! We, a loyal Verizon customer for years, get screwed.. And the new customers get treated like gold. So I guess all the old customers will be paying for the discount for the new customers. Do you think we are complete idiots?

So you treat your old customers like crap, thinking we will just continue to pay more and more every year.

I’m sure we won’t receive a response to this letter, because obviously, Verizon doesn’t care about their loyal customers.

We are giving it one week from the date of this letter to get some sort of rectification from Verizon, or we will be forced to move over to Optimum. Maybe we should put it on blast and start a facebook page letting everyone know how Verizon screws their loyal customers. (One year discount or not, you shouldn’t be raising prices in this economy.)

[Adam]

That’s a pretty big price increase. I have seen $4 or $5 rate increases from just about every company, but $15 is getting out of hand. I am happy I switched to my current provider/employer DISH Network. When I signed up they locked in my rate until 2013. That gave me 2 full years without worrying about a price increase! After shopping around I found that their every day prices were the best around, easily beating Fios. I can’t believe how pricey they are and they are going to raise some more?

[WLS]

They should invest more in client retention, and charge the higher rates for new subscribers.

[Save your $$]

turn off the tv.. get smart save money..