Liveblogging FIOS Hell

I recently purchased the FIOS triple play - that's cable, phone, and Internet service. I ordered and installed it in my recently purchased home. The service has been awesome.

The customer service and billing has been anything but.

In fact, it's beyond awful.

Triple play is supposed to be billed on a single form.

Instead, I received a bill for local phone, and then discovered that I had been charged for the full amount of the Triple Play on my American Express card.

I first started calling Verizon to fix the billing when I found that the local phone was overcharging. I then checked my American Express billing online and discovered that I was billed.

I was double billed.

I called Verizon. No one in customer service has a clue as to what is going on. I get into transfer hell - from Texas to Ohio to finally New Jersey. I was on the phone with them yesterday for a half hour before they finally realized that they couldn't do anything because the billing service they needed to access was closed yesterday.

Before that, I was on the phone for several hours with Verizon trying to get this sorted out and they couldn't help. I get lots of elevator music and interminable holds.

Right now, I'm on hold. The latest customer service rep is looking at my account. I'm sure she too will have no clue what is going on and will place me on hold to get a supervisor. It's a merry-go-round of cluelessness and ineptitude.

This should be a simple issue to resolve. I ordered and paid for the FIOS Triple Play. I know what that amount is - $141.38 - the amount for the three services, two settop boxes, and taxes and fees.

They are double billing for the local phone. Eliminate that bill.

But no. No one has a frickin' clue. They don't understand how my bill works or whether I have FIOS service despite my telling them I was billed for it.

So I wait on hold.

Mrs. Lawhawk has mentioned that Verizon now has a new offer for a free LCD with the Triple Play service. I think that's reasonable compensation for my time and effort to fix Verizon's massive screwup on their billing.

UPDATE:
Now they're telling me that credits for the Triple Play weren't being applied properly and I should continue to hold. Right.

When waiting on hold simply wont do, blog the experience. I still want to know how and why my AMEX card got charged, and why I haven't received a paper bill for my FIOS service, but that's tough to do when I'm on hold with nothing but a static filled line.

UPDATE:
Is it possible that the billing nightmare is about to come to a close? We'll see. The latest customer service rep has said that they moved all the service billings to one paper bill, eliminated the future charges to AMEX unless I sign up for that particular service, that I'll receive a credit for the double billing, and that future payments for the service shouldn't be more than $117.

On top of that, for my trouble, I was able to get a $75 American Express gift certificate.

I had asked for the TV, but I'll take the gift certificate as a reasonable gesture for my time and effort to fix this. That said, if I have to revisit this mess next month, the gift certificate will be insufficient.

UPDATE:
Total time on most recent call: 1 hour.
Overall time spent on dealing with billing: 5 hours.

UPDATE:
Going FiOS might be worth it if this is at the end of the spectrum.