Verizon FiOS’ Gift Card scam should be investigated
For those of you who read this blog regularly, you are probably aware that I have been following this story closely as soon as it became evident that this Verizon FiOS gift card deal I posted back in March 2008 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
As I explained in this follow-up piece, Verizon FiOS advertised a deal, promising customers a $200 Circuit City, Best Buy, American Express or some other gift card if they signed up for a specific package. A lot of customers signed up believing that Verizon FiOS will send them their gift card a couple of weeks later. That did not happen for some people and as you can see from comments posted here and here, Verizon FiOS is trying to get away with not honoring their promise.
Some customers have spent hours on the phone with Verizon FiOS customer service (who by the way, have either been trained to deny the promotion ever existed, or have been told to make-up additional, undisclosed requirements about the promotion, or are simply incompetent and unhelpful) trying to get their gift card only to be given the run-around. While a few have been able to extract some concessions from Verizon FiOS, it appears a majority of aggrieved customers have received nothing.
It does appear that Verizon FiOS thinks they can get away with this. My advice for affected customers is to file a claim with your state’s Attorney Generals office. If enough people complain, the Attorney General will be forced to act. In addition to filing a claim with your state’s Attorney General’s office, I suggest you all file a claim with the New York State Attorney General’s office. Why file a claim with the New York State Attorney General’s office? Because they are more likely to do something about it. As I mentioned in this article, I was once a victim of an internet scam with an online magazine retailer and even though I do not live in the state of NY, I filed a claim with the NY Attorney General’s office and sure enough, they acted on it and I got my money ($30) back. According to this page, Verizon FiOS is expanding like crazy in NY State so they will be more likely to take action if they get a call from Attorney General Cuomo’s office.
So, while sharing your stories on this blog is a good starting point, I encourage you all to take it a step further and make sure Verizon FiOS does not get away with this. Please come back and share any action you’ve taken and what the results have been. All the best!
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Verizon Wireless just got removed from giftzip.com . Not sure they have much to do with FiOS, but I know they are sold in bundles. Not honoring gift cards is bad business and hopefully they will learn their lesson.
I have an opposite problem. I ordered FiOS, found everything in pricing and contract to be a lie so canceled within two days—even before installed. Two months later I recieved the gift card promised. Unfortnatly, it has my name on it. Any ideas as to whether or not if I use it I will be secretly signing up for the service or agreeing to the service?
a $200 Circuit City is pretty worthless right now … I would be wary of any gift cards in this economy as you really never know when a company will file for bankruptcy. And then you are stuck with this gift card.
We got our $150 Visa rebate / gift card.
I’m sure the problems had nothing to do with intentional misleading by the company. Don’t attribute company malice to what is likely stupidity on the part of customer service.
i got my 150 dollar visa gift card for signing up with verizon fios
So far I did not encounter any problems with them, I even got a new laptop…for ordering online
I received my $150 gift card…
I had FIOS installed 2 1/2 months ago with a $75 gift card as part of the package. I rec’d a postcard from Verizon with username and password to use to check the status of my “reward” which would be issued in 60-90 days if payments were made on time. I’ve checked each month and now it’s been about 75 days so I checked again and now get a message stating my reward has been “cancelled”. I called Verizon and wouldn’t you know it their computers are down and they can’t check into it. If other people are experiencing the same problems I think a class action lawsuit should be filed against Verizon for fraud. I’m so tired of these companies getting away with lying, cheating and defrauding consumers. It really has to stop.
I justed signed up with verizon FIOS just a couple of weeks ago. They had a guy put flyers around our building for the new customers stating $250 gift cards will be rewarded. I applied with directions but submitted it twice accidently. Both actually went through and is “scheduled for final processing”.
I’ll give this a month or two and await patiently for that letter they are going to send.
I signed up for Fios beginning of June and just got my 250$ dollars in my choice of gift cards in the mail. Worked for me, and Im happy with the service.