GiftCardRescue Blog

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!