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[Sandra Grady]

I did file a complaint. I received an answering machine message stating the name of some guy and a phone number to call (corporate?) if I want, and also he said that somebody from local office will contact me in 48 hours.

Well that was quick; I just got a call from "Verizon's Executive Office" to let me know that they had received my BBB complaint and my case was being forwarded to an Escalation Manager. I expect the EM will pretend they've never heard of the Netlix streaming issue and will try to get me to open a support ticket. Not gonna happen; at this point all I want is Verizon to release me from my contract.

If you file a complaint directly with Verizon they have zero accountability fi they don;t get back to you. If you file with the FCC, FTC, BBB, and AG's office, it's a matter of public record and most companies will contact you and make an attempt to resolve the issue is good faith.

I love that Verizon continues to point its finger at Cogent when it's much more than Cogent that is being used to deliver content to Verizon Netflix subscribers. I see streams from mostly Level 3 but also from NTT as well. Cogent, Level 3, and NTT are all congested with Verizon. Centurylink/Savvis is used for Amazon. That also goes downhill in the early afternoon/evening.

The above listed transit providers are all Tier 1 - just like Verizon. They all have major congestion issues with Verizon. If I use one of my office's connection - Above.Net/Zayo - I don't have ANY issues with those providers even during peak hours. Verizon is just pretending to be a martyr while pointing its massive red finger at everyone else. This whole thing is a joke and a sham to get other tier 1s to pay Verizon.

At the end of the day, if you pay for Verizon internet, you're actually paying for the privilege to be the product, not the customer. Verizon is using all of its subscribers as leverage against other ISPs - including tier 1s - to extract as much money as possible from both ends. Verizon's peering is terrible. The only difference I see between Verizon and Cogent is that Verizon is significantly more expensive than Cogent.

Filed against :
Verizon Communications
P.O. Box 9688
Mission Hills CA 91346

Complaint Description:
Verizon FIOS service provides poor and/or unusable reception/viewing of Netflix content My contract for Verizon FIOS Internet service specifies a data rate which is far more than needed to receive Netflix content at full High Definition quality. However, during prime evening viewing hours Verizon degrades the overall speed of Netflix material to the point that it is unwatchable. This action by Verizon occurs across the USA and is well known and well documented on the Verizon FIOS forum. Verizon customers are looking for some way to get this problem resolved, either by allowing customers to cancel their current contracts at no penalty or by getting Verizon to stop degrading Netflix material.

Your Desired Resolution:
Verizon should either stop degrading Netflix transmissions or allow current customers to cancel their Verizon contract with no penalty.

This case will be reviewed by a complaint specialist at the Better Business Bureau, and then forwarded to the business for their response. It is our policy to allow the business 30 working days to respond to your complaint. You will be notified when the business has responded.

I received a call from Verizon a couple of hours ago in response to my BBB claim reply. The woman I spoke to was pleasant and professional and seemed to know more than she was willing to let on. As I expected, the conversation started with questions about whether I only have this problem with Netflix of whether I'm seeing the same issues with other streaming sites. I quickly pointed out that this is not a technical issue, explained that I have done lots of research and that the problem only happens during peak Netflix usage hours and never during off peak hours. I also pointed out that I have friends and family in close proximity to where I live and the ones who are Verizon customers are having the same issues I am and those who are Comcast customers do not have such issue.

I told her I resented being used as a pawn in Verizon's negotiations with Cogent and Netlix and I she couldn't assure me that the problem was going to be resolved within 30 days, that I wanted to be released from my 24 month contract. I also told her that I was only one of many, many Verizon customer who felt the same way and that Verizon stood to lose a large number of customers over this issue.

The final outcome is that Verizon will waive my early termination fees if I cancel my contract. No apologies, no "we're working on fixing the issue" no "we're sorry to be losing you as a long time customer",just another business as usual transaction. The updated BBB claim entry is as follows:

Time to start looking into Comcast options. I also have only a couple of months left on my 4 line Verizon Wireless contract, which, with 4 smart phones, data plan, etc., is now close to $250 per month. That's the next thing to go.

Bravo, good sir! I switched from VZW to T-Mobile two days ago and recently got out of my FiOS contract. I'm waiting to see what happens with COMCAST and TWC before I jump ship in regards to wireline. Until then, I am still a FiOS customer. VPNs help a lot with Verizon's terrible peering with half of the Tier 1s in the US.

This is exactly what I am going to do as well. If the issue isnt fixed by the end of the week, they will be releasing me from my contract for failure to supply what they are charging me for. Hi Comcast, Im sorry I ever left. And Comcast is a horrible company! Whats that say about Verizon?

I wouldn't hold my breath. Cogent is essentially offering to open addtional ports. The ports aren't needed on the Cogent side--they're needed on the Verizon side. Verizon's contention is that the Cogent / Verizon peering agreement is lopsided. Verizon is moving much more data from Cogent than they are sending to Cogent. Cogent essentially is offering addtional bandwidth to Verizon.

The issue before was that the big ISPs were ganging up on Netflix. Now that Comcast is delivering good Netflix speeds again, Netflix may decide to not do a similar deal with FIOS. The risk to FIOS is now there is another option for customes. Dump FIOS and go to Comcast.

What a shocker that Verizon has asked the shareholders to vote againts network neutrality, or curbing lobbying activity, or anything that might be benificial for the customer. As soon as Netflix cuts a deal with Verizon, speeds will change. Of couse, Verizon will blame Netflix, Netflix will blame Verizon, for the cost increase you, the customer, will have to pay.

After being extremely happy when I first moved from Time Warner Cable to FiOS, I never thought I'd say this but I'm actually missing TWC. Their cable box interface was really clunky but I wasn't nickeled and dimed on equipment and fees on my bill. The FiOS TV set top boxes used to have a great interface and now I'm being spammed ads in the guide and it won't turn off the interactive TV feature up-sell promos. The VOD almost always becomes unavailable between midnight and 3am and Verizon hasn't done anything to ensure content can be updated from providers without VOD cutting out.

Then there's the internet. I must live in a great area, but in the year and a half I only had one TWC internet service interruption and that was caused by a drunk driver hitting one of their distribution boxes. FiOS on the other hand regularly goes out for 15 to 45 minutes in the middle of the night about once every week or two. And now the Netflix issues.

I'm paying a ton of money for FiOS services, I'm paying Netflix, and now Verizon wants to also get money from Netflix? In evenings many times I can't connect in the last couple weeks and when I can, the streaming quality is the lower rate SD content instead of HD. Multiple players can barely do 480P SD streams over Verizon. But if I route my connection over a VPN into other family's cable internet connection and back out onto the internet (also over their connection)... perfect Netflix Super HD streaming. I can actually get better and more consistent HD streams using a 4G WiFi hotspot on T-Mobile than I can through my FiOS connection.

Apparently calling tech support will do nothing except the basic troubleshooting, blame Netflix, contact Netflix, them blame Verizon (and rightly so), ad nauseam. And the multiple threads in this forum and reps likely aren't able to assist much. So my recommendation is write a letter to the FCC. Verizon wants to screw their customers over and double-dip trying to get money from both sides then I think some additional regulation might (unfortunately) be the best bet.

It was posted on one of the other Netflix threads in the FiOS forum. While this is good news in the short term, it sets a horrible precident with far reaching implications regarding the future of the free internet as we currently know it.

I can imagine all sorts of worse case scenarios where ISPs get to make decisions on which sites you can access based on thier own revenue extortion schemes. Whiile this first round of tolls revolves around video streaming, I wouldn't be surprized to see it happen for anything with potential for addtional ISP revenue; Too many ISP users using Google to search the net? No problem, the ISP can cripple Google access and start backmailing them to pay if they want the ISP's customers to be able reach them reliably.

I have a grandfathered Unlimited Data plan and this is the burning question every Verizon Rep spits at me like a Velociraptor whenever I speak to them about upgrading a phone, cancelling service, just ask a question, etc etc.

I am wondering if the general public knows how much data they actually use a month. I know how much I average a month, about 10GB according to Verizons account analysis from the last 6 months, but remember, this is an average, not my actual usage a month. 1 month I may only use 4 or 5GB, another month I may use over 20GB.

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