Verizon Commits Fraud?

So the definition of Fraud from Wikipedia is: “In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain.”  Lets review how much Verizon is doing this to its customers (at least me).

Back in February as I’m sure most of you know by my previous “Comcast Blows” posting I decided to move away from Comcast due to poor service and go over to Verizon.  At that time FIOS had just come into the neighborhood so I decided to sign up for their bundle package of TV, Internet, and Phone for the next year to try it out.  Here is the kicker, Verizon did not have FIOS TV available in my area yet (due to a license agreement from what they told me) so they offered DirecTv.  Now explicitly asked for only a 1 year contract as Jess and I are looking to move soon and therefore did not want to be locked into anything more then 1 year.  I asked repeatedly to the representative if this was a 1 year contract and was told that without a doubt it was a 1 year contract.

Now I’m not going to get into all the other problems I have had with Verizon / DirecTV but due to some billing problems (charging us too much, which to be honest, they still haven’t been able to get the amount they quoted me on my bill yet and its been four months) we discovered we had been signed up for a 2 year contract because we have a DVR.  DirecTv told me its is not their fault to which I don’t really agree because if someone is certified by you to sell your product and they promise me something and I sign a contract and don’t get what I was told, is it not breech of promise or fraud?  They told me I would get one thing, and I got another?  To which I was told “well if you read the small print on the back of the contract you signed when we installed your service you would see their is a clause for the DVR being a 2 year contract”… Um I asked if it was everything I had discussed with the person and was told yes… So I guess we should run a business where we tell someone one thing, but write a contract for something different?  Well back to Verizon.

I called Verizon after DirecTV said I was SOL and spoke with a supervisor who informed me sucks to be me (not in those terms).  Not only did I get a two year contract with DirecTV because I had a DVR but I also got a two year contract with FIOS… WTF?  I asked her to credit me the fees and she informed me that they couldn’t.  I told her this is what I was told and this is what I expect to get, and your mis-representing yourself and was informed “I don’t know what you were told so I can’t say” so I asked them to pull up their recording of the call and of course I got “We don’t record calls, we only monitor for QA”.  To those of you who don’t know that translates to: “This way we are not liable for when we promise you something and you don’t get it”.

So where is the personal gain that something must have in order to be considered fraud you might ask?  How about the $176 for me to cancel my service with Verizon (early cancellation) followed by the $350 for me to cancel my service with DirecTV (early cancellation estimate)…  That’s a gain for them which means FRAUD in my opinion.  I would love to hear other peoples thoughts.

Also before you start commenting about how it is just lack of training.  I would tend to agree except for the fact that you shouldn’t be putting people out to sell stuff if they don’t know what they are selling and are promising things that are WRONG.