Is Verizon beating people out of their money ?

Is Verizon beating people out of their money ?
2011-07-14
dmvblogspot.bloggieblog.com
Staff Writter

Howard County government top boss feels Verizon sales efforts are in question.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced today that the County’s Office of Consumer Affairs is investigating telephone sales practices employed by Verizon in selling bundled television, internet and telephone service. The inquiry was launched after the Office received several consumer complaints.

Ulman is urging residents to exhibit caution when purchasing packaged services through a telephone solicitation. “Verizon and other providers advertise all the bells and whistles of their new technologies, but the information they convey and how it’s marketed makes it incredibly complicated for consumers to purchase only the programs and services they actually want and need,” said Ulman.

Rebecca Bowman, Administrator of the Office of Consumer Affairs, advises consumers to “take detailed notes while talking with sales agents about the options being offered.” Verizon offers “bundles” of up to four services (TV, internet, land-line telephone and wireless telephone), as well as a number of packages and options to choose from. “That is a lot of information to keep track of,” said Bowman.

According to the Office of Consumer Affairs, telephone sales representatives usually start by running consumers through the myriad of bundles and options available. These bundles may sound simple at first but when the sales rep gets into the details, consumers can easily become confused. For example, when discussing the TV portion of a bundle, consumers may find that the price option that fits their budget has a limited selection of channels included. When consumers ask about the inclusion of specific channels, they are often told that select channels cannot be added ‘a la carte’ and that they will have to upgrade to a more expensive bundle that includes a number of other channels they are not interested in purchasing. If consumers balk, they may be told they can stay with the original bundle but add-on a specialized package, for example a sports package, with a different group of extra channels. Consumers who appear reluctant may be offered a special discount to help of! fset the extra cost.

http://dmvblogspot.bloggieblog.com/4303/4303.html
tags: howard county government,verizon,

Posted via email from streetroachpics' posterous