How to save money with Verizon Fios

I have a sick hobby of spending hours on the phone and in digital chats with Verizon reps to get the best prices. I do this even for internet services that I do not use. Yes, that’s right. I manage other people’s Verizon internet services to get them low prices. I do this to torture myself, and to keep the pain of dealing with Verizon from reaching other humans. It helps me stay humble, and I hope those people that I protect are grateful. But I digress…

Let’s see how you can not get screwed by your Verizon plan, and continue with a reasonably priced plan long after the 1st year.

When you sign up for Fios, they have sweet deals for 12 months. Currently the prices are as follows:

As you can see, as of 6/26/2021:

200/200 is $39.99 (not incl. $15 / mo router rental)

400/400 is $59.99 (not incl $15 / mo router rental)

Gigabit is $79.99 (includes $15 / mo rental, so the price is more like $64.99)

*<warning>* the price jumps $40 or so after 12 months *</warning>*

Now, all these include the $10 auto-pay discount. You will also want to sign up for paperless billing, as they may slide in an extra charge for not doing so.

Sweet, not a bad deal. Let’s hop over to Cox and see there prices (these will be useful to have if you start arguing with Verizon over price and they won’t budge*)

Not pictured: Cox gigabit for $99.99/month

As you can see, Verizon prices are better than Cox XFinity. I actually have had bad luck with Cox XFinity just having lower quality service, so try to stick with Verizon, if the price points make sense

IF YOU ARE PAYING more than the above mentioned prices…you are getting screwed and owe it to yourself and your family to STAND UP against this mistreatment and FIGHT for your lower monthly fee!

Q & A

Q: What’s the easiest way to get the lowest Verizon prices?

A: Method 1: Start a new account. I’ve started multiple new accounts for the same service address over the years so that I can quickly and easily gain the New Account pricing. Know that this will cause a service interruption and it is not a fast process. I actually might recommend method 2:

• Method 2: Go on the online chat and plead your case for a lower price.

Q: What happens if they won’t budge on price:

• - Just know that it _is_ possible to get the low price that you see. You just might have to work for it for a little longer.
• - Try a different chat person.
• - Ask to speak to their manager
• - Send them screenshots of Cox plans and say you are going to switch, and thank them for their time. They will probably at this point offer you some sort of reason to stay, which hopefully will include the lower priced plan you are seeking
• - Tell them how long you’ve been a customer and how all you want is the price advertised on their website. Send them the price or a screenshot of the website to show them you are smart.

Q: When will Verizon try to screw you?

A: After the 1st year, and anytime you have a problem. After the 1st year, your contract price will bump up like $40 and you *need* to mark on your calendar a month or so in advance so you are ready for the onslaught of frustration. You *can* catch it before it happens and avoid the bump in price. But you must be diligent and ever-observant. Good luck grasshopper.

They will also screw you when you have a problem and need a service technician. They will either do one or all of:

• charge you a service call fee of like $100
• if you were using your own router, forget about it, your only solution to a problem is to now rent a router and pay $15 a month. It’s the quickest way to diagnose many problems — remove your custom equipment — I say suck it up, take their router, while you regroup and strategize how to regain your $15 / month savings on the router rental.
• They will upgrade your service, because your current service “isn’t even offered anymore” and “there’s no way it will work with modern devices”.
• - You can try to fight this, and say “well, ya know…I don’t really use it that much…just keep me on the old plan. Trust me, I’ll be fine. I’m an IT guy”
• - But often, you have to upgrade from whatever 5 or 10 year old plan speeds to the modern. BUT! Do check your bill on the next month. This is the purpose for this post…this happened to me…NOT ONLY did they NOT upgrade me (when they said they were going to, from 100 / 100 to at least 200/200), but they turned my $39.99 / month 100/100 service into OVER $120 a month for the SAME EXACT PLAN. They added a router rental. That was it. Here’s the bulk of the overcharge, obviously a System Error:

• if you are lucky, the problem is with their connection that is deep in your basement, in the far corner where no light has ever reached. They will find this dark abyss and fix the problem and will not charge you anything. The only “cost” is your time, frustration, and confusion as to how it was ever working when it was covered with so much dirt and grime.

Q: How do you recover from them screwing you over with a much higher price?

A: You *MUST* get on the phone or on the online chat and spend time fixing the issue. Sure, if you only end up saving $10 / month, that’s $120 / year, and maybe you are a high powered executive that makes $27,400 an hour and it’s not worth your time. But remember that you fight not just for you, but for all of us…remember the little guy…stay strong and do what’s right!

Q: Are you talking with a real person?

A: I think, at first, no you are not. But later, yes you are. Ex: every time you say “thank you” they will respond with a version of “it is my pleasure”. It’s fun to continue saying thank you and getting the various variations. Maybe you could challenge yourself and write your own Verizon support bot to mess with your friends. Use the auto-responses and see how intelligent you can make it. Give it a name, and nurture it until it becomes so close to a Real Human, you can’t tell the difference!

Q: Can you transfer account ownership?

You can, but remember a fresh account gets you an easy way to gain the new account prices and bundles without much arguing. Still, if you want to transfer ownership of your account, call this number ( I just picked up this from my chat rep, Lincoln. Thanks Lincoln, you get 5/5!! : )

> You can contact one of our specialists at 1–800–837–49 66 and ask for transferring the ownership of your account and they will do it for you right away.

Q: What if you have to talk to the finance department?

A: Yes, sometimes the chat agents cannot do it all. They will make notes on your account and then ask you to call their department open M-F 8–5PM (How dare they get weekends off?!)
Call 1–800–837–4966 or 844–837–2262 and that should get you there…