I’ve sang the praises of Verizon, especially relative to Comcast, but now I’m peeved. My two-year service contract for Verizon Triple Play has expired and now I need/want a month-to-month contract. However, I’ve been told that because I’m an existing customer, I’m only eligible for a two year contract. If I were a new customer, I could get a month to month plan. Or, apparently I can cancel my current service and get new month to month service under the name (and credit) of a different household member. This might even work if I just cancel and then call to get new service myself an hour later. I don’t think I need to enumerate all the ways this is idiotic.
UPDATE: It turns out that I can continue my old plan month-to-month at a somewhat higher rate than I had previously. This wouldn’t bother me except that when Verizon asked me online, after I had signed in to my account, whether I wanted to check what plans were available for me, it showed me a plan that was the same as the one I have but twenty dollars a month cheaper and didn’t require a long-term contract. But when I clicked on “order this plan,” the page instead took me to plans that did require two year contracts. I don’t know if this is a bait-and-switch, a hope that folks won’t notice that a different plan comes up than the one they clicked on, or just programming incompetence, but it left my irritated when I inquired why the plan I was shown isn’t actually available to me, and was told that those with prior two-year contracts are not eligible for it.