How to spoil a movie night in one easy step.
Last night, my wife and I decided to watch a movie using Verizon FiOS TV’s video-on-demand (VOD) feature. About an hour into the movie, the audio started breaking up and the video started pixelating. Then this error message appeared:
“Error
A problem has occurred with your request. Please ensure that the wires are securely connected to your set-top box. If you continue to experience problems please contact Verizon at (888)553-1555 and specify code (CL-14).”
Yes, happy Valentine’s Day to you too, Verizon. My wife had fallen asleep on the sofa, so I put on some soft music and used the opportunity to help Verizon debug their problem. I’m such a nice consumer.
Incidentally, in the old days, area codes were optional for local calls, which is why they were put in parenthesis. Most area codes are no longer optional, and toll-free area codes never were, so let’s all agree never ever to put area codes in parenthesis again. Mmm-kay?
I called Verizon and waited 18 minutes on hold before getting to speak to somebody. While on hold, I did what every TV consumer would do in the same situation. (No, not go to the bathroom.) I went to the basement, restarted the broadband router (being sure to leave it off for about 20 seconds), came back upstairs, restarted the cable box (ditto), and tried to access VOD again. No luck, same error message. One variant of the error message simply referred to “Error 14” and didn’t include a phone number.
Guess what the Verizon representative suggested? Yup, restarting the router and cable box. So we did, same results.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
– Albert Einstein
At this point, my romantic Valentine’s Day evening was toast. Maybe the V-Day Blizzard of ’07 had knocked out a Verizon server? Maybe VOD was getting hammered by all the romantic couples in New England? I asked the Verizon rep where he was. California.
I was on the phone with Verizon for 55 minutes and they were not able to solve the problem. We verified that FiOS Internet service worked fine, Verizon TV worked fine, everything worked except VOD. Sounds like a Verizon VOD server issue to me. Or maybe I was just imagining the problem. Could be either.
I had to ask the rep what Verizon was going to do to make this very patient customer whole. (Hint #1: good companies take the initiative to make their customers happy and actually have their own ideas about how to do this. Hint #2: keeping customers on the phone for 55 minutes to debug a 2-hour movie and then offering no compensation isn’t one of those good ideas.) He asked me to call back and check on the trouble ticket. After my prompting, he said that he’d ask his supervisor about giving a week of service credit (whatever that means). I explained that I had invested 55 minutes of my life on this and was not investing any more time. I said that they could email me to close out the matter. The Verizon rep said he had no means to send email to me. (They should try Verizon FiOS Internet service in California.) “Humor me,” I said, “and enter my email address in the file.” He did. I’m not holding my breath.
Verizon is making Apple TV look better every day.
lee…have u tried to connect the dvr to another tv?It may not be the boxes at all..could be a bad coax going to the box…let me know..on your tv with the dvr …make sure there is no splitter on the coax cable..it should have its own run ..sorry about the exaggeration..just seems odd all those boxes are crapping out..also just so u know u can go onto the verizon.com and test the boxes urself..instead of staying on hold..its easy..let me know
Steven-
Have three boxes in the house. Only one with DVR. The DVR box as of my post on June 20th was replaced 4 times. Today – yes TODAY – I have already spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon to get – yes – another replacement.
Why? Well this morning, I could not change channels on the box. Guide displayed and worked fine but could not change to a different channel. Also noticed the red “record” light was on. Looked to see what was recording and there was nothing being recorded.
Tried to reset the box by powering it off. Came back on and could change channels. However, ALL OF MY PREVIOUS RECORDINGS WERE GONE!!!
All of my future series recordings were gone also. DVR showed ZERO recordings, 48% full. This is the SECOND time on a SECOND box that this has happened. Last time, I reentered all of my series recordings and about a week later they disappeared again. That was 2 boxes ago…
When I called Verizon this monring they did a “factory reset” which they said takes about an hour. Well, an hour later – no picture – box just comes on with a “0” in the display. As I am writing this, I am on hold once again trying to contact them.
Exaggeration? NO!!!!
By the way, also have internet service with them and it is EXCELLENT!!! Have never had a problem at all…
lee…jusy was wondering what boxes did you change?? was it every box that gave you trouble or just one specific tv?? pls explain..would like to know which box you have.I have heard of some boxes bad but you really have bad luck with four boxes….is the internet working good??/ has to be more to it unless ur exaggerating
ed… all you need is a splitter that you can do yourself and run the coax to your tv in basrement.Verizon just went all digital so you will need a digital adaptor which verizon gives for free and you get all the channels in your subscription(lets see cable do that).call 1888 go digital
Chuck, if the alarm worked before fios was installed, it should work after. That’s just good service and common sense. Should’ve went with Comcast.
FiOS FiOS FiOS. Everyone is so ready and quick to tear up this new technology(to the home user it’s new). People need to RELAX, and let the kinks get worked out. I’ve had the FiOS for just about 2 years now. I’ve got the TV, Internet and phone. Yes, I have had my fair share of problems, but Verizon has always made good with me. I’ve had bills credited, several times. People, please learn to talk to the support teams. Don’t scream… It gets you nowhere, and certainly doesn’t fix your service problems 😛 Someone above said, “A technology that grew far too fast for Verizon to keep up with….” Exactly. It’s aweome stuff.. They will get it right. It blows away cable. Cable is JUNK compared to FiOS. We need to be patient.
As far as people not getting the TV…. Call them. Calmly tell them that you haven’t received your TV. They will work with you. Some people have opted for the BesBUY gift card. I waited, and received my TV. Took about 4 months, but I got it. I love my FiOS. I like to put it on my toast in the morning. It’s the best. I’ve got ZERO complaints about it. Awesome picture, awesome speeds, unbeatable deal. I just think that people like to complain too much. Some guys Valentine’s Day was wrecked because of FiOS??? HHAHAHAHAHA… Cheap squat!!! You should have taken your wife out instead of staying in and watching a $3.99 movie.. You deserved it!! hahahhaa Waaaahhh!! Sniff sniff… Things could be worse pal.
RIDE THE LIGHT!!!
Junk, junk, junk…
Will spare you all the details. Suffice it to say, I am in the process of trying to get my box replaced for the fifth time in less than four months. Each time it takes about 2 1/2 hours on the phone to get through and convince them it is a problem. I now have had 4 different boxes – all of which have had problems. By the way, when they “replace” the box, you get someone elses used one. Easy to tell. Their recordings are still on the box!!!
Main issues (not all inclusive): picture breaks up, system “freeze”, try to view recorded program causes box to freeze and removes all recordings, system reboots itself at random times in the middle of watching recordings, sound out of sync with picture, recorded programs just stop in the middle even though they are recorded for the full time, etc. etc. etc.
NOTE: I have had 4 different boxes at this point. Chances that I just got “bad ones”?????
This system is junk. Avoid at all costs!!!!
I want to hook up a tv in my basement like I use to with comcast cable but found out that ever since I got Verizon fios installed I have not been able to do this. Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Thanks!
shannon..the comment i left for russ was for you with the guide info..let me know what you see behind your router
brad…you should have it in writing about the free tv.they sent out a letter when my neighbors got it.and yes it took along time because they ran out…they usually live up to their promises but it does take awhile.I wiould call them again if you have the contract