Ex-Uverse customer not happy with being a new Fios customer

Question

We just had our Fios Triple installed on Saturday 9/30/13. I was a very happy Uverse customer.  We moved to Verizon territory and we wanted something similar so we chose Verizon vs Direct TV and Charter Cable.  Verizon Fios is far inferior to my experience with AT&T Uverse. It wasn't just one person but the whole experience. I never called AT&T's customer service in the years we had it. We had no problems. I just got off the phone for the sixth time since our install and  it hasn't been a week yet. 
Issue 1) Installer called at 8:30am to tell us he needs to come earlier than our 10am-3pm appointment. I explained we were moving and was signing the lease at 9am that is why we set a 10am-3pm appointment so we would have the key, TVs and phone in our place ready for the install. The installer said well he was scheduled for 2 appointments during that time frame so he doesn't know if he could make it at all if he doesn't come now. I told him it was ok to come after 3pm but please call and let us know since we are moving in. I thought about the situation and as a former dispatcher myself, I knew we shouldn't have gotten that call. I called customer service to let them know installer might not be able to show at all and gave them heads up. We got a call back from the installer telling us he will keep the set appointment time. He showed at 1pm
Issue 2) The installer showed with a bad attitude. Our place was already set up for Fios. The previous resident had it installed so it shouldn't have been a hard job. He was complaining he needed to drill a hole to install the Router in the living room.  I told him no problem the hole can be covered with the TV and furniture. There was only one wall that the TV could go on so I asked what was the alternative outside of canceling the order. He placed a small hole next to the Verizon box so I wasn't sure what his issue was. It was obvious he didn't want to come to work that day. He took what I thought a long time to set up DVR, Set Top Box,router and phone. I tried hard not to compare AT&T installer to Verizon installer because people have different personalities. This installer wasn't friendly and AT&T went out of his way to tell us what he was doing, gave us feedback and walked us through all three. To put the icing on the cake, he left a nice sheet with our new phone number, att.net email, Uverse URL, wireless network connection name and key and if we had any questions in the next few days, we could call him directly since he was familiar with our set up. The Verizon installer went over the remote and left the channel line up brochure. He told us if you need the wireless network connection info for the devices,  the numbers are on the back of the modem. (Do you know how many numbers are on the back of the modem???) I know how to find the numbers but my husband didn't so I had to tell him which ones.
Issue 3) After the install we went back to the old house and got more stuff to move. My husband said he wanted to record Homeland on Showtime can I do it from my phone like I did with Uverse. It took me 1 hour to figure it out because the website wasn't mobile so it wasn't working. I had to download 3 apps to figure out which one to use. I was so proud that I figured it out. It wasn't intuitive and it confirmed I had scheduled the recording. Monday morning I'm in front of the DVR to check my scheduled recordings. Homeland was there but didn't play. Called customer service..They said you have the Extreme HD. You need Ultimate HD. I told them I'm a customer and the names mean nothing to me. I wanted the package that had Showtime but didn't need HBO. When I placed the order originally, I told the sales agent I wanted a similar package to what we had with Uverse. I mentioned we watch Lifetime, Showtime, the Movie Channel and sports but we were going to suck it up that Uverse got Pac 12 channel last week and Fios doesn't have it. I pulled out the channel brochure and saw that there are no movie channels with the Extreme package. I think of 2 errors-1) Give us the channels we want and 2) Why was I able to appear to record from a channel we didn't subscribe to but I was made aware of the 3rd error when the new agent was confirming my order. The price for more channels was cheaper!!! Now I'm not happy at all!!!
Issue 4) I had to look up the phone number on my account. It wasn't in the confirmation email order and of course I had to call customer service once again to get full access to my account online because the call never came through with my full access activation code. I got the code and went to set up my voice mail. I couldn't. I called customer service again and was told I didn't have a voice mail box set up on the server. I asked why. The tech said it wasn't on the order so we didn't now you wanted it. I asked is there an extra charge doesn't it come with Fios voice he said yes then I asked why isn't it just set up. He said how are we suppose to know you want it!!! I've been ordering landlines and cell phones since the 70's. I've never had to tell anyone I want voice mail. All I had to do was set it up.He said well I'll add it and it could take up to 24 hours before you can set it up. 
Issue 5) I record Scandal and schedule to record on all types since we have HD in the living room and SD in the bedroom. We decide to watch half in the living room and the other half in the bedroom. You know the problem there.. CAN'T. I'm still frustrated with Verizon but haven't reached the boiling point until...I can't record  on Monday night The Voice and Dancing With the Stars at the same time at 8pm and Hostages and Black List at 10pm. I see 8pm shows recording as the same time as the 10pm because the networks end the shows at 10:01pm. I said well lets see if in the future one of the shows are on Video On Demand. Click on VOD and it says Temporarily Unavailable. SERIOUSLY!!!! I call customer service. I get a tech. He transfers me to a sales agent to make sure I have VOD in my package. She gets an ear full  of my problems and gives me a $20 discount per month for 12 months. I didn't boil over..Still frustrated but appreciated that finally someone tried to make me happy. She transfers me to tech to fix DVR issues and VOD. Tech can't fix SD/HD or recording my 4 Monday night shows. The DVR has limitations that I didn't have with Uverse. VERIZON -time to get up to speed and fast with your DVR limitations. It can be solved with allowing more recordings at the same time...DUH!! You guessed it..Video on Demand was never set up for our account. It will take up to 24 hours to add this service that even comes with the basic Fios!!! I asked the tech how does this happen! When an order is placed isn't there a check list to make sure all the features are activated. He said yes but the agent didn't order VOD. Now to me that makes no sense for the agent to have to order set up for something that comes with a package. It should be a part of the check list.
Verizon..All I can say is, you guys have got to get this together. There needs to be a customer complaint hotline because I now get to tell everyone on this forum and all my social media accounts how poor your set up for new customers and how your DVR service is lacking. I asked during each call if there was a general customer relations department for Fios one agent said yes and gave me the number to Verizon Wireless customer relations...oops!! I happen to be a wireless customer and they got an ear full and apologized for your incompetence. They didn't have a number and got off the phone embarrassed that they shared the same name. 

Answer 1

Hi Lisacpt,
Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.
Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.