Punished for On-Line Bundle Upgrade?

Question

I've upgraded my FiOS bundle (phone, Internet & TV) three times now. The first two were via phone call to FiOS sales. Piece of cake - friendly, enthusiastic staff; clear explanations; fast turn-around with upgraded services operational by the time I drove home from the office!
This week I tried the online process. Awful. It seems Verizon WANTS us to call them to drive up phone usage. Problems:
 Relatively difficult navigation through the bundle upgrade process. Several times it felt like I was going through the same 3 screens again & again.
Near-useless chat support. They can't see the screen, can't enter information for me, don't always understand the first time, frequently repeat the information I'm reading on the screen.
L-O-N-G install times. When I completed the process late night Feb 24th the system responded with a Mar 02 due date. 1 week later instead of a few hours I enjoyed in a phone call. Apparently it's faster & easier to have a human enter an order into the provisioning system than to have another computer do it.
L-O-N-G wait for online order status. I couldn't get ANY status on my order until late on Feb 24. Nearly 24 hours after I entered the upgrade order all the system could tell me was that it was processing my order.
Where did my order go? Did it wait for someone to come in the next morning, pick up punch cards from the ouput hopper and eventually carry them across the hall, where someone else put them into an input bin before leaving for the day? Why does an automated system take a full day to accomplish less than a human on the phone did in minutes?
Further delays - when I could finally see the order status this morning (Feb 26), it showed delivery on Mar 4. 8 days for an automated system to achieve what telephone agents had done for me in less than an hour!
The good news was the customer support chat this morning 02261086940 . Kathryn, after confirming my account, explained that the system was trying to schedule it so I would keep my billing cycle. I told her to go ahead and implement the change immediately and  I would live with billing chaos for a month. Even then, the earliest date she could get was Mar 01 - the third business day after I submitted my online order.
Why can't an online orders be delivered as quickly as the ones I phone in? If you're worrying about billing cycles, offer me a check-box labeled "Implement it NOW! Note that your billing date may change and the first month's bill will have charges for both a partial month and a complete month of service."
I enjoy FiOS Internet speed, HD quality and reliability. I guess I'll stick to the phone from now on.
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Answer 1

I have some answers, not all of them thrilling.
a) Still at 84% for Internet, 64% for Video for due date of Mar 1. 12:10 AM EST Tue Mar 2.
b) FiOS speed test shows 27 / 27. My guess is the 35 / 35 package exceeds ONT capacity. Hard to believe the Actiontec (swapped rev A for rev C from a friend) is overwhelmed. Could try my AirPort Extreme and see if it does better.
c) Live human chat for FiOS Internet tech support was closed early due to overwhelming call volume when I tried at 9:30 and 10:00 PM EST.
d) SURPRISE! I tried the voice response service and got one more nugget of information. There's a technician visit scheduled for sometime between 8 AM and 5 PM on March 11. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? Could have easily missed this appointment. More cost for VZ, less satisfaction for me.
No mention during the sign-up. That's OK - they COULD have their computer check my equipment while I'm going through the process to advise me a truck roll will be necessary...but that would be out-of-line with generalized CDD (Clue Deficit Disorder) afflicting the online environment. Oh, and it might accelerate the desire-to-delivery cycle - and ensuing cash flow - by starting the truck-roll logistics days earlier.
No mention from the human VZ agent who helped me last week. Of course she probably didn't know either, see point above.
No mention in the on-line status up-date. All it says is, "Order Status DetailsAll times are displayed in Eastern Time)
Your order has been submitted for processing. Updated status details will be provided shortly." Some part of the system obviously knows one of Santa's helpers (thus the red & white color scheme) is coming - see voice message above. Oh well, just another symptom of on-line CDD. May have to revise the diagnosis to Acute CDD (ACDD, almost like the rock band).
No e-mail. No phone call - I checked with my wife and Caller ID.
Bamboozled - I've had nothing but outstanding support from human Verizon agents on the phone. They know the bundles & options, are eager to get me the best value and very friendly. Things have ALWAYS gone just the way they promised, and as mentioned above they go through quickly. I'm sorry you had that bad experience. I'm certainly going back to the "phone a human" approach - it takes less of my time, produces better results and goes to completion more quickly with no surprises.
I was reviewing my bills this past weekend. I've been paying about the same every month since TV became available in my area and I added it to my FiOS bundle. However, by regularly upgrading my bundle to take advantage of incentives, my bandwidth will have advanced from 10 / 2 to 35 / 35 and I'll have doubled the number of HD channels over that time. Verizon has kept me happily under contract nearly that entire time, while making Comcast offers uncompetitive.