The Great Fios Dilemma

Question

I have a love hate relationship with Fios.  Anybody else feel the same? Sure the internet is fast and rarely drops, however the On-Demand service is an absolute Fail with a capital F.  Lets just list why shall we...
1. Severly Flawed On-Demand Menu Interface
- Major Usability issues exist.  The same things that frustrate everyone forced to navigate a bad government website exist here. Anything you're looking for is hidden at least 3 clicks and multiple directional moves further away than it should be.  Even the government is getting better at this.  It's deplorable that Verizon is so late to the usability table.  Stop burrying your best content under a huge, archaic and overburdened folder system.  Boil the stuff people actually watch to the top.  Make it easy to find what you are looking for. Just a thought, let people set in the options menu set filters.  Try a setting that would always display only subscribed, HD, or free content. That would remove half of your problem right there.  I do not want to always navigate through your pay per view content or a massive alphabetical list to get to what I want.  Super markets finally listened to annoyed mothers ages ago, take a tip from them and offer us a "No Candy Isle" (as a kid I hated it of course, but my mom was the one paying and unfortunately for me she loved it)
2. Inexplicable (Dis)function
- On-Demand Resume Play,  Rewind, and Fast Forward does not always function as advertised.  Brains tell me the latter must be the networks finally catching up to us skipping the comercials.  If this is an intentional limitation imposed by the content owner then just say so.  The kicker here is not knowing if resume play will work or reset the program.  Trust me, this irritates your users and in no time will make them remember Comcast fondly.  I know because it happened  to me yesterday, after fast forwarding through an entire movie three times because I overstayed the Pause functions welcome.  If I am going to get screwed if I wait to long please at least give me a timer.
3. Customer Disservice, Verizon Set-Top Box Vs. Samsung Television... Firmware Shmirmware
- The third issue only applies to some, but those affected know well the frustration it causes.  The HDMI output of the set top box is not compatable with some Samsung LCD televsions. When connected the image and audio will flicker randomly but often enough to annoy the viewer and possibly damage the television in the process.  Incredibly, I have learned to live with this but only because of my unwillingness to give up hope for a firmware update.  Verizon's tac with this issue was to blame Samsung and advise the use of component cables and rca audio.  Samsung in turn blames Verizon.  This is a customers nightmare and a perfect storm of screwage.  Neither party accepts blame therefore the issue is never resolved.  If you have seen the movie Contact you may remember the question at the end that revealed an unmentioned truth and was never answered or addressed.  The scene involves a judge and the movies victorious prick attorney post trial sharing an aside.  It goes something like this... Judge, "The fact that it recorded static isn't what interests me... What interests me is that it recorded approximately eighteen hours of it."  to which the jerk responds "That is interesting, isn't it?" end of movie.  To which I would say to Verizon...  It is not the fact that your set top box does not work with my Samsung television that interests me... What interests me is that everything thing else on the planet does.  Hmmmm.
Your product is flawed. Please fix it... Soon.

Answer 1

FiosCanBeGreat wrote:
I have a love hate relationship with Fios.  Anybody else feel the same? Sure the internet is fast and rarely drops, however the On-Demand service is an absolute Fail with a capital F.  Lets just list why shall we...
1. Severely Flawed On-Demand Menu Interface
- Major Usability issues exist.  The same things that frustrate everyone forced to navigate a bad government website exist here. Anything you're looking for is hidden at least 3 clicks and multiple directional moves further away than it should be.  Even the government is getting better at this.  It's deplorable that Verizon is so late to the usability table.  Stop burying your best content under a huge, archaic and overburdened folder system.  Boil the stuff people actually watch to the top.  Make it easy to find what you are looking for. Just a thought, let people set in the options menu set filters.  Try a setting that would always display only subscribed, HD, or free content. That would remove half of your problem right there.  I do not want to always navigate through your pay per view content or a massive alphabetical list to get to what I want.  Super markets finally listened to annoyed mothers ages ago, take a tip from them and offer us a "No Candy Isle" (as a kid I hated it of course, but my mom was the one paying and unfortunately for me she loved it)
           That's a great idea! This would be a perfect candidate for the Verizon Idea Exchange. Please search on the idea exchange and cast your vote. There may be another member who made the same suggestion. If not, please add a new idea so your fellow community members can comment and vote on your suggestion. http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-Idea-Exchange/ct-p/ideaexchange . The Verizon Idea Exchange is there for you to submit your ideas and suggestions to Verizon so that we can consider them as we innovate our products and services.
2. Inexplicable (Dis)function
- On-Demand Resume Play,  Rewind, and Fast Forward does not always function as advertised.  Brains tell me the latter must be the networks finally catching up to us skipping the commercials.  If this is an intentional limitation imposed by the content owner then just say so.  The kicker here is not knowing if resume play will work or reset the program.  Trust me, this irritates your users and in no time will make them remember Comcast fondly.  I know because it happened  to me yesterday, after fast forwarding through an entire movie three times because I overstayed the Pause functions welcome.  If I am going to get screwed if I wait to long please at least give me a timer.
              Yes there is some content, especially the free broadcast/network stations, that will not allow the FF feature. The paid or subscription folders will allow the FF type actions. We are aware of some issues with not being able to resume or move through the movie, but our very next software release scheduled for the 3rd quarter is fixing that.
3. Customer Disservice, Verizon Set-Top Box Vs. Samsung Television... Firmware Shmirmware
- The third issue only applies to some, but those affected know well the frustration it causes.  The HDMI output of the set top box is not compatible with some Samsung LCD televsions. When connected the image and audio will flicker randomly but often enough to annoy the viewer and possibly damage the television in the process.  Incredibly, I have learned to live with this but only because of my unwillingness to give up hope for a firmware update.  Verizon's tac with this issue was to blame Samsung and advise the use of component cables and rca audio.  Samsung in turn blames Verizon.  This is a customers nightmare and a perfect storm of screwage.  Neither party accepts blame therefore the issue is never resolved.  If you have seen the movie Contact you may remember the question at the end that revealed an unmentioned truth and was never answered or addressed.  The scene involves a judge and the movies victorious prick attorney post trial sharing an aside.  It goes something like this... Judge, "The fact that it recorded static isn't what interests me... What interests me is that it recorded approximately eighteen hours of it."  to which the jerk responds "That is interesting, isn't it?" end of movie.  To which I would say to Verizon...  It is not the fact that your set top box does not work with my Samsung television that interests me... What interests me is that everything thing else on the planet does.  Hmmmm.
               We have been getting fewer reports as later media guide versions have been released. If you have a Samsung TV and haven't tried HDMI in a while, please try it again.. We try to make the system as compatible for our customers products as possible. HDMI Syncing / Compatibility issues are not strictly a Verizon problem, it's a widespread problem. There are Samsung TV's that work just fine using HDMI. In our office we use a Samsung TV to do our testing. You will also find some Samsung TV's, as well as other manufacturers TV's,  not working on other providers and other equipment. This epidemic can be found on many other TV's brands and cable providers. Google search "Samsung HDMI handshake issue" and you will see its very widespread. Very first result shows connection issues to a PS3. I can see how frustrating this would be 
Your product is flawed. Please fix it... Soon.
Anthony_VZ
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