By Susan A. Baird
PBN Web Editor
NEW YORK – Some customers who signed up with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) this winter for its new FiOS fiber-optic television service are still waiting for their free high-definition televisions.
In a promotional deal that ended last month, the telecommunications provider initially offered Sharp Corp. TVs to residential customers who signed up for the fiber-optic service. In December, the company changed its promotion so it no longer promised a particular brand.
But the “extraordinary” response still exceeded Verizon’s supply of both Sharp TVs and Motorola Inc. HDTV set-top boxes, Lillian McGee, Verizon’s regional director of public affairs, told Providence Business News in an e-mail interview today.
“The demand for our TV offer was extraordinary, and we’re delighted so many people took advantage of the chance to sign up for FiOS,” she said. “All will get the TV sets or gift cards they were promised – if they don’t already have them – and we’re giving alternative choices in the small number of cases where there are delays.”
Verizon customers who don’t want to wait have been offered a choice of a similar TV from Magnavox or a $200 gift card from Best Buy Co., the Wall Street Journal reported today.
“If a customer qualified for a TV set under the promotion, they will get a TV,” McGee emphasized. “Verizon stands behind the offer and is doing a number of things to speed up the process.
“On the HD boxes,” she added, “other cable companies are having the same problem unless they had them in stock.
“Due to the overwhelming customer response to Verizon FiOS, there is a shortage. Customers are being offered SD boxes until the HD are received.”
By the end of 2007, Verizon reported a nationwide base of 943,000 subscribers for its FiOS service, which offers customers broadband Internet, television and telephone service via a glass-fiber-to-home optical network.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is a New York-based Dow Jones 30 company that delivers broadband and other communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers through its Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireline divisions. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
