For years, credit card issuers have gotten away with withholding contracts from customers until they actually have the plastic in their hands -- a practice that denies many people a fair chance to look under the hood for onerous terms and conditions.
Now it looks like Verizon has adopted the same technique.
Torrance resident Sandy Lough thought she was being offered a straightforward deal when a Verizon salesman came to her home recently with an offer to sign up for the company's state-of-the-art FiOS broadband service at a special introductory price.
Lough, 66, agreed to a bundled package of phone and Internet service, and an installer arrived at her home last week to hook up the system. Some glitches ensued, but that's not unusual when companies introduce technologies.
What really struck Lough was the discovery that to receive the promised discount for her bundled plan, she'd have to go online and agree to a 2,000-word "bundle service agreement" and a 7,000-word terms of service for Internet access.
This was the first time she was being presented with the full contract for her new FiOS setup, and the service had already been installed and activated.
"It was voluminous," Lough recalled. "It was so long that I wasn't able to read or comprehend it."
Some aspects of the bundle service agreement are included in the order form customers fill out before FiOS installation begins. For example, there's fleeting mention of an "up to $199 early termination charge."
But without reading the full contract, you wouldn't know that the termination fee applies even if you cancel just one part of your package -- only TV, say -- without agreeing to a whole new package.
You also wouldn't know that you're waiving the right to sue Verizon in court and are instead agreeing to settle any disputes via arbitration.
And you wouldn't know that you're agreeing to be subject to Virginia state law for the purposes of the contract, which the agreement neglects to mention is one of the few states that doesn't allow consumers to file class-action lawsuits.
Although the online terms of service can be readily accessed on Verizon's website, the bundle service agreement can be viewed only after a FiOS customer receives a user name and password from the company.
These are provided only after the service has been switched on -- in other words, after you're already a customer.
