Update: WallStreet Journal has a big front page story about tinkering by the incumbents. Remember my piece, the VoIP End Run. Oh its coming… how is this for a start.
Verizon’s Fiber to the Home service, dubbed FIOS is slowly coming online, but some users are already complaining about a variety of problems with the much awaited service. IP address problems, no dial-tone, problems with third party VoIP and incompatibility with certain wireless routers are amongst the most common problems.
Jon Gales complains about a hyperactive dynamic IP that constantly resets itself which makes it difficult to work with servers/services that are authenticated by IP. I guess this is not going to cause problems for people who are using plain vanilla broadband, but if you expect to manage the servers then you got problems. Like Jon.
> I called Verizon to see what was up (this is the first time I have noticed an IP change, and it happened twice in such a short time) and they had the balls to claim that it’s a feature. Another “feature” is they make the pattern a secret. Like somehow knowing when my IP will change makes the network insecure.
This could be one way of getting consumers to up the service level to professional package, and charge more money? And this is not the only thing. There are others who say that Vonage calls drop off when running on FIOS. (That might be because of Vonage issues, but still it is something to note.) Quite a few other random complaints. There are incidents that only D-Link routers work with FIOS, and Linksys routers have some other issues as well. Here is another one:
>They told me that they’re starting to find issues with certain phones on FIOS and that I would have to go buy another phone. I said this was BS and told them to just change it back to the old copper line but they said once they switch over to fiber they can’t swicth back. BUYER BEWARE! They don’t tell this is a possibilty when you sign on. In fact they tell you that if your not satisfied you can cancel within 30 days. I now have to go out buy another business line phone for $200.00 now. Unbelievable!
I am going to follow-up with Verizon and see what’s going on, and perhaps if these are teething problems. On the flips side, FCC, having ceded complete control to the RBOCs, will really have to step-up and play the cop here. I have started a forum here, incase you have problems with Verizon FIOS.
Discuss Verizon FIOS here!
To all the folks having trouble with the big corporations – write to their CEOs. [Disclaimer – I have no vested connection to this endorsement -] I have used a website called Planetfeedback.com, that has gotten me attention and almost 100% resolution rate for any of my problems with these big companies. All you need to do is to write a letter to the CEO of, say, Verizon, in this case, and cc: that to your local legislators – senators, representatives and state attorney general, and wait! You will be surprised how well that can work for you. Give it a try anyway. I have used the service that is free to consumers, for the last 7-8 years, and it has worked for me almost every time.
Om, you shouldn’t like to organizations that put their content behing pay|registerwalls. If they need to be mentioned at all, ply a little fair use to their content.
BBR has a forum already — I have had FiOS in McLean, VA for a four months with absolutely no problem. I am also using Vonage and I am using a modified firmware on my Linksys. I have no idea why people are having problems, but if you are managing servers on FiOS and are using a non-business account, you have nothing to bitch about since the ToS says that you can’t have a server running on the FiOS service.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/vzfiber
Actually, I’ve had no problems with FIOS. My problem is that Verizon monopolizes your house once FIOS is installed. By removing your copper wire you are now forced to stay with Verizon until other carriers have fiber optic capabilities.
I did not find out about this until I wanted to switch back to DSL to save some money. They said “Nope, can’t”
bastards!
“This could be one way of getting consumers to up the service level to professional package, and charge more money?”
Never attribute to malice [or greed] what can attributed to stupidity.
Verizon Online (the ISP part of Verizon) is known (among their customers who hang out at BBR, http://www.broadbandreports.com/ ) for making really stupid engineering decisions. Their latest one happened to DSL customers who are on DHCP (versus those on PPPoE) last Spring: let’s set IP lease times to 15 minutes. I kid you not, they did that and it was a MESS. After a number of WEEKS they finally figured out a 2 hour lease would work better :p
Oh, why such a short lease time at all? Because they wanted to enable MAC filtering/binding automatically (to limit the number of public IP addresses DHCP customers could pull) but this caused problems if the customer wanted to switch to the DSL modem/router to/from bridge mode.
Really, Verizon can’t fix one problem without causing at least two more.
Despite stupid decisions like these, I’m still a very happy DSL customer and can’t wait to get FIOS (years a way for me probably, given where I live).
–We had the Fios installed in early Oct. 2005.
Recently, within the past three weeks, Verizon’s
mail server has been deleting my inbox, when I
use their mail program.
The mail is there today, and gone tomorrow.
I keep calling them about this and they say they’ll
get back to me. They haven’t.
I don’t even use 1% of the allotted space.
Thank God, I can download the
small mail messages to Outlook express.
I have to use Verizon’s mail program because Outlook
Express & Netscape 7.1 will now no longer accept large
incoming emails (videos etc) The Pop3 keeps timing
out on both even though it is set at the highest
setting. (they would accept them when I had dial-up)
I can however, send out large files on both
Express & Netscape, go figure!
No help from Verizon on this problem either.
Estelle, Residential User
West Chester, Pa.
Has anyone installed a D-Link booster? I want to add one to my Verizon FIOS Broadband program. If so, did you have any problems installing the booster? I haven’t contacted Verizon with these questions, but plan to do so. Thanks. TB
I got Verizon Business 15/2 service installed at my home with 5 statis IPs. When the service was sold to me, Verizon did not tell me a little detail… that the Dlink router that they supply does not handle 5 static IPs… and that the Adtran router that can handle 5 static IPs costs an additional $300! In fact, the CONTRACT that Verizon sent to me by email also guarantees the delivery of the full set of 5 static IPs, and says nothing about the limitation of the Dlink router. How is a customer to know?
I have been running from pillar to post (various toll free numbers and agents and supervisors) and they refuse to acknowledge this as an error in their service specification or provision or both.
It is like saying that you are going to get a telephone line with 2 numbers, but oops… you should have known that it will cost you another piece of equipment costing $300 to actually access the numbers!!!
My wife and I switched to FiOS from Verizon DSL this past December. We were relatively happy with the DSL service, but thought we saw “the handwriting on the wall” in that the DSL service quality would probably decline as resources were focused on FiOS. (We’d had a similar experience with dial-up before switching to DSL.)
FiOS has, so far, been one disappointment after another.
We wanted the fiber optic cable run to the house on the west side of our property so the electrical boxes could be installed in the garage. When the installers showed up, they installed the cable on the east side of the property and installed the boxes on our living room wall — right next to the couch and the front window. Aesthetic, it’s not.
We had wanted the CAT5 cable run through the wall from the garage to the adjacent room just beyond that wall. Failing that, we at least wanted the cabling routed through the attic. The installers decided that would be too difficult and instead stapled the cables across the front of the house, outside the siding, to a room where we really didn’t want the connection. Again, aesthetic, it’s not, nor is it terribly convenient.
So. This is probably worth it because of the higher speed and greater reliability we were promised, right?
Well…at this point, my internet connection actually works only about 50% of the time. Of that time when it works, it’s noticeably faster about 20% of that time, slower than my former DSL about 30% of the time, and about the same 50% of the time. I can no longer connect to my online brokerage’s website at all.
The support people at Verizon have been helpful, but also helpless. I’ve now called them three times to try to figure out the problems.
Comcast is looking awfully good right about now.
I added FIOS and am in the 30 day trial, and have been a Comcast cable user for six years. I am not impressed. With a PC on each link, the slower cable Internet works faster for pages with many objects. Throughput is better, but connection set-up time is slower. Its as if Verizon has some proxy server or other “crap” between me and the Internet. In addition, the Verizon FTP server is slow and times out a lot. That has nothing to do with FIOS, but it is a big factor in deciding to stick with FIOS on day 31. Thinking about trying out the support channels to see if they can make me happy, but also thinking about saying “thanks for the fiber, I’ll see you when you can give me TV too”. Changing email addresses from Comcast is another ‘pain’ factor… we’ll see.
Last week i clicked into yahoo one day and ended up losing my verizon email address that had many items in it. I have been unable to bring it back up as it is saying I now have a yahoo email address, something I really did not want. I cannot access my email because it will not take my password! I need your help in bringing my verizon email back up and running.
thanks,
Chris Forsha
Recently moved and got Fios on May 2, 2006. [Just remember when talking to someone at Verizon about Fios… you are talking to a sale’s person… who’s goal is to sell you FIOS.] They lie and are evasive/elusive with details on the installation process… say your DSL emails will follow… still waiting to see this… Was told DSL not in my area before making the decision on which ISP to use… lie… it is and provided by Verizon.
I can get online but I can’t access email through outlook. My yahoo emails were linked to my verizon so I could download them through OE. They use yahoo as the portal… when I try to sign on there… yahoo says I cancelled my account? I can go to Verizon Central and sign on, but only look at the main VC home page. If I click on my account or anything else pertaining to looking at my account… it takes me to the verizon yahoo sign on page… in which I try to sign in but get:
Verizon Yahoo! Account Cancellation Options
Verizon Yahoo! account canceled
You no longer have access to Verizon Yahoo! for Broadband services because you canceled your Verizon Yahoo! account *****@verizon.net. To reactivate your Verizon Yahoo! account, please call Verizon Customer Service at 800-567-6789.
Once the transfer is complete, your settings and personal information cannot be restored to your Verizon Yahoo! account *****@verizon.net if you decide to reactivate it later.
If you take no action to transfer your account within 60 days of the cancellation of your Verizon Yahoo! account, your existing settings and personal information (for example, email messages, address book entries, photos) will be permanently deleted. If you have purchased additional premium services (such as a Yahoo! Personals subscription), those services will also be canceled.
Transfer Information?
The same message for all my sub-accounts as well.
I’m furious because I wanted DSL… I was curious about FIOS … but wanted to research it more. I’m furious at my self for letting the salesperson get away with lying to me about not being able to get DSL where I’m at.
I watched DSL for 5 years before switching to it and I would have done the same with FIOS had I not been lied to.
Oh and did I mention there’s a cable running across my sidewalk that has yet to be buried? I called again today about my email and unburied cable… told them you must have several tickets written up on me … I’ve called everyday since May 2. Was told the tickets expired??? New ones were written up today???
So you have a problem… they give the complaint a certain amount of time… if they don’t get someone to solve the problem… your complaint or problem expires???? I sh** you not … today when I asked again about the unburied cable the exact words of the tech was, “I see where a work order was written up on the cable… but that order has already expired” What does that mean???? What happened to using the “resolved” status? If anyone else get a so-called “expired” ticket status… don’t let them get away with it. Ask them ahead of time what the expiration date is for a reported problem… since they haven’t heard of a resolution date.
Chris,
Trip over the wire and sue Verizon. I bet you they will fix the cable then 🙂
has anyone had a problem with their cdrw drive not working after the verizon fios install? I’m thinking maybe it could be the verizon internet security software but not sure. I have XP and my IMAPI CD service won’t start automatically. This was working fine before the install. Any help anyone?
I advice any one considering verizon fios to stay away from it. My service was mysteriously disconnected twice in 3 weeks. No one there could tell me why this was happening. Of course they would assume it was no payment before checking with their own billing dept. If they had they would have seen that payment was up to date. It took them FOUR
days to get my internet service reconnected and one more day for them to even try to get email back up. But they screwed up my email address and assigned a new email address without ever checking with me. I guess they expected people who wanted to email to guess what the new email was. Their service is really incopetent. I spoke to about 10 different people and each time I had to start from scratch explaining what the problem was. Their technician don’t seem to be a ble to share the info about what they’ve done before, so someone else can pick up where the other left off. They even offered me a month of free service and I told them a month free of no service is worth nothing. So I strongly recommend staying away from verizon fios, at least for the near future. Save $ & frustration.
I had FiOS installed about a month ago. The install process was a Three Stooges act. The installer came out and determined that the fiber needed to be pulled from the junction box 300 feet down the street. He called and set this up, but when a crew of three contract workers came out, none of whom spoke English, I insisted that any digging on my property be first preceeded by untility marking. Verizon is responsible for this, but apparently seldom coordinates it with the local utility companies. At one point the contract supervisior told me that since they only dug a trench 6″ deep, they did not have to do this. When I told him that it was required by city ordinance, he backed off. A week later, the intaller shows up again, but of course the fiber has still not been pulled because they have not yet marked the utilities. A week later, after the untilities have finally been marked, the trenching/drilling crew shows up again and it takes about four hours for them to run the fiber up to my house. Two weeks later, the installers show up yet again and begin the install. Since my house is cabled for Cat5-E, I requested that they installation use my cable supply to tie in the service, which they did. The two installers did not pay much attention to asthetics and started running the cable around the door trim in my entry way before I realized what they were doing. I quickly had them stop this and rerouted the cable up over the entry doorway and back through a closet which sits adjacent to my SOHO office area.
Once installed the crew started to pack their bags and go without really testing the install with my PC and router configuration. I opted to use the Verizon supplied D-Link 4-port plus 802.1G router and after a few minutes of configuration, the PC was up and running.
The real challenge has been getting my VoIP service working correctly. I have this through a company called Vortex Broadband which is run by a friend of mine. They sent me a Sipura 2100 ATA to connect to my router (or in front of my router). This has been in place for about three weeks now and I am still having trouble with local dialing using 10-digit access. When I use my cell phone to call my office, the call fails prompting me to dial a 1 or 0 first. This 1 dialing request cannot be used on my T-Mobile network. The problem is not limited to my cell phone. Any local area caller is promted to use 1 dialing which many do not fearing that it will be charged as a intra-LATA long distance call. Right now, I don’t know who to blame and neither Vortex or Verizon seems to be able to fix the problem. If we cannot resolve this, I may install anothe VoIP line from another vendor and see if it works correctly. If anyone has any advice on how to resolve this, I would appreciate your feedback (robert.newman@nbii.com).
Rob (near Fort Worth)
I had Verizon Business FIOS installed 15/2 with 5 Static IPs.
Here’s a problem I discovered only when I told a partner about FIOS and they decided to switch over as well.
Odd ending IPs within the same area can only route to other odd ending IPs.
The same is true for EVEN ending IPs.
If you’re on FIOS and want to test for yourself to see if you’re affected also.
Whatever your current IP is, i.e. 1.2.3.4
try doing a tracert to 1.2.4.2 & 1.2.4.3
Basically you’re increasing the 3rd octet by 1 and assuming that is still a Verizon IP local to you, you will probably see the same results.
even if there is no other device on either of those – the tracert should get passed your gateway.
If you are affected you will notice (depending on whether your IP is odd or even) you will get further on one IP and the other will just die at your gateway.
If you’re in Long Island and on FIOS, try accessing these 2 websites:
http://72.68.153.10
http://72.68.153.11
These are both the same device, given 2 IPs.
If you’re not on the local FIOS network, you should have no problem getting to both. If you are on FIOS in Long Island, you will only be able to get to the odd (.11) site if your IP is odd, and to the even (.10) site if your IP is even.
There is no router or firewall on my end causing this.
You can test that for yourself by doing a traceroute.
I have no way of blocking the route all the way to your gateway, if you can’t get passed your gateway to both sites – you are also affected.
I’ve been working with Verizon for over a month on this issue – however the higher level network support disregards this issue, as they claim there are not enough people complaining about it to justify a router access control list change.
However, what you may not realize is if you’re hosting websites on Verizon FIOS, what this means is basically they are blocking potential customers from visiting your site.
Only if enough people complain about it will this be fixed.
If you have this same issue, please call them about it.
Their tech support line is (888) 244-4440.
Thanks in advance for any support.
I switched to fios from comcast…which I had trouble with but when it worked it was really fast…now with fios…the downloads are about the level of dial-up. Plus they screwed up the billing and overcharged my credit card to the tune of $250.00. Also my vonage is not working correctly…with fios. Before switching be very cautious…
I have fios for about 3 months
the technitian that installed it said that he was coming next day , but never came back and left all his tools in my house
I do not have a phone number to call, so I found this way to inform I don”t know if my installation is complete or not, because he was coming next day to finish the job.
oscar my phone is 516:662-3885
I have had fios for about 8 months. About 4 months ago I had fios TV installed. I originally ordered fios service with POTS service. My service is acceptable and I have no significant issues with the fios service.
My issue is billing. While I had POTS, Verizon billed everything on my phone bill. After becoming tired of 6 telemarking calls nightly, I decided to terminate the POTS service. I was advised at that time I would need to start paying with a CC. I did provide a CC at that time, but initiated a conversation with Verizon requesting alternate payment methods. After several emails and phone conversations, a Verizon rep finally agreed to send me invoices. The first invoice was received in May of 06. I payed this bill via my banks online bill pay service. Though delayed two weeks, it was properly credited to my fios bill. However, the next two invoices payed in the exact same manner was not properly credited to my account. After receiving a check from Verizon for the sum of the last two payments, I discovered the issue. I promptly contacted Verizon Sunday,7/9 and again Monday, 7/10, only to get the same response of you need to pay with a CC.
Fustrated, I again contacted Verizon today as I had not seen the charge against my CC and they had me scheduled for disconnection. The Verizon rep was bewildered that I was told there was no other billing methods available. I asked for him to put was stating in writing to my email address which I provided to him. I am still awaiting the email.
In summary, my service has been acceptable. However, the customer service has been horrific.
I have found that Vonage does not work over my FIOS. This might be due to a technical error, but I suspect sabotage.
I can start a Vonage call, but within 10 minutes it will be disconnected. Apparently there is an event that happens approximately once every ten minutes that disrupts the call routing. Perhaps I have only 10 minutes on one IP. I haven’t checked that. I also have similar problems with Skype. Whatever the cause, the result is that FIOS will not handle VOIP.
I have two other internet services to my home office – RCN cable and Comcast Cable – and Vonage and Skype work fine over either of them with an identical setup.
Stupidity or malice? I’d like to know.
I have had fios for about 6 mo. Since then I have not been able to host my shoot-em-up games on-line, I can join them, but cant host them. Verizon just says as long as I have the net, its just too bad. Not thier concern. Can anybody tell me what I have to do to host my games again?? The speed is the only reason I agreed to try fios in the first place. Now, it does me no good for the purpose I intended!! I use gamespy for my games, Please, help someone !!??
Verizon Fios has been a disaster. Cannot consistently connect to employer’s home page. Many wasted efforts at repair. Many lies. Poorest service ever. Have their tv, computer, and phone service. Actiontec router is a piece of shit. Going back to Comcast.
FIOS and DSL were installed in October 2005. I was the first in the community to acquire it. For several months it appeared to operate as promised, except for being slower than I had expected it to be. Being able to use the telephone while on line was a nice feature…BUT…after several months, I lost my dial tone and could not use my telephone at all when online. No calls out, no calls in. Truly isolated from the world when online. I see others have had similar experience. Any help?
well, they came 1 week early. did not tell me about the change with the wiring that I could not get back to another phone carrier. I cannot use their interim dish service for tv since I live near trees.
Got a good phone number for CSR.
VP of Customer Service for NY
908-559-2277 Steven Cannell.
I am removing this from my house. period.
Well thanks everyone for helping me make my decision.
Verizon has sent me FED-EX Air Mail to advertize FIOS and even sent somebody to my door today. FIOS is not for me.
BTW: for those of you who had problems with tech support. follow these tips
Get a case number for every call. If you have to call again for the same issue they’ll be able to pull up the previous callupon the case number. They may say it is closed, have them open it.
Try to call between 8-5
If your having problems with billing. ask to speak with their collections department.
They will try to get you off the phone in less then a half hour. Slow them down and take time to get it done right.
Be careful with Verizon FIOS service. I called Verizon to disconnect the FIOS TV service during the 30-day free period. Verizon cut my TV service the same day, 9/27/06. I called Verizon to inform it that I do not have TV service anymore. The company replied that it does not reconnect Brighthouse service. However, Verizon did disconnect my cable from the Brighthouse box outside my house! What a sleazy company!
Did you know that Verizon and Bellsouth had to be forced to give you back the $1 to $3 extra that the government stopped charging on your phone bill. You would think that since the govt stopped the charge Verizon would drop it too automatically. No, it finally, dropped it under pressure (bad press). Yes, it is a sleazy company.
Finally, once this year, Verizon charged more than $3 per minute for a phone call that I made to Canada. I have a copy of the bill. Don’t bother with the FTC. I have sent the FTC a letter with a copy of the bill. I have yet to receive a response.
Verizon is upgrading the plant. If they make the investment they should reap the benefits not any other local exchange carriers. The only reason why there was competition on copper was that the “baby bells” inherited the copper plant. So it really wasn’t “owned” by anyone. So thats why everyone was allowed to make money off of it.
Wow, I find the majority of these comments/complaints preposterous.
90% of the situations are or were caused by
the customer not the company.
Seriously, stupid crap like this is why I
quit doing computer repair for retailers.
You guys should learn to read up on shit before
you buy it and atleast know how to use it.
I’ve setup many kinds of routers and many
kinds of VoIP services on FiOS without any
serious issues. Yes, some take a bit of
tweaking, but, they all work fine. Any issues
you’re getting are ID10T ones.
I had FIOS installed about 6 months ago and must say the internet and telephone service is perfectly ok. My problem is the radio frequency interference radiated from the 48 volt rectifier that supplies the back up battery. It completely obliterates my AM radio reception within about 20 to 25 feet of the rectifier installed here on the inside cellar wall. I called a trouble report and the repair technician and his supervisor arrived promptly but had to admit there was nothing they could do about the situration. A disclaimer enclosed with the paperwork states it is FCC accepted and they are not responsible for such interference. I am amazed that the “Telephone Company” would install such a piece of “junk”. Will they develope an improved rectifier and when?? My solution is to unplug the rectifier when I want to receive AM radio.
This may sound crazy – but right after our FIOS TV install was finished, with the FIOS modem in the garage…our remote garage door openers stopped working. I called and s/w a FIOS tech, and he said he’s never heard of that happening before. Anyone out there had this problem? I’m obviously no techie, but it sounds like a channel/frequency conflict. Anyone had this same problem?
Call Verizon again, they can shield the battery back up, this can cause an issue with the garage door opener
I have Vonage running fine on my FIOS 15/2 connection. The installer was professional. Very clean install. No outside wire run! I also have a Mac connected via ethernet and a PC connected wireless with the D-Link provided by Verizon. This is great. Faster than my Time Warner Cable modem. Also, very dependable connection, unlike Time Warner.
My advise, GET IT.
My problem is with the remote. I was told verizon was coming out with new simpler remote.Why do I have to hit the power,cable,and T.V.5 times to turn on the T.V.?
Someone wrote “hyperactive dynamic IP that constantly resets itself which makes it difficult to work with servers/services that are authenticated by IP” – residential service is DHCP. Your IP changes.
Someone wrote “now forced to stay with Verizon until other carriers have fiber optic” Verizon is not pulling down the copper.
Someone wrote “Verizon’s mail server has been deleting my inbox” As detailed in the Verizon Email Policy, emails are saved for 30 days on the Verizon email server. Emails that are older than 30 days are automatically deleted from the email server and are not displayed in Email & More.
Someone wrote “My problem is the radio frequency interference” Verizon is aware of this issue and sends out a tech to repair it. Call tech support and ask for a tech to come out.
Someone wrote “[Verizon] replied that it does not reconnect Brighthouse service” And Verizon doesn’t want Brighthouse splicing their fiber.
Most of the complaints are addressed on this website. http://www22.verizon.com/content/consumerfios/faqs/faqs.htm
I’m looking for some valid complaints. This doesn’t appear to be the correct website to go to.
We (Verizon and I) have been unable to get FiOS working, reliably on my Macs. I get the wireless connection on my iMac (the computer that will be hard wired) but nothing when I have it connected to the Ethernet, without the Airport. My MacBook Pro won’t register it in any way.
I have no problems with Comcast and Verizon said that if I work for Comcast, should work no problem with Verizon. Yet, 15 Verizon man hours later I was told there’s nothing more they can do and they hope things will work out.
I you have any ideas, I welcome your help.
I made an appointment for FIOS TV service installation to accour on 12/27/06 between 8AM to 5PM.
I confirmed with Verizon that the installation is guranteed for this date, and took a time off from work.
On the day of scheduled installation day, I called Verizon about 5 times throughout the day to find out if the technician is still coming out.
They insisted that the technician is on the way until I called at 4:30PM when the rep from Verizon told me the installation time is not guranteed.
I called again at 5PM, and was told that technician was not coming out to my house. The supervisor from Verizon even said she doesn’t know why someone did not let me know earlier that the technician won’t be coming on that day. I waited for a total of 9 hours and spent more than an hour on the phone. No one from Verizon called once about not being able to install on that day. Verizon wants to reschedule for another day with the same time window of 8AM to 5PM. I work for an hourly wage, and now have one whole day of lost income. This kind of business practice need to stop.
I HAD FIOS INSTALLED IN MY HOME, TV, PHONE,INTERNET. What a nightmare. Comming from cablevision.All three. First Iwas not recieving incomming calls, I was told they would come tomy house and check it for $100 dollars an hour. Funny it worked before they came. I cancelled phone afer three weeks.They charged for the whole month.I have a contract stating $29 dollars for internet they charge me $39.Ive spent many hours on phone to correct, they keep telling me I will get a credit. $ months had gone by no credit and still charging wrong amount.I’ve spoken to several supervisors all claiming to fix probllem none of course did.Everytime Icall have to rexplain story ,takes a long time to actualy speak to someone, and the minimum is an hour.After dropping the phone service the my next bill goes straight to collections. They tell because i cancelled my service.Sonow I explain phone then they say you have to pay by credit card.So i agree and they never charge my card.Still chargeing wrong amount Itell them to cancell my service. of course i have topay theyre dumb cancellation fee, which by the way cable will pay.I am going to find out tommorow who to contact and put a official complaint against the company for not sticking to the original agreement. Cable should not have to pay a cancellation fee for a contract verizon broke.By the vonage worked fine with it. the tv i was happy. there billing is harible.You cant just charge what you want only what was agrred.
I recently had fios installed, it took 3 trips to have it installed. There installers kept forgeting the proper equipment for installation. SOOOOO after they finally got it connected it seamed alright so I thought I would sign up for VOICE WING. After we had voice wing for awhile I did the number portability and bam they turned off my fios the next billing cycle because they turned off my hard wire phone when verizon did the portability and said they had nowhere to bill fios! Which I think is fine IF THEY LET THE CUSTOMER (ME) KNOW THEY WILL NEED A CREDIT CARD (NOT A DEBT) TO START BILLING FIOS ON WHEN THEY DO THE PORTABILITY. NO ONE TOLD ME THEY NEEDED A CREDIT CARD AND THEY TURNED IT OFF.
SO I AM TELLING ANYONE OUT THERE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN VOICE WING AND YOU HAVE FIOS DO NOT DO THE NUMBER PORTABILITY. UNTIL YOU HAVE GIVEN THEM A CREDIT CARD TO BILL FIOS ON. IF YOU DO IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND YOU WILL HAVE VOICE WING WITH NO FIOS TO USE IT ON( APPARENTLY VERIZON FIOS ,VOICE WING & PHONE SERVICE ARE SEPERATE COMPANIES AND DO NOT TALK TO EACH OTHER).
IN RETROSPECT I DON’T KNOW IF I WOULD GO THROUGH THE HASSEL OF INSTALLING FIOS OR VOICE WING AGAIN.
Best wishes
I had Fios installed about 5 weeks and lost Phone service 3 times – no dial tone, no incoming calls. The last period for 3 days before a service tech came. The first 2 times they indicated it self corrected – no problem found. This time they indicated it was the home wiring. Each occurence I disconnected the phones in the house but the problem remained. This trip they disconnected 1 of my 2 phones but indicated the problem was in the home wiring? Anyone having problems with phone service?
I have not had phone service now for 3 days. This is my first problem in 6 months of use. I have exhausted all avenues of their Tech Support. Even talkewd to supervisors no one can apparently help. No one calls back, no follow-up, it is a complete cluster… They have sent out two techs to look at the house set-up no problems found. I have been told the problem is a network issue and their engineers are working to fix it. I work for a medical equipment company and do Tech Support from home, this is a business phone and they are treating it each time I call as no big deal. If anyone has had this problem did it get resolved? I am wondering if they will ever get it fixed. The strange thing is I have internet service with no problem but the phone has no dialtone. I also have to leave the phone off the hook as it rings constantly!
We decided to make the trek to Fios service about 2 months ago. The person I initially spoke to was great — very helpful and willing to do what it took to get the job done. That was the last time Verizon did what they were supposed to. The biggest complaint I’ve had is that they don’t give you enough details in the beginning like: THE WORK WILL REQUIRE YOU TO TAKE OFF TWO DAYS OF WORK. It will also take 15 hours. And it may not be done. Ever.
The other complaint that I have about Verizon is that they work BANKER’S HOURS. While I didn’t love Comcast, they ALWAYS worked around my schedule when it came for repairs or billing. It’s impossible to get Verizon to do ANYTHING after 5pm. No one works. Their customer service is awful. Occasionally if you complain and moan and threaten them, you can get someone who will help you.
The installation process can be delayed signficantly if you are switching your phone service. Verizon has trouble porting numbers from other companies. Comcast told me that they didn’t even initiate the request until a week after they were supposed to. Comcast was ready and willing to release my number but Verizon had no idea what to do.
I would have NEVER switched all my services (TV, phone, internet) if I knew all this. All to save a few dollars.
Oh and what happened to the 30mb service? It’s always slow. But it’s never their fault. Yikes. I hate Verizon.
Two questions on FiOS service. First, has anyone had problems setting up a home network sharing printers and files with FiOS? I have run in to several problems. I have three desktops running XP Home. Main machine set to share a specific file and a printer. One satelite machine can see printer, but sometimes it shows as available, sometimes not. It can not see file at all, and when I try to access the machine in my network it says I do not have access to the server. Other satelite machine can not see printer or file at all. I am wondering is this has got something to do with the dynamic IP address?
Second question. FiOS email sucks. Interface is horrible. I declined MSN or Yahoo on install, wanting to see what the Verizon interface looked like. Now it seems almost impossible to sign up for Verizon Yahoo. Does anyone use Verizon Yahoo and what is your experience? I see info on requirements of 125mb of hard disk space. Why? What do they have to download to your system in order to simply use the Yahoo email interface?
thanks
if you want verizon yahoo! go to…verizon.net/getyahoo, its not brain surgery
Well this may not have been the site that “FIOS on December 16th, 2006 at 10:39 AM” was looking for (Probably a fios sales rep, notice no name on the post) but it WAS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. This is EXACTLY what I wanted to see: REAL People with REAL Opinions regarding FIOS. I have taken heed and WILL NOT GET VERIZON FIOS. I have learned from your pain and a little of my own. I had lots of problems with Verizon in the past before FIOS and left them for Cable (TV, Phone, Internet) but thought that they may have gotten it correct, and that this service may be the better deal. From what I have read here BOY WAS I WRONG. They have not changed one bit. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, to EVERONE that posted comments here YOU HAVE SAVED ME FROM THE VERIZON FIOS HELL. I owe you all a debt of gratitude and hope you all win the class action suit that seems to be looming over Verizon after having read these posts.
Regards
Beware!!!! I had fios installed in my home. I asked their rep if the monthly price will ever go up. She said NO! If you have fios INSTALLED NOW THE PRICE WILL ALWAYS BE 29.95 a month. Now they already raised the price twice and I’m stuck with it. Since when can a company change a contract when ever they feel like it! Their wireless phone service is even more of a rip off!!!
Wow, amazing Airing of the Grievances here.
My experience with FiOS so far has been very different (as in good). We switched over TV, Internet and phone service from Brighthouse, and I blogged about it in three installments. You can work backwards from this post if you’re interested:
http://www.palmball.com/palmball/2007/02/from_brighthous_1.html
FIOS lies… 5mb/s download and 2mb/s upload? I’ve done multiple tests. The speakeasy.com test and other testers like it are bull. They say im getting 5mb down and 2mb up but if I download anything I am capped at 630kb/s. I’ve tested on multiple servers, and have had 6 simultaneous downloads from 6 different servers… and the bandwidth just gets split up to around 630kb/s. I tested my upload with a friend on his cable connection and he could only download from me at 150kb/s. Still faster than cable but Verizon lies big time.
Here’s a new FIOS story:
We’ve had service for less than a week. Every day at 7:30 p.m. the battery back up box alarms goes off and won’t stop. I call Verizon and they tell me it’s my electrical outlet the tech plugged the box into. Well everything else works on that outlet. So I try another outlet and the alarm goes off again like clockwork at 7:30. They say it is my problem and I need to hire an electrician. I tell them I want to get rid of it if they don’t fix it for free.
Also, my phone line now cuts off if someone else in the house picks up the phone. And it sounds like I am talking in tin can on a phone that used work just fine. Each time we pick up any phone, we hear a metal ka-chink sound. I just called Time Warner Road Runner and asked them not to come by and retrieve the router. I also told them to turn my service back on. I am not impressed with FIOS so far. My cable lines are old and the service goes down, but they don’t tell me to hire an electrician to fix their problem.
Chris on February 25th, 2007 at 2:41 PM – #
You do realize that 5mbit down is about 630kb/s, right?. You are getting exactly what they are promising. Educate yourself before complaining.
Bait & Switch— I called to order Verizon Fios TV at there advertised rate of $42.00 a month. After all arrangements were made for the FiOS TV (programs & receivers etc.) I am told I also have to purchase there FIOS Internet service and pay more than double what I am paying now. If I don’t upgrade to their FIOS Internet I cannot have there FIOS television offer. Is that bait & switch or what? Are there any class action suits or authorities to contact regarding this ripoff?
I signed up for fios in january, coming from Cablevision. So far TV quality is as good or better than cablevision (fios does have a few more channels) and I defenitly like the fios guide system more since it doesnt take 5 minutes to load up. Internet speed is amazing- always consistant around 10/2 , but not a huge improvement over optimum online with my package. I decided on using sunrocket voice over ip phone as I had perfect reliability using Voip with optimum. Unfortunately I’ve had some problems with verizon here. Fios handles the bandwith/voice quality excellent- even with faxing. the problem lies with the actiontec router verizon requires you to put in front of your internet devices, because it also handle’s Fios’ TV Guide and On Demand service. I turned on port forwarding but some protocols or UDP packets are still being blocked causing me to miss some incoming calls. I called verizon today and they suggested putting my Adapter in the DMZ so that all traffic should get through. I will see how that works. If that doesnt work then Verizon will have FORCED me to buy their phone service if reasonably priced, or to go back to cablevision (who offered me a GREAT retention deal to stay after fios was already installed), all because i cant put my ATA in front of the router
We’ve had the FIOS service for about 2 months now. Definitely faster and less problematic than the cable internet service through comcast. We have the lowest grade service and the support has been fine. Our service was installed during winter freeze, so we had a cable laying over the snow for about a month. First warm week – they showed up and did a fine job burying the cable. The only thing we are waiting on is the ‘gift card’ reward promised for signing up – still waiting!
I’ve had FIOS since last summer and never had a problem until wednesday, March 28th, when my phone was disconnected. I never initiated any change to my service. I contacted tech support immediately and was told that a company called CTC Communications transposed a phone number to be switched to another provider and disconnected my service by mistake, without any authorization from me. After several calls to tech support with no results, I escalated the problem to a supervisor on saturday, March 31st. He told me that the problem would be resolved within the hour. It is now sunday, April 1st (I know, April fools day), and I still have no phone service. I realize that getting anything resolved on a weekend is probably impossible, so I will resume my battle tomorrow morning. The reps I have dealt with so far told me that CTC Communications terminated my service, and Verizon can’t turn it back on. What? Can somebody out there explain to me why an error on their part can’t be corrected within 5 days?
I got my service on Feb 19th and thats when it all started. This is the worse service I have ever had. My internet is 5/2 and it is worthless. My DSL worked much better. My tv had alot of pixelation and my phone line had alot of interruption. Of course I called at least once a week or more and they said bc it is fios there should be no interruption. Well my internet was the main problem it was so intermittent. Called helpdesk and they say its my computer and on there side its fine. Not only that they send you to helpdesk in some foreign country and you can barely understand them and they are very inpatient. They sent 2 techs out and they changed out the ONT box, splitters, everything you can think of. Still doesnt work, to prove that, the techs laptops werent working either. So obviously it isnt my computer. They want to send another tech out but I am cancelling. Why am I paying for internet that doesnt even work!!!!
I just switched to Verizon FIOS TV last week and much to my dismay, the guide and remote are attrocious. When I am at the guide screen I am not able to jump a day forward to see what’s going to be on. Instead I have to scroll forward 24 hours!! What a pain. God forbid if I want to see what’s on in a week from now. I would have to scroll through 168 hours!! I’ve called Verizon tech support and they told me that it was a problem with the new remote they are using. I told them to send me the old remote then. They wouldn’t. Whoever took that feature away obviously doesn’t watch TV. They told me the problem should be fixed in about a month’s time.
hit the fastfoward button while in guide. will jump a day with each push.
I hit my first FIOS Snag. I switched from directv which had 24/7 service open. I called Sat night to have HBO turned up for Sopranos. They told me I could only make changes during business hours. They then called me back to say that there was after-hours support. I called – waited on hold for an hour, and then was told that it takes 2 days to turn up service. I guess there is a service difference.
When I got fios I added the 40+ channel movie package and was told it could take up to 24 hours but it was on within 10 minutes. By the way I added it at about 9:30 pm on a weekday. (still experiencing some issue with sunrocket, though im trying everything with the router to make it work since Verizon is just waiting to take my money for their POTS)
I had Sunrocket VOIP with Comcast and had Verizon FIOS installed about a month ago. The issue with the Actiontec router/modem can be easily remedied. First you must get into the Actiontec settings through your computer and get the latest firmware upgrade. Believe it or not, the router that Verizon installed did not have the latest firmware. Once that has been installed, then you get back into the settings tabbed Protocols and in there you will see port settings for many different things … just scroll down to the Sunrocket ones… click the box…and restart the Actiontec by unplugging and plugging back in… and your problems should be solved. Mine works flawlessly now.
I had fios installed last week and have had trouble opening my garage door ever since. I just found your site and read a comment that this problem was mentioned in a post from November of 2006. Unfortunately the customer service people have never heard of the interference issue before today. (or so they tell me) The concept of shielding the rectifier seems lost on them.
Hi, I just recently got Fios Installed on the 6th of June and I can’t find billing information anywhere for Fios Tv, only my internet bill. I dont have verizon home phone service, and I dont know how to be able to view my bill. I just got charged 134 dollars to my bank account and my service is supposed to be $107 dollars regularly, but I got the first month of interet free so it should be more like 80 dollars.
I have Verizon FiOS 20/5 internet (love it) 2 landlines (copper gone LOVE IT! crystal clear) and FiOS TV Works GREAT.
Only issue, their BILLING. They haven’t bundled it in 4 months, they don’t call back when they say they will SO I spoke to a local newspaper report doing an article on technology. I explained honestly all of the above. The article will be in the paper a week from Sunday. I don’t think Verizon is going to be happy and the reporter heard the same problem repeatedly. 3 separate bills NO 94.99 bundle.
If you can have FiOS GRAB IT, it never falters. If you want DSL instead of FiOS you’re odd IMO 🙂
Enjoy it and givem he11 for their billing!
Female Geek
I just started FIOS service. My problems is that I can not get the outgoing server to work with Netscape emial. Verizon does not support Netscape and can not help. Does anybody have any suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Yes, Verizon billing is a mess since they started to merge their billing systems together. In April, they let their Discover/Novus authorization lapse (as told to me by Discover) so my credit card autopay bounced. I called Verizon, they had me setup on the “My Account” login which was what we’re supposed to migrate to. Support said my card info was also transferred, but it was never billed. I had to manually pay online in May(two month’s bills). I set up another card for autopay, since Discover was not a card option anymore. In June, autopay didn’t go through, and I didn’t notice until after the end of the month when the credit card bill came in. I paid it at the first of July, then they suspended my email. Called Verizon, found out after 4 hours they still take Discover, but that my data never got pushed through to the back end systems that handle the autopay. My account summary page has always displayed that I’m enrolled in autopay, so it’s not like I wasn’t signed up. Today, they suspended my FiosTV, so now I have to call back tomorrow to get it fixed.
WOW! yes, verizon’s billing & verizon central suck giant purple rocks! & with a huge ‘tude too!
got Fios ph & internet last Aug. was told i was getting 1.5 mb. turns out i had 5 mb. if that’s true, i am so NOT impressed at all. also tried to screw me with monthly prices. i screamed long & loud & got the credit AND the correct price!
had a problem with comcast cable tv re:HBO so decided to switch to Fios. the tech had his fly open the whole time. he took the wireless router to the basement for no reason at all & it’s hanging from it’s coax. not even attached to wall. again also problem with monthly rate & they tried to charge me $50 for something i never got.
now i have a fairly new 32″ lcd, hd-ready tv (oct, 2006) & have had NO problems with it that weren’t cable caused. as soon as fios was hooked up, the tv’s green “on” button never turned off. a cpl channels started freezing. then tv intermittently stopped holding it’s place from night when i turned it off to am when it turned it on. it lost which a/v connection it was supposed to be at, tv would suddenly just shut down for any length of time it felt like, then turn back on. called tv manufacturer & the nasty tech said it was probably the tv. verizon agreed but agreed to send a new dvr. the techs that came out only wanted to change remotes!
finally had enuff last week & sent tv to a warranty repair guy to be diagnosed. have a much older tv hooked up now & not one problem. not one!
that’s my story. verizon billing is The worst! their supervisors aren’t much better. i refuse to talk to any of them on the phone. i make them put all in writing so there is no he said/she said. boy, do they hate that! but i am just ignorant to them enuff to get what they owe me! that’s what it takes with them.
good luck to all.
My Fios install has been a nightmare. After the install was completed, that evening I noticed a small leak in my basement. Turns out the idiot tech broke a pipe that was connected to my sump pump. After waiting around for a 2ND DAY–someone finally showed up at 3:30 pm the next day (even though where the boxes were located was a fire hazard being near the water – leak was behind the boxes). He was rude from the minute he walked in the door – everything I said was “it can’t be.” After he and his manager inspected it and determine I was correct – DUH!, they sent out a plumber to fix it the next day which they paid for. Now I’m having to track them down again to fix the dry wall that was knocked away to get to the pipe. So will be at least 2 more days away from work to wait for a dry wall person and then a tech to come and re-install the boxes. Believe me, when the bill comes in I am not paying the install charges – they will get an extremely nasty letter (p.s. be careful if your wireless telephone is on the same frequency as your wireless internet – when you answer the phone it will knock you off – easy fix but frustrating the first day). If I had it to do all over again, I would go back to Directv!
Thanks.
I understand my install went rather smoothly compared to some of your installs. After about 4 hours I was left with the best standard and hd picture I have ever seen. Also, the 20/5mbps service is so much faster than cable was. I just love the technology they are bringing. Only problem I had was with my garage door opener but was able to fix. Thanks.
wow….I have no idea why many of you guys have problems with Verizon Fios..But I have none. Maybe you guys are rude to them or never their to observe them when they install, But I had no problems. Ive had it for about 6mths. Guess what? no problems. The closest thing I have a problem with it is that I cannot connect my Nintendo DS, which isnt a big issue. No disconnection, no loss of power, no stupid issue…Works amazing. I would recommend Verizon Fios to anyone. And Im paying 29 per mth for 6 mths. Talk about cheap.
Just had FIOS installed over the weekend. I was perpared for an all day installation but my tech finished up in just over 3 hours. I’d read what was would be required for the installation, and had a nice site already staked out for the battery backup this saved a lot of time. I also have fresh COAX run throughout the home that they could tie into and this again saved time.
I love the the service so far. My television picture is much better then my Comcast digital cable picture was. The on screen guide from Verizon is cleaner and faster. Comcast did have better free content on their on-demand channel. My phone service is working well and internet is on par with the basic Comcast service for speed. One note on the internet service with Comcast. Over the last 2 1/2 years we would exerienced a serious slowdown in the internet through put speeds everyday from about 3:00pm – 5:00pm. Sometimes it would clearup in 30 minutes most days it lasted for and hour or more. Nothing like that is occurring with our FIOS service. It’s steady and fast all day long.
I’ll be calling Verizon’s billing service later this week to check on a few things. I’ll post about my experience with that as well.
Overall the install was excellent and very professionally done and the service is living up to what they pitched us. I know we are still new to FIOS but our experience so far is very positive.
P.S.
The day before our installation for FIOS a Verizon tech showed up my door indicating that Verizon was switch my whole development over to Fiber-Optics and removing all the copper the wiring to our homes. I was to say the lease a little put off by this. Very few service companies in our area are fiber this mean Verizon will for the time being have a stranglehold in my area. That worries me because the only way to keep these companies from raping their customers is force them to compete with one another. Just thought I’d shared this so that anyone else in a FIOS wired developement could keep their eyes open for this tactic from Verizon.
We recently got Verizon FIOS triple play and having issues which 3 techs can’t seem to fix. First FIOS Phone:
Calls sound like I’m talking into a tin can. Horrible echo and eventually the call drops.
FIOS TV:
while scrolling through On Demand menu things will freeze up and then TV shuts off. FIOS tech while here working on phone issue saw TV just shut off but his answer was “can’t figure it out” WHAT??? Isn’t that his freakin’ job?
The only thing that’s working good is their internet service. Any advice?
I am in Ventura County, CA. I swallowed the FIOS bait in July. I was previously paying 157.00 a month for : Direct TV w/HBO, DSL, and Freedom Essentials. The FIOS telemarketers were hawking the 3 services combined minus (including 100 times faster internet) for 99.99 (HBO an extra 15.99, the DVR box 12.99). Sounded great so I went for it. Installer came out and did his thing. FAST internet !! TV is OK although I like DirectTV better. Phone is same, no biggie. Here’s where the fun starts. First bill : 271.00 !! When I called, the Verizon rep told me it will take a billing cycle or two to get discounted. So I gritted my teeth and paid the swollen amount. Now a new bill came in for 183.99 !! Has anyone else been suckered in this mess. I signed 2 year contract (idiot). Has anyone else been stuck with bills like this ? Is there anyway to get out of these contracts ?
I had verizon install FIOS on 09/21
Switched from Comcast (way to $$).
2 Techs came all day on friday & saturday.
For them it’s a “Order issue”.
I spended my entire week-end on the phone…
Now it’s monday the 24th, STILL NOT WORKING.
I cannot received my subscribed package.
Tech support & customer support iw horrible, I am switching back to Comcast.
At leat it’s working…
I have not read the entire strand so If I am being repetitious forgive me. To any who has experienced no dial tone with fios. With my experience i have noticed that some phones with fios when taken off the hook to place a call there isn’t dial tone, if this happens try dialing the number anyway and see if the call will be placed. if you are dialing a 1-800 number then just dial “800” instead of “1-800” only when you experience no dial tone. the fios is sometimes faked out when a phone has been taken off the hook and the click the phone is making when this is happening is being understood by the fios as a “1” kind of like the old pulse dial phones. this is verizons problem and can be intermittent when receiving updates provided by verizon. so when they tell you to get a new phone that is not necessarily the solution. this problem is only evident with certain types of phones.
I have had a few minor issues with the service, but the real problem was billing. I was overcharged for the first two months. After waining for a credit that never came, I called and got a rep who credited the money back. He made it clear that Verizon would not credit the discount for the first few months unless the customer calls and complains. Watch you bill!
I’m very happy with the Internet and the TV has never looked better but my phone always blips to tell me there is a voicemail regardless of weather or not there actually is one. No Big Deal.
My Big gripe is the with the billing. I signed on for the $94.99 per month bundle and have just recieved my third bill for the full amount with no discount applied.
I cannot get anyone on the phone and the automated help always sends me to the message “the discount may take time to show on your bill” ..as if this is anything but a badly veiled attempt to squeeze more money out of the consumer.
Pretty frustrating.
I cant believe most of these comments. I thought they were going to address FIOS issues. Only about 10% of the comments actually address FIOS. The others are discussing issues you have with their own internal network configurations and/or peripheral hardware choices. I have FIOS. I like it. It’s faster than the DSL I left behind. DHCP is no problem with anything I need to do. If you want to host servers or services purchse the business class and get a static IP.
Marvin, I assume you have had this installed for at least 15 minutes before you wrote your note.
All Fios problems are related incase you are unaware.
Problem resolution is much more efficient if the customer is informed at a level they understand. This is the responibility of the vendor or ISP provider.
I am a computer professional and have been servicing home clients for over 20 years.
I deal with a number of service providers and Verizon is by far the most inept bunch of boobs. Their customer service people are sitting in front of a screen with a data base of FAQ’s. This is where they get their “solutions” that they read literally to you over the phone. And, you are lucky if you get someone whose primary language is English. I am not against people from other backgrounds working in customer service, but they should be able to speak, listen and act concisely. When you ask to be moved up to the next level of support, they try to tell you that there is none!
A most recent case is where their installers did some home wiring from the router to a room outlet, and just after 1 year, the internet disappeared.
I checked the router – working fine – I connected a laptop to the outlet – NADA – I connected the laptop to the router – OK.
I called Verizon back and told them that the issue was the wiring. The said that they do not warranty the wiring beyond 90 days. I asked why the wiring, installed only 12 months ago, was brittle and was not even CAT 5. I said it looked old and as though they had taken some old wire removed from a previous job and used it there. They had nothing to say.
I ran a new wire and all was fine.
I felt bad for the client – a senior citizen, and did not charge for the 1/2 hour work it to to solve her problem. I shudder to think of what Verizon would have charged.
Then, they had the nerve to call the customer to see if they were satisfied with the service resolution.
Do not think that they are responsible to anyone including the FCC
By the way, if you want to bypass their voicemail purgatory, just say “AGENT” for your first verbal response after entering the account number. This will place you in the “Next Agent” queue which will save about 20 minutes on a typical 1 hour or more wait.
I’m mystified about all the issues I read about here, a fair amount of them appear to be self-inflicted wounds.
I have had FiOS broadband for over a year, and the TV for a couple of months.
My outages have been two in over a year.
One happened when a tree took the lines down up the street. I didn’t really count that as an outage, since I also lost power and I probably wouldn’t have been using the broadband anyway. 🙂
The second outage, which wasn’t really an outage, was the Actiontec router suddenly became flaky. I figured out that the cooler weather was the issue, so I called for a replacement and tossed towel over the old one to keep it warm. It worked just fine until the replacement arrived. Although I had to spend some time chasing it down, it never failed outright, just slowed the uploads a bunch for a couple of days.
The speed of the 15/2 service always clocks in at 15/1.8 day or night, morning or afternoon. It beats the pants off Comcast for both reliability and speed. The TV service has much better HD quality than Comcast, not to mention more reliable.
My issue with verizon has bsically been with billing and long waits on the phone to customer service. I only have ph and internet and had scheduled for tv service but thought better of it. When I canceled the appointment with them, they came out anyway, tried to install fios tv anyway.
Verizon wireless is also a big problem. Dishonesty is the biggest problem. I never got my $25 for one bill service. There has been may surprises with the bill. I agreeed to $39. now paying $79. last bill $400. This is due to half truths and misleading information. I can’t do business with crooks.
Check Pricing from different sources. My last offer from Verizon was 84.99 a month for all three service PLUS you get either a credit of 200 dollars or a 19 inch HD TV. Sounds like a Bait and switch but we will see. It is being installed as I write this.
I got all three services installed 2 days ago and the picture on the TV and the Internet speed of 20/20 is amazing.
Before coming to Verizon I had Optonline. Optonline had the best serice department and tech support I have ever encountered, but I left because the speeds I wanted are
unavailable with cable at this time.
The experince I have had in the last two days with Verizon is probably one of the worst experiences I have ever encountered with any Billing/Custome Service/ Technical support. Here ar ethe problems I encountered:
When calling technical support, you hold for about 45 miniutes, then you hear a quick busy sigal then phone hangs up. You try again and this time you request a call back. Approx 10 miniutes later I recieve a call back and it verifys my name is Matt, I respond yes and the phone gets a quick busy signal then hangs up. When you finally get through to them, they are knowegable and helpful. But I was too steamed up from it taking 3 hours to contact someone.
When I called the Billing/ Provisioning number, things got bad to worse. They were helpful at first with the issues of my order being incorrect, however NO ONE would take ownership of the issues and my calls were transferred only to be disconnected by Verizon. This was absolutly unacceptable, especially since I was a new customer only 1 day prior. No one seemed to care. EVeryone I spoke with claimed there were 50to 75 clals in their call que and that it was extreamly busy and also there are no managers available for me to speak with. Also the contact I had would not speak to me becasue her 1/2 hour of call back time was used up and her co-worker apologized.
When I called the Sales Dept they seemed very concered and I recieved the floor Managers anme and her managers name and promised a call back in about an hour. Four hours later still NO call back. I called back and tracked down supervisor I spoke with earlier but refused to talk to me, she had a co-worker tell me nothing shae can do, and that she was sorry.
They scheduled a tech to come out between 10 and 2pm the following day. I called at 3 pm to see where he was they said the time slotted was 10-4 not 10-2, so at 4:30 I called to check on why he wasnt there they told me truck is loaded and tech is on his way. AT 6pm I called to say tech never showed, they claimed it was a missed call and the ticket was never assigned to a tech. AMAZING!!!
Finally when I called to cancel for the final time and would not budge 14 hours later. I recieved the help I needed, and the problems have been resolved.
Have dealing with over priced Comcast, I switched to Verizon Dial-up – naturally it’s too slow. When I heard that Verizon FIOS was available in my area I decided to sign up for it, the end result: One line in the house isn’t working, I still have dial up, cannot access my information on-line and spent countless hours trying to reach Verizon both on-line using dial-up and over the phone. I feel like I’ve been scammed and now that I’ve realized it, I’ve returned to confront the culprit only to find that he took the money and ran.
Verizon isn’t worth the trouble.
I signed up for the Verizon triple-play (phone, internet, FIOS). The first problem was the installer cut my Comcast high speed internet cable while installing the FIOS cables (October 8). Initially Verizon tech support told me that there was nothing they could do as it was Comcast equipment (they can break it but they can’t fix it). I asked that they advance the installation of FIOS (originally scheduled for Oct 27) so that my wife who works from home could get e-mail. Initially they told me that the installer would show up that Wednesday (Oct 10), and I waited all day for the installer, but he did not show up. I called back the following day and complained to a supervisor, who told me that they could not advance the installation date. After repeated complaints they finally agreed to schedule an installation for Oct 15, and to provide me with one month of free service as compensation for my trouble. The installer arrived Monday (Oct 15) as scheduled, and did a very thorough job with the installation. He was professional and very considerate. I had been enjoying the FIOS TV since then, until I received my first bill today. I was expecting a zero bill, since I had been promised one month free and my normal bill should be about $120, $99 for the FIOS plus $12.12 for the DVR plus fees and taxes. Instead the bill is for $212.73. It seems as if they charged me for separate services instead of the bundled service. I called the customer support line to correct this, and spent 45 minutes on the phone. I was transferred from one CSR to another, speaking to a total of four CSRs with no resolution, and in each case being put into a queue to speak to the next. When I asked to speak to a billing supervisor I was put in yet another queue then informed by an automated system that due to high call volume my call was being terminated. This seems to be indicative of the problems that people have with Verizon customer service in Maryland, and I may yet another person forwarding my complaints to the Maryland PSC.
More of a question. I have FIOS in Mass…. because I’m concerned about saftey etc… my IP address shows the town Im in when I do a lookup on it. I’m not sure if it’s because each town shows on the ip address or if it’s the central hub/place for Fios.. I know its different from when I had regular Verison. Does Fios have a central location in Mass or does it actually show the town you live in?
Ok,
Here in Portland Oregon FIOS TV was release a couple weeks ago. I have had FIOS interent for several months and have liked it. As soon as the TV version was available I called in and spoke to a rep. I spoke with him for an hour to make sure everything was going to right.
Here is what he told me;
I get three free connects. Any more then that and I would have to pay for the connection. Ok, why they would not want me to have the best experience in beyond me. Then I was informed that I need a converter box (I currently do not need one for my coaxial cable) to see the digital signals. So for my main TV I would get the free box but the other 2 TV’s would not need a box and I would only be able to see the first 99 channels. That is fine. So the tech sows up. First he smells to high heaven of cigarette smoke. He then informs me that “no sir, sorry your were misinformed, in order to see any FIOS TV, you need a cable box on EVERY TV.” So this means that my TV in the kitchen that hangs from the wall needs a box, the TV in the bedroom needs a box and of course the TV in the living room needs a box. And of course, all this means that I will need to pay to rent an ugly box to sit on my kitchen counter. I DON”T THINK SO. I did not get the FIOS TV. And as I sit and type this out, I have been on hold with verizon “customer service” for 27.52 minutes. oh, and did I mention their hold commercials are broken? It goes in and out like it is not tunned in.
I just PAID for fios and now my telephone has no message recall. If you call me you will hear the words “leave a message at the tone” but when I get home I can’t retreive those messages. So if anyone out there wishes to call me names (dirty, that is) do it now. I won’t be able to identify you.
Love and kisses,
Chuck.
I had FIOS installed a couple of months ago as an upgrade from 768 kbs DSL. It was only 5 bucks a month more go to 5mbs with Freedom for Calling and Internet–really a no brainer. I was impressed with the candor and knowledge of the FIOS department as well as their attention to customer detail–even calling on Sunday (a real live person) to make sure I had 48 hours reminder of my Tuesday install. The installer was real easy to deal with and deferred to my wishes on wire and router locations. I did pull a fish through the wall to where I wanted the wiring since Verizon is quite clear on that being extra, but the tech had no problem with running the cable with the pre-work I did.
My only complaint–and I didn’t even know there was anything that could be done about it–is that my garage door opener range is cut to about 10% of what it was before the install. Everything is mounted in my garage about 6 feet from my garage door openers radio controls so it’s not too hard to imagine what’s causing the interference. Someone mentioned to call Verizon and have them come out and shield the battery charger. Do you know how I could possibly do that myself? I’m pretty handy so if I knew what to shield and what to use to do it I could probably handle it.
Otherwise, I’m completely satisfied with my FIOS experience. I feel like they treated me like a highly valued customer and I do, in fact, recommend it when the occasion arises. I’m still waiting for FIOS television in Stoughton, MA and when it arrives I’ll probably subscribe to that too.
Verizon is a horrible company. I have Fios internet -thank god I didn’t get “the bundle package”. My bill is a diffrerent amount each month. You have to have automatic withdraw from your credit card each month-they do not bill you. I dont have a house phone just a cell phone they can never locate me by that number because “it’s cellular”. Ridiculous right? My cell is verizon. I called the billing dept one day woman answered who was lazy & 1 word sentences. She put me on hold for 10 minutes then put me back in there Que, phone rang to another rep. I asked for my account number since they could never find me by my phone number and the rep denied to give it to me saying “how do I know it’s really you”. I said it’s the INTERNET -give me a break. I hate verizon and when my contract is up in April I’m going to call to cancel my service to hell with them
Verizon sucks!. We should not be consumers of these big corp assholes
Verizon Fios is NOT WORTH $45.99 a month (includes $5.99 or $4.99 “protection plan”). DO NOT BUY IT -totally not worth it
Well – here I sit for the second day – waiting for a Verizon fios guy to come to install the triple-play. As the commercials say “you should see his truck”, well – I would like to see his truck come down my driveway.
After the 6th call in to Verizon – we were just told — once again – our tech guy called out.
We are going to call on Monday and cancel our order. I figure if they dont care about getting here to install fios – they certainly will not worry about the service that they provide after the install.
I think we need to re-think our whole verizon experience and maybe just go to cell phones.
I have had Fios for about a year and half and never had a problem with the service. My install was smooth, never had any interuptions in service, my land line phone works fine, I love it. I’m waiting for Fios TV to become available in my area, then I can say bye bye to Time Warner for good!
My experiences were so bad (Lost Order, Took over my phone Service, Disconnected my phone [going on 28 days no]) that I created a blog to recount my whole story. Everyone has different experiences but mine was pretty horrific.
http://www.verizon-fios-sucks.com
Thats what you get for trying fios..cable high speed is way better than fios. having to deal with contracts and nonsense..for all those that got screwed by verizon thats what you get..
I have had fios tv since last summer. This week they installed the new giude and it SUCKs. It its too big it makes the picture small while you are looking to see what is on next. It also only lets you see 1 1.2 hours of time. You cannot delete the channels you Never watch from the guide list. It jumps 1 hours at a time thru the guide making it hard to record on the 1/2 hour marks. They seem to be promoting the channel logo more then anything. Lots of dead space on the screen. WANT OLD PROGRAMMING GUIDE BACK OR THE CHOICE if not they are as bad as comcast
FIOS installation was smooth and professional – less than 3 hours – I did prep the ‘mounting area’ and provided outlet and indoor coax.
They still don’t have their billing act together – landline and FIOS appear to be different divisions and they can’t give the $25 credit for all phones on one line as a result of my simultaneously doing the merge with getting FIOS – they claim they need to physically take the two phone lines down at their end – then merge them in order to give me one bill and the #25. They claim I will get one bill, and the $25 credit – eventually.
Only found this site today – unfortunately – otherwise I might have stayed with Comcast. I bought the Verizon triple bundle of internet phone and TV. All three services have been fine and Tech Support was Great – until recently. Today, I called Tech Support to find out why I could not watch one channel while recording another on my VCR – not wanting to pay extra rental fee for their DVR Set Top Box. This is something that used to be easy with Comcast. The Tech, reached by saying AGENT as soon as I could, did not understand the problem – obviously had no practical experience and inadequate training. He told me very simplistically how to cable it up and that was all there was to it – I said Yes that is how it is cabled, just like for Comcast – but it does not work – I can only record what is being watched.
After five minutes he came back and said well it should work and told me to go to the same source he was using and type in “how to record one channel while watching another” = into the Google Search Box !!!
I now think I have some insight into the problem with inability to watch one channel and record another. Basically the Verizon FIOS channels above 50 are different, either in frequency or type of signal. or both, from the analog TV sets channels while Comcast’s are not – so you have to go through the STB to decode them. Maybe you don’t have to use the Verizon (Motorola 82000 I think) STB hopefully. Note that Verizon FIOS channels through 50 are “in the clear’ in other words these are able to be viewed with the TV setrs channel tuner – Oh, but, these channels only include the networks and a very few others.
At the moment I am happy with the performance of all three sevices, but may not be so happy with the Internet when I get a faster computer than this 300 MHz slowpoke.
I am not happy with today’s tech support which mirrors almost all of the previous messages (except for the Verizon shills)
I am not happy with what I believe to be rebooting of my computer which is suspected to be by Verizon who frequently downloads Gobs of new software without my having any say about it.
So, if performance degrades as well, Comcast here I come.
I feel much better now
HTH someone else
Our installation went well. Cable is superior to Time Warner Cable. Internet is fine. Unable to get call waiting unless connected to Verizon. They suggested that I buy new phones (Not Good). How can I know which new phones work with the FIOS system. I was promised a 19″ flat screen TV, the service tech said that he did not bring. Thus far there has been no instructions for obtaining the promised TV. Customer service is a real pain.
I had FiOS internet installed at my residence on 1/18/2008. My PC is an HP Pavilion a6152n and is about 5 months old and runs Windows Vista. The PC is hardwired into the router. The tech who installed it was very knowledgeable. . my internet worked for two (2) days and one day after being on the internet, I closed the connection, powered off the computer and since Sunday afternoon around 3:00 PM EST, my internet has not worked since. Verizon is now telling me (after rebooting the router which I believe is an Actiontec’s model MI-424-WR, resetting the router, sending out a field tech who in my mind was so UNDER QUALIFIED, disabling any of the firewalls that I had running) is telling me their equipment service is working fine, IT IS MY COMPUTER AT FAULT. Unfortunately, my expectations are very low at the present with Verizon FiOS Technical Support, there appear to be limited with what they offer in terms of possible compatibility issues with some operating systems and maybe configuration that may affect FiOS.
ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCE THIS?? I find it hard to believe that after getting the internet up and running for 2 days, now all of a sudden there is something wrong with the PC.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I decided to get FIOS because the idea of having phone, TV, and internet with one carrier sounded like a deal and I would get great TV with many channels. I called and set up the appointment and informed the sales staff that I had DSL and NO CABLE TV. That’s right–I only get local broadcast off of an attic antenna and, since I’m not a TV hound, have been happy with the arrangement (I also travel with the money I save from my antenna). Well, after living in the dark ages for years and being relatively happy, I decided to take the FIOS plunge. The installer came out and moved like a snail. He kept asking me where my cable hookup was and I kept telling him I didn’t have one. He was not happy with that response, because he was hoping cable had performed all the internal wiring for him and he would just hook up to it and be on his way. Then he went into the attic to look at the antenna (of course, digging the ladder out of the truck did not make him happy either). He couldn’t figure out how the antenna was hooked up to two TVs. I said it was spliced and went to both TVs. Then he mumbled something about hooking up FIOS using the antenna cable but only to one TV and even then I would lose channels and get “pixel” issues. When I balked at that, he said he could hook up in the basement by running cable along the baseboards (visible) poking a hole in the siding to take it outside, running it outside, and poking a hole in the other side of the house to come back in and run along the baseboards on the other side of the house. This did not sound reasonable to me. Then he mumbled something about moving the TV in the second floor family room into the kitchen so he could hook it up. Give me a break! Needless to say, I sent him away saying I would reschedule. Now I’ve got a private contractor coming in to advise me of how the wiring can be accomplished without punching holes and running visible cables everywhere. This process has been frustrating and I’m still not done.
Hearing all of these stories is making me consider cancelling my order. After much pondering and deliberation I figured that $109 per month would be worth it to me for the purpose of replacing my current phone setup even if the internet and TV were crappy. But now I am seeing that there have been issues with the phone service AND the billing. Given what I pay Comcast every month, I certainly can’t see paying more to verizon.
And when they say that you can’t go back to the copper line, is it because they purposely rip out the copper line or use it as a pull line for the fiber? If I go with FIOS anyway, I think I will keep a business line on the copper side of things just so they don’t take it away from me. But I am close to being convinced that going with FIOS is a bad idea.
Let me tell you about my nightmare with Verizon FIOS … three months and still going. Will try to make a long story short. When Verizon started marketing and installing FIOS, I had so much trouble with my phone service and nothing they did fixed it. I was told nothing more could be done and would have to go to FIOS. A couple of the repair people confirmed what I already knew…Verizon had millions invested in FIOS and were no longer concerned about copper. Reluctantly I got FIOS and was relatively pleased … computer faster, DirectTV great and no longer problems with phone service. However couple months later my previous cable company came along and offered to buy me out of my contract with Verizon and a better monthly rate. Since I felt I was forced into FIOS and wanted to get back at Verizon, I jumped on it. That’s when my nightmare began. I requested to keep my Verizon phone #, so legally I had to wait five days for release. Five days turned into over a month. Verizon gave both Cablevision and me the run-around. When Cablevision would go to port my line, Verizon would say I had a pending charge on my account. When I called they would tell me my account was fine and phone # had been released. This went on for about a month. Finally on Nov. 20th my phone line was finally ported to Cablevision…So I thought. Same day I was getting Cablevision, my sister who looks in apartment next door got FIOS. From that day on she was unable to call me from her home phone. My phone would not ring and her calls would go directly to voice mail. When I checked my voice mail her messages were not there. For a month we called Verizon and Cablevision trying to solve the mystery. Each blamed the other. After many calls to Verizon, my sister got a rude agent (anonymous can relate to this.) He told her that they had done all they could do,the problem was with Cablevision, he was closing the ticket and if she sued she wouldn’t get anything and hung up. She never once mentioned a word about suing. I called Cablevision and after being transferred so many times, I finally got a young man that told me the problem …Verizon had not released the number entirely. Verizon still had a line with my phone #. All calls from Verizon customers were going to my old Verizon voice mail. I called that number and all of my sister’s messages were there. I asked Verizon to take care of it. On Jan. 4 I came home and had no phone service. I find out later instead of fixing the problem, Verizon took back my phone #. Now Cablevision couldn’t provide me service on that phone #. I had to reinstate my account with Verizon and then if I wanted to transfer back to Cablevision I had to start the whole process as a new request!! I refuse to go through that nightmare again. So as of now, my phone service is back with Verizon and I’m still trying to get this mess resolved. I was told by a couple of the Cablevision people that this has happened before. Verizon makes it so difficult to transfer from their FIOS that some customers get so frustrated that they stay with Verizon… like I am. These unethical and deceitful practices need to stop. I might have to stay with Verizon for now, but I’m not staying quietly. I wrote the Board of Public Utilities and I plan to write the Verizon Executive Complaint Center and CEO. So good luck to anyone that tries to change from FIOS …hope you don’t go through my nightmare.
In regards to my January 24, 2008 posting. . .there may be an issue with some of the setting on the computer in regards to my Internet Security software (Trend Micro – PC-Cillin 2007). This has not been confirmed, however, I’ve been strategically trying to do things on computer to pinpoint the problem. It may have to do with firewall settings with Trend Micro. Anyone else run into this, where you are on the Internet, (run virus scan/update virus protection) and then close Internet window, power down the computer and then when you log back on computer, you can not log back on to the Internet. Ever since I was told to “disable” Trend Micro all together, I have not lost or been unable to get on the Internet or run into the same problem. . however I am afaid (very afraid) to try using it again.
Anybody have any feedback??
Good luck for anyone considering Verizon fios. I had a young man come to my house and sell me on the bundle. I talk to someone on the phone who arrainged a hook up date in 2 weeks. I took the day off from work to be home for it and NO ONE showed up! I called about noon and they said there was a problem with the phone part and couldnt install that day. I said why wasn’t I called and they said you should have been but didn’t know why and someone would call me to reschedule. The next morning, my phone was dead. I called Cox who I had service with and they said that Verizon had taken the number back. I called Verizon and explained what had happened. By then I was so upset I said I wanted to cancel and to give my number back to Cox. They switched me to another person and then another who managed to talk me back into going with them. After being on my cell phone for and hour, most of which was on hold, He told me his supervisor would call me within 48 hours. When I exclaimed 48 HOURS, he said maybe 36. This was on Thursday. When no call came by Saturday, I tried to call only to find out there is no one to talk to on Saturdays! So I waited until today to call (no one called on Monday) and told them I definatly wanted to cancel and to give my number back to Cox. The lady said even if we give you 10 dollars off your bill a month? I declined. I told her my husband has a pacemaker that is read electronically over the phone and we need it back ASAP. She said she would cancel and the number given back to Cox within 24 to 48 hours. Well, We’ll see. I am so frustraited and angry over this whole mess. I’ll keep you updated.
Well, Here is Feb 1st and still no phone. What a surprise. After numerous calls and emails, I am no further along than I was. I looked up the status of my order at one point and it showed as cancelled. However there was another order for phone intallation! I looked again the next day and the order for the video service was still cancelled but the phone and internet was back on schedule for Feb 4 install. I had an email telling me to call a number for someone to help me. This was day before yesterday. I called the number and got the same run around with the computer voice until it finally said we cant help you, hang up now. I emailed once again and they called me (on cell phone) this morning and put me through to a person who switched me to another person who put me on hold and was disconnected. I am currently on the phone once more on hold for about 10 minutes. I am hanging up. Does anybody have any ideas on what to do to get my phone back with Cox? I am at the end of my rope here.
i have had verizon fios for over a year in nnj, right now i am thrilled about i.i read alot of complaints about fios on this site but i have to say i must really be lucky that my service has been perfect for over a year.I just read consumer reports that verizon fios recieved and excellent rating in every caregory regarding triple play.I understand verizon is a big corporation so unfortunately there will be some people with problems,but i have to give verizon 5 out of 5 rating for there service. i am vbery happy in nnj without high prced cablevision
Verizon’s customer service has got to be the WORST. We were scheduled for an install to which the tech never showed up (McLean VA). We have talked to three reps since then, all of which told us that a supervisor would call us back that day to reschedule. No call backs, and amazingly enough the third rep actually had the gaul to tell us that we hadn’t called previously (apparently there were no notes on our record indicating that we called, so we must be wrong – go figure).
I have now been on the phone for 40 minutes trying to cancel the service that we never received (after several IVR cutoffs of “we can’t handle your request, please hang up and try again”). I really wonder who Verizon thinks is the customer???
I have phoned I have written this company… it is insulated against any and all attempts to have meaningful contacts to resolve any issues. If you have Time Warner Cable or Cablevision or DirectTV or Dish Network… KEEP IT you are better off… I have tried all but Dish Network but a friend is very satisfied with the price and quality of the image… I can live with any of the other services (especially cable) but not FIOS. firstly the picture quality was not visibly better… same as cable. The FIOS internet …VS. and the Verizon DSL is
just as fast for web browsing (I have both Macs…always fast and the best and PCs… always a good bit slower whether FIOS or DSL) Yes FIOS is somewhat faster on downloads but unless unless you are an iTunes junkie… who downloads all the time… mostly you surf and Blog and e-Mail (and $17.99 for DSL vs. about $50 (or more) for FIOS is a waste of money. Now the Verizon Freedom Phone service through the large FIOS box now permanently screwed to the outside of my garage wall (I thank you and my religious wooden shingles thank you … well now they are holy holy holy…. thanks a lot!!) .. my old phone service with Verizon was fine… this new FIOS BOX phone service has all sorts of crackle and pops in the line and an annoying low rhythmic rumble….(proximity to electrical service??) If you look at the bright side this is a plus… this way you will only make very important calls… you know like my house is on fire…. All of that disaster is nearly meaningless… YOU CAN’T BELIEVE HOW BAD THE FIOS TV IS they take 4 hours to drill holes in your garage and attach several electrical devices and backs ups… which you have to bear the energy cost on….for what… for nothing beneficial. the man and his drill works right next to the main breaker and LIPA electrical service to your entire home… if they miss with the drill you are without electricity.. no big deal right??
the young salesman who went door to door told me my ACTIVATION COSTS (ABOUT $50) and would be reimbursed either through a $200 gift certificate at Best Buy or they would give me a Sharp HD TV… my choice of bonus… that will be 5 months ago in March 2008 … and they just about don’t acknowledge I even exist as a customer when it comes to a bonus… THEY DO however ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I AM TO PAY FOR FIOS SERVICE MONTHLY. Originally, the the young door to door salesman (who has nothing except a name tag…a sales ledger and a laminated photocopy of the basic channel lineup… which you can’t keep… there is no proof or paperwork provided about the sign up bonus … just his big mouth.. be smart …. slam the door in his face!). He told me that my cost for 2 years would be $94 a month. Plus $10 for the 2 extras boxes I ordered. My bills have been out of sight for the past several months about $162 for February…. $270 for January …. and $140 for December (APPARENTLY before they really got the “SIR CHARGE” BALL FULLY ROLLING)… unlike Vonage Phone service or Cable phone service… you have about $35 dollars in extra FCC line charge etc. etc… taxes minimum each month. Now as to the FIOS picture… because it is optics as opposed to good old copper cable… there are momentary lapses… in picture and sound delivery because of the either tinny Motorola cable box can’t keep up with the optic cable or the optic cable has small imperfections along the route.. which cause sound to break up (words to be lost) and pictures to glitch out (as if you had a defect or scratch on a DVD
you were watching.) This almost never happens with cable.
NOW I HAVE SAVED THE BEST TO THE LAST… AND BELIEVE ME… YOU BETTER BE READING THIS FAR!!!!. Effective April 2008 FIOS TV WILL BE ELIMINATING ALL THE BASIC BROADCAST CHANNELS AND EVERY OTHER CHANNEL FROM THEIR TV SYSTEM UNLESS YOU HAVE A BOX.. that’s RIGHT THE 40 CHANNELS I GET ON ALL MY TVS DVD RECORDERS VCR HDTV DIGITAL SETS…AS WELL AS THE OLDER ANALOGUE TV SETS …. GET WILL ALL BE ELIMINATED …3 months AFTER I signed up and THEY PROMISED ME I WOULD HAVE THEM…THIS SEEMS TO VIOLATE THE VERY CONTRACTS WE FIOS SUBSCRIBERS SIGNED… I WOULD HOPE IT OPENS UP A CLASS ACTION AGAINST THEM. Every set whether new HDTV or not will not work without a stinking little energy wasting hot to the touch Motorola box… they won’t even display what channel you are one… and gets hot as hell to fry an egg on… I currently have to turn my Motorola 2500 box and the 6200 box off at night because they get so hot during the day of usage…(and it is WINTER IN NY STATE !!!!) … you can’t even keep your hand on top of the 6200… (I can only imagine what a hazard they will present in July!!!). If you are unlucky enough to have a Motorola 6416 HD/DVR unit that box is so hot it can almost replace your Ronco Chicken Fryer…. the 80 gig hard drive is constantly grinding away and the fan always on to dissipate the heat but it is nearly useless.. except for the motor noises it makes. Unlucky friend of mine has one and his rental rate has gone up from $12.99 a month to over $15.99 now a month… just since Nov 2007 to February 2008 !!!! How do you spell RIP OFF… oh yeah V-E-R-I-Z-O-N and the hard drive FREQUENTLY JAMS OR DOES NOT RECORD when it is more than half full. Yes Sir. Now Every TV set will need a frying energy sucking hot cable box so that will be ….6 boxes for 6 sets in my home and each box is drawing energy. Friends three of my TV sets are less than a year old…. two are less than 3 months old … yet they are incompatible with Verizon starting in April 2008. A new 32 inch HDTV Sony Bravia … no good… a new 27 inch Samsung HDTV no good…a 12 month old 37 inch Sylvania HDTV no good… according to the new rules laid down by Verizon.,,, all will need boxes in order to get even a local channel. KNOW THAT BEFORE YOU ARE AN IDIOT LIKE ME AND SIGN UP.
Oh yes, all the Motorola boxes (every make and model) work on the same remote control signal… so if your are watching something on ABC and want to DVD record something on CBS at the same time you are screwed…. the same remote controls all 6 boxes… it will shut every box off and change every channel… god help you if you push one of the 38 incorrect buttons in the dark or by accident. it is over… recording screwed. Don’t think for one second you can switch over during a commercial on ABC to see how your show on CBS is recording… YOU JUST CHANGED THE CHANNEL ON BOTH BOXES… OR SHUT BOTH BOXES OFF …and you screwed up the DVD of the show you were recording… nice… really smart folks at Verizon. Remember these stupid little Motorola VT 700 boxes don’t even have a CLOCK or LED channel display to know where you are actually on.
P.S. It should go without saying I NEVER order Pay-Per-View …or any Verizon On Demand services …I have only the basic channels USA TNT Turner Classic Movies etc…. no HBO or even Encore or Starz. Oh yes.. more good news… starting in April 2008 … I am going to have to re-cable most of my house when I switch back to Cablevision Basic TV services for under $15 bucks a month… so I can provide non-box service to 4 older TVs and 3 DVD recorders and 3 VCR… and also basic TV to my 3 New HDTV sets for PBS Local News and Network broadcasts.. at times when I don’t need Cable stations (USA whatever) and want to cool down my 3 boxes…
As for the other 3 VT 700 Motorola cable boxes …which arrived yesterday (and which won’t activate… wait till you see the set of instructions Verizon sends you to self-activate these new April Fools Day 2008 boxes by yourself.. good-luck.) … Verizon can place these somewhere conveniently to their robust anatomy. So that will push my monthly cable up to about $160.
Oh, I forgot to mention how bad their FIOS on screen guide is… it is bad… and very jittery…it can skip 10 channels ahead and you won’t be able to go back very easy… my wife CAN’T GO BACK at all ..she gave up… it is possible… but you have to me a maestro of the remote and also have a bit of luck… your fall back position is to get the guide on each channel one channel at a time… when “Sir Jitters” Guide is in use !!! NICE !!! By the time you have done that the show you wanted to see is already on 10 minutes!
We have to keep our Internet TV guides listing set to Cablevision set up because none of the regular TV listings
AOL, MSN, YAHOO you name it… NONE OF THE REGULAR WEB TV LISTINGS BOTHER TO GIVE YOU THE FIOS CABLE LINE UP… CHECK IT OUT.. perhaps that was THEIR hint not to go with Verizon FIOS? Don’t be part of a small minority that is getting screwed with FIOS. Just because I was stupid don’t means you have to be as well. Yes, I am locked into a 2 year contract with tremendous penalties if I try to discontinue FIOS service…(my local cable does not do that)… the story never ends.. but my letter does…. good-bye. And here for all these years I thought Cablevision stank… it may have a slightly moldy smell….but wait till you smell the (Metaphorical) rot called FIOS TV.
PPS: My wife just walked in from work… she told me the house was cold… sure enough it is..
I had turned off my 6200 cable box and Sylvania HDTV late last night when I went to bed…and by God I forgot to turn them on (I have these units on outlet switches… so I don’t have to unplug them) . Going to power them up now to watch Judge Judy .. have a hot cup of tea ….and enjoy my Verizon FIOS TV Fireplace.
Just found this site where I posted on here back on May 9th, 2006. Thought I’d give an update. The cable got buried a month later some time in June. They never did get my email straightened out. For almost 2 years they kept rewriting tickets to get things working right. The email accounts disappeared from my account. I tried to create them again. Guess what? It said they were already taken. Hmmm really? So I couldn’t re-create an email because I already had the email though Verizon deleted.
I use my laptop now. We hardly use a computer in the house. Fios is not like DSL. If I wanted to move a computer to another room, all I had to do was move it and take the router/modem and plug it in somewhere in the new room to the phone jack. Fios creates an internet connection where ever your computer is at the time they install it. If you ever move the computer to a new room, make sure you have a long Ethernet cable because that’s the only place you can get Internet service through the Ethernet plug they created on the wall.
there is something called a wireless router that u can use and get internet anywhere.i find it amazing the complaints on this site.jb with his long story seems just angry lol.dont u know analog is being done away with for everyone..wowwwwww amazing.so go back to cable buy there boxes instead of verizons..stupidity
Verizon Billing is the worst.
I have been going around for Months with these Morons. They first were billing me on 2 different accounts, now I am on one account but they are billing me like double what it should be…. at least 5 calls ( 1Hr) eash and for 4 months atill the same shit …
I know it don’t mean crap to Verizon, but I am almost ready to switch back to Comcast… and that’s sad.
GL verizon.
you always had better service and products .. just your people suck my ass.
Your truly
Mark Romano
You can go back to copper if you get fios. In New York atleast.
Fios Internet & TV installation back in February went fairly well … took most of the day, but the guy was nice and seemed competent. The billing issue is a completely different story. I signed up online for FIOS TV & Internet and received a confirmation with the online prices. Since I cancelled my landline, I had to provide a credit card for billing purposes. I have no idea where they came up with the amounts they are charging me, but they are nowhere near what I was quoted. I finally got them to put the Internet charges online so I can view them – they are double the price quoted. I finally (after 2 hours being bounced around to reps) got someone on the line who had me fax him the price sheet I was given. Neither he nor his supervisor had ever seen that pricing before, so they are “kicking it up the ladder” and promised to call me back. Not holding my breath. I have no idea where the TV charges are … my online account says they “can’t be displayed – check back later.” Right. I’m afraid if I dispute the charges with my credit card company, they will cancel my service for non-payment. I did file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, for whatever that might be worth. I don’t know how they can get away with this bait and switch – promise you one thing, bill you something completely different, and not provide you with any documentation for what they’re billing you. I’ve had Verizon for years and years; this is the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced.
We have verizon and Our issue is mainly with there internet, The router’s wireless connection to our laptop Crashes flat out, ALOT. I give it about 10 times on a good day and about 50 times on a bad day if not more…
It is strange though, because the computer that is hooked up hardwire to the router, is not effected at all, it only crashes on my 2 laptops…
IT has been happening ever sence they upgraded us to fios back in December.
I dont know which is better right now, dialup working normaly, or fios working like it does for me.
J..
I live on Long Island and switched to FiOS’ bundled residential package on 12/29/2007. No problems with their phone or internet service (I had no issues with Cablevision internet either).
I previously had Direct TV and had problems with dish placement and singal strength. I would have needed to get a new dish to get their new HD channels ($$$$), so I decided to switch to FiOS. Verizon’s HD channels are great, but all the rest are definitely not as clear as Direct TV. Apparently Verizon’s non-HD channels are not even digital yet, but still analog. They look pretty bad on a HD set.
The bigger issue is their HD boxes. They don’t have any. I got one when I first signed up with them and when I called to get two more, I was told there was at least a four month wait, but it could be a lot longer. So I have two HD TVs with analog signals.
If they don’t have the HD boxes by June, I will have to consider a switch back to Direct TV at least for TV service.
We have had FIOS from all most the beginning and have loved it. We had a lightening strike last week and everything was fried. Verizon came out a few hours after we called and replaced all the equipment and we were up and running again. No charge, no problems. Sorry it hasn’t worked out for so many of you but I felt I needed to put in a good word for them and their services. We couldn’t be happier with Verizon FIOS. I also appreciate the one bill for cable, internet and phone.
i also have had fios for over a year now and everything is awesome(just like that commercial).I have no complaints at all.The picture quality is amazing.The hd quality is so clear and standard is extremely clear.Hopefully a few more hd channels will come out soon. but overall 5out of 5
I called Verizon FIOS to order phone, internet, and cable prior to my move in. My Consumer Order Summary was dated 3-28-08, and the scheduled installation date was 4-7-08. I reviewed the e-mail and all looked well. I move into my new house and install date comes. They setup an 8 AM-noon window. I already had the Optical Network Terminal unit (ONT) in my house, so I figured this would be cake for them. I am a Sys Admin at an ISP, so the internet stuff I could do myself with ease.
On install day, no one showed, no one called. I had my mobile with me at ALL times. So around 1:30 PM I called Verizon to see what was going on. If something came up, I had a week off to move in and if they needed to come by in a day or two, I was totally cool with that. After about an hour on hold I got in touch with a “state level” dispatcher. That said that there were “no facilities available for my order” and I was called. Nope, I wasn’t called; they did have my cell (which I had with me all of the time) in their records. I wanted them to come out later in the week if possible since I was home. They said that their next available time for me was 4-12-08, which was a day where I was going to a wedding. The next available time after that was at the end of the month, on a work day for me.
Basically because they did not show up, or even notify me with a reason, they put me at the back of the line. I was trying to escalate my request and the support only gave me unreasonable dates and that “no facilities available for my order” BS. I later wanted to get my copper line put back so I could at least get phone service, and after a long wait in hold they gave me the end of the month as a date. Basically I was being run around in circles and being shoved to the end of the line because Verizon screwed up my installation. I was told the only way I could get it sooner is if I “knew an installer who’d do me a favor,” and I was pretty much screwed with the window of time I had to get the service installed. The salesperson fed me a load of bull and the installer didn’t even call me with a reason. I tried to figure out what “no facilities available for my order” meant, and why this was such a problem since I already had the ONT in my house. Half of their work was already done.
The same day, I called a local cable company who installed my phone, internet, and cable the next day. They showed up on time and did the normal pre and post appointment verification. I unplugged the ONT in my house and let the battery go out. Verizon gave me such a lousy customer experience I swore I would never do business with them, and be sure to let other people know about their awful customer service and commitments they setup and do not honor. Verizon screwed up prior when they bought Bell Atlantic, and screwed up our perfectly find DSL service I had around 98/99. My money is going to a competitor, and Verizon won’t see if because they have abysmal customer service. I am certainly interested in fiber optic lines connected to my house, but so long as Verizon is the only provider, I will happily do without.
James
Herndon, VA
Verison go die in a hole all i want to do is host a website that would be cool for like gaming with my friends but of course it wont work plus my ip keep feaking changing and i gota change my ports to keep my game public
Have fios, works with every phone I tried, cord to wireless, the old nid box was left in place with the lines just switched to the new box. Our previous internet was dsl that they shut off a few days early but the install went fine with no delays/problems. Only gripe I have with the service is the price went from $29.99 base plan to $34.99 and the current $42.99, if this continues we will drop them and go to cable, as they offer faster speeds at $44.99 monthly. How can a company expect to get new customers by raising prices?
Problems!! Is too mild for Fios. They chopped up my room with wires everywhere, holes in my walls everywhere!! They hooked it up to my main light switch first, what a mess! I’ve been told twice that a supervisor would be out to look at this mess, never showed up either time. Then I lost my phone service twice, they sent the “wrong” person out who told me that my phone wasnt hooked up to FIOS either but he was the “copper” man so he couldnt fix it, that hasnt been done yet either. To top it all off I get my bill and its $50 higher than what they told me! Im seriously considering getting a lawyer. I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes at a time trying to call for the 100th time and have been disconnected. I almost lost my job due to this and cannot take the time to call anymore. Anyone have a connection to somebody real? Or do they have any people there that actually have any real jobs. I need a connection soon or im taking the legal route. Thanks! Misery loves company.
At my house we have FIOS internet with Verizon, lately the internet drops out of no where and the amazing part is that my laptop and my desktop say that it’s connected to the router but when I click on Internet Explorer it say’s “Cannot display page.” This has been happening every day this week. It shuts off at about 12:00 PM and comes back on at about 7:55 PM. I am starting to think that when it gets to a certain temperature outside (fucking hot) thats when it shuts of and when it cools down outside at around 7:00 pm thats when it comes back on. It could be that it is hot outside or it could be that Verizon sucks big 18″ dicks. Has anyone have this problem or a similar problem?
first of all to bobbie…I really think u exaggerate about wiring to a light switch and all hole in ur wall..It doesnt even sound like u have fios.if u have no phone u would also have no internet.Also to jimmy..what does heat have to do with it?? if u think fibre is melting in heat u are mistaken.Fibre is glass..the only way u can break it is to smash it with a hammer.Also,the internet…what kind of router do u have..if u have a linsys router just download a driver for that specific router..that all it may be..if not call tech hotline..they pick up in 5 minutes they r usually good
I have had FIOS installed for just over a year now and have had nothing but problems. My initial driver was to have high speed internet connection for working at home, but I’ve never been able to get that part to work, so I’m focusing on the phone service problems here. For no apparent reason, the system eats batteries. At first, after a power failure, the system remained on batteries, even though it isn’t supposed to, until it died. Now, the failure mode is that the check battery light comes on and the system dies within hours, for no apparent reason. Failures happen about once every month or two, so, yes, since I’ve had fios ‘repair’ guys out about six times, of course after having to call and deal with the phone maze and be put on hold interminably. Like my time isn’t worth anything. Oh, and before they installed it, they must have done about the same number of visits over a period of several months. I should have known. I have tried plugging the fios equipment into a different outlet, an inconvenience, just in case it was a bad outlet. I have other equipment plugged into that new outlet that doesn’t fail. That made no difference, the fios failed again, so I tried putting it on a backup battery to mitigate against power failure. Well, it had already started failing for no apparent reason, so that didn’t work. What is particularly frustrating is that every time verizon sends technicians out, they have no idea of the history of this problem. Someone somewhere in verizon, maybe the auditors, must know what is happening. Because someone is paying for the technicians’ time. But isn’t it so much easier to record and make everything available digitally and on line now? No pieces of paper to lose. Yet, the technicians don’t have access to the history, apparently, and they don’t really have time to diagnose properly, apparently. All the technicians want to do is replace parts. When I’ve been there in person, and I’ve been able to explain the problem face to face, they have replaced all of the equipment, assuring me that would work. To no avail. They could probably do a reinstall from scratch and I would still have the problem. I can’t seem to find out from anyone whether or not there is something about the phone I’m using, or the answering machine I’m using or even the way the place is wired that isn’t compatible. And why didn’t they check the environment or at least present an information sheet to indicate system requirements before installation? Even for a ‘normal’ functioning fios system, the battery is only good for several hours. What about an emergency when there is no power, and the cell phone towers, where they could install batteries but don’t, aren’t functioning? Why bother to have a line into your house at all? I have heard comments about high failure rates on individual components, but these have never been substantiated in writing. It used to be the phone company at least took pride in assuring that phone service was fully functional for virtually everyone even in an emergency. Is real service, for a fee, not a matter of pride and a corporate value anymore? Has anyone done successful troubleshooting for a comparable situation? Otherwise, I’m having FIOS removed as a total inconvenience. This is something I shouldn’t have to think about, an immeasurable convenience I used to get with the copper wire phones. These means high speed wireless although possible is a prohibitively expensive and thus nearly impossible option where I live. I wish I had known this before the installation of FIOS, not the salvation it is claimed to be. Oh, and if you are going to respond, I would appreciate not having the condescending tone I see in response to some of the other emails, as if these problems are not real. And please use whole words. Thank you.
I have never heard of that problem before.I always thought the battery is only in use during a power failure..otherwise its using the electricity.Does ur power go out frequently??The only other thing i can think of id to put a power surger on the outlet.If the power keeps going on and off that may have an effect on system.I enjoy solving problems so let me know if i can help.I think I have misunderstood you.I believe u said you have had fios for a year and you never had internet working?Why? Are you paying for it? because I wouldnt.So let me know.It may be just a driver issue on ur computer
In spite of what Steven thinks and he is correct, FIOS is not ready for prime time. That should be the overall issue at stake. Sure there are spot problems and like my APR 2007 – APR 2008 FIOS, I had a great run for 10 months except for the Internet. The speed was fine, their so called fix-it scripts do not always work and email never had an issue as Outlook or Express with Cable. BTW, I have gone hand in hat back to cable and yes, they did tell me so. I am actually dying for AT&T to get here since they seem to be doing fiber better than most.
Their customer support departments do not communicate well. I have taken back my STBs and Actiontek back to the store and yet I have had phone calls and letters about returning equipment.
They still think I am a customer for some reason and I followed their instructions and they mentioned it had all been turned down.
They were never able to figure out why our TVs started bugging out all of a sudden -however we think it is a tuner issue since now its happening with Cable on the rear projection too. The LCD TV now seems back to normal. Could be bad STBs. In either case, they saw bad cross-connections and said they fixed them, but each time we called, they saw something else.
Best part is the install! The guy was great and I did a lot of prep so his time was well spent. Yes they took the copper, that is fine. Cable has triple play for less anyhow. And they gave me 1 yr 30 speed to boot for the Broadband. They had no idea how to install this to work for AT&T CallVantage. they said to call ATT and ATT said, “Verizon knows how to fix this problem”. So Verizon said to look on the internet to solve the problem. Then another call to ATT solved it and they told me to get a cat5 line for the TA. Ok so verizon does this next day and prays it works for the Menus and PayPerView. It did. They gave me a black box which seems like the little machine that goes “ping” and I took it out of the loop and it still worked fine. So much for their guessing. When I returned the boxes, they had no idea what this black box thing was.
Anyway, besides being stuck to a contract and overpaying based on cable’s new rates for the same. It is Bye Bye FIOS. Never again, and maybe they’ll get wise and get their teams together and do a proper IT post mortem and fix it for those who want to stay.
FIOS is not evil, it just flew before it had stable wings for a lot of us. In our IT dept, we UAT the damn thing so when it goes out, their are few problems if any, and we have ways for those who need fixes if something was not foreseen and tested. Sort of like proper FEMA mgt.
Again, Steven is correct and much more smarter than I with the tech here and there I am sure, but to play diplomat in between each side, Verizon needs to be more accountable. It is not THAT great….yet.
If ATT would buy them too, we’d have a serious piece of technology against cable.
Here endeth the lesson, certainly not the last one.
i can honestly say i read als statement and I have no idea what the problem was he was having.The tv didnt work with fios but it didnt work with cable either..it was your tv tuner.Your internet didnt work for 10 month ..i think thats what u meant..if thats the case what took u so long to switch.I can honestly say I am a supporter of fios.I love it.The cable companies finally have to lower their prices..You have an it dept in your house..I just dont understand whats going on ..Please explain..
Sorry AL now it’s your turn.First off not ready for prime time how about over a million customers in 2 years.Rated number 1 in every catergory in CONSUMER REPORTS.AT&T doing it better? 1. AT&T tried cable before and failed now most of their systems were bought up by comcast.Yes they are trying a fiber product but it is not like Verizon it is a hybrid fiber coax network which is better than cables but not as good as Verizon’s which is fiber to the premises.AGAIN RESEARCH, NOT COMPLAINT FORUMS.And as far as outlook most internet providers use different settings,and the reason it worked both times with cable is because the settings were not changed .and for evereyone else with that problem the settings are pop3,incoming@verizon.net,outgoing@verizon.net,agian they are availible on their website.RESEARCH NOT COMPLAINT FORUMS.
Jimmy Johnson ,does the interent light on the router turn orange.Do you lose the lights on the router.Have you gone into command prompt and tried to ping a site,do you have a flashing red moca light on the ont when this happens(if it’s a 612)MORE INFO!!!!!!!BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN
Planetary Products,you didn’t state what they replaced,but i can tell you this if they replaced everything and it’s still happening it is not FIOS,and if they haven’t demand that they do .i have never heard of this many problems with the same issue. what model ont do you have is it tellabs or motorola.which battery light comes on the replace battery or stand by is it red or green.MORE INFO
Correction for outlook settings pop3 incoming.verizon.net,outgoing.verizon.net do not check off (spa)
For everyones info removing the copper line does not mean you can not go back to copper or get copper service ,they will just run a new copper drop,just like they ran a fiber drop or cable runs a coax drop.Removing it was for cosmetic reasons because people would have abandoned drops on their home that served no purpose or have been dead for years.It reduced clutter and made for a clean install.
VERIZON BILLING MESS —-> I experienced suspected card/id theft, got a new card and registered it w/ Verizon, got the confirmation of change and telephoned to verify. I was assured that all was well w/ the account, but behind the scenes the payment didn’t take. I have no problems with the card with other retailers. My acct was suspended in the middle of the work day (I work out of the house). I spent 2 plus hours on the phone w/ various Verizon Depts. and lost 1/2 day of work. Fios got turned back on again but now i’m receiving threats about suspension for non payment. I spent another hour on the phone today and have no assurance that it’s fixed. Their customer svc, billing and financial area folks can be very RUDE too!!!!! TO those of you who don’t have Verizon FIOS – BE GLAD!!!!!!!!!!
mc..thank god for you on this site.At least you are very informative.Also as you know verizon just made all their stations digital..so if you dont have a box your tv wont work..but thanks too verizon they are giving their customers as myself a free converter box which gives me all the stations at no extra charge…does cable do this???I will state once again verizon is and will be the most innovative cable and phone compant out there.Its only going to grow with so much bandwidth and yes the cable companioes are scared.. that is why theyve lowered rates and increased customer service…I love my fios..cant wait for more hd
karen…how mant months was your bill past due? Verizon takes awhile to suspend service and also they are required to make phone calls and send you a letter.since you have fios..Im sure you have internet access..goto verizon.com..if your not registered there ..just register and you can get all your billing information and also im sure what pmt info you want..very easy and you dont have to talk to customer service.Thats what i do.all the information is there billing on fios tv internet and phone and pmt options…
just read the new release by verizon..By beginning of july..there will be an additional 25 hd channels and additional 60 channel overall on fios tv..Here comes the bandwidth of fios coming into play.They will be the best provider i think of tv internet and phone in years to come
How funny is it that verizon has these guys come in here and claim that the dozens (hundreds?) of similar stories are all the customers fault? That changing IP address issue alone is a HUGE problem for some people that deal with sites that expect you to have a consistent IP address throughout your session. Sure, some people are not affected, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an issue.
I’m so glad I came here. My house will never see FIOS, that’s for sure.
Now, verizon guys, tell me how stupid I am.
Friday I have Fios installed. Friday evening I noticed my garage door opener no longer functioned. Verizon service came today (Monday). I was told, “not their problem, big problem with lots of garage door opener companies, they built openers on the wrong frequency”. I would “need to have a converter installed”. No answer to where I could get a converter.
I had FIOS internet installed and then I found the remote on my car for the garage door opener lost the range to activate. After taking the car to the dealer, cotact and replaced transmiter receiver in garage door opener with no results I insulated the Battery enclosure with egg crate foam rubber and that solved the problem. Now I subscribed to the tv service and they replaced the other box and my problem resurfaced I have try to insulate that box with no results. Verizon say I don’t know but there is interfence for the signal to garage door opener. Anybody there with the same problem?.It seems to hapen with Chamberline openers only
Hi Stick,for those who are concerned about having a consistent ip there are static ip packages available through every provider.For those who don’t understand the concept basic internet services use a dynamic ip which means just that it is periodicly changing.But of course everyone wants something for free.Sorry but it does change everyone’s aware of it.So if it is a serious problem and you have to have a consistent ip purchase a static end of story ,then if it changes you have a reason to complain other wise you don’t.I’m not sure what your line of work is but i’m sure that if your employer gave their product away for free you would be out of a job.
paul and jaime i’ve never heard of an issue like that before,but from my experience with cable and rf i would suggest wrapping or covering the battery back up unit with aluminum foil.let me know if it works.
I received information from Chamberlain garage door openers the unit that is affected as follows “Mr. Jimenez,
Thank you for contacting Chamberlain Technical Support. Verizon is aware of the interference that the FIOS causing range issues. We were informed from Verizon that they are currently working on providing a replacement cover which
will have an integrated radio shield for Verizons’ model ONT 611. Unfortunately, even changing the frequency of your opener may not resolve the issue.
Should you encounter any problems, or if you have any further questions, please feel free to respond via e-mail, or if you’d prefer you can contact our Technical Support Hotline at (800) 528-5880, M-F, 5:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. and Saturday, 7:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. Mountain Time.”
I solved the problem and increased the range frequency by 50′ by extending the opener antena about a foot and then coiled it like a spring it did the trick
VERIZON FIOS is a joke! (I am a Verizon stockholder and have stayed with the company out of loyality to its predessor companies.)
FIOS bombed from the beginning at my home. It failed on all components despite changing out equipment so many times that Verizon should have paid me for providing room and board to its installers, techs, trouble shooters, and supervisors. The parking areas in front and to the sides of my home looked like Verizon parking lots.
Customer service? It doesn’t exist!! How did I get them to finally attempt responses? The good old stock holders resolution and filing a complaint with the Corporation Commission were the keys. Why did I have to “nuke em”. They didn’t respond without that impetus. That’s truly a pity.
I mean when you pay the Chairman a minimum of $68-million a year, plus benefits, I’d expect that he’d want satisfied customers and stockholders. Obviously, I am being facetitious.
Stay where you are. Remember this saying: An old devil is better than a new devil. Verizon FIOS is a devil, a nasty, nonfunctional devil.
Sulcus
Customer service is terrible. I called Verizon last Friday in order to get a technician to visit my house to set up a Verizon Fios set top box. My set top box does not record.
I spent an hour and a half calling Verizon. Five calls to two different numbers. I was referred constantly to someone else until I gave up after an hour and a half.
Maybe we need a blog to record Verizon disservice.
The system is moronic! They never can resolve a problem without creating a new problem. I have been trying to have my bill in paper format for months and they can’t do it!!!!!! They send you to a web site that is tedious and non resonsive. They can’t answer your concerns by phone email or website. They are totally useless as tits on a bull!
I switched from comcast to Verizon for my phones, tv, and computer.
Last nite something happened to my Tv reception. It looked like I
was receiving a movie which I did not order. There was something on
the screen about a bonus. After that I could not use my tv at all.
Today I have spoken to three different people. They have said it
will be fixed by tomorrow.Then they said My remote was broken and
they would send me another. The last person said the trouble was with
my Tv. Is there anyone who has answers ??
Maybe everyone should just not buy anything from Verizon. Their
stockholders won’t like that, nor will the employees, when the
pink slips come.
well I see I’m not the only one sick and tired of FIOS and the customer support department. Does anyone know how to file a formal complaint. I pay my bill but can’t use the services then they want a cancellation fee. The wont even come out to see whats wrong with out charging me another fee. This service never worked and its highway robbery.
not one person wo lodged a complaint on here has ever said what there problem was with fios.I have been a customer for two years now and have never had a problem.I have never had to ask about my bill because its very easy to understand.also there online bill is even easier.Go to verizon.com.put in screenname and password and there you are everything in front of you.What serveices you have ..how much you owe..what boxes you have for tv..you can even troublshoot yourself…sooo grow up people stop complaining..fios is great…and now i even have more hd channel today
FIOS is a big disappointment. I had problems just geting the order in. Was on hold, transferred around and then they miss the installation appointment. When the guy does show up to install he complains and does a horrible sloppy job (I have photos). After a complaint to the county govt about Verizon, they come out again to clean up the mess of wiring and sloppy installation. Everything works, i.e. phone, internet, t.v., but the bill is all wrong. Services aren’t “bundled,” charges for installation, and they still can’t get it straight. Time to get put on hold…..
i would love to see the photos.I cant believe running a fiber wire to ur home can be messt..Its not like copper ..lets see the proof
Has anyone tried using verizon’s FIOS website for ordering 24 month option of the triple bundle (Phone, TV and Internet). It does not work. Also when you click on checkout for th 12 month option, you get a stack overflow message. I sent a letter to the CEO in NYC last week. I thought they would act on it pronto to get it fixed, because that website is a primary ordering tool. So far, however, they haven’t and the website is useless. I guess they couldn’t care less! If they care that much about their ordering tools, I can imagine how responsive they will be to customer problems, especially after they locked you into a contract.
I have had Verizon triple services for about a mounth.Everything works except the wireless internet. I have an Acer laptop with Windows Vista&was told there is a conflick with Vista & Verizons router. Has anybody had the same problems?
I too can not get passed the fios web site. When I ask about bundles it requests an address and then proceeds to choke on not being able to locate the address. Can’t even get simple information on pricing and of course calling them you get the voice response system which leads you nowhere. If this is the support and quality when I order what is it like once I get the service?
Verizon FIOS billing is terrible!! This is the 3rd bill that they screwed up. They keep charging me for three boxes when I only have two. Now I’m getting charged for Internet Security Suite. The customer service reps do not understand their products and give totally incorrect information as if they are making it up on purpose. For example, I was given a quote of $3.00 a month for multiroom DVR capability and that I did not need an updated DVR box. I later found out that I did need a new box and there was a $7.00 difference per month between the old box and the new box. Also, I keep getting charged for the original dvr even though I sent it back many weeks ago. The bill should be $99.99 + $19.99 + $5.99 + Taxes and Fees; pretty simple one would think.
you don’t need a different dvr ,but yes it is an additional charge of 7.00 a month for mrdvr.it’s all software.
Since having FiOS installed I am having problems with my phone system too. No dial tone in the morning, static and then it clears up in the afternoon. They tried to tell me it’s a short, but I didn’t have any short with my regular land line. I am ready to get rid of the whole thing.
penny…if you have fios there should be no static whatsoever on your phone.Let me know how the internet is doing? and the tv?..if both are working fine then its not the fiber.Is it all the phones in the house or is it just one.because if you have a cordless phone you may just have to change the frequenct of that phone.The best way to determine this is if you plug a phone directly into the jack and it sounds fine then its the cordless.Another problem maybe a wire going to that phone jack could be frayed..let me know..i can help
Had Fios installed, Garage door remotes no longer function. Verizon Sent service man, Was told I need to buy a converter & new remotes to get off of the frequency Fios uses between the fiber & the modem. No such thing exist that I can find. Verizon refuses to do any thing about the problem after several more reports. Isn’t there some FCC rule about equipment putting our excessive amounts of RF?
paul i belive you can change the frequency yourself..You have to call the garage door manufacturer.Ive seen this before on these sites
Paul:Look at my posting on July 25, 2008. Jaime (that’s me) for how I fixed the problem with the opener.
I am having a Acer laptop (running on VISTA) with Atheros Wireless network adapter and it was disconnection every few seconds once since when i switched over to Verizon Fios, my other laptops are working fine. I got VZ folks replace my actiontec router replaced with another one of the same type, Still didnt help. I tried all possible settings for the past 1 month with my acer laptop & router settings, Finally now I got my laptop mother board replaced by Acer, The problem still exists and Acer folks are telling that IT IS A COMPATIBILITY ISSUE WITH ATHEROS WIRELESS ADAPTER AND VERIZON’S ACTIONTEC ROUTER. I am planning to try with different USB Wireless Adapter.
I was really disappointed with the FiOS Package. I had problems with the TV. Could never get the On Demand features. I kept getting “ry later” That’s not what I am paying for – later. I cancelled everything but my phone. Internet wasn’t anything better either. I returned to Charter Communications. Their entire system was user friendly and if I needed to call them it was a matter on minutes before I got someone and they fixed the problem. With FiOS you have to go through that obnoxious female condesending voice and you have to keep saying “agent” to get to a real person. I was on the phone for over an hour. I suggest Verizon iron out their bugs before selling this mess. Now they want to charge me a $199. early cancellation fee. What a rip. You buy a bad system and when you want to cancel it they want to charge you. Forget FiOS.
Two weeks and still my FIOS TV remote does switch channels properly. It’s like I’m back in 1977 – I have to go up to the box to change the channel. The Verizon service man, Tony, tried to get it to work during the initial installation for a couple of hours, but no dice. He said that he’d come back with a different type of remote but never did. I called Tony at 425 478-1202 about 10 times over two weeks but he hasn’t shown up with the remote yet. Can someone else please call him on my behalf and ask him to swing by “Russ'” house? Maybe he’ll listen to you. He must have my name, address and phone number memorized by now since I’ve left him so many messages.
Of course I’ve called Verizon for help but they had no solution, of course.
Oh yeah, The guy who originally installed my FIOS box for internet on the outside of my house decided to install it in such a place that my gate won’t close anymore. I guess he thought I should just leave it open permanently.
Finally, I keep getting an email stating that I didn’t accept the bundle agreement and that I will get charged more if I do not accept, but when I try to go and accept the agreement, it says that I already did.
Billing issues with Verizon? Don’t get me started. I’ve called them so many times to correct their mistakes after they screw up I feel like they owe me a free year’s worth of service just to make up for wasting many hours of my weekends….I feel like I have to monitor my bill constantly just to ensure I don’t get ripped off…
I can’t believe how bad Verizon FIOS customer service is. If they treat all of their customers like this, they are sure to go out of business.
I was a Verizon landline and DSL customer. I decided to have the DSL upgraded to Fiberoptic and at the same time get FIOS Television. The discounts seemed pretty good, but buyer beware… The installation took place last weekend on January 17th and it took roughly nine hours. They got the order wrong and gave me a standard set top box instead of a HD, and that’s where everything fell apart. I’m particularly annoyed because I told the technician that I wanted a HD set top box when he was here, and also because I will have to get someone else to come to fix an installation error.
No one at Verizon customer service could help me swap out the set top box from standard to HD. Customer service said that they would ship one out, but somehow the order was never placed… I tried to swap out the box at the Verizon store or with the technician that is coming tomorrow, but was told I couldn’t because there are ten pending orders in their system. When I asked what orders they were talking about, they said that they could not call up the orders in the system…
To make matters worse, the customer rep prior to the FIOS order told me that I would get the HD set top box for a year free of charge. I called again a few times, and they said there is no record of that agreement, but not to worry it’s a promotion item so they would fix it. Long story short, I will not get the full discount, but maybe three months free. It’s not really about the money, but the principle.
Another example of poor customer service was my purchase of their Internet Security Program. The customer rep on January 19th sold me on it, but never bothered to put it in. I called again and I got through to customer service after about six hours today. Two techs tried to put it in through a deinstall install process, but it turned out that no one authorized me to have access to their Internet Security program. They said that they could see the authorization in their system, but apparently it was passed along to the customer system. What a colossal waste of time.
I think Direct TV has their act together, and I would strongly encourage anyone considering Verizon FIOS to stay with Direct TV. I’m going to switch back soon. Fios has a thirty day purchase guarantee, but I have a feeling that’s going to be a battle too…
I am a fios installer and I had the same problem with my son’s Acer laptop. All you have to do to fix this is to update the drivers for the laptop. I did that and it worked perfectly!
I only tried Verizon Fios for less then a month, but that was the biggest mistake I’ve made, and I’m still paying for it. For less then one month service, they billed me over $176, yet one month was supposedly $99 or so. They actually never mailed me a bill, or even sent an email alert that a bill was ready. I happened to check my account on line and saw a bill there with the wrong amount due. I called and they said they would be posting a “final” bill so ignore that bill. My account went inactive after I closed the account so I could not log back in. Two months back I got an alert on my credit that there was negative info posted. In winds up that Verizon sent my account to collections for being delinquent. Funny how I never received a valid bill, or any true notice of any correct bill to be paid, nr was I ever contacted by a collection agent requesting payment. My credit was perfect before this and now I have a blank mark on my credit. I spent over an hour with them yesterday in an online chat (their phone system was too busy and directed me to call back some other time). Bottom line, they will send me a confirmation letter saying the balance due is $0, but will not help to clear my credit. Of special interest is yesterday they said I have a balance due from something else. I must have been due this for 6 plus months. Why did not send me a refund? How can I charge them for bad credit and not paying me back for so long? This is only part of the story as I never could get the same straight answer from anyone there. They even missed two disconnect dates. Verizon should be ashanmed for how they are treating me as a past customer and I certainly would never recommend Verizon Fios to anyone. They just don’t have their act together.
I was about to sign up for a VERIZON FIOS BUNDLE (faster internet upload speed). My wife also works for Tri-Met and hears complaints all day long about how VERIZON has screwed them in one way or another and many problems with billing and service. Many are similar to the ones I’ve read here. At first I paid it no mind and figured I do an online check. To my amazement, I am hearing much of the very same problems.
Should have just remembered my past nightmares with VERIZON DSL, and how the DSL box would lose connectivity (2-3 times) almost daily. Trying to get a hold of a service rep was in itself a nightmare (couldn’t understand the long distance INDIA Accents depending on who spoke better English). After a few months, We nailed it down to the box we rented for 3.00 bucks a day, and told Verizon that it was our DSL box that was the culprit, and they told us we were wrong, and that it was our router, or our computer, or copper wiring, and not their box, time and time again. Finally after over an entire year of losing connectivity (all the many calls, disconnects, reboots, etc, etc, etc,), they finally figured out that that DSL model was bad and had to be replaced…..WOW! Suddenly No problems! My wife was so upset, after a few weeks of perfect DSL connectivity, she decided to stop all service and try Comcast. Been with them for 3 going on 4 yrs now. Only problems I’ve had with them is their free web space change over. I lost all the HTTP coding and what took me weeks to set up.
Corporate America is all about the money. Customer Service for the most part is VERIZONS biggest complaints and have come to the conclusion, VERIZON is nothing more than CORPORATE GREED and is only about the money, not customer service, integrity or good working equipment. Didn’t like the idea that VERIZON also had the exclusive rights to dig up all our city streets to install their fiber optic cable (months of noisy trucks and tearing up our street and sidewalks, now littered with paint markings, new concrete vs old concrete to this day (3 yrs later), not to mention trample and destroy many of our trees and plants on the front of our property (called the easement).
I feel terrible for the many here that have had nothing but problems with this greedy company that hasn’t the intelligence nor the integrity to change their image, nor improve their customer service. But am very thankful to have been able to read all these complaints which I believe will save me from making another painstaking mistake as I once did years ago. For that! I applaud you all, and will STAY CLEAR OF VERIZON as if my life depended on it.
Only problem I have with Comcast right now is the HD box. I think it’s time to replace it (well over 3 yrs old). Either that or since everyone has gone cable, Comcast may not be able to handle the higher volume for High Def T.V. and needs to increase the band width. Wife just called Comcast (consistent 2-3 minutes wait time) They said they’re is a 20.00 appointment time guarantee, that if they service technician doesn’t arrive by 12:00 (2 hour time window between 10:00 and 12:00), there will be a 20.00 dollar CREDIT on our next billing statement. They said they would do a complete diagnostic from the lines all the way out to the main box and bring another HD box for replacement….No Problem! btw, service techs are quite savvy and well trained from our experience and The Phone Line or keeping/changing our phone number has never been an issue. But like most ISP’s, from time to time they do late night maintenance and your internet and phone shuts down with no pre-warning email. For emergency’s I recommend a back up cell phone 😉
Radio Frequency Interference RFI is now a problem after two years. It is the result of them installing the RJ45 socket too close to the AC/DC converter used to charge the batter and power the ONT. Why now? Perhaps it is drawing more current to keep the aging batter charged.
The problem came to light because of packet errors, namely framing errors on received packets. This could also be a combination of a weak transmit from the VZ “modem”. At one point, I put a basic 4-port switch between their wall jack and the line running to the server. It made the problem go away. I had lost power and did not have a UPS on the 4-port switch so I moved the switch closer to the server, to pull power from the UPS. This meant that the network wire was put back in its original path, RIGHT NEXT TO THE AC/DC adapter (rectifier)! I started getting packet errors once again, even though the switch was still on the line.
I had tested cables and replaced just about every component and then considered interference. I never paid much attention to it, but I noticed AM stations in the car would become inaudible due to noise when I pulled into the garage. I read that you could use a portable AM radio to help find interference. BINGO! Turn the volume up. Place it next to a network cable. Start at the lower end of the AM dial and slowly increase the frequency until you hear what sounds like classic digital pulses. Kind of cool really since it you can hear the chatter and hum. Next, move the radio around, scanning for sources of noise. In my case, the AC/DC adapter made a huge screeching sound as far as 2ft radius! Of course the network cable paralleled the full length of the adapter less than 1/2 inch away. This could be considered my fault since I installed the cable run to the server, but since their RJ45 socket was installed below and between their battery and AC adapter, I put it right between them on my way up the wall. Argh! I now run the cable down and away from the two power belching units before starting up the wall. Eventually I will punch another hole in my garage wall, away from it all, to ensure there is no interference at all.
I have a question and complaint,
first, I have no problems with broadband internet at all, running great since i installed.
but, how do you search for tv shows, maybe i am missing something. There search engine has the worst features, ive seen.
Lets say I get home and want to watch a show at 9:00pm how do you search for shows that start at 9??? I have some 1800 channels, I dont know what movie I want to watch i want to just see what starts at 9. its 8:45 and I have hundreds of channels to go through just to see what shows start when, I still see every channel even if the show started at 6 and ends at 10. Argh. also there is no way of reminding me of a show. my choices are to record the show. I dont want to record just remind me.
So I call verizon and they tell me to use the menu::Search function, i tried to explain that function lets you search all movies but doesnt tell you what time it is, or even what day until your 4 menus deep. Its a waste of time if you want to watch a movie tonight at 9. or 9:30.
Man-I thought I had heard it all, but the techs and supes at verizon are the most incompetent and ill suited for their job that I have ever encountered-its been a nightmare, just like the router problem mentioned above. The tech that came out for install knew what he was doing, but I lost web access to my laptop and 6 people and 4 hours couldn’t get it back-I’m presently reloading my entire op system and hope it solves the prob. My worst fear is that Now I may have pissed off one of the phone techs and he/she is wreaking havoc with my new computer.
My phone has been down for most of the day (215 257-2129) Would someone please check why our phone service is out.
This is not a comment but a problem with our phone swervice.
fios is great. none of you guys realize that fiber brings the value of your home up. not everyone has promblems remember ur using ur own power sorce. fios ended up saving so much money ill nver go back
I never see like thes company this company charch for 1 month loko phone $ 60,take of my coller ID I coll for any servic never sent any body I dont now what to du I need the phon
Yup, Same thing here. Skype disconnects repeatedly while on FIOS. The way to impact Verizon and FIOS is to write to your local cable administration office (look on-line under your county’s services) and better yet, FCC, which is supposed to regulate the industry. Why? Because complaints to FCC are taken into account when cable and internet companies are compared and rated for service, like by Consumer Reports. If Verizon and FIOS have a bunch of complaints on record, they drop down the ranking of carriers. I encourage you to write FCC at: Federal Communications Commission, General Cable Inquiries, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554. You can even write more than once to complain. Good luck. Someday, hopefully, we’ll have a real competition among internet providers, like other developed countries have.
Your new verizon fios DVR app for the I phone sucks. I can’t log inn to my verizon fios DVR app on my I phone