[qi:051] Folks at Verizon seemed to be pretty happy with themselves, pointing out that they are adding 2600 FiOS Internet customers a day, adding up to a they have a total of 1.1 million FiOS Internet customers at the end of second quarter of 2007.
They want 7 million by end of 2010. All they have to do is convince 4777 people sign-up every day (or 3.3 every minute) from this point forward. Random fact: Verizon claims to have put enough fiber to work that it can circle Planet Earth three times.
Update: Oh this can’t be good for their growth – apparently, a FiOS tech set a house on fire, accidentally ofcourse.
Update #2: Verizon folks say there was no fire, not even smoke.
When drilling a hole for the Optical Network Terminal, he accidentally hit an electrical wire, knocking out power to the house. Our bad, but no smoke, and no fire. Out of an overabundance of caution (always a good thing)the local fire department was called.
Update #3: Needham fire department says that there was a fire.
Would be awesome to have it in the Bay Area. Any one know if it’s being offered by another provider here?
Verizon would have to bribe the San Francisco Board of Supervisors more than Comcast already does in order to get their support for Verizon FIOS service in SF.
Om, your apples and oranges are mixed up on the per day stuff. We’re adding 2600 FiOS TV customers a day. With a TV goal of 3 to 4 milion by 2010, not seven. 7 million is our FiOS internet goal.
My parents have it, they have had nothing but problems. When it works it is great, but the most unbelievable fact is they don’t work on weekends. Have a technical problem with your internet on Saturday, wait till Monday at 8 AM to call… Set top box stops working, wait till Moday at 8 AM to call…
i also just want to add that on top of installing, their support team is amazing! i had some odd problems with my router, called them figuring i’d get nothing, and instead they had a tech at my place within 48 hours – on a ‘2 hour’ window – he was on time, spent an hour diagnosing and replaced the router without hesitation…now it’s all good again…
I’ve been using FiOS for around a year, and I love it. That said, Verizon’s technicians seem to be phone guys with very little understanding of traditional computer networks. In the end, I ended up working w/their tech. support to resolve problems during the initial install b/c I could tell the tech.’s where out of their field. Not their fault – I don’t like working with phones anymore than they like working with computer networks.
They can set my house on fire if they give me FIOS!
FIOS SUCKS…..I FIND IT FUNNY THAT VERIZON IS ADVERTISING FIOS AS AN INOVATIOR OF CABLE,LAND LINE PHONE, AND INTERNET. THE INTERNET IS FAST BUT AS FAR AS CABLE IS CONCERNED THEY SUCK. ISTALLATIONS REQURE THAT YOU WILL GET YOUR YARD DAMAGED, IT TAKES 4-6 HOURS TO INSTALL PLUS AN ALL DAY SURVEY THE DAY BEFORE. THE EQUIPMENT ONLY COMES WITH ONLY A ONE YEAR WARRANTEE. AFTER THE ONE YEAR IS UP, THEN THE CUSTOMER OWNS THE MAINTENECE COST AFTER THAT INITIAL ONE YEAR PERIOD. YOU ALSO HAVE TO BE LOCKED IN A CONTRACT FOR A MINIMUM OF ONE YEAR. THE FIOS MULTI-ROOM DVR HAS A LOT OF ISSUES AND LIMITATIONS WITH IT. THEY ARE AS FOLLOWS: THERE ARE NO PARENTAL CONTROLS. YOU CANNOT PAUSE, REWIND LIVE TV, SCHEDULE OR DELETE RECORDINGS ON REMOTE BOXES. IT REQIURES FIOS HOME INTERNET NETWORKING. AJUSTED FIREWALL SETTINGS ALLOWING DVR SHARING COULD COMPROMISE INTERNET SECURITY. THERE IS ALSO A PROBLEM WITH INSIDE WIRING, ONCE IT IS RE-WIRED YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE SERVICES IF YOU WANTED TO. IN SHORT GET TIME WARNER CABLE ITS THE BEST SERVICE IN AMERICA!!!!!
ALSO TIMEWARNER HAS HAD FIBER OPTIC CABLES WAY BEFORE VERIZON EVEN THOUGHT OF TRYING TO GET IN THE CABLE INDUSTRY. FIOS SUCKS!!!!!!!!
FiOS sucks balls… internet faster my ass i want to go back to IO service, it was so much better
stfu u kids fios owns and is the best out right now…no issues…get it.
To those who are excited about this there are things you need to know about Fios and verizon. If you use any phone service such as Vonage you will receive terrible customer service. When you call them, the first thing they ask you is for your phone number. If you do not have a verizon phone then you will likely get shuffled around from rep to rep and put on endless hold. Also they give you the speed but don’t want you to actually use the bandwidth, they traffic shape and will cut you off if they detect torrent traffic, even if it’s legitimate. Over a year ago they mis-billed my account; after they caught the mistake my service was restored. (After hours and hours of getting shuffled around and getting disconnected) Then two weeks ago I woke up to check my email and found the service was off again. After several hours on the phone, I finally get told that the billing error had resurfaced; it would most likely take a month for fraud services to resolve the issue. No apologies for the mistake or the terrible service. I had to sign up for RR just to get service back and my home phone working again.
FiOS Internet Service is pretty good when it works. Granted, I have not had many problems with it, I just ran into some trouble w/ their ActionTec routers where my connection kept dropping. Oddly enough, when I replaced it with a WatchGuard firebox, the connection has been rock solid at around 12Mbps down and 1.8 up.
Now, FiOS video on the other hand SUCKS. The MultiRoom DVR is a nightmare. The stupid thing has a mind of its own. Sometimes it’ll pause what you are watching and sometimes not. Losing the ability to pause live TV via the remote set top box also sucked. I was surprised that my Dish multi-room DVR was so much more advanced than the Verizon MultiRoom DVR.
To complicate matters more, if you have a static IP, good luck. I went through four appointments before they finally got it done. They had to install a second ONT in the garage. The right hand frequently didn’t know what the left was doing (i.e. installer showed up LONG before the second drop was run up from the curb for the second ONT).
In short, the Internet is great and worth it, but if you opt for video, be patient and willing to deal w/ tech support.
Oh, I concur w/ the above poster, if you don’t have a Verizon phone number tied to your FiOS Internet and/or TV, good luck reaching customer service or tech support.
Ahh, one more thing. The video watched over the MultiRoom DVR is literally streaming to the set top boxes.
If you want to fast fwd through commercials using the advance (30 seconds) button, it’s flaky at best.
I just remember streaming video to my PC that behaves much the same way. Fast forwarding or rewinding causes skips, jumps, and spurts. Sometimes it works sometimes not.
The skip ahead and jump back buttons can allegedly be programmed, but the programming didn’t take for me. Both buttons are set at 30 seconds. At least my Dish box would skip ahead 30 seconds or drop back 10 seconds (you know, in case you went too far when skipping commercials).
Just my two cents.
FiOS Cons
FiOS Pros
1. Audio/video sync is much better than Comcast. (Especially in HD, where it is very noticeable…)
2. More HD channels. (More SD channels as well, but this may not be true anymore…) Supposedly, the HD pictures are better, but I think this is more of an opinion. How can you really tell? It goes back to my very first point. Can a “bad” 1080i picture be worse than a “great” 720p picture?
3. Not as expensive for “everything”… (But this may not be true any more either… What is the difference between $205.00 per month versus $210.00 per month?)
4. Media Center cable box available. (But the HD programming was not able to be viewed on an SD box, so it didn’t really do much for me… But maybe Comcast has a Media Center cable box now?)
We have not been able to access Video on Demand with our FiOS TV service for two days. The tech support person told me that there is limited capacity within neighborhoods and too many people are watching VOD right now so that is why we can’t access it. Has anyone heard about this?
Time Warner SUCKS!!! and I work there as a service tech. We do not have recipical accounts, so I had to get FIOS, and guess what it puts my company to shame. I hope a position opens up with Verizon soon. See ya later cable and dish, fiber is going to take over…duh
I recently had Verizon FIOS installed in my home and I would like to say that I am not just disappointed in their service, I am disgusted with it.
First of all one of their salesmen led me to believe that I would be getting much more for my money when I talked to him on the phone. I made a point of making sure to ask him enough questions so that I was very clear on the cost of the service.
He told me that the promotional package included TV, internet, and phone for somewhere around $110.00 per month. My understanding was that it included everything that I wanted,” high speed” internet, HD TV with on demand, and telephone, with no additional charges. I asked him about additional charges several times!
Then when the technician arrived at my house I asked him several questions about additional cost and he did the same thing. He told me that the package included up to four set top boxes and that I would only have to pay extra for anything over the four boxes.
It turns out that the $110.00 per month promotional package includes only the very basic internet, TV, and phone. When I got my first bill it was nearly $200.00. I was billed individually for each of the four set top boxes, on demand was extra, and the “high speed” internet was extra.
It’s as if these people are trained to intentionally deceive you so that you will order their service.
So I called their office to complain about the deception. I was told that there was nothing that they could do about the rate that I was paying unless I was to cancel some of the extra services that I was getting. These are the same services that I was led to believe were included in the “package deal”.
I called back several times thinking that I might get a different response from a different person. I got the same thing from every one of them. I asked to speak with the supervisor and I got the same thing from her. So I called back and asked to speak with another supervisor thinking that a different supervisor would make a different decision but there was no difference in the response that I got from him either.
By the way, calling Verizon support is a painful task. They have that computerized answering service that takes a really long time to get past and then when you do get past it you have to wait a while before a person answers the phone. It is not something that I enjoy doing.
I should tell you that I did manage to get the bill down about $12 per month. One of the supervisors gave me two discounts on the box rentals and a whopping $1 discount on the on demand.
At this point I am having trouble with their signal so I call back and complain to them. I told them that I was dissatisfied with the service and that I wanted to switch the TV only back to Comcast.
They troubleshoot the problem at their location to no avail. So I ask the guy if Verizon will allow me to switch just the TV service, citing the fact that I’m paying for a service that doesn’t work. He told me to hold on and that he will ask his supervisor what can be done. He came back after ten minutes and told me that he is going to send a technician out to my house to troubleshoot the problem and if the technician finds no problem I will be charge for the service call!
I got angry and told him to, “Turn the service off”. He told me that he couldn’t do that from his location and that I would have to talk to someone else about turning the service off. I said, “I want you to tell your supervisor that I’m going to sue your company”, and that was the end of that call.
After I cooled down I called back and complained again. This time adding the remark about me getting charged for the service tech. I got the run around again.
Comcast, by the way, was giving me a special deal. HD TV with on demand, High speed internet, and unlimited telephone for $108.00 per month. After my ordeal on the phone with the Verizon people I called Comcast and they told me that they would give me the same deal that I had before.
That’s where I am right now and I think I am going to have to pay Verizon a great deal of money just to get rid of their sorry asses.
So are they counting people who’s names are in their system only? 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 it 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.
Herndon, VA
I totally agree with James above the verizon customer service is awful.
I had the triple freedom plan and was misled when I signed up because I thought I was NOT under contract. Anyway I disconnected the phone because unlike what I was told by verizon getting the phone does not make your bill lower. I was then hit with a $200 early termination fee. I had them reconnect the phone and agreed to a one year contract. When they reconnected the phone they changed my account number so for the next three months I was paying my bill using my online bank account to the old disconnected account. Each month verizon would refund my payment and send a bill for twice the amount for NON payment of bill. I had no clue why I was being charged twice after three months of NONPAYMENT verizon started threatening to disconnect my service at this time I figured out what was the issue and told them I just paid using my online bank to the old account. They said they would transfer the money from the old account to the new account. Five days later they call back threatening again to disconnect the service I went over the fact that a rep told me they would transfer the money I was then told that was not possible I had to make my account current or they would disconnect. My wife works from home and internet is necessary.
I then went ahead and paid $644 using my credit card even though they had some $470 of mine somewhere in limbo assuming they would send me that refundd check as they always did.
Unforutnate for me the transfer did go through and now my account has a $470 credit that verizon refuses to refund. $470 that I cannot get back because “the account is active and refunds are not given for overpayment”
I am so frustrated with verizon the customer service is by far the worst in the world. On another note you must rent a box in order to watch more than the 5 local channels. Signing up for FIOS is signing up for long times on hold, poor service no assistance and being overcharged
I’m a disgruntled Comcast employee. Yes i admit, igot fired for something which WAS my fault. As a “former” Comcast employee i got all the services for free or next to nothing(which i really miss). I can say, i never had any problems with my Comcast service. I’m friends with a tech & so i had everything wired with the all the newest wires & equipment.(althought the equipment is tested, most is refurbished) No complaints at all. I was happy.
After my firing, i decided to switch to Fios. Revenge on the cable company!!! Well, Well, Well…. I made the switch. Remember the saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!!! Holy crap what a Nightmare with Fios!!! My house is basic. First floor, second floor & Basement is unfinished, so running wire is simple. Second floor wires run from basement up the outside wall, but hidden nicely. Nice, professioal job with wallplates & all. My Comcast friend did it without any problems. I got my basement, main floor & upstairs with t.v’s. My wireless gateway router was in the basement. Wireless was throughout the house, with a strong signal. Comcast service was superb. Like i was saying, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…. After a month of waiting to get installed with Fios. It was the day. I decided to get the multi-room dvr through Verizon. Why not. Wireless, shouldn’t be a problem. Phone, well i went for the whole shh-bang… Deal sounded comparible with Comcast triple play. Verizon was a liitle more with all the fees & added fees. The install, the tech arrived about 10:50 with a 8-12 window. Here we go… Well, the tech didn’t get done until 4pm. He needed to run a wire from the pole to the house, were he had a guy with a bucket truck help. Not sure why, it wasn’t a long or difficult wire to run for one person. (Well, it wasn’t difficult for my comcast friend) The Fios tech had to run some additional wires for the Multiroom DVR. Well, after he drilled the holes for the wires, i counted 7 missed holes for the wires throughout the house. Tech didn’t have a second hd box & had to use a standard box. which kinda sucked. after installation which it seemed forever. I personally didn’t notice a difference with the HD pic. Muti-room dvr had alot of issues, internet was much better either. I’m not a big gamer or anything other than a normal computer user. i didn’t see much of difference with speed. I did have problem connecting wirelees to my upstairs computer. Which the tech said it had to be a computer issue. (it worked flawless with my Comcast internet gateway modem) The phone was the least of the problems i expected to have with Fios!!! But it was echoing. I had dinner plans & had to go out. The tech was already at my house for almost 6hrs. So, he said he would have to come back to fix what wasn’t working. 6 hrs is a long day for him & me, so i was fine with making another appt. Well, after he left, I HAD TO MAKE THE APPT. Fine, i called sat on hold with with my cell phone for over an hour, because the phone was Fios phone was intermittent. Along with some T.V problems, sound coming in & out & picture going out & sometimes getting squares. Internet had drop in signal & speed as well. I didn’t expect to wait a week for a sevice tech to come out, nor was i going to pay i think $80.00 for the service call!!!! I didn’t even complain about the 7 holes in the wall, that the tech made messing up when he was running wires. Well, i still had basic cable with Comcast on 2 t.v’s so i could deal with the t.v issue while waiting. It seemed like an issue with the Fios signal coming in from the main line outside, so i didn’t assume anything inside needed to be done. Remember all wires inside are new. Finally, after a week waiting without a pre-phone call the tech arrived late. He fixed the phone problem, said he can’t do anything with the multi-room dvr problem & the modem was fine the wireless signal upstairs to the laptop wasn’t strong enough. he said he could do something, but i’d have to pay extra for the service. I’m was already paying $180.00 a month. I could live without the laptop upstairs. I was in limbo with keeping the service, since i had the option to cancel if i wasn’t wowwed!! After recieving my bill & getting charged for the service call, the tech drilling the holes (which i could have brought up the issue) the ongoing issues the hold times & overall bad experience. I switched back to Comcast & am so happy. Everything works perfect with Comcast & i’m paying $20 less. Btw, I fixed the holes left in the walls myself. To me the Fios experience was not worth the hype. I’m sticking with Comcast. Although i got fired for my mistake, i shouldn’t hold a grudge for that. I’m Comcastic again!!!
Steve
South Jersey
Camden County
I work as a Technician for Time Warner Cable in New York City. One of my best friends was a disgruntled cable subscriber who left Time Warner due to numerous node outages and dropped calls on his Digital Phone Service. He was very quick to get pulled into Verizon’s marketing hype when it came time for FiOS. When he switched phone service from Verizon to TWC, the # porting process was a breeze. Verizon however, screwed up the port because a CS rep stated the voice service was available, ported out the phone # from TW, anticipating to keep the same # when going back to Verizon. That was a lie. The installer stated that the voice capability was NOT available, was installed only with video and Internet Service. The installation was decieving. I stopped by while he was getting installed because even though Verizon is my competitor, I was still very curious to see how thier signal chain works. The installation tech looked like he was a homeless man who hadn’t shaved in about a week, was wearing dry-rotted boots, didn’t have his company I.D. card present and was dressed like he was doing work under the hood of a truck, wearing dingy jeans and a Led Zepplin T-shirt. The Verizon tech was polite and friendly at least, but didn’t seem like he had any experience using F-type compression connectors. He had no idea of RF, ethernet, modem speed, or video. He was basically a phone and DSL tech rushed into installation of this technology. The copper drops from the crossbox to the old NID were disconnected, but not removed. He added a new NID near the Optical Node for the Fiber, and reconnected the copper drops. The tech went to check on plant and stated that there was no signal coming from the fiber box a few hundred feet away and could not complete the install. So my friend had a lost phone # with no dialtone and no internet. Fortunately, his Time Warner account was still active and I reconnected the Arris modem.
When the installation was complete a week later, the internet and video worked flawlessly for about a month. I’ve seen the tiling and freezing myself and it was due to the defective connectors used for the RG-6 cable. (which I replaced myself)
Internet connectivity was intermittent, Verizon’s customer service would have you standing at the NID to troubleshoot over the phone in the pouring rain.
Awaiting a service appointment was even worse, waiting over 2 weeks. With Time Warner Cable, you would wait a few days and sometimes have a service tech on THAT DAY, with no surcharges mind you.
Needless to say, after four months, my boy re-connected with Cable. He has not been happier, even with a few setbacks.
Verizon FiOS techs are trained by satellite installers who do terrible installations as it is. If Verizon expects to maintain a reliable workforce, then they should consider hiring jumpship employees of Cable companies like Cox, Bright House, Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. Those that know how to work with HFC plant and coaxial distribution cables are the only hope that FiOS has.
I also had a bad experience with Verizon in setting up an internet connection (verizon fios) where I missed two days of work. The technician was supposed to come to my house but never showed up. I called verizon to cancel – they told me they would send me a bill which includes a termination fee and I told them to shove it where the sun don’t shine. I missed two days of work without pay and never had my verizon fios account activated. Verizon SUCKS!