 Review by Technogeez 
UPDATED: 86 days ago
member for 1.5 years, 470 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Brandon,Hillsborough,FL
 $114 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Quick installation, Quick order turn-around, Great picture/surfing/phone"
 "None, now that billing issues have been resolved!"
 "Seriously compare costs with cable."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Summary - Three days from order to install. Three hour install. Instant configuration. Seeing 5 mbit/sec down, 1.8 mbit/sec up. 200+ high-quality TV channels with about 18 HD. Crystal clear phone service.
The signs went up in late November, and the trucks appeared the next day. Here there be Fiber, the signs and portents told, and I knew it was just a matter of time until the FiOS qualifier on the Verizon website would quit suggesting DSL (which I already had) and point me to the FiOS pages I had so longingly ogled. On
Monday, Dr Martin Luther King day, it happened. Upgrade to FiOS, it beckoned...how ironic; I was to be free at last from the shackles and bonds of copper wiring, free at last to live a life of enlightened freedom enhanced by photons.
Having read many reviews of less-than-successful attempts to get Verizon to install FiOS, I was a bit wary of the process at first, but the website laid it out for me in three easy steps. First, order phone service over FiOS, then TV, then Internet. Get your confirmation online, and an email will follow. And it worked great, until the end of the TV order, when I was thanked for upgrading and kicked out of the order process. What about the Internet option, I wondered? What speeds can I choose from, and how much will they cost me? And could that scheduled install date be correct - Thursday, January 18? Only three days hence? I expected, after reading other reviews, at least a week, maybe a month.
My confirmatory email was good news-bad news. I could expect a quick installation, but I was scheduled to switch phone and TV to fiber only -- no mention of Internet. So, eschewing technology, I called the FiOS information number in the email. What I got was confirmation that I'd be serviced on Thursday, between 1 and 3, but no response to my query about the Internet service. I was promptly referred to the Business Service office, where my "Account Manager," once he found out I was a residential customer, quickly pawned me off on the general Verizon help line. Working my way through the menu tree, I finally got a live voice who was very happy to help me sort out the issue. I quickly got my speed and service set to 5/2, and went to sleep that night wondering what else might go wrong.
On Tuesday, little flags from the gas company sprouted in the grass - yes, Virginia, it looked like there was some sort of magic planned for the next day!
Wednesday saw a mysterious 1-inch-wide trench cut in my turf, at the bottom of which lay a thick, black cable terminating in a loop hanging off my NID. Fiber to the home, in the flesh! And they didn't even cut my sprinkler system wires.
I took Thursday morning off to get ready for the install. I cleared work spaces where I thought the technicians would want to run drops and install the BBU/ONT. I checked the attic access and cleared a pathway to the drop zone. I considered running the Cat5 myself, but after reading of the potential that they'd be using coax to network, I decided to hold on that. I was as ready as I could be.
The crew of two showed about 2:45 in one van. They asked to see where the TV and computers were. They took a quick look up in the attic. Then one went off for the coax and Cat5 while the other assaulted the NID. I'll break here into cabling versus ONT installs and wrap up with the configuration.
I already had coax in the wall where they wanted to put the coax and Cat5 cables, so they clipped the down end and used it to pull the new cables to the central connection point. The new coax was RG-6 and they replaced any cables that weren't RG-6 and splitters that didn't pass 1,000 mhz or higher. The Cat5 was extended a bit farther to the eaves, where they passed it down to the ONT through a small hole drilled through the soffit. Of note, the techs told me that if I had waited a week, they wouldn't have needed to install the Cat5, as they'll soon be running everything over the coax. At the central junction, they re-terminated all the existing coax (my previous cable installer had maliciously cut the connectors off them) and screwed them into a six-way splitter, despite my not using the outlets in each room. "For attenuation," I was told, "The signal needs to be cut down as it's too hot coming right out of the ONT." Whatever - I now have basic FiOS TV signals to each wired room in my home at no extra charge. At my network central, they hooked up an Actiontec router to both the Cat5 and the coax. As for phone wires, they used the existing eight-conductor cabling installed when the house was built.
Meanwhile, back at the ONT, the swapout of the NID was moving right along. The fiber from the closest box (which was right across the street) had been laid the day before and was looped up and taped to my phone wires hanging out of the NID (mine was the first plugged into the junction). The tech removed the phone distribution block from the NID on my garage wall and unscrewed the empty shell, dropping it into the trash box he had set up underneath the work area. The base of the ONT covered the unpainted space where the NID was, and the excess fiber run wrapped neatly inside the ONT base. The electronics chassis popped right into the base unit. Wiring was simple - the fiber plugged/screwed into a fiber connector at the upper left. The copper house phone wiring clipped into marked T&R connectors under some RJ-45 jacks marked phone. The Cat5 plugged into another RJ-45 marked network, and the existing house cable coax screwed into a terminal marked video. The installer ran a new ground wire to the house ground - ironic, since the fiber doesn't carry any charge. But he replaced the 12-gauge wire with 6-gauge anyway. The most complex part was the installation of the battery backup unit (BBU) on the inside of the garage wall, and passing the power cable thru the wall to the ONT. That took about 15 minutes. Connections tight, loose wires tucked away and cable-tied to the ONT, wiring was done and all was complete on the outside. Total elapsed time - about 2 hours. Time to configure.
My internal network runs on a Microsoft MN-700 router/access point. It worked great with the DSL, and I hoped to keep it with the new installation. Unfortunately, the techs pointed out that the channel grid for the FiOS TV is passed via IP, and had to be split out by the proprietary Actiontec MI424WR router they provided. I asked if there'd be any problem with keeping the Microsoft router between the Actiontec and my network - none at all, but they warned me I'd probably see speed reductions. So we unplugged the Cat5 from the DSL modem and plugged it into an open port on the Actiontec. Powered back up, the MN-700 was DHCP'd by the Actiontec within a minute and I was back online. So much for configuration - call it five minutes.
TV was much the same. They plugged in the set top box, hooked up the component video cables and we were live in about 10 minutes - the box took a bit to boot and load.
Phone was even easier. "Do you have dial tone?" We did.
Summary - Three days from order to install. Three hour install. Instant configuration. Seeing 5 mbit/sec down, 1.8 mbit/sec up. 200+ high-quality TV channels with about 18 HD. Crystal clear phone service. After doing some research, I note that the Actiontec can do everything my MN-700 does, so I'll probably migrate to it when I get an hour or two. My next yard sale will have some surplus gear, including two wireless routers and a couple of DSL modems and filters.
UPDATE at the six week point. I wound up keeping my wireless router inside the ActionTec router Verizon supplied...the RF range is better and it gives me the option of a DMZ attached to the ActionTec that's still outside my home network. Speeds have fluctuated between 2 and 5 mbps down, and 1.2 to 1.8 up. Important note - if you activate website filtering on the ActionTec, it will affect your download speed. Test history is here: »/testhistory/1432585/207e9. TV has been consistently high quality. Phone service seems as reliable as copper. I have installed a Back-UPS 500 between the mains and the BBU to retain internet and TV during brief power outages without any apparent degradation in service. The BBU emits a LOT of RF noise (see forum threads about degraded garage door opener performance). Billing was a shock - it took about 2 months to sort out the billing details, and the first FiOS bill was over $230. But close attention to the details shows the pricing right where I expected it. So far, I remain happy with my decision to switch. Ask me again during hurricane season...
Here's a link to my site with installation photos...»mysite.verizon.net/res2084x/
Update - Sep 2007 - suffered a 1.5 hour power outage last week, but with the UPSs I have on the BBU, the router, and associated network gear, I never lost internet service nor dial tone. Billing has been steady, and I just got the "secret upgrade" to 10/2. I still recommend the triple play, but read the Verizon FiOS forum closely to be aware of the potential customer service issues.
Update - Dec 2007 - billing remains steady for the triple-play package, which I have for another few months. I'll update again when my renewal time rolls around.
Update - Feb 2008 - I've had the service just over a year and I'm VERY happy with it. Starting to see isolated incidents of tiling and audio freeze on various channels but with no discernable pattern. Verizon apparently has heard those complaining about poor customer service, as I have been assigned a "Personal Account Manager" to handle all things FiOS for me, from service changes through repair orders. It looks like Verizon may be sensitive to the poor rap from their disjointed and inconsistent customer service record. I'll update again as conditions warrant.
Update - Apr 08 - the honeymoon's over. My one-year triple play discount period just expired. Verizon sent a letter telling me my discounts would decrease by $10. To a normal person, that means your bill goes up by $10. To Verizon, it means your bill goes up by $30. At least, that's what happened to me. So I called my so-called "Personal Account Manager." First of all, the voice mail answering the line is NOT the person who was listed in my PAM letter, and other data in the letter is wrong as well. Then, despite a promise in the Vmail message about returning my call by 9pm, that didn't happen. The 1-888-553-1555 staff goes home at 8 pm. I guess I'll have to burn some time on the phone tomorrow morning.
Update - Apr 08 - Billing know not what FiOS hath wrought. According to a very irritated CSR, who didn't know or care what my letter said, I had to re-commit for a 12 month period or I would get no bundle discounts whatever. The good news - I got rebundled for a year at the same price I had before. And get this - a two-year commitment would have cost MORE. Verizon sure doesn't seem to get modern marketing very well. Anyway, my PAM finally called me back, and offered to get me back where I was (Remember -- $10 more per month?). I declined his help. I'll update again when warranted, but for now I'm pretty content getting another year at the same price I had before.
Update - May 08 - I love my irritated CSR, for she has bestowed upon me the "official" FiOS Triple Play discount, bringing my monthly total down to $114. Yes, the price actually went down on renewal. How's that for a trend-buster? Color me completely satisfied!
Followup comments:  JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA |  Question
How can you write a glowing review, then give ratings so poor that your review ends up in the mixed column? | |
|  | jtorre69
join:2005-12-26
Hollywood, FL | Re: Question This goes to show you how worthless these rating systems can be. You are bound by people that are unable to correctly use them. | |
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Technogeez
Misanthropic curmudgeon
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Brandon, FL | Re: Question a. Please note the system's description of "ratings match consensus."
b. For further information, I recommend you google "halo effect." | |
| | pktgumby
join:2006-11-21
Huntington Beach, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Yeah, you apparently haven't heard about the unwritten rule around here.
Nobody is allowed to rate Verizon FiOS at anything below perfect or everybody starts crying about it and attempts to have your review removed.
You're apparently not allowed to give the rating YOU think Verizon deserves, but rather you must give the rating these other guys want you to give. | |
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Technogeez
Misanthropic curmudgeon
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Brandon, FL
·Verizon FIOS
| I think I pointed out that on-line ordering wasn't perfect; neither were the first or second phone reps who were unable (or unwilling) to fulfill my order. The ratings I gave, I think, matched the service I got. Better than 50 but lower than 80...my only option was 60. And it's too early to give 100 percent to anything else. I was surprised to see my post relegated to the "mixed" category, but I didn't invent the rating system. If you got the impression that I'm very happy with the install, but that the ordering process could use improvement, then I was successful. | |
| madrhino
join:2004-07-03
·Verizon FIOS
 ·Comcast
edit:
December 25th, @04:56AM
| System does not allow verizon to be rated low enough The thing that gets me is the lowest rating you can give is 20%.Verizon customer service doesn't deserve a rating that high.It indicates something other than complete,total failure which is false.
20% indicates that 1 out of 5 times there is a successful resolution to a customer service problem and this is NOT the case.It is actually less than 5%( and probably much,much lower but I can only personally verify that it is less than 5%) but I don't expect a system to go that low, but this is bogus.
How many people who have spent hours on the phone getting nowhere would actually rate them the zero they deserve?
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Get Verizon FIOS,The Anti-DIOS | |
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Technogeez
Misanthropic curmudgeon
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Brandon, FL
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: System does not allow verizon to be rated low enough Any rating system is an artificial construct, and remains a relative comparison, subject to statistical anomalies and manipulation. Ideally it would go in 10-point increments from 0 to 100.
Bottom line - after nearly a year on FiOS, I am a satisfied customer who hasn't experienced the abysmal customer service others (like madrhino) have. My install went well, we haven't had any outages of note, and I haven't changed any service parameters (requiring any customer service intervention). Time will tell, as when my year of triple play is up, I fully expect to be subjected to price-increase extortion which will require some interaction with customer service. Until then, I will continue to enjoy the best piped-in TV picture quality I've ever seen, 10/2 internet speeds, and crystal clear phone service.
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Read your contract and TOS before signing anything. | |
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Technogeez
Misanthropic curmudgeon
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Brandon, FL | Let the games begin... The billing fun and games has started. My Triple Freedom, which Verizon says will cost me $10 more per month, is actually costing $30. Time will tell.
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Read your contract and TOS before signing anything. | |
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