 Review by MDReferee 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 1476 visits, last login: 336 days ago
 Germantown,Montgomery,MD
 $152 per month (24 month contract)
 about 17 days
 "Lightning Fast, Rock Solid"
 "Tech 'Support'..."
 "Excellent Service... unless you have to call Verizon for anything..."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Ordered Triple Play from Verizon on 4/29. Was already a Verizon POTS customer and had Comcast for TV and HSI. Splurged the extra $10 for the 15/2 internet package.
My front yard was marked up the next day and the crew buried the fiber drop 3 days after that. The installers arrived during the first half of the install window and it took them approximately 4 hours to complete. The install location was easy enough in an unfinished utility room where they mounted the BBU and the Actiontec Router. They removed the old POTS NID on the outside of the house and replaced with a Telllabs 612 ONT. Internet and dialtone were working within the hour. Internet was provisioned without installing any crapware on any computer... although I will not be using VZ's E-mail. TV install was a little more complicated. One DVR box, one HD box and 2 Standard STBs, as well as a CableCard. Comcast had used an amplifier for the leg that runs up to the third floor of our townhouse and is split three ways from there. Subsequently removing the amp, the installers said the signal level was too low on the third floor. They re-arranged the splitters and got it within spec quickly. They activated the boxes from their laptop without having to call a dispatcher (a nice change from my experiences with Comcast). TV programming all works as expected.
Installers were professional (VZ core technicians), wore covers over their boots while working inside, and did a clean install with equipment wall-mounted and cables stapled with plenty of slack for future relocation. They even called another tech when they didn't have a second HDMI cable on the truck (those things aren't cheap and we get them free as part of the install!)
I've heard of support and billing problems, but of course I haven't seen either of those issues yet... I'll re-evaluate if necessary...
UPDATE 1/23/08:
The service has been consistently good -- consistent internet speeds and good picture quality on the TV side. Adding a TiVo HD box around Christmas was an exercise in futility. Apparently, our local shop was completely out of CableCards. I scheduled the install for Monday 12/24 (my mistake for thinking they'd actually show up on Christmas Eve). To her credit, the tech called around 8:45 am to let me know she had no CableCards. They rescheduled for the following weekend. Tech arrived, got one card activated without delay, but couldn't get the second card to come up. He finally gave up after about 4 hours. I spent 1 hour and 36 minutes on hold waiting for a tech over the phone who then told me he would escalate the problem and I'd receive a callback within 3 hours. No surprise that I did not. Called again and waited 47 minutes for a tech who actually *fixed* the problem and got the second card activated. Working like a champ since then.
My current suggestion to Ivan: Hire more agents to take calls. There's no reason I should *ever* have to wait more than 10 minutes to get an agent. 96 minutes is a ridiculous hold time. Attempting to contact the billing department and not even being allowed to join a queue is also quite ridiculous.
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