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Review by ocjosh See Profile

  • Location: Santa Fe Springs, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $110 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
My replacement of Clearwire due to Sprint's soon to kill it in an year or two
super slow wifi G router, slow connections to overseas, Price not cheap, monopoly in the zone, no DSL replacement at all
I was going to order TWC but their upload and modem fee... never mind.
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)

10/24/2013 ordered 11/29/2013 installation done

I was very happy with clearwire home service ($60 take two plan, that's $30 for my line) with rooftop antenna, not till sprint took over-- slower (6-7 Mbps from original 15 Mbps+) and lack of maintaining the network (network frozen several time after merge with Sprint). New clearwire boss put a speed limits on all online video streaming that also apply to my clear 4G service. They are lacking of promises to upgrade or maintain the exist Clear customers. I have to look outside the box before my limited choices price goes up in my zone (Los Angeles market). My zone there is no copper service, so DSL Extreme or Sonic Fusion is not available that I verified with Nick from DSL extreme. That leaves me with TWC or FIOS left, but TWC's 50Mbps won't upgrade to 100 Mbps in my market anytime soon, plus, with TWC 1 Mbps upload and modem fee, forget it. Those $69 plus modem fee and slow upload, I passed TWC since I have Verizon FIOS in the area.

So I looked into Verizon FIOS instead. $89 first year $99 second, select TV, 50/35 Mbps and Digital voice to qualify the $300 card, $10 work discount, $12 HD STB fee, $99 upgrade-able to wifi N modem (I didn't go with it). But first bill after tax is $110+ that has free installation, free activation. Their billing sucks, the tax is near $8 only but $89+tax$8+HD STB$12-corp discount$10=$110?? They just won't honor their deal of $89 from their billing. Be aware of that.

I don't watch TV at all due to Verizon's great and competitive Select Pack and triple-play is lower than internet only plan after promotion, so I returned the box after a week. That took me a while to return it that I have to talk to retention for 2 days to work this out. I don't need their voice either because I used my VOIP. I ordered triple play is due to work discount and $300 as well as their 50/35 alone costs more than triple play with discounts.

I moved from Asia where internet is a lot cheaper and faster, so my review is ummm....pricy for my speed and slow global network. Verizon's connect is so bad connected to overseas. Only their domestic connection is upto claimed speed.

02/10/2014

Verizon hasn't been able to provide the right bills so far and 3 months in a row. They haven't honored even $89.99 first year yet, no corp discount, only partially discount $10 from full price. I haven't seen the $300 gift card or Bank of America promotion.

Call billing ending up with a rep with attitudes. Wow, this is monopoly business, take it or leave it style. Buyers be aware. Those the rep on the phone claimed fixed the issue, but this is the third month I have to call in for closer amount. They still didn't honor $89.99 first year yet.

The speed to overseas is still s-l-o-w... Only daytime (I am away to work) the connection is better than evening to night. But decent domestic connections besides Netflix or Viki that I cancelled Netflix in the end.

sometime around worldcup 2014

We increased to 75/35 speed with higher charge to bundle Prime HD package for World cup, then got upgraded to 75/75 from Verizon weeks after. YouTube is stuck evening to night time as always.

Speed to local Los Angeles servers not always can reach the advertised speed, not to mention out of town speed, just half or less. Although one of LA server can deliver 10% over than 75/75 to 84/90 kind of speed, but it's still from time to time.

The issues were pretty bad when worked from home day time. Call reps and told a lot of non sense such as third party hardware not be able to reach the advertise speed or if we were using smartphone or it has to be wired lines reboot or reset so many times.

I only do one smart TV or one desktop at one time. They just can't deliver the speed.

Verizon charged more than Google Fiber's 1G speed but can't deliver quality network, not even local, state cities or domestic major cities at advertised speed. Shame on Verizon, charged us premiums with lousy network but claim fiber. They should say fiber service on old and narrow network who can't even run YouTube clips well so many times so far. How is that, Verizon?

11/25/2014 to 1/12/2015

Speeds: Our FiOS connections has a pattern now. It's fast to "local" speedtest servers during daytime; slow to YouTube at nights then turning to no connections, and weekend even having on-and-offs NetFlix experiences. Some nights will lost internet with no server found on any pages or sites.

Charge: as high as they could with bad quality

Customer services: There is non. They told you to reboot, then told me that I am using non Verizon (3rd party) equipment (my wired computer, just one connection) and they can't grantee it. Then change to laptop with LAN, same thing.

Conclusion: So after weeks, I know just use my Sprint Spark speed smartphone to go online at night, forget about Verizon FiOS. (I only get 13Mbps with Band41 if I am lucky to get on it or 3Mbps with band 25 with Sprint Spark, though Sprint coverage map shown turbo).

06/06/2015

Speeds: As before, Netflix will have some little buffering issues on weird internet. I have less YouTube issues recently. Still bad major cities connection speeds but improving a bit, now FiOS out of town from Los Angeles to San Diego and Mexico improved to in town speed. And that's it. Nowhere else has better speeds.

They decide to sweeten a bit with HBO 3 months offer. But I got more pissed because I don't watch TV. I want they to fix the network congestions.

So I called to cancel my service and jump Verizon ship but they don't pick up during weekends when it comes to cancellations.

member for 11 years, 1022 visits, last login: 46 days ago
updated 8.7 years ago


ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

?

sucky select pack? You chose it didnt you? There are 3 other tiers, prime extreme and ultimate. To go to prime is just $10 a month difference.
ocjosh
join:2013-03-19
Anaheim, CA
·T-Mobile
·Verizon Wireless
·CenturyLink

1 edit

ocjosh

Member

Re: ?

Let me modify it to Verizon's great and competitive Select Pack for the world.
Maybe you didn't read well why select triple play sucks. I don't need TV or phone, but their triple play is cheaper than internet alone after discounts they put up. That's make it sucky! You have to pay for everything you don't need because it's monopolized market, no much cheaper choice here.

VashTS
@bhn.net

VashTS

Anon

Re: ?

So you dont watch TV but complain about the TV package? U know u can just return the HD box if ur not using it and that will be -$12 on ur bill. Want the basic chs and have a digital ready TV U still get that, but since u just wanted the internet I suspect u watch everything online like a lot of ppl. U dont need there voice either you say "$69.99/mo
for 1 yr. plus taxes, fees & equip. charges. Does not include sports channels. Offer & pricing details" right on there site. I cant get them so I cant see any other prices (says not aval at my address) BUT im sure data alone cant cost anymore then that.
ocjosh
join:2013-03-19
Anaheim, CA
·T-Mobile
·Verizon Wireless
·CenturyLink

ocjosh

Member

Re: ?

triple play: $89-corp discount $10-Gift card$300/24-bank of america$100/24=$62.34/month then $72.34 2nd year
double play: $89-corp discount $5=$85/month and $95 2nd year
FIOS internet only: $59=$59/month and $79 2nd year

From above list for speed , triple play seems to be cheaper than internet only plan that I might get more and actually pay less 2nd year. I calculated this way as a regular consumer to get the most out of my pocket. I lived as one of cut-cord folks for years. If the internet only price is not so steep, I would have avoided the doubts.

DeadSurvivor
Actor (The Asylum / Mill Creek Ent.)
Premium Member
join:2013-09-03
Tampa, FL
·Charter

1 edit

DeadSurvivor

Premium Member

Verizon Fios Select TV Triple Play ...

Although I am one week in, I have had no major issues and enjoy the picture quality compared to the cable company I was once with.

... And with the current price, I was hard for me to pass up.
ocjosh
join:2013-03-19
Anaheim, CA

ocjosh

Member

Re: Verizon Fios Select TV Triple Play ...

Just wait for 12 months later when they take away all their promotion code. I thought they were cheaper at the beginning. Not to mention that I have to call them to fix bills at first 4-5 months.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

net neutrality

definitly report and create trouble tickets if your getting weak performance on streaming sites. Verizon should be fast symmetrical bandwidth everywhere now. If the trouble tickets go nowhere, you can escalate your complaint to a net neutrality complaint with the FCC.

the law (is supposed to) takes affect TODAY!
ocjosh
join:2013-03-19
Anaheim, CA
·T-Mobile
·Verizon Wireless
·CenturyLink

ocjosh

Member

Re: net neutrality

I am so glad I've paid for the termination and moved to the only alternative I have in our area. Only 2 ISPs at one zip, this is very common in Los Angeles market.
I slept late for my first week with new ISP due to super fast speed to most of sites I visits.
Verizon/Frontier FiOS is just over-priced and over-famed brand, it's old BPON network. Next!