 Review by Jodokast96 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 1240 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Sicklerville,Camden,NJ
 $30 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 Verizon
 "Connection never drops; Best bang for the buck."
 "First contact support staff is mostly clueless; Poor coordination and communication between various departments"
 "3/768 still better than Comcast's 6/384"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Had service now since '02. Ordered for my fax line and quickly received install kit (Westell 2200). On my SRD (a Friday after 6pm) I discovered my phone line was dead, so I never got to install it. Started making the calls to get it resolved. Support was very nice, but not very helpful. After 4 days, someone suggested that even though I had no phone service, the DSL might still be active. Hooked it all up, and there was my DSL. 2 days later, I had phone service back on the line. Received 1 month DSL credit and 1 month line charge credit for the second line, without ever asking for it. Everyone involved was extremely nice throughout, but no one knew what anyone else was doing. Support didn't know what the CO was up to who didn't know what DSL was up to who didn't know what the field tech was up to and on and on.
Fast forward to 11/05. Since install service has been outstanding!. Not one minute of downtime, no billing issues, and received all speed upgrades offered. But all good things must come to and end, or at least hit some bumpy roads. While in the middle of an online game, the connection drops. Eventually, I get the connection back, but the speeds are downright horrible and completely unstable. Calling tech support was ok till I accidentally hung up on them. The second (called back right away) was a complete disaster. Totally clueless rep. Gave the standard "It's something with your computer. Call MS or the manufacturer." Third call got me a ticket opened and a tech sent out 2 days later. Tech is stumped. The line tests out great, but the connection, even with his equipment is the same as mine. Makes a few calls to the CO, and they decide to send me a new modem (Westell 327w). Doesn't fix it.
It's now 7/06. While waiting for Verizon to fix it, I found a slight workaround that makes the connection usable, but not as good as it was. That was four months ago. In that time I've found a number of others who have the same issue and are still fighting with Verizon to get it fixed (I've since given up contacting them).
Ratings:
Presales - 5 - Ordered online, found everything I needed to know.
Install Coordination: - 2 - Pretty much covered above. It seems a little better coordinated between departments now compared to then.
Connection Reliability - 4 - Even with the one problem I've had, the connection is never down and trouble free otherwise. I've only had one other outage, and that was after a storm. Back up in a few hours.
Tech Support - 3 - The initial level of support you reach can be pretty bad. Most of the time, the accents are very heavy which makes for a lot of "Could you repeat that?" from both parties. A lot of times, they just really don't know what they are talking about, and like to start from scratch instead of what listening to what you've already tried troubleshooting. Very frustrating if you know even the slightest bit about working with computers. And if you have to make more than one call, the next rep you get never knows what went on in the previous call, so you pretty much have to start all over again. If you are lucky, they will listen to you when you tell them what the previous rep(s) did and either go from there or escalate. Not as good as it was 4 years ago.
Support above this has been much better, even though they were unable to solve my problem. The problem is sometimes getting to this level of support.
Just for BBR members: There is a new forum here, Verizon Direct, which seems to eliminate the bad experiences of the initial level of support. I have not used it, but many members seem quite happy with it. They are much more knowledgeable, and it seems to be a one on one approach so that you don't have different reps trying to figure out what the others did.
Services - 3 - I don't use any of them, so I can't comment on how good or bad they are.
Value - 5 - But may not be for long. Another speed upgrade from Comcast could certainly drop this rating down. The reasons it is still on top over Comcast's 6mb is the poor upload speed from Comcast and subpar pings and latency through Comcast. File downloads are fast with them, but browsing can be painful.
UPDATE 7/07: Things really have not changed. The problem I mentioned in my initial review has been traced to issues with Juniper routers on the Verizon network. They have admitted there are issues with them, are unable to replace them (apparently it was huge, expensive upgrade for them), and are unwilling to switch me back to a Redback. I know it would be possible to switch me back as my neighbor is still on one, however their direct response was "if we do it for you, we'd have to do it for everyone".
Other than that one issue, I personally have no complaints with my service. I've had one instance of down time and that was an issue for voice repair, but the DSL service has been like a rock. Always fast (except for noted issue above) and always stable.
Followup comments:  reikoshea
join:2006-07-10
Flower Mound, TX
| A little help. You said that this was for your fax line as well. Some newer hefty fax machines (like HPs all in one machines) like to send out packets on the high end of the analog band (4khz i think) and sometimes the filters dont always catch it. you might want to try and daisey chain a filter for your fax and see if it fixes your problem. Also, make sure the modem isnt ontop of an electromagnetic device (this includes cell phones, cordless phones, monitors, large lamps and house arrest bracelets). | |
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: A little help. If only it were that easy. It's a much older fax, that rarely gets used, and in originally troubleshooting the issue, all of the above has been looked at. The first thing I did was test from the NID before calling. The issue affects a number of users, and there is a very long thread (400+ posts) concerning it in the Verizon forum. Thank you for commenting. | |
| Britty0413
join:2006-11-03
| fax Ok first of all your fax machine must be filtered! DSL signal is on a higher frequency on the line. Your voice and dialing go through lower frequencies The filters that verizon sends out are low pass filters which mean that they stop the dsl signal. If your fax machine wants to dial out it has to have that filter! If it does not have filter it will interfere with your signal meaning that you either will not receive "sync" or you will experience slow throughput because it degrades the signal. Anything in your house even alarm systems have to be filtered! | |
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: fax Everything is filtered. There is no problem with the line. The line has been tested by me inside with nothing else connected as well as outside at the NID, and by 2 techs both of which were actually competent. All results were the same. The line is actually better than most, with modem stats better than anyone else I've yet to come across. There is nothing going on with the line at all. It is a networking issue, plain and simple.
It's nice that you decided to make a reply to this as your first post, but maybe you should have investigated a bit first. I have been very active in the Verizon Forum for the last year, first in figuring out what was happening, and then in helping others that have come across it. It was my sole reason for joining here in the first place. I am by no means an expert at anything, but I am fairly knowledgeable and far from clueless, and this is one thing I know almost as much about as anybody, and with the help of those I would consider nearly experts, would be very confident in saying we know all about. | |
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