 Review by titanium 
UPDATED: 97 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 1286 visits, last login: 77 days ago
 West Richland,Benton,WA
 $25 per month (12 month contract)
 about 23 days
 "Best thing available"
 "Feels like 1999 again with 1.5Mbps lol"
 "If you are in West Richland, WA and know of better, please let me know"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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West Richland, WA does not really have a great choice for options of HSI.
Clearwire, Suddenlink Cable (if they can possibly find our address, and you want to take the chance with them), or Verizon.
I have heard nothing but horror stories about Suddenlink and Clearwire so I opted to give Verizon a chance.
I ordered the Dry Loop 1.5Mbps/384Kbps package as this was the best available to me (Would have been the same from the other companies).
I initially ordered the service on 8/11/2009, thinking the service would be ready before my move in date of new house of 8/31/2009. It was close, but not near as bad as some people have had it from what I have read.
My initial SRD (Service Ready Date) was 9/1/2009 - Well, that day came and went with no connection, was given the ever popular, wait until 6PM, and then call back the next day routine.
9/2/2009 - Connection was still dead, called Verizon again and when they began to tell me the 6PM / next day routine I just said to get me to the cancellation department.
-- Cancellation dept/ retention department offered me 30 days free if I would give them until the end of the day to get the line up and running, she assured me after speaking to a tier 3 tech that they were working on my line as we speak. I said what the heck, if it doesn't work ill just cancel tomorrow, if it does, free 30 days.
9/2/2009 - Connection came on RIGHT AT 6PM. However, the speeds were extremely slow, ~23Kb/s down and ~ 40Kb/s up, with LOTS of packet loss. Called support, and got put through to dispatch after they ran the tests on my lines and they said a tech would be out the next day. (Was really surprised at that)
9/3/2009 - Tech showed up sometime before 11AM (no phone call, and text message Verizon sends was a bit late on when a tech was going to be dispatched, but oh well - he showed). He did what he needed to do around the neighborhood, and the connection is showing 1792 down now and 448 up I believe it said.
Speed tests are pretty much spot on to the speed that I am supposed to be getting. So after the tech came out I really have no complaints about the connection.
I rated the Connection Reliability as a 3 because its only been solid for a day, will probably update in the future.
Tech support rating has no reflection on field tech, he was great. But the phone support is horrid. Menu after menu to take you in circles to occasionally hang up on you before you get in queue. (Just hit 0 a bunch of times, saves time)
The modem that you get shipped is really fickle if you are trying to use a Wireless Router. It works fine standalone, but getting the Westell 6100G to work is an art. This is why I say the tech support is horrible: After trying for almost a full day (read all the posts on this site, and others) to get Westell to work with my router I opted for the paid "Premium" Verizon tech support. They supposedly help you with problems with other hardware, etc. Don't buy into it, save yourself the money and time as I got nowhere with them, and ended up having to contact the manufacturer of the router and get FREE support from them, and got the device working properly (after getting rid of all the WRONG configurations that Verizon gave me).
If my experience with the connection keeps going the way its going, I'd say its only going to get better over time? One can only hope the worst is behind me 
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