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Review by pshifrin 
member for 12.8 years, 1706 visits, last login: 58 days ago
lodged 218 days ago
 White Plains,Westchester,NY
 $104 per month- (24 month contract)
 about 4 days "Wacky setup in an apartment but in the end, works well." "Apartment internet speed limitations & 8.5 hour install!" "Jury is still out"
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I live in a condo complex which recently had Fios installed. Unlike a typical home, where the fiber and ONT is in your house, ours is an MDU install. All the ONT equipment is in a common telco area of our complex basement. They disconnect your current cable (cablevision) feed for TV and run the internet over your existing phone copper pair using VDSL. The 20/20 advertised speed maxes out at 20/16. If i went higher on the download tier, I would still max out at 16 upload. Compared to 20/2 on cable, i'm not complaining.
We have two tivos and swapping from one provider to another is great, you don't lose any recorded programs or season passes.
It took 8.5 hours to complete the install, which I find crazy. I can understand if it was a private home and they are running fiber, etc, but all they had to do was disconnect some coax and reconnect their own and then punch down some copper for the phone / dsl.
The bottom line is that although the installers were nice guys, they didn't know ANYTHING! I had to tell them to use filters on the phone jacks, suggest coax issues, explain cablecard pairing, etc.
As far as the service goes, everything is fine. Awesome picture and fast internet.
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Review by hemigod
member for 8.1 years, 144 visits, last login: 71 days ago
updated 225 days ago
- Norristown,Montgomery,PA
- $125 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- "Installed on date I wanted, showed up on time, quality workmanship"
- "The Actiontec router is broken - it's a REV D but only WEP works, WPA/WPA2 leave you with an unsecured network."
- "FIOS triple play is a great value"
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I was without power from 11PM Monday night until Saturday afternoon due to tropical storm Sandy. I ran my generator for most of the outage, and FIOS was constantly available. I was able to run a TV for the kids, and run my computer and actiontec router on the generator. I plugged my ONT into a power strip that was plugged into a heavy extension cord to the generator.
FIOS reliability since I've had it now - 100%.
Still have the original REV D actiontec, I run wireless off my linksys router using one the FAQ options on this site.
As far as FIOS triple play still being a great value - well nothing lasts forever. But it's reliable, and that is important to me.
[ORIGINAL REVIEW]
When Comcast raised my rates this month, I knew it was time to go to FIOS. The whole experience was good from the order through the installation and my viewing pleasure. I have phone, internet, and TV. There is more channel selection than Comcast. Picture quality seems to be about the same. The big difference is the internet. FIOS seems to be much more consistent in terms of speed. I had the basic tier in Comcast and likewise with FIOS.
The installation was very professionally done, it took the tech about 6 hours to run the pole drop and wire everything up in my basement. The tech explained everything he was doing as he went and answered my questions when I asked him something.
My only complaint is with the actiontec router they gave me. It is a rev D, and the firmware says it supports WPA2, but no matter how I configure the thing, the only secure wireless that works is WEP, and as everyone knows all WEP does is keep honest people honest.
Other than a partially defective router, I am fully satisfied.
Comments:
 | | why keep it. If you cant change it to wpa2, swap the router out. Call it in , or go to the store. | |
| hemigodPremium
join:2005-04-09
Norristown, PA | Why keep it? It works for what I use it for. Next time I talk to Verizon, I might mention something about it and see if I can get them to send me a REV I. | |
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 Review by Rook008
member for 11.3 years, 4379 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 236 days ago
- Far Rockaway,Queens,NY
- $135 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 12 days
- "High speeds, Solid equipment, Good prices (bundled services)"
- "Disconnect between Verizon's phone reps and website."
- "New customer deals are great with Fios."
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Ordered Verizon Fios Triple Play, which includes:
"Quantum Internet" 75/35 speeds (Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I)
"Digital Voice" Phone service
"Extreme HD" TV package (Two Motorola HD QIP 7100 1 Set-Top Boxes)
Went online and ordered Fios on October 10, set up an install date of Oct. 22, from 1 to 5 PM.
Verizon sent me some mail confirming my appointment, and followed up with an e-mail as well. So far, so good.
The Install:
About 90 minutes before the beginning of the install window, a tech calls to see if it was ok for him to start the install early. He arrives at around noon and we walk around the house pointing out where everything is located, including the original phone line, the TV's, the PC and the previous providers' (TWC) cable wiring. He gives me some options and we decide on a plan for the installation. He gets to work.
He runs some fiber to the side of the house and installs the ONT there, drills a hole in the side of the house and installs the backup battery stuff inside the house near a power outlet. He connects the ONT to the old phone box outside to feed the existing phone wiring inside.
He connects the old coax to the ONT (outside) and puts a 4-way splitter on the other end (inside) for the 2 TV's and the router (coax connection). There's a small TV near the splitter that just gets OTA signals right now, but the installer said I could just get a box from Verizon to hook it up with the extra port on the splitter. That was a pretty good idea on his part.
He hooks up the set-top boxes to the TV's and sets up the Verizon remotes to turn them on. He sets up the router and runs some software from a USB stick. He says he wants to install some software (including Verizon In-Home Assistant) that I could look through and delete if I didn't want it. So far everything checks out and is working.
He answers a bunch of questions I had and explains a bunch of stuff about the set-top boxes, the remotes, and the router. He says he'd be sitting in his truck for a little while doing paperwork if I had any more questions.
The whole process from beginning to end took about 2.5 to 3 hours.
The Service and Equipment:
The internet speeds are great. I'm getting slightly more than the promised download and the connection is stable. Downloading a 1GB file in 2 minutes instead of 15 saves a bit of time. The Actiontec router has a couple of complicated configuration pages, but a little time taken to understand them gives good results. There's also a lot of information in there about the STB's. Wi-Fi range is adequate. User-name and a few passwords (router config, WPA2, WPS Pin) are listed on a sticker on the bottom of the router. "admin" and "password" are no longer the defaults to get into the router's config pages.
What can I say about the TV and Phone portions of the triple-play except that they work as intended. HD Video on the TV looks just as good as it did with TWC cable. The guide works well and is relatively quick. There are a lot of On-Demand options available as well.
The Motorola STB is huge (17" wide) which I wasn't expecting. It barely fit in my TV stand. It has a good compliment of connections in the back (HDMI, Component, Composite, Coax, Digital Audio out, Optical Audio out) which is a plus. Logitech has the STB in it's database so configuring my Harmony remote was pretty simple.
The Digital Voice phone service sounds as good as my old Verizon land-line did. Unlimited calls to anywhere in the US or Canada (and maybe Mexico) is a plus.
Cons:
Losing NY1 (a cable news channel in NYC) was a bit of a tough pill to swallow.
The information that I got from the Verizon website is not the same information that I was given over the phone. The site doesn't work for a lot of stuff and tells you to call Verizon, where the reps have different information and pricing schemes. It's probably a good idea to check both before ordering if you're considering Fios.
The MY Verizon website is great when it works, but errors out often.
While the price I'll be paying is cheaper than standard TWC pricing (not introductory or "deal" pricing), it's still pretty high.
Other thoughts:
The installer was knowledgeable about the TV and Phone aspects of the triple play, was very professional, and was very patient about answering questions. I think he did an excellent job.
He re-used the existing coax to the TV's and the PC, which he said was in very good shape. I had run new RG-6 to one TV and the PC a week before because the old RG-59 wasn't looking too good. If he had to run new coax, I think Verizon would have charged me for the install and it would have taken longer.
I will update this review with the final price per month (after taxes and fees) as soon as I get my first bill and if anything about the service changes.
Any questions, just ask.
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Review by thej762000
member for 9.9 years, 5 visits, last login: 238 days ago
lodged 238 days ago
- Thousand Oaks,Ventura,CA
- $168 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 10 days
- "Internet speeds as advertised, FiOS TV improvement over cable"
- "Installer and customer service is the pits"
- "Worth the hassle for what you get"
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Due to the fact I was moving, I finally was able to get FiOS and ditch Time Warner Cable completely. I decided to choose the triple play bundle as it saved me some money over Time Warner's bundle, which had slower internet speeds. I went with 75/35 internet, whole-house DVR and phone. Here's how each of them fare:
Internet: As fast as advertised. Speedtest.net is giving me around 85 down and 28 up. No issues so far using my 2 ASUS RT-N66U routers instead of the Verizon router.
TV: FiOS TV is actually quite nice, once you get the right equipment that is. Standard for whole-house DVR is one 500GB DVR and a second HD set-top box that basically acts as a DVR terminal over MoCA. The only issue with this at install is that I was provided with an older 160GB DVR. I then had to place an order to get the correct 500GB box. The new box showed up via UPS within a week and all is well. TV guides and menus are very nice to look at (compared with TWC), and there's also no lag at all with OSD or DVR (whether this is because of the equipment or the FiOS signal I don't know). HD picture quality is excellent, and even SD picture quality is better (SD on TWC looks like complete garbage). Overall, FiOS TV is definitely a step up from cable and might even be better than DirecTV considering how laggy their equipment is. BTW, if you want to avoid a contract you can't get whole-house DVR.
Phone: Herein lies an issue that I was confused on before install. When you sign up for FiOS triple play you believe you're getting VOIP phone, just as you would with cable. This is not the case. FiOS phone actually uses the old copper lines in your house and runs them back to the FiOS box, at which point they get converted to fiber. This became an issue at install as the installer only tested one phone jack and not the 3 other phone jacks in the house. I had to call the installer back out to fix an additional phone jack, whether or not Verizon will charge the additional $94 for that service (as the installer claimed) has yet to be seen.
Customer Service: Here's where things go really bad. My installer was some smelly old dude who didn't want to hook up an additional analog TV (even though it was on the order), didn't want to help me with getting the correct DVR, and forgot to check the phone line altogether and came back 20 mins after he said he was done. Furthermore, you have to raise holy hell with customer service over the phone to get them to treat you right. You will get different answers from different reps, and usually they just want to refer you to a web page (that they can't even find) and get you off the phone. To get good service out of these people you have to be a complete bastard. Time Warner reps are angels compared to these people.
To sum up, I do think that FiOS is an upgrade once you get past all the installer and customer service BS. Internet is faster, TV is a lot more responsive, and the price is cheaper than cable.
Comments:
| | Re: FiOS Install We're glad to hear you're enjoying your new FiOS service, but want to apologize for the install complications. We'd be happy to look into any outstanding issues you might be having. Please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter at @VerizonFiOS and for specific support issues, @VerizonSupport.
Thanks for choosing FiOS! | |
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 Review by altermatt
member for 9.4 years, 2344 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 251 days ago
- White Plains,Westchester,NY
- $100 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 30 days
- "Fast, reliable, great bundle price that they renewed"
- "Must have landline to get decent bundle; surcharges; MANY billing errors at first; mail service spotty"
- "Great value; watch your bills."
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Can't believe it's taken this long for me to post a review of my FIOS service. Switched from Verizon DSL two years ago. MAJOR billing issues for the first few month---a story that MANY users echoed at the time. But they seem to have gotten their act together about this, and I was lucky enough to "know someone who knows someone" and finally got things worked out. So much so that when my "introductory pricing" was up, a gentle nudge (and the fact that cable was offering a deal) got me a continuation of the pricing via a monthly discount.
The install went smoothly, with a fairly savvy installer who accommodated requests. The ONT was the new smaller size and went in a closet space and was done neatly. Quickly got my promised 20/5 (19.7/5.20) with little tweaking and no need to install any of their software. Service has been quite reliable. A recent email outage, though, repeated the old negative experience with Verizon tech support refusing to acknowledge an outage that is widely reported by users for quite a while.
The promised free trial of the DVR took three months of arguing to get; when I did, I was sure I'd return it after the free trial but loved it too much to give it up! The $150 gift card promotion took a while to receive, but did come in as promised and was most welcome.
The big caveat for new users is to WATCH YOUR BILLS. When I signed up, many users reported serious billing problems, and I was no exception, with discounts not applied, offers not fulfilled, extra erroneous charges showing up. Neighbors who have more recently gotten FIOS are reporting much less problem with this.
I wish I could get, instead of my Triple Play, a Double Play of TV and Internet without phone at the same discounted per-service price I'm paying now (comes out to about $34/each service) so I could just go to an unlimited wireless phone plan, but that isn't offered here AFAIK---only Internet and Phone, which seems counter-intuitive.
My other big gripe is the many surcharges and fees that are tacked on to FIOS bills that aren't on cable bills. VZ says they are charged gov't. fees as a telco that cable companies aren't charged, but to my mind, that's a cost of doing business and should be reflected in the advertised price.
Other than those nits, I love my FIOS service (as I loved my DSL service), am thrilled to avoid cable altogether, and would recommend it highly to others.
20/5 triple play, $95/mo. plus surcharges, fees and taxes, two STBs plus Home Media DVR (getting a partial rebate each month on that), Freedom Essentials with no extra premium channels, Actiontec RevE router.
LATER EDIT: System just nagged me to update, and reading over my original review, pretty much everything still holds: reliable service (fairly consistent 25/5, which was my tier when I signed up---for a while got "fluff" close to 30 but it's gone), billing issues now all resolved (fingers crossed), tech support still wanting, and with some of my promotional pricing expiring again, I'm concerned that if my "contact" is no longer around, I might be paying quite a bit more soon. I mentioned that I had a major hassle getting the free DVR trial, and that despite my doubts, I ended up hooked and paying for it at a good discount, which is expiring. I don't know how I lived without it  ; it's addictive. They have recently nuked some channels; so far nothing critical to me (on the Extreme TV tier). And my annoyance with the surcharges and fees continues unabated---latest bill has a note that the notorious FUSF fee is undergoing changes and to watch for them---my guess is that ain't good news.
So all my kudos and caveats still pretty much apply. I'd still highly recommend FIOS over cable barring some incredible deal from cable.
UPDATE 10/2012: The last month or so has seen a serious decrease in mail performance, to the point of unusability, with little response until last night, when it seemed to get back to normal---time will tell. Also unhappy with price raises and channel changes, and both caller ID and caller ID on TV occasionally not working. But overall, still think this is a fabulous value compared to competition and continue to recommend FIOS to friends and family.
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Review by ronmar1938
member for 13.5 years, 4409 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 252 days ago
- Laurel,Anne Arundel,MD
- $160 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "TV picture outstanding, Internet reliable"
- "I have yet to find anything"
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I was very happy with Speakeasy, so it was at least a year after FIOS was available before I switched over. I had DirectV for my TV and didn't think the picture could be any better. Verizon proved that it could. I have only had one outage on the internet in the four years I have had FIOS. That outage was caused by McAfee not Verizon. I read that billing is a real problem with Verizon. I have made several changes over the years. Any billing error were immediately corrected.
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Review by fat_ass
member for 254 days, 2 visits, last login: 248 days ago
lodged 254 days ago
- Murrieta,Riverside,CA
- $70 per month
- about 5 days
- "downloads/uploads are best in class. Tech support as well as customer service are friendly and always willing to help."
- "none"
- "I would recommend fios to anyone, but gotta watch for google fiber."
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Fios was the best internet experience I've ever had. The quality of service as well as customer service were beyond my expectations.
Comments:
| | Yea "but gotta watch for google fiber."
People in Kansas City better watch out for it. LOL. | |
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Review by gateguy
member for 12.3 years, 4725 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 256 days ago
- Reisterstown,Baltimore,MD
- $133 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 33 days
- "speed speed speed"
- "I absolutely love it"
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My install was performed last April. I had selected the 15/15 plan. The presales communications were frequent, but sometimes confusing. I had received emails that had three different installations dates. I was asked if I wanted to keep my same phone number (why after having it for 18 years would I want to change it)
The installation went smoothly.
I had since upgraded to the 20/20 plan. Initially they downgraded me to the 10/2 plan (how the rep selected the wrong option is beyond me). But waited for the order to complete and then replaced the order for the correct speeds.
I normally see 2.52MB up and down.
[update 8/6/2009] Still loving the Fios. Not too happy with all the sales calls trying to get me to 'upgrade'.
[update 9/24/2010] My FIOS service was upgraded today (yet again!). I now have the 35/35Mb internet connection. I have the Ultimate TV package and the Freedom Essentials telephone. My new price is $79 per month. Gotta love it.
[update 10/4/2012] Still loving the Fios. Now I am getting the 50/25 package. I did have to have the battery/charger system replaced. The guy came out the same day (on a Saturday).
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 Review by Mike
member for 12.7 years, 7116 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 256 days ago
- Pittsburgh,Allegheny,PA
- $142 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "Installer was good, far better than Comcast in ever regard. Performance and quality is so much better."
- "A lot of rare HD channels that no one wants instead of other useful HD"
- "Bye Comcast. Hope to never see you again"
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Finally. After as long as fiber has been out I can finally get the thing.
I got a call one night that the fiber was lit up on my street and placed an order on the spot. I'm getting Digital Voice (VOiP), IPTV, and Data - 25m/15m.
5 days later the installer showed up, cut down the copper, put up aerial fiber, and hooked up everything.
I get a call at 9:25am that the fellow will be out here (one guy) to do everything. He shows up at 9:45am since traffic was good.
He's based about 20 miles away to the north. Everything is going to go off of coaxial. ONT / Power will be inside.
I showed him the ropes he said it isn't going to be too bad.
Now the fun starts.
Verizon isn't even good to Verizon.
None of us could see the fiber drop. He went to the back alley then lit up a cigarette. Can't see anything. He picks up his cell and is on hold for like 15 minutes.
Apparently the initial fiber lay is about 200 feet too short so he's going to have to go back to his depot, pick up a terminal, a line truck, and then extend the fiber, install a terminal, THEN he can tear down the copper.
Estimated time to completion - 7 hours.
This is turning really, really bad.
So after he comes back he clips the copper, runs the fiber, runs everything.
Now the configuration part... yeah not so much.
The HD box and one standard was DOA so he got another of each and each worked. He said a lot of these are DOA.
The Motorola 7100 HD and apparently any Onkyo product = instant green screen because of a parity bit error because "there is no HDMI standard" according to the installer.
So you can't quite use HDMI sound. You need to use optical out. He gave me an optical cable and said have fun and peaced out.
As of now the IMG is release - 1.6.2, Build 08.58, QIP-7100 PI.
I did have to call Verizon tech support because the installer locked me out of my new FiOS router - Actiontec MI424-WR Rev. D (Taiwan).
However, I would like to give one last big FU to Comcast. It took 35 minutes to cancel my account. I was transferred 4 times and the last guy who actually claimed to cancel gave me lip for a good 5 - 10 minutes about how it was a bad mistake and tried to FUD Verizon. What an ass.
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03-01-2010 update
My firmware is now 1.7.1 and I changed a standard box to a HD box. That fixed all HDMI problems with the Onkyo.
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10-04-2012
Completely solid. 5 hours of downtime in 2 years. Not bad. A shame that the roll-outs have stopped.
Comments:
 tp0dyabbazooiePremium
join:2001-02-13
Carnegie, PA
kudos:4 | . roll outs havent stopped.. theyre building mt washington now. (mebe you meant somewhere other than the burg?)
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if it aint broke, tweak it!!
currently on FiOS (kick aZZ!) | |
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Review by dubenezic
member for 9.1 years, 1123 visits, last login: 32 days ago
updated 256 days ago
- Jersey City,Hudson,NJ
- $112 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 2 days
- "Internet is very fast. Speed is as advertised."
- "Installation. Tech was lazy."
- "If you have a good tech, install should go well."
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I got a lazy technician. Didn't bother to check signals before leaving. Didn't show me much on remote. Once connections we're done, tech was in a hurry to leave.
Ordered the 50/25 internet package, with HD Extreme. STB is Motorola (No DVR) and wireless router is Actiontec. Useful features of router are disabled.
3 channels have major tiling. Had 3 techs in 3 days hopefully will be fixed today. One tech was rude and disrespectful to my home. Refused to wipe feet before coming up stairs on my carpet. Left my apartment without fixing picture issues.
Internet speed is as advertised. Ordered on a Sunday, installed on Tuesday 2 days later. Some channels should be incl in extreme package but are not. Worth the money yes, but not the aggravation. Had to call tech support 10 times in 2 days. Typical empty apologies by Cust. Serv. Ugh.
I can see why they can't sell Fios. If I didn't hate comcast so much I would tell Verizon to shove it.
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