Comments on: Verizon FiOS Internet and Cable Television Deals

By: JR

JR — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:24:26 +0000

FIOS is the best of the lot. I bought three Sony high-def flat screen tv’s and the local cable company’s picture sucked – pixilation, stuttering sound. Having a fiber drop to your house is the best possible installation. The existing cable Co. infrastructure is over a decade old and is over distributed. I had the old Co company pay a service call four times and each time I was told that the signal quality at the pole was low. My reaction was, so do something about it. They did nothing, so I switched. Best move I ever made, the phone service, internet service 25d/15u (wow!), and great HD picture – I couldn’t ask for more.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:36:27 +0000

No utility has ever been worse for us than Verizon FIOS. The Internet is awful and so is the TV. The only thing worse than the actual service is their incerdibly pitiful, inept, customer service. Every aspect, from insallation, to trying to deal with cust. service, to trying to watch a show has been really lousy. I HATE FIOS!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Pierre

Pierre — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:40:25 +0000

I am house sitting for a friend and she has Fios. Don’t Do It! It is faster on the computer however when it comes to cable, I would rather have RCN then this (and we all know how bad RCN is).

By: Paula

Paula — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:00:52 +0000

I hate FIOS, you can’t get in contact with anyone, no one knows what they are talking about, I don’t know were to turn in my equipment, I have never known what my bill was,the web site(s) suck…….I TELL ALL the MILITARY and anyone else NOT TO GET FIOS! IT SUCKS.

By: Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:05:22 +0000

I switched to fios from direct tv about a month ago, and I’m saving about $100. a mo.with the phone and all.
But I am so dissatisfied with this fios, that I would gladly pay more for direct. For several reasons, fios has a menu that you can hardly read, and they don’t list any actors names, most of the time when I hit the guide button, it won’t even go there! The dvr that it came with won’t record half the time and also it won’t pause or go back when I’m not recording. We have a two year contract, but I’m moving and praying that it’s not availible there. Don’t get fios!!!

By: Fios Sucks

Fios Sucks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:04:39 +0000

Imagine the worst kind of Hell you could ever endure…and that is what you get with FIOS…

By: TheyAllSuck

TheyAllSuck — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:44:37 +0000

After reading all of this, the library is looking like a much better option!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:21:29 +0000

Verizon FIOS has a problem with the closed captioning with the HD DVR set top box. My husband is Deaf and we have been going back and forth with Verizon for months. We finally had to rewire the set top box so it bypasses the HD altogesther and then the regular TV captions work again. Most of the time. Several times a viewing session, we have to shut off the TV and then start it again in order to get the captions to come back on and this is terribly annoying. And illegal. Their current set-up is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, nor is it compliant with general broadcasting accessibility laws and it’s only a matter of time before they get sued big for this breach. I really don’t get it. Comcast has HD boxes and their captioning through that system is fine so Verizon has no excuse for allowing this to drag on for so long.

By: Robert Burns

Robert Burns — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:10:15 +0000

We have had many problems with the destruction of our yard and sprinkler system (as have our neighbors) and it took many telephone calls to have the problems corrected, however after many telephone calls we have had the problems corrected except to have the sod replaced.

Now our friends told us when they had their Fios installed their neighbors tree was destroyed and died and needs to be removed which will be a costly item and will need to start the process.

The people involved are the sub-contractors which in our area of Millsboro, De. is Eastern Trenching Company out of Maryland and they are an incompetent crew from the top down, but are overseen by Danielle
a company out of New Jersey.

I think Verizon needs to hire their own crews and be more involved in
providing good service and to be careful where they dig and install otherwise we are happy with Fios service.

By: lsmith

lsmith — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:02:54 +0000

I hate it!!! To get online takes about 6-10 tries and it is actually slower than DSL, the TV guide is soooo confusing and the remote signal does not always recognise the TV, The phone never works properly…..thye had the cheek to charge me for DSL and FIOS and then when i complained that they were charging me for 2 internet services they sent me to colletions for a service I DID NOT EVEN HAVE!!!!!!!!!

By: J.L. Payton

J.L. Payton — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:29:03 +0000

I HATE FIOS TOO!!! When I contract with a company to install a service in a set period of time, that’s when I expect it. When we signed up with FIOS, we found we’d be losing some of the 295 stations we had (most in English), and every time I asked “and what will it cost AFTER the first year?” no one could tell me.

Every time I had to call, even if I used the number I was told to call the last time, I got sent to yet ANOTHER department! They “lost” our paperwork, promised us phone service within 3 weeks and all other services to follow.

In over a MONTH, they didn’t have our phone service hooked up correctly yet and every time we called, “onward to ANOTHER department.”

We live between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. , not exactly a wilderness area. In fact, most of our neighbors are crammed pretty close together. I’ve lost count of the number who subscribed to FIOS and then discovered they didn’t even have the training to install it!! Ever been without a phone when you’re in your 4th bout of cancer and have a disabled child? NO THANKS!! We’ll keep the little independent company we’ve had for years! By the way…we’ve also had HDTV on TWO sets for years! And THEN FIOS HAD THE AUDACITY TO SEND US A BILL??? For WHAT?

By: jim

jim — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:30:04 +0000

I will keep this short….
I have been a verizon cust for a long time.
I picked up FIOS, first as an internet cust., later for TV.

I must say… without a dobt, Verizon is more expensive than any of the other packages available out there.

I have had them all. If you are looking for a deal, as you would expect, you will not find one with Verizon. By the time you add it all up… it will be more.

The 9-5 cust service is extremely inconveinent.
Also the service departments and Cust. Service departments work independently, so sometimes you have to jump from place to place to get answers.. Cablevision had a central department with “one stop shopping”
I miss it.

With that said…

Verizon Internet Service is outstanding with little or no outages. Non of the frequent router reboots to regain internet access (weekly or monthly)

No slow downs. I average 5meg a sec. download form just about anywhere on my slow PC.

TV – I enjoy the quick menu operation – I do not have to wait 20 secs to bring up menu, slow scrolling and paging of menues are a thing of the past.
Menu has exellent search features, and you can project out far to find programing.
The DVR works perfectly on all 5 of my boxes – all lines were re-installed by Verizon – NOT AN EASY THING TO GET THEM TO DO IF EXISTING CABLING IS THERE.

Picture quality they say is better… I have several HD, quality LCD screens, and i will say the amount of time I can sit in the dark to watch a film is rare.
It is hard to tell the difference.

Where Verizon shines is fuctionality – It is Flintstones v.s Jetsons.

The all thing just works well. So Much better than Cable. Faster menues, retrieving Vid on Demand, it works..

Same bullshit with regard to available movies and programing…..

You will pay more, but it will be better.

To all that have had problems… I feel your pain… but mine is working….

Hope this helps

Jim

DVR – Has a

By: James

James — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:05:01 +0000

I called Verizon FIOS to order phone, internet, and cable prior to my move in. My Consumer Order Summary was dated 3-28-08, and the scheduled installation date was 4-7-08. I reviewed the e-mail and all looked well. I move into my new house and install date comes. They setup an 8 AM-noon window. I already had the Optical Network Terminal unit (ONT) in my house, so I figured this would be cake for them. I am a Sys Admin at an ISP, so the internet stuff I could do myself with ease.

On install day, no one showed, no one called. I had my mobile with me at ALL times. So around 1:30 PM I called Verizon to see what was going on. If something came up, I had a week off to move in and if they needed to come by in a day or two, I was totally cool with that. After about an hour on hold I got in touch with a “state level” dispatcher. That said that there were “no facilities available for my order” and I was called. Nope, I wasn’t called; they did have my cell (which I had with me all of the time) in their records. I wanted them to come out later in the week if possible since I was home. They said that their next available time for me was 4-12-08, which was a day where I was going to a wedding. The next available time after that was at the end of the month, on a work day for me.

Basically because they did not show up, or even notify me with a reason, they put me at the back of the line. I was trying to escalate my request and the support only gave me unreasonable dates and that “no facilities available for my order” BS. I later wanted to get my copper line put back so I could at least get phone service, and after a long wait in hold they gave me the end of the month as a date. Basically I was being run around in circles and being shoved to the end of the line because Verizon screwed up my installation. I was told the only way I could get it sooner is if I “knew an installer who’d do me a favor,” and I was pretty much screwed with the window of time I had to get the service installed. The salesperson fed me a load of bull and the installer didn’t even call me with a reason. I tried to figure out what “no facilities available for my order” meant, and why this was such a problem since I already had the ONT in my house. Half of their work was already done.

The same day, I called a local cable company who installed my phone, internet, and cable the next day. They showed up on time and did the normal pre and post appointment verification. I unplugged the ONT in my house and let the battery go out. Verizon gave me such a lousy customer experience I swore I would never do business with them, and be sure to let other people know about their awful customer service and commitments they setup and do not honor. Verizon screwed up prior when they bought Bell Atlantic, and screwed up our perfectly find DSL service I had around 98/99. My money is going to a competitor, and Verizon won’t see if because they have abysmal customer service. I am certainly interested in fiber optic lines connected to my house, but so long as Verizon is the only provider, I will happily do without.

Herndon, VA

By: LaVerne

LaVerne — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:27:07 +0000

I WISH that I had read some of the comments BEFORE I committed to 2 years. I originally had Fios TV, internet, installed a year ago in Feb. 2007. After receiving my first bill, the internet was costing MORE than I was told it would be, so I cancelled that. After having 4 boxes, I found 2 TV’s were NOT being used as they once were, so I decided I didn’t need but 2. I called after a month to return 2 boxes, after being given 2 dates that someone would pick them up & nobody came, I asked if there is somewhere I COULD TAKE them..they said no, & set up another date. The person who was to pick them up called the day BEFORE to see if it would be ok to pick them up then, MARCH 27, ‘07, I agreed, they WERE picked up, a receipt was left for me. My bill KEPT coming charging me for the FOUR, instead of TWO. I wrote 2 letters to the correspondence dept of Verizon. I just kept paying my bill, deducting $9.98. THEN..during August ‘07…I got a call from Verizon that ”we have an ORDER to pick up 2 STB” ..my response was “My God, after all these months, told them they had been picked up in March..5 months earlier.” Well, I KEPT being charged for the FOUR, so in December ‘07, I was fed up, I called to CANCEL THE ENTIRE THING, that’s when the very nice rep told me “Mam we don’t want U to do that, we have a triple play bundle offer.” ..at a lower price than I was paying for the TV service..with a gift of a TV or Best Buy $200 card, with a 2 year contract, so I took that deal b/c it would cost me LESS, PLUS a gift I’d get also. I told them since they were already charging me for 4 boxes, might as well BRING ME THOSE 2 back, BUT…I was leery of that b/c thought they might begin to charge me for SIX. Well, that was supposed to be installed on December 22, 07.. the installer called me during the day to ask if it would be ok to install on Christrmas Eve…he was backed up..I said YES, he came first thing the day of Dec. 24th, after doing whatever he could that day, he said he’d have to come back the day AFTER Christmas to finish, b/c they had given him 2 analog STB, he needed “analog/digital”.. The next day he came first thing in morning, had already programmed from office so he didn’t have to stay long.
Well after one day’s usage, I noticed that there was no program guide info, I had a hard time signing onto the internet. I called, they asked me questions about the router, determined the router was bad & sent someone w/a new router. Most service works fine, even though one of the boxes has lost program info twice, but that was corrected from the office…so I have no complaint about that. I have NOT had good comfortable service from the internet, ONLY the SPEED in signing on. I DO NOT like the Verizon e-mail screen, I cannot SEE to check any mail that I’ve sent, I still use AOL for e-mail. Whenever I have tried to send an e-mail FROM A WEBSITE…in clicking on “send by e-mail” and BEING ON AOL…it always comes up with
MY FIRST VERIZON SCREEN NAME. (even with me being online with AOL)….BUT when I fill in w/my information, it WILL NOT SEND…I get message saying…”STP” (or whatever it is) server NOT responding”. so I just cancel that out, go back re-do it and send it from clicking the “write” screen on AOL.
They told me I’d get a letter in the mail concerning the “Bundle gift”..THAT had not come by mid Jan,08.. so I called, someone told me it would come probably next week. Another 2 weeks went by and I was called by a Verizon SOLICITOR to offer me an upgrade on the TV service, I told them I did NOT WANT to upgrade, I have had a few problems since getting the service, told him about the letter concerning the gift HAD NOT come, I was transferred to another rep, who took my info, told me I’d get a letter in about 6-8 weeks, well THAT came March 1st, & I went online to claim the gift, which should come in about 6-10 weeks. NOW I am betting that I won’t get that in THAT time frame…IF I GET IT AT ALL … OR IF I’LL BE ABLE TO USE IT WITHOUT ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT THAT I’LL HAVE TO PAY FOR.

In ADDITION TO ALL OF THE ABOVE…I just got a phone message the last week of February that….”YOU NEED TO CALL VERIZON CONCERNING THE PICKING UP OF VERIZON’S SET TOP BOXES”". I tried to ignore it, but thought well maybe I’d better set them straight on this..so I called, I was told by a recording that “IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED A MESSAGE CONCERNING PICKING UP STBOXES AND YOU STILL ARE A FIOS CUSTOMER, THEN DISREGARD THE CALL’…WELL LO & BEHOLD..after a few days.. I NOW get a letter in the mail…with a big black hi-lighted topic…saying VERIZON FIOS TV ”OUTSTANDING EQUIPMENT’ telling me that “OUR RECORDS
INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE VERIZON OWNED SET TOP BOXES AT YOUR PREMISES. UNDER THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO RETURN THE SET TOP BOXES TO VERIZON WITHIN 30 DAYS OF TERMINATION OF YOUR FIOS TV SERVICE OR BE CHARGED AN EQUIPMENT FEE IN THE AMOUNT SET ON THE RATE CARD INCLUDED W/YOUR ORIGINAL FULFILLMENT KIT. AS OF 03/08/07, THAT 30 DAY WINDOW HAS EXPIRED.
PLEASE CONTACT OUR BUSINESS OFFICE AT ##### TO ARRANGE FOR RETURN OF YOUR FIOS TV SET TOP BOXES.”

I have been a customer of the same company…first C&P, then THE name changed to AT&T, now Verizon every since I’ve had a phone, & that goes back to 1963, I’ve had NO complaints about anything before, only when this new hi tech communication comes in. I will stay with them for my phone service..BUT I have DOUBTS about the other parts of this package.
The customer service reps are VERY NICE, the installers are VERY NICE
and as someone else said…Verizon probably has “BITTEN OFF MORE THAN THEY CAN CHEW” right now. The company that handles the equipment is NOT in sync with the VERIZON COMPANY. I am ready to give it all up except the home phone service.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:23:06 +0000

I wish I had read some of these comments concerning Verizon FIOS, before I changed TO Verizon. The customer service REPRESENTATIVEs