Who has Verizon Fios?
 

Who has Verizon Fios? How is your experience with them? How would you rate their:

1. Phone service

2. Internet

3. Cable TV service

4. Billing/administrative

I had their TV and broadband service for about 3 years. They had a special that I signed on to when I first moved into my house. The package initially cost me about $100 month but then went up to $150+ / month after the special expired.

The broadband service was blazing fast (something like 15mbps upload and download) and very reliable. The TV service had plenty of channels (if you like that kind of thing).

They charge extra for each receiver and DVR which you need to factor into the costs.

I eventually cut the service because I felt that I was spending too much on the TV service which I hardly used and it did not matter how I sliced and diced it with them, they could not provide me with broadband and tv service for less then $120 / month because of the additional charges for receivers, DVR's etc.

My only bitter experience was when I went to disconnect, I was put through to a lady that openly accused me of fraud because I gave her the last 4 digits of my current AMEX which is different to the number on the AMEX that I used when I signed up 3 years earlier. She refused to check into the billing or ask me any other questions and said that she could hear someone whispering instructions to me over the phone. I was alone in my house at the time of the call.

I suspect it was some kind of ploy to get me to put the phone down but after about 45 minutes of banging heads with her. She let disconnect my service.

I now have cable through a cable provider, the broadband service has gone out on me a couple of occasions since I took it on but for the most part, it's reliable. The TV service is analogue which is fine because I don't have a HD TV.

I get the most basic channels, but pretty fast broadband for about $55 month including all taxes and fees.

I don't watch a lot of TV and the TV that I own is a 27 inch tube so I don't need HD. If I decide to upgrade my TV, I will probably go with satellite as it seems that they provide a pretty comprehensive HD package for less then $30/month + taxes.

FIOS is good if you're an avid TV watcher, they offer a lot of bells and whistles but also charge for it. There is no basic package however so if you're not a big TV watcher, they really don't have a service for you.

I did, err, do have FIOS.

Phone service was fine. I couldn't tell any difference from the copper phone line it replaced. Eventually dropped the home phone due to lack of use.

Internet service is fine. I have the lowest speed package they offer - think it's 5/2. Never an outage in (I'm guessing here) 4 years, never seems slow, have never needed to call for support.

Cable TV was a mixed bag. The service was never down, picture quality is great, channel changes are instant (unlike u-verse, apparently). On the other hand, their proprietary DVR was horrible - buggy, lousy user interface, search function would bring up channels you didn't receive, etc. I cancelled the service, partly because of the lousy DVR, mostly because I just don't watch much TV - I was paying about $10/hour for cable TV, based on how many hours/month I watched it.

Never had a problem with billing/administrative. They sent the bills, the bills were correct and ontime, I paid them, no issues.

I know I'm not alone in having problems with their billing department. It's a shame, too, because I think their actual product is excellent. Their billing problems will ultimately lead to my going elsewhere unless they get them resolved. That doesn't seem likely at this point.

Keep the FIOS internet. Get Ooma for your phone service ($199 one time payment then free for life). Get Dish or DirecTV for TV service. Also, quit buying the porn pay per view from fios and your bills will go down considerably. Hope this helps.

I knew I could count on you for keen insights into the situation, Powerpig . . .

I'm about to switch to FIOS. I just went round and round with Comcast about poor reception or none. So next Thursday the FIOS installer will be here and Comcast can go scratch.

Well, the services are great. Just don't EVER try to change anything once you get started. They are incapable of making any types of changes to your service, billing, etc.

I've had FIOS for over a year, now.
Phone and internet---can't see much of an improvement over the old copper service.

The only problem--I am guessing that because we did not take the TV service, they still keep asking if we want FIOS--several phone calls a month.

Ooma looks interesting. You can use it to keep the existing phones working in the house and keep you old existing number. I'm kinda torn between getting that and just ditching the house phones all together. We are already paying for wireless that covers 99% of our calls, yet I hesitate to get rid of something that has been working flawlessly regardless of storms, power outages, etc..

Of course Ooma will not work during internet or power outages, but maybe that doesn't really matter.

i switched my mother and she loves it! She got one box with the HD-DVR and one regular HD box for her two TVs. You get WIFI built into their router and since they install a UPS along with the main box, she never loses service.

I wish they had the service in Front Royal, Va but I am stuck with ComcASSt :mad:

FIOS called me a few years ago. Their price for internet/TV/phone package sounded attractive.
But at the time I didn't have a working computer - only dial-up via WebTV. The FIOS operator said WebTV couldn't be used with FIOS. And she told me I couldn't use my VCR with FIOS either. So I passed.
I've heard that FIOS is very frustrating to get changes or cancel services. And worse! Two years ago, a friend near Winchester VA. got 'slammed' by Verizon. She started getting billed for FIOS. In her neighborhood FIOS isn't even availible. After multiple calls & hangups, they finaly agreed to cancel. Then she came home from work the next day to find she no longer had any phone service at all!

Happy Motoring, Mark

First, I suppose I need to say that I work for Verizon.

1. Phone service for me was better - I had to turn the volume down on my portable phone. I used to have it on the "high" or "very high" setting - now it's on "medium". Nothing else noteworthy, except that my phone doesn't go out anymore after a really heavy downpour. (it used to go out during/after tropical storms)

2.Internet is considerable and consistently faster with FiOS than it was with Cable, and I have not had any outages in the last 2.5 years.

3.TV service in my opinion is way beyond anything that I ever got from the cable company. Every channel is clear - and there are a lot of them. HD is crazy good.
My DVR has one "bad spot" somewhere, but it has not bothered me enough to exchange it for a new one (I probably should though). I did hear that there was a glitch in some DVR's...I did not get one (my bad spot is somewhere on the disks I think). This DVR is my first DVR ever - puts VCR's to shame....it's like going from listening to a Victrola to a modern Hi-Fi system. Often I find myself pausing a program, to read what the actors are looking at, just to see if it is/looks legit or not. (so far, I have only spotted a fake baked potato in a restaurant ad -LOL).

4. The first 2 years were fine...fairly event free (I had to call in to get a promotional item credit). When I switched plans, there was a glitch with a different promotional item that was not supposed to show up as billable, but did anyway. Since this was something before their "new and improved" software days, I have to take that with a grain of salt, and am fairly confident that they have the biggest bugs worked out.

I also have to take into account that they are quite new to dealing with television provider billing (billing for phone, and billing for a myriad of TV services are apples and oranges).

So far, so good. Unlike the cable company, I do not get my services for free (however they do give us a $20 discount now as of late.

The UPS is for the phone if power goes out. It won't power internet or TV.

I don't have FIOS, the fastest available service is Comcast. I'll get it if it's faster when it gets here.