FIOS Telephone connection

[Han]

bob haller wrote in news:1bad214c-8a37-4bd3-914c- [e-mail]:

Geez!! That would put me off too! My experiences were the opposite. Note that we were mong the first FiOS customers here. Everything worked out fine in the end. These were my problems:

Phone: Indicator light for voicemail on my Panasonic phone didn't work. Couple of phone calls and the culprit in the CO was fixed (I don't remember whether it was board or switch setting). Noise on the line: An old unused pair of phone wires in the basement was shortcircuiting. Easy fix, bend them so they didn't contact.

Internet: The FiOS router Actiontec 1424W lost its radio after 6 days. Took the incompetent techs (2!!) a long time to fix, because they didn't know how to reset whatever in the office to let a replacement router connect.

TV: Noisy signals intermittently on some channels, not others. Problem with coax connectors not seating correctly. Why this re-occurs every once in a while is a puzzle I haven't solved yet - probably furniture moving.

Movies via internet: We had problems with the first BluRay DVD player. Our Vizio VBR231 apparently was defective, and Vizio replaced it without charge, including shipping both ways. Vizio customer service was absolutely EXCELLENT!! Our TV doesn't have internet, but the Vizio works fine.

[badgolferman]

Your experience is not atypical. As an insider I got to see how the buck gets passed continuously. The problem is with how management places restrictions upon the customer reps and technicians. They must meet certain metrics or get fired.

I was eligible for 20% discount on FiOS services and refused to get it. I knew what would happen if something went wrong, especially if something went wrong with the order which is the hardest thing to fix.

Having said all that, I will tell you the horror stories I heard from former Comcast customers were worse.....

[George]

It seems to be the inevitable result of something growing to be a mega company. They basically become a mini version of the government.

A recently had to call a smaller cable company with a technical question. I was actually shocked when the CS person put me through to their engineering department. The guy actually knew the answer and provided me with accurate helpful information. If that were comcast or verizon it would have been multiple fruitless attempts only to be informed that they were mega corp and you were clueless.

An example, we have verizon DSL at a remote office. Because of the line length it is on a lower speed tier. It worked fine for years and all of a sudden we had frequent no connectivity issues that could be cured by rebooting the modem. After hours of troubleshooting I found they had provisioned the modem for a higher speed than could be obtained. After hours on the phone I found that someone internally had simply made the decision to do that on all DSL lines. Problem is the modem has a pea brain and after hours of trying to get to the higher speed it locks up.

Then after arriving at the reason why no one was allowed to change it back down to a speed that would work reliably. After a bunch more calls I reached someone who actually had the authority to do it.

[bob haller]

thankfully so far comcast works fine for me. i am saving big bucks over dish network too. on comcast triple play although i dont need the phone

dish raised their extra receiver fees fom 5 bucks to 17 bucks on receivers i had bought, so they are history too........

dish the service of fees.

verizon fios was the worst customer service i have ever got on anything

[aemeijers]

I'll give up my local loop copper to the switch, when they pry it out of my cold dead hands.

[gfretwell]

I agree I will give up my POTS when they stop providing dial tone. It is he most reliable utility I have.

That Comcast triple play sounds great until the cable is out for a week or two like it was after Charley and Wilma

"Sherman set the wayback machine to the 19th century"

No phone, No TV, No internet and nothing but excuses from Comcast.

I was a good neighbor and set my DSL powered WiFi router on the window sill and opened the connection.

[buffalobill]

it may be that when fios goes in the copper phone service will not be connected again. alarms may need copper service to dial out on in event of a power failure that outlasts the verizon battery time. otherwise the alarm panel may need a cellular device to call for help. verizon offers package deals when you bundle phone and internet and tv. they come and connect the old house indoor phone wires from the old demark point to the new ONT box.