OT - Alternatives to Verizon DSL

[Dan Espen]

There are a lot of complainers around.

[bob haller]

with half assed verizon FIOS complaints are to be expected.

fios is fine as long as its working, but have a problem? I feel bad for you:(

[Dan Espen]

I've had problems. Online chat support (3 times) great. Phone support (2 or 3 times), fine. Home visits including initial install, 3 times, great.

I've had FIOS a long time, I don't think I've had too many problems, things happen.

I'm not making this stuff up.

[bob haller]

Call verizon, go thru many menus:( Finally get the message. Sorry all CSRs are busy now please try your call again later, GOODBYE

Call again 10 minutes later, still busy goodbye:(

After many attempts finally get thru:)

Oh its your interior wiring! hey CSR the first tech out remarked problem duplicated with home completely disconnected....

verizon landline needs to go out of business, since they are a failure

the phone CSRs are rude, ignorant and really dont care. it shows....

[Dan Espen]

I don't use the phone anymore, chat works really well.

For the phone I use: Speaker phone Say "agent" If necessary, play a game on the computer. When agent answers, start to talk.

FIOS and landline are different. Never dealt with a FIOS agent that I didn't like.

[bob haller]

In a FIOS SERVED AREA the only reps you can call are fios reps, who spend all their time trying to upgrade you from copper to fios.

theres been news coverage that verizon would like to end all remainging copper phone lnes and convert everyone to fios.

fios costs less to maintain, plu verizon sold off major parts of its copper only phone and DSL areas,

customer service wise the no longer verizon customers are probably way better off....

[Guv Bob]

satellites

Local feedback about satellite (Dish Network here) is that when it's cloudy, reception is poor. This is real experience talking, so good enough for me to skip looking at satellite.

[Guv Bob]

Ditto!! LOL!! That's my main point with Verizon. Lousy company with land line service also. I don't mind an occasional outage or s*** slow download. But I'm not getting "high speed" any more which is what I'm paying for.

Not related, but they are stringing FIOS cables all over town here, and routinely hand them low enough for legal-height trucks to hit them. At many intersections the cable hang in front of the red light in traffic signals. Surprised the city lets them get away with it.

[Guv Bob]

$15/month

That's good to year. I'm looking around just because of the slow speed and high price. But I'll stick with Verizon if I can get DSL for $35/month. What plan is that?

[Higgs Boson]

[e-mail]...

nd line service also. I don't mind an occasional outage or s*** slow downl oad. But I'm not getting "high speed" any more which is what I'm paying fo r.

outinely hand them low enough for legal-height trucks to hit them. At many intersections the cable hang in front of the red light in traffic signals. Surprised the city lets them get away with it.

What did the city say when you pointed it out to them?

HB

[dadiOH]

Regional Essentials. Phone w/LD to US and a few other places + DSL, $49.99/month (plus the many assorted fees and taxes).

Details here (or call Verizon), hard (impossible?) to find at Verizon site. The link also lets you search for alternate providers by zip code.

[trader_4]

IDK about ditching all the existing customers, but here in NJ, a couple of the heavily damaged shore towns were among the first in the country where the phone company refused to restore copper line infrastrucutre. Which I can understand.

[Guv Bob]

package-ojtngwaidqgn

Thanks, that's similar to what they offered me. Not enough savings to justify staying with Verizon.

BTW, I have been paying my bill on time. After all my complaining about poor service, and asking for the address for process serving, last week I got a "pay up or be disconnected" email and letter. I paid as usual, a few days before it was due.

Chicken sh*t way of handling customer issues. That just confirmed my plans to switch from Verizon.

[Guv Bob]

"Guv Bob" wrote on 7-20-14 in message news:Q-WdnfFX_cw4NVHOnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]... Anyone using DSL Extreme or Time Warner? Both of these are $15/month for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

I've been sending Verizon hate emails everyday for a month because of continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping that will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon problems.

Thanks.

Bob

===

A quick update. I first started looking for an alternative in July

2014. I stayed with Verizon DSL (copper line) until Dec 2014 and then switched to Time Warner. I stayed with Verizon that long because they were sending service techs out every couple of weeks, jiggling the connections and keeping it going. Also were putting black plastic garbage bags over pole connections to keep the weather out. Eventually the story was that they would not repair the connections specifically or replace wiring with bad insulation because of directives from the executive suite to sell FIOS. When I found out about that, I gave up on them.

I check out all the providers and settled on Time Warner. Cost is $15/month for 1-2Mbps internet guaranteed, another $5 for modem, and $10 for a phone line. Total monthly cost is under $40, including all taxes, fees, etc.

Adding a 2nd phone line would have been $30, so instead I added a 3rd cell phone to my AT&T family plan for $10/month and kept the number.

So my bill for internet and 1 phone (was $120) and a 2nd phone (was $40) is now $40/month total with better speed and connection.

Also, even though promised speed was 1-2 Mbps, on a newer computer on off-peek hours, it's typically 10-20Mpbs.

Last week, a neighbor told me he still has Verizon DSL and phone, their internet is dead slow, and now their phone service is completely dead and Verizon they won't restore it using copper lines.

[Scott Lurndal]

If your promised speed was 1-2 MBps, then getting 10-20Mbps is spot on.

(note the capitalization of the 'B') There are about 10 b's to a B.

[Retired]

When speaking of Internet/ISP speeds, Mbps (w/small b), meaning Mega bits per second, is correct.

MBps, (large B = Mega Bytes) applies mostly to memory storage devices, (disk, RAM, etc)

See

where it says:

"By default, Speedtest.net measures your connection speed in Mbps, meaning Megabits Per Second. *Mbps is the ISP industry-standard*, and we use it on Speedtest.net so you can easily compare your result to your broadband plan's speed."

[Art Todesco]

We had Verizon here when I 1st moved into western NC in 2008. DSL was supposed to be 3mbs and it was probably that at 1AM. But when everyone got home from work and school, it dropped to something like 50kbs. When I called the script reader in India, Dan, said I needed to connect the modem's power source directly to a wall outlet and not to an outlet strip. I hung up. I found that V was in the process of selling off all their copper based service in my area and didn't want to "fix" anything. The batteries in their remote sites would last a few minutes, but they didn't want to spend any money to fix them. We had an all day outage on a Friday (2008) because of that. Funny thing, the outage was for the telephone line. Apparently, the DSLMs in the remote had their own batteries and they worked ok. So I did have DSL. I think the business customers in the industrial park must have demanded something immediate because at 9PM they were out there with a portable generator, which restored dial tone until they could get the power company to fix an apparent power problem. Frontier, the new owners had to replace all the batteries in all the remotes and had to provide lots of bandwidth in order to give us 3 meg DSL. Not that that's good, but it's better than slower than dial up that we were getting. And the best part, all Frontier calls are answered in the US.

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

message news:Q-WdnfFX_cw4NVHOnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]...

$15/month for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

of continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping that will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon problems.

2014. I stayed with Verizon DSL (copper line) until Dec 2014 and then switched to Time Warner. I stayed with Verizon that long because they were sending service techs out every couple of weeks, jiggling the connections and keeping it going. Also were putting black plastic garbage bags over pole connections to keep the weather out. Eventually the story was that they would not repair the connections specifically or replace wiring with bad insulation because of directives from the executive suite to sell FIOS. When I found out about that, I gave up on them.

$15/month for 1-2Mbps internet guaranteed, another $5 for modem, and $10 for a phone line. Total monthly cost is under $40, including all taxes, fees, etc.

3rd cell phone to my AT&T family plan for $10/month and kept the number.

$40) is now $40/month total with better speed and connection.

on off-peek hours, it's typically 10-20Mpbs.

their internet is dead slow, and now their phone service is completely dead and Verizon they won't restore it using copper lines.

immediate

I forgot about the calls to Verizon overseas phone banks. Even to set up a service call from a local service facility, it had to be made through Bumfukt India. Eventually I got the local area manager's cell phone which was a lot faster. Still they just talked "FIOS" and wouldn't fix copper connections, so I went to Time Warner and never looked back.

To the mbps/Mbps folks....... TWC promised 1-2 mega bits per second and delivered up to 20 mega bits per second. Sorry to have confused you.