My FiOS Experience So Far

As you may know, we ordered FiOS as soon as it came into our area, which was the first of the year. Knowing that it's new and that many people may be jumping on board with it, I thought I would provide our experience with it so far.

To summarize, it's a pretty good product and bundle package. We have enjoyed having long distance on our phones again (when they've worked). (Sometimes, the cell phones, just aren't the most reliable.) The internet has been good. The TV has been great! That's definitely my favorite part of it so far. We were paying about $80/month for phone (without long distance) and DSL and no cable or satellite. Now we pay about $20/month more and have unlimited nationwide calling and something like 265 channels. Because of this, it may wind up saving us money once baseball season rolls around. Last season, I went to about half (6) as many Dodger games as I do most seasons (12-15). Now knowing that I can watch as many games as I want to at home (read: as many as the better half will allow me to watch), I won't feel the pressure to try to attend so many games, although watching it on tv and going to the games are completely different. But I digress. I have also enjoyed getting back into the WWE and now the option to order the pay per view events like back in jr high with my friends. However, considering they usually run around $50 for a 3-hour event, and the fact that money is horribly tight right now, I won't be ordering many, if any. But the product (FiOS that is) is a very good thing.

The service we have gotten from Verizon has been, well, let's say, embarrassing. And I don't mean embarrassing for us, I mean embarrassing for Verizon. We placed our order on Jan. 3 and booked our installment for Jan. 6. The tech guy shows up on time and gets to work. He was very personable and we liked him. He explained things very well and took the time to answer our questions and be a great service to us. However, when he hit a problem, we had problem #1. He installed the "brain" as he referred to it, outside our kitchen wall and the battery back up unit inside our back door. He then went to the hub to get the signal to be directed to our house, or however that works with fiber optics. When he got there, there were a few other Verizon tech guys who all had the same problem. Verizon had not routed FiOS to that hub! None of those tech guys (including ours) could finish installation. That sucked! Not his fault, but it still sucked.

After calling about 3 times over the following 3 days to see if they (Verizon) had fixed it, they wound up calling a few days later to setup a completion of the installation. They came out and finished the installation when they said they would. Problem #1 fixed, problem #2 created. When I get home, the phones are not working! I spend a half hour plus on the phone, only to have them not fix the problem. They suggested a couple of things, which I tried, but to no avail. After I hang up, I notice the phone line used for DSL running over to the computer still. It wasn't connected to the computer (FiOS was) but it was still connected to the phone jack with the split for the phone as well. I disconnect that and plug the phone back in, without the split and DSL filter (or whatever it's called). It works! Problem #2 fixed!

Problem #3 happened yesterday, and this is a little weird, with pretty much no logic as I see it. (You'll see.) The phones don't work again! What's going on here?! I spend another half hour on the (cell) phone with a guy telling me to disconnect the batter and reset our whole FiOS system. This would have left us without all services for a few minutes, which didn't sound like a good idea to me...too much risk if I screw something up. After me and the guy going back and forth trying to understand what the other was asking. Ultimately, I request a tech to come out and check it out. And now that the problem has been fixed, I'm glad I did, because the guy on the other end of the phone was nowhere near discovering the problem (and there was no charge...I would have been screaming at them if there was). The problem with the phones is classic...wait for it...they never connected the phone line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the?????????? The only way I can figure that happened was because our installation was split over two different weeks and two different techs. But then how were we able to use the phones for the week and a half we did have FiOS?!?!

I've given up trying to figure out what's going on. As of right now, all is good and if there are no more problems, all will be ok. So, in summary, good product, embarrassing service. And we haven't even gotten our first bill yet, which I have heard from multiple sources is an adventure in itself. Stay tuned as I may need to rant yet again.

PS - I'm still sick...completing week 2 of this cold!