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 Review by dataice 
UPDATED: 1 days ago
member for 7.8 years, 1427 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Crisfield,Somerset,MD
 $40 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 Verizon
 "Connection reliability"
 "Customer Service is poorly trained"
 "Great, as long as everything runs smoothly, otherwise you'll be forced to deal with a poorly trained outsourced tech support."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
08/14/08: I have had Verizon DSL since 2004 with hardly a hiccup in all that time. Well, that was about to change. I Called Verizon billing office on August 14th to order an upgrade from 3/768 to 7.1/768. The rep says there is no such speed for FIOS?!? Um, I'm not calling for FIOS, I am calling for DSL. So, I figured that I would wait a week and try again.
08/21/08: I Called them back today to give it another shot. The rep that I spoke with was obviously from India, as her accent was so strong that I could barely understand her. I explained to her that I currently have DSL 3/768 service and was interested in upgrading to 7.1/768. She checked her system, and said that it was available in my area with a 1 year contract and that voice service was also required for $39.99 a month, then $42.99 a month after the first year was up (after renewing with another 1 year contract), at least this rep knew what 7.1 DSL was. Fine, I said sign me up. She gave me a service ready date of August 26th, said I could continue to use my current Actiontec router/modem, and that I needed to be home.
08/26/08 OK, 08/26 comes and goes, no upgrade.
08/27/08 I called them back today on the 27th and opened a trouble ticket. The rep I spoke with said that the last rep that placed the order for me, didn't enter it properly, and it was never dispatched to a local field tech. Ok, fine set me up again please. The rep gave me a new service ready date of September 2nd, and asked me to be home as the tech "may" have to do what is called a home run (place a filter at the NID). I said ok.
09/02/08 I took the day off and guess what? another no show. Ok, now I was not a happy camper.
09/03/08 Called back the next day on September 3rd, that rep said the same thing the last one did, the order wasn't placed correctly. Ok, set me up again please. The rep did so, and gave me a service ready date for September 9th (what is up with ONLY giving me Tuesday's, don't the field techs work more than one day a week?), anyway I said fine, and stayed home all day on the 9th, guess what?
09/09/08 You guessed it, NO SHOW., BUT, he did go to my local central office, and he CUT OFF MY INTERNET COMPLETELY., ok now I had had it. Called back that same day, was told that a rep would come out on the 16th some time between 8 am - 12 Noon, now I was fuming.It was bad enough I was missing time from my duties by taking off all day, but now I had no internet at all. When asking why I was cut off he said they have to do that first in order to upgrade my line to the new 7.1. That sounded fishy so I demand a supervisor, he says no that is not normal and said it must have been a mis-communication (yeah, no s*it).
09/16/08 The 16th comes, again a no show.
09/17/08 Called them the next day on the 17th and demanded a supervisor, who could barely speak english. He apologized several times and said he was escalating my problem to a dept for supervisors, and that someone from that dept. would be calling me within the next 24-48 hours to set up an appt. They actually called that same evening, and they set me up with a new service ready date of September 18th. They asked if I could be home. I said yes, I would be.
09/18/08 September 18th comes, NO SHOW! Now I am truly livid, as I have missed five days of my duties and stayed at home for nothing AND with no internet. I came here to DSLR and found a toll-free number to Verizon Customer Advocacy group, but guess what? they don't help you with a Verizon DSL problem, only a problem with your landline service. So I was back to square one. I called the outsourced call center in India and demanded to speak with yet another supervisor. Apparently none of the former reps or supervisors added ANY notes to my account, so they would know this is an ongoing issue, so I had to explain my lack of customer service issue to him from the beginning, he said to wait for someone to call me back from the same escalations dept. Finally someone from the USA got involved this time around, and returned my call a few hours later. The agent I spoke with said he would handle it personally and that someone would come out on the 19th and that I needed to be home, OK.
09/19/08 19th comes and again another no-show, called (you know the deal by now) and was given a new date of September 22nd (great,another weekend with no internet) Not like I really have a choice in the matter, Ok, fine I will be home on the 22nd
09/22/08 FINALLY a field tech shows up on the 22nd, but , not to my residence but to my local central office instead (field tech told supervisor I didn't need to be home after all, no home run required), since I reside in an large apt. complex, and doing a home run in a multi-dwelling unit can be troublesome and very time consuming, so now I had missed 7 days for nothing. This tech finally gets me up and running with 7.1/768 speed. He stopped by my apt. before heading out of town, and asked me to pull up my stats on the gateway to make sure I was getting good numbers. He was satisfied with the transtats, so all was good. I asked him if he knew what in the world happened with my upgrade. He explained to me, that apparently the first field tech who was dispatched to my local central office, moved my line over to a different card in the rack at the DSLAM but he didn't provision it properly once he moved it over. At least that was the gist of it, since it was nearly 7pm and past his normal quitting time, and the man was tired, as I was as well. So I didn't ask him to go into great detail.
09/23/08 I called Verizon Online billing/sales dept. today to complain about what I had been through and how I was being treated as a paying customer, and the retentions dept said they would give me 4 free months of service for all of my trouble, and being without internet for 2 weeks. So, I will update when my next bill arrives and let you know how that went. But I am not holding my breath with the billing dept., especially after what I had just experienced.
10/17/08: Well, bill cycled online today, and guess what? Yep. No 4 month free credit!I was charged the full $39.99 for the service. To late to call today, since the retentions dept. is currently closed. Will try to contact them on Monday when they reopen
10/20/08: Called retentions dept. today (was hung up on the first 2 times). Rep that I spoke with was very friendly and said she would handle this immediately. She said the original rep that entered the 4 month free credit, did enter it into the system on September 23rd, but she didn't enter WHEN the credit was suppose to actually begin. So, basically it just fell out of the system. She said she entered it again, for the credit to take affect asap, and that I would receive a statement in the mail confirming that my last 4 months paid service would be credited back to the account. I assume that they will just hold off billing me for the next 4 months, I could barely make out what she was saying, since I had to go through a rep in India first to get transferred back to retentions here in the states, so the connection was very bad. Hopefully it has been taken care of this time. I will update again sometime in the next 30 days to confirm if the credit went through as the rep promised.
10/24/08: Received phone bill in the mail today. Apparently Verizon Online credited the $39.99 back to my account on the same day that the paper bill cycled and was mailed out to me, just barely making it on the bill at the very last minute. Good thing I called on the 20th or I would have had to wait another month for the credit. So, I did get at least one month free, but I am not holding my breath that they will credit me for the other three. I will update in mid/late November when my next bill cycles.
11/20/08: Received latest phone bill by e-mail this morning. Verizon charged me the full $39.99 this month. So much for receiving a credit for the other 3 months. Unless they do what they did last month and apply the credit literally at the last minute before the paper bill mails out to me. I will update when I receive that bill by snail mail to let you guys know if that is what happened. At this point however, I am so frustrated dealing with them every month for the credits that I am just going to be thankful that I got at least one month free credit for the 14 days I was without service. I never did receive that so called statement in the mail, confirming the 4 months of credits.
11/25/08: Received latest phone bill by snail mail this morning. Sure enough, they charged me the full rate of $39.99 this month. So, apparently one month of credit is all I am going to see. I've decided to let it drop, its not worth the hassle of dealing with retentions yet again.
03/25/09: After not hearing anything more about my so called 4 month credit, my bill that I received today in the mail showed a credit of $171.96. Apparently I am going to get the 4 month credit after all, 4 billing cycles later. I must say I was VERY surprised after not hearing anything back from them since last November. After contacting billing, the rep said I was given a credit of $171.96 to cover 4 months of service at $42.99 a month. However I WAS paying $39.99 a month with a 1 year contract, which they were taking $3.00 off on the regular $42.99 a month, so I am not sure where the extra $3 dollars suddenly came from. I also noticed that they quietly extended my contract from September to December 2009. After the pure hell on earth that I went through last fall I will just let this slide, since by the time I fight them to get them to put it back the way that it was originally before applying the 4 month credit, my contract would have expired by the time it was all worked out. This company never ceases to amaze me.
07/31/09: I contacted Verizon Business Office today, after seeing on the portal that I was eligible for a bundle discount, by combining my POTS and DSL on one bill. Apparently I can get both Freedom Essentials and 7.1 DSL for $79.99 a month, which is called Verizon Double Freedom. I am paying $45.99 a month now for Essentials and $42.99 for DSL, so this would save me $8.99 a month off of my bill. The best part about this, is that the rep that I spoke with said I would be able to come off my 1 year contract, and would be placed on a month to month on the DSL portion. I can lock this price in for the next 12 months with no ETF if I drop the bundle. I would just go back to my previous billing. I took them up on their offer, so I guess I will see what happens to the billing when I get my next bill in late August.
08/21/09: I checked my online billing today. The paper bill went out a few days ago, which hasn't arrived yet, but I was able to view on the DSL side at verizon.net what Verizon Online was going to submit to the POTS billing as my current billing cycle before the $79.99 Double Freedom bundle reset it. Apparently I was taken off the $39.99 a month DSL billing. They reset my DSL billing by taking me off of my old billing agreement and entered me into a month to month agreement. They treated it as a new customer agreement, and basically reset my billing in January of this year under the promo that was running at that time for the 7.1 tier for new customer signups. The first 4 months are free and then it bills at $42.99 a month. I was placed on a month to month billing, which would run through December. Then the regular price would be $52.99 month to month with POTS. Of course this is all moot now since it will be reset yet again under the $79.99 Double Freedom promo that I recently signed up for. I then went to their main verizon.net signup page to find out exactly what they charge for the 7.1 tier at the full price month to month, with and without POTS. The current billing info for the 7.1 tier list it at $62.99 month to month dry,$52.99 month to month with POTS, $39.99 with a 1 year contract and POTS or $37.99 with a 2 year contract and POTS. No wonder they can't seem to keep the billing straight, they have so many different billing scenario's, there's no telling what you may end up with at the end of the day.
08/25/09: I received my bill in the mail today, and I was billed correctly under the Double Freedom bundle at $79.99 plus $12.01 in taxes and fees, for a total of $92. You gotta love those damn unfees! I can't believe they actually got it right this time on the very first try. Go Figure! 
01/04/10: Connection has been rock solid since August 2009, with the exception of a couple of minor outages that each lasted for maybe 3-4 hours. Bottom line is this, obviously there is very poor communications between the different departments at Verizon, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and that is unacceptable with a telecommunications company. Usually when you want to give a company more business, they don't require that you jump through hoops to do so. As long as everything is running smoothly, and you never have to contact them for any reason, they are great. If something goes wrong however, you will quickly learn that their outsourced support is unable to handle even minor issues.
08/17/10: Connection reliability has started to slip recently. I could count on one hand how many times it had gone down over the past two years. Since this past April there has been a total of 7 outages. Some of them lasting for more than 24 hours. Three so far in August alone. This is very unusual for Verizon. I hope this is not a preview of what is to come. I've recently read numerous comments by DSLR users of reliability issues in several states in their footprint. Verizon has gone as far as to sell off large chunks of their "less profitable" markets. I have serious doubts that my area here in rural Maryland will ever see FIOS. We may even be the next market to be sold off to the highest bidder. If that happens I am sure our reliability issues will only get worse.
09/01/10: Recently when my current double play bundle I had with them (phone/dsl) expired I called them to sign up for another 1 year bundle deal. That experience was pure hell on earth. Not only did they not give me the agreed bundle deal of $64.99 a month on my next bill as they agreed to do, they also signed me up without my knowledge or permission for their internet security suite, insurance on my computer,dedicated 24/7 expert care technical support, and Verizon On Demand Games.
I was outraged. I immediately called them back and had to literally get into a verbal fight with this very arrogant customer support rep in the telephone support dept. That was horrible. My blood pressure had to have been through the roof. This woman all but called me a bare faced liar about not signing up for those services. I told her I would have NEVER asked for those services, as I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable person when it comes to computers. I did not need or want expert care as I am able to do my own trouble shooting, I don't need the on site repair service and insurance on my desktop or laptop, I never play online games, and I already have an excellent virus/adware/malware setup that I am very happy with.
Well, she cancels all of those services and also put me on that $64.99 bundle special I was already suppose to be under nearly 6 weeks ago. Well, I get my bill in the mail about three weeks later, and sure enough no bundle deal, and to add insult to injury I was billed a $59.99 early termination fee for cancelling the expert care tech support that I had never asked for in the first place. I called them back again on 8/20/10 and demanded to speak with a supervisor after speaking to yet another very rude service rep, who didn't even apologize for what I was going through, and had the nerve to try to upsell me on DirecTV. I told her that I live in a large apt. complex that does not allow a dish to be installed because there is no ideal way to install them on the side of the building. This woman had enough nerve to say, well sir that doesn't sound truthful to me because the laws were changed to allow apartment dwellers to install a dish. Unreal that these people are allowed to talk to loyal customers in this manner, especially those who pay their bills on time every month.
I told her I don't care if you don't believe me, I do not want DirecTV right now even if it were an option at my current address because I already have digital cable with a local provider, and I may be moving within the next 12 months, and it would require a 2 year commitment on my part for the DirecTV service. So, after telling her this and asking to be put on the $64.99 Double Play bundle deal (for the 3rd time) I then asked her again for a second time to please transfer me to your supervisor she finally agrees. I was then placed on hold for nearly 35 minutes before I reached a supervisor.
This supervisor quickly transfers me to India support because he doesn't deal with DSL issues, only phone. I spent the next 45 minutes holding for a rep in India. I then had to explain to this rep in India, because none of the previous reps had bothered to place any notes whatsoever on my account of what was going on, so I had to start all over again from the beginning.
That was going nowhere and after spending 10 minutes explaining to her what had happened, she too said why did you ask for services you did not want? Well that did it , any patience I had left was now gone. I said, in a raised voice, I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THOSE SERVICES!!!! ,and only after threatening to cancel all of my services and then contacting my states Attorney General's office did she finally agree to credit my account for the $59.99. I will have to wait until late September when my next bill cycles to see if she actually applied the credit, but after my last ordeal with billing I am not holding my breath. I am NOT a happy camper right now. This has me wondering if Verizon is doing this with all customers who call in to sign up for another 1 year bundle deal. If they are it should be illegal.
Attachments:
Followup comments:  
Mactron
el Camino Real
Premium
join:2001-12-16
CM94sv
| Well trained.. "Great, as long as everything runs smoothly, otherwise you'll be forced to deal with a poorly trained tech support dept"
Accurately their well trained to always blame the customer and say everything is fine on their end. Think of all the money they save not actually providing service. 
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If only the Verizon CSRs worked this well.  | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| Re: Well trained.. haha. You got that right. I miss the good ol' days when they actually employed people from the U.S.A. When I recently upgraded my speed from 3 Mbps to 7.1 Mbps, the rep told me there was no such speed for FIOS., uh, duh! who said anything about FIOS? I am talking about DSL over copper! Unreal. I had to call back a total of 8 times to get someone who knew what was going on. Avoid them at all cost! | |
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The Blue Hag
join:2008-08-25
Winchester, CA
·Verizon Online DSL
| their teir 1 phone techs are the worst I am so tired of having to call DSL tech support and having to deal with those hard to understand robots, the voice-automated system is just as bad as the overseas employees too....
Would be nice if they brought jobs back to the USA and gave us customer service as imagined in their commericials.
I am fed up with Verizon phone support to be honest, they are the worst. | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Re: their teir 1 phone techs are the worst You got that right, they have gone out of their way to program the automated system to make it so difficult to reach a live rep,that you will just throw your hands up in the air and relent. God help you if you try to get your local business office involved in it, they will just refuse to deal with you and transfer you back into automated hell, but before doing so trying to sell you on at least a dozen different products and services. It's really sad to see what has happened to a once helpful customer support center, and I feel sorry for the few U.S. support people they have left, knowing if they don't push those services, they will be fired. :-( | |
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OftenOily
@verizon.net
|  Re: their teir 1 phone techs are the worst
Tech support is nothing other then an insult..11229 under dial up speed now for 3 weeks even with the modem turned on | |
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icepunk6
@verizon.net
| headaches for sure! i decided awhile back to go with verizon dsl 3/768 on a dryloop, tech came out, hooked everything up (came at like 6am when was told they would come between 8 and noon, i know it was 6am because he left a voicemail on my phone, i never answered the door due to sleeping at that time) long story short. i was without my new service (although i had dsl connection lights on modem) for 3 weeks. ended up that they didnt have me hooked up in the hub office, this was also after literally 10 calls of me saying "this is on your end, not mine" they even told me i needed to upgrade my modem/router and it would cost 100$. HORRIBLE customer service, i got exactly the same amount of time i was out of service, 3 weeks credits. so dont hold your breath on 4 months, you were lucky getting 39.99 | |
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Hpower
Roflmao
join:2000-06-08
Glendale, CA
·Charter Pipeline
| Damn Man I feel your pain. I'd die 3 weeks without connectivity. I already was going nuts with 2 weeks of no service for getting charter pipeclog pipeline.
Seems like Verizon does a horrible job with their DSL service but does a much better job with FIOS.
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The Internet is about to go down....it is actually. | |
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stefanie2530
@verizon.net
| DLS Tier 3 phone# I'm truly thankful that I'm not the only person who has such problems with Verizon...I'm not happy about your problems, I'm just happy that these things don't only happen to me!
Does anyone have the Tier 3 DSL phone number? I had it and now a friend needs it and of course I can't locate mine...she's calling Tier 1 asking for Tier 3 help and they claim to have no clue what she's talking about and hang up on her...
Thanks! | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast Formerly ..
4 edits | Re: DSL Tier 3 phone# Those Tier 3 direct #'s don't work anymore. Since Verizon now outsources its entire DSL support overseas. They use to work when they were still based here in the USA, but I haven't reached a US based CSR since at least 2007, much less a Tier 3 based rep. So, unless you subscribe to their premium support plan, which I am not even sure if that isn't outsourced as well, you probably will be unsuccessful in getting one of the Tier 1 CSR's in India to transfer you to a Tier 3 rep. That's if they even have any Tier 3 reps on the staff in India, and even if they do, I seriously doubt they will know any more than the Tier 1 script robots manning the front lines. Most of the reps that I spoke with when I had my recent problems, didn't know anything more than what was on the script in front of them, no matter how high up the ladder I climbed. | |
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radiomaze
join:2009-10-25
Curwensville, PA
·Verizon Online DSL
| Tech Support, yeah if you want to call it that I called not long ago for some help with modem/router issues . The tech said, in that barely understandable broken english, sir I'm going to send you toour expert support. Well I knew there was a fee but didn't know how much so I asked the "expert" how much will it cost? She replyed its a one time fee of ONLY $89:-() I said no way I think I can figure this out myself. You have a nice day. Then hung up the phone. | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD | Re: Tech Support, yeah if you want to call it that I would keep a VERY close watch on your bill for the next few billing cycles. It would not surprise me in the least bit if those clowns tried to bill you anyway for the $89. | |
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lsetler
join:2010-01-18
Elkins, WV
| Verizons DSL support Like everyone else, I also went through the hell of trying to work with the outsourced "techs" in India when my 3.0 service dropped to slower than dial-up. I spent every day for a week dealing with India before I demanded an English spealking supervisor and was transferred to a San Diego location set up to handle calls escalated over the cultural/language barrier in India. Although they were more pleasant to deal with, I got conflicting stories: a field tech would be sent out (I had to be home) which never happened to I needed to downgrade my plan as my location was not eligible for the 3.0. That put me over the edge so I went to the corporate website and found a listing for people in the Media Affairs Department that included office phone numbers. Several calls went to voicemail, but eventually I reached a V.P. in the department who answered. After explaining the whole problem, he asked for my contact info and said someone responsible for my area would call me back. Sure enough, the next morning, I got a call from a Supervisor IN MY STATE. After listening to my experience to date, she said she would do some checking and call me back. One hour later, she called asking if I was going to be home for the afternoon as she was diverting a tech to handle my problem. She said she had checked with the engineering department and I should infact be able to get 3.0 and was on the "edge" to get even faster. She promised to stay on the problem until I was satisfied. Two techs came to the door about an hour later. They said they had been diverted from doing routine work in a town about 60 miles away. They were exceptionally professional and checked everything from the modem outward. They made some changes in my network interface box as well as rerouting my cable pair at several points between me and the CO. They explained that they had cut the distance to the CO nearly in half. Speed tests showed that they knew what they were doing as i was now getting over 3.0 consistently. That was over 3 months ago, the "ticket" is still open and the supervisor calls about every two weeks to check on my service. She credited me with 2 months service, cancelled my contract and put me on a month-to-month plan at the contract price.
Moral of the story: Upper level tech support based in the US does exist and you can speak to them, you just have to be resourceful and MAKE A LOT OF NOISE! I'm just hoping my service remains the same when the Verizon/Frontier deal goes into effect later this summer. I'm already collecting a list of phone numbers, just in case. | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD | Re: Take advantage of BBR Thanks, I am aware of this, but I had so many complex issues I needed it addressed as soon as possible. | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Verizon Online DSL |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Blizzard9300
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 82 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Sterling,Loudoun,VA
$45 per month
about 29 days
Verizon
"When it works its great."
"Just dont get any issues. Install or other wise you will be on the phone for 182 minutes and then get hang up on."
"It is a great service as long as you don't have any issues."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Fios 15/5 Still yet to be seen, if I get billed for the package I sign up for.
(Fios Internet and Digital Voice)
Followup comments:
| Forums » comments on review of Verizon Online DSL |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Selenia
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 947 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Lanesboro,Berkshire,MA
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 23 days
"Good latency, high connection reliability"
"Terrible installation process, inept(though nicer) tech support, lower than advertised speed"
"The only choice, which has me considering a wireless backhaul from where I am"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Update: I moved to Lanesborough, MA. Up here, Verizon is the only land-based broadband service. While I am happy that I haven't been using AT&T EDGE as my main connection up here, that is about all I'm happy about.
The latency is much improved from when I tried them before in Pittsfield. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Verizon even giving me my lousy 3 mbps. After massive tweaks, I got up to 2.5 on the best test servers. Most my neighbors, who don't tweak things, get under 1 mbit on their lucky days. I know some who don't even see 400 kbit.
Installation was atrocious, though not on my end. Kept ordering, not seeing live on promised date, called in to find they have no order on file(even though the modem arrived in 3 days after first order), rinse, repeat. After 3 cycles of this, we finally had a connection! I guess thank goodness for AT&T EDGE for keeping me online at home for that period of time. While I post frequently on wifi and at a friend's(who has TWC), I like having my workstations at home.
Tech support, while they didn't know jack and sometimes did even less, were very pleasant and English-speaking for all of the calls this time around. Same goes for the order center, as I was bounced back and forth so they could figure out why I wasn't live. As bad as this may sound, it gets them a slight bump up inl tech support score-I could understand them and they weren't rude, unlike times before when I used them as a backup connection in Pittsfield.
I am going to start doing this for all reviews-commenting on each score
Presales Information: Obvious fail here. I was supposed to be live at least a full 2 weeks before I was. Install date was way off. Claimed speed of even the 3/768 package is not met.
Install coordination: Just forgetting about an order being put in 3 times and sending a modem? Fail.
Connection Reliability: 100% uptime thus far, even during heavy storms we get up here. No complaints there.
Tech Support: They get some points for trying this time around, but with the expertise(or lack thereof) I've come to expect.
Services: Average score for offering basically what you'd expect from a typical ISP(rudimentary webmail, etc). Some may be useful for some people, but I don't see the need for any of it.
Value for money: I am paying almost as much for a connection that doesn't reach 3 mbit as I was for a 10 mbit pipe that exceeded that 10 with Powerboost. Even the price I was paying for 10 would be considered expensive by some. What can I say? Part of rural living.
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I have had them at my 2nd house for over 5 years, so thought it time to give my review. Connection is very stable. I have only ever had 3 issues with it in 5 years. 1 time(back when tech support was ok), it was simply a defective modem, for which they advance shipped me a new one with a prepaid package to ship the old one back.
My 2 more recent issues were handled terribly by Verizon of India. I could not get one who actually understood English or was willing to forward me to someone who does. I actually ended up getting them solved by e-mailing Verizon via my RR connection. Not the optimal solution if the VZ connection were to be your only internet link. The process went at an ok speed considering it was e-mail correspondence, but I would prefer some real phone techs. I am still having issues with latency, however, that noone seems to be able to see but me, yet I do still get my full bandwidth. It's not so bad that I can't play an MMORPG, but it does hurt a bit on FPS. I have my fingers crossed they do solve it eventually.
The presales people were pleasant and informative about options for different packages, but lose many points by not being able to tell me whether many of them are even available to me. They left the install open-ended and said it would be 2 weeks if I can get it in my area(I'm pretty close to the CO, but they didn't seem to know that). The rest went smooth. They let me choose what I wanted so that they could "test". It was live really early, taking only 5 days, instead of 2 weeks.
It's really too bad all but reliability has gone downhill for VZ, with tech support being the biggest joke. It probably isn't suited for serious gamers, either. The latency is just too high, even though they tell me everything looks fine. Ironically, the latency used to be really good, much better than TWC(an area for which TWC has actually improved). If you need a stable connection for net browsing or maybe a very small server or p2p app, then it might be worth considering. VZ only filters the typical ports many ISPs filter for network security. Home users likely won't miss them and more advanced users can easily work around it. They also do not throttle any protocol by my testing and have never been reported to do so.
My package: 3/768
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Review by cyberrider1
Posted: 3 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 3 days ago
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
"Up until recently, I had no problems with speed, or the company."
"Speed has been dropping over time, from 6.8, to 5.6, and now sits at 4.3"
"I haven't had too many problems with Verizon and I hope this is just a temp thing"
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The speed plan was 7.1. The best I could get was 6.7, which I have no qualms about. But as I mentioned, it's been dropping over a 2 month period. Even at 5.6, I wasn't going to say anything. But now I'm wondering how much lower it's going to go (presently at 4.3)
The Modem is a Model 6100G Westell
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Review by rtfm8
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 5.1 years, 93 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Bethesda,Montgomery,MD
$19 per month (12 month contract)
about 60 days
Verizon
"Thus far, it works...."
"An installation saga worthy of Kafka...; with the Phone Tree from Hell thrown in."
"If I had a viable alternative....."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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(ratings below consensus)
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I was changing from a CLEC-provided DSL on a VZ line; to VZ-DSL. Verizon refused to even take an order for future installation if you have service now. They tell you to first disconnect your existing service, *then* order and, by the way, be prepared to wait a week or two
Appeals got me nowhere. I finally disconnected my existing service as I left town for 5 days, and tried to order the new service the next morning; they then refused to take the order! "You only qualify for FIOS.." was the BS.
After hours wasted on more phone calls and bitching; they started the installation the day **after** I returned. But I'd made such a stink that they got it working by the end of that day. I'd opted out of their "free" modem/router to save a week to ship same.
They of course capped me at the wrong rate [768K, not the 1MB+ advertised for the $18 price] but fixed it on request, once I got a human in Billing.
The real Hell is reaching that (or any) human. [Does anyone recall »tinyurl.com/qy3guo "Who can replace a man?" by Brian Aldiss?] Call the main 800 567-6789 number and it is death by phone tree. No matter how many questions you answer, there's always another. Plus, as I found out; it does no good. Since there is FIOS available here [a mere $50/month vice $18.... and give up your copper....]; I get sent to a FIOS desk every time; where they try and upsell me. I still can not say for sure that I am being billed correctly.
I wouldn't think of using their mail or news servers, so I can't rate them. There is a really stoopid email response system. You mail a complex question, you get a dumb answer back from the robot. They consider it solved, and you have again no way to reach a human.
I doubt I'll ever get the promised rebate.
In summary, once they installed me, it has worked OK; but I had any competitive alternative as Mikey Powell promised, I'd never be here.
So after a year, they suddenly claimed my rate was NOT guaranteed to go up, but rather was a bait & switch rate. Liars...
I need a good Cpl. Klinger insult to express my true feelings.
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 Review by capecoddah
Posted: 8 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 1501 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Yarmouth Port,Barnstable,MA
$31 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Solid connection"
"expensive"
"Happy"
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1.5 /3 Mbps. Verizon land-line customer was up and running 4 days after order.
I'm OK with it. I had a problem with line quality but I changed all my Verizon to the second line I had for long ago dial-up. The original line was 1981, second is 1997.
First Tech was a jerk, second guy was great and tipped him some Halloween candy.
I can upload AutoCAD files to work OK.
I just tried a WiFi that worked like a charm for a guest with a laptop and iPhone. Numbers were said to be good.
I only game "Comanche 4" and the few of us left have no problems.
MSN voice to Russia or Brazil is OK.
2.21 Mb/s down, 0.72 Mb/s up via Speedtest.net / Boston
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Review by AMVETS
UPDATED: 13 days ago
member for 9.7 years, 702 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Whittier,Los Angeles,CA
$29 per month (12 month contract)
about 9 days
Verizon
"reliable connections wired&wireless,speed within specs.(85-90%) basic pkg. 1.5mb down 687kbs up"
"none at the moment!"
"great service,down time very rare had service 9 yrs."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
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(ratings above consensus)
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The text is OK the way I wrote it.
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Review by aoisserver
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 162 days, 45 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Bellefonte,Centre,PA
$65 per month (month by month)
about 13 days
Verizon
"Fast for Small Uses"
"Expensive For Slow Speeds"
"Good If You Are Close To The CO and Don't Need Fast Speeds"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I got the fastest they had. Said I could get 7.1mbps or 5.1mbps. It kept on varying. So about 13 days later I got it. It was 5.1mbps. I didn't want to pay the full 7.1mbps if I didn't get it all. Since it was also an upgrade for the 3.0mbps/768kbps and new contract renewal, I got to cancal after a few days of the 5.1mbps for no cost and wasn't to hard. If you just need to do some internet browseing or just to watch some Youtube videos or just check email. This will do fine. I recommend the 3mbps/768kbps plan. It was good experience but just got to slow for my needs and needed something faster.
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 Review by MOSFET
Posted: 15 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 445 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Hackensack,Bergen,NJ
 Business customer
$75 per month
"Not much, Email seems to work most of the time."
"I've had dial up connections that were faster."
"Save your money, go with cable if you have it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
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(ratings below consensus)
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Dreadful connection and this is a business account. Slow, unstable, disconnects frequently. YUK!!
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 Review by mking128
UPDATED: 17 days ago
member for 5 years, 704 visits, last login: a few hours ago
College Point,Queens,NY
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 35 days
Verizon
"Least expensive option vs. local cable provider (TWC's double/triple play) - slowly slipping behind"
"Bad, arrogant customer serv. especially bill charges even w. service plans. VZ had their chances to keep us, ready to ditch>TWC"
"Watch out for nasty billing & lousy customer services: Had 768/128 serv. for 2 yrs, bumped up to 1.0/384, still no FIOS !!!!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Timeline: Had 1.5/128 Earthlink DSL at old house for several years, switched back to VZ for 3.0/768 back in 2005 since CO was under 7,000 ft. but still took several repeated visits to tune-up old copper wiring for reliable services, bad when it rain due to corroded outside NID & circuits on the pole boxes. Moved to a brand new house in 2006 & further away from same CO, distance of around 16,000 ft. - was told still possible for up to 3.0/768 service, wanted to coordinate moving to keep voice & DSL with interruption. Local office switched on voice on target date with dial tone but no DSL signal, lost the order & had to re-submit, process & waited 2 weeks getting getting signal - off to a bad start. Then, line sync. & other issues, calls & field dispatch took days going back & forth, finally "concluded" that had to drop speed to 1.5/384 for reliable connection, fine (hindsight, should've gone to cable then & take the bundle) - weeks later in winter 2006, sitting at home all day waiting for repair tech. to come check out house's wiring, NID, etc. & drop speed all the way down to 768/128 - since our line is supposed to be at the far end/limits for reliable ADSL signal, etc. etc.
Had the slowest speed between 2006 and 2008 without much incident while neighbors all seemed to be on cable DSL surfing around 5 MB during non-peak hours. Old Westell W327 modem with old firmware began dying & was told then original warranty only good for 90 days unless extended warranty was purchased. Paid for a new W327 at full price & decided to add the monthy modem service plan (already had the analog/voice line's full inside home wiring maintenance plan as we're getting so many field/service visits). Techs all tried to suggest on each & every visit that there's something wrong with the jacks, terminals, computer systems, etc. & that trouble isn't with THEIR network & neglected old copper wiring hanging up on the old slanted poles. Were told in 2006 that FIOS is coming soon & will be among the first in this area to be notified & installed, on mailing & call lists, etc. etc. .... waiting continued, patiently.
2009: Called business office to check on FIOS & possible line speed upgrade, since our neighbors next door & even our downstairs unit are qualified for 3.0/768 service but we're still on slow 768/128 plan with low S/N margin & various fluctuation line test readings. Got upgraded to 1.0/384 speed at no extra charge & switched to Double Play plan for slightly more with a 12 month commitment in July 2009 as I was doing more tele-commuting work from home office. Had a series of tech. visits, Direct Forum postings here (again) and field dispatch to try to tune-up the lines, etc. over the summer with marginal results. Meanwhile, signs of FIOS install & truck rolls seen in local neighbors, signs of better days ahead with Fios, okay - waiting continued, patiently again, just put up with slow DSL a bit longer since the price is okay. Just had to reboot the modem every other day or whenever downstream drop from 8.5 to below 5.5 to as low as 3.5 or 4.0, a mystery that field techs. cannot seem to resolve or fix. but still concluded that it's the best that we can expect at our distance to the CO.
More line sync. issues last Nov. (2009) and postings in Direct Forum resulted in more trouble tickets submitted, 1 got field dispatched & 5 others, including escalated ones got closed without further action taken or explanation, nor follow-up call for local maintenance office. Worst, even moved my line from ADSL2+ switch/card to a regular ADSL router & data path from interleaved to Fast mode. Line sync. was all over the place & Westell W327 (just 1.5 years old) gave up & managed to get a newer replacement Westell 7500 modem (it's really not so FREE, since I'm paying for a monthly fee) & STATS weren't much better. Had to borrow another working DSL modem & call tech. support to prove that the old W327 was failing & request line testing to verify poor results, etc.
There're sparodic line noise on voice calls & fluctuating S/N readings, ranging from 9.5 plus dB downstream to 5.5 or 6.0 dB while upsteam remained consistent at 9.5 or 10.0 dB. Finally, one tech. dispatched conclueded that most likely, there are unused bridge taps on the line going to/from the CO/relay terminals and another dispatch request is needed - with special equipments & bucket tower/ladder are needed (in other words, it's time consuming & let someone else come out in the cold winter days - Jan. 2010 - to clear up the line conditons & improve my STATS. He believed that at our distance, based on his meter readings, that the line can definitely support 1.5/384 easily and with 3.0/768 possible but probably at a somewhat slower rate, but certainly not remaining at 1.0/384 once the taps are gone. Another request was made thru Direct Forum & also to VZ Repair to check/clear out line noise - resulted in a no-show by the tech. that had to be rescheduled & a cancelled trouble ticket.
Bottom line, line conditons got no better & VZ repair tech.dispatched found no issues & blamed it on VZ DSL-provided line filters for possible problem, did NOTHING at all to check for & remove line noise, and, to bill for service visit at $91 plus taxes. Called billing office & they called repair office, and after a 20 minute wait for a conference calling, verified that it was a VALID ???? billing for a field DISPATCH since no trouble was found on VZ's equipment or NID, etc. and that it's inside wiring/customer owned equipment. It didn't matter at all that the modem was defective and/or we had full inside wiring mainteance as Billing claimed it's not covered, according to TOS in fine prints, etc. etc. There's no higher up or next tier supervisor to speak to and dispute the charges, and that just pay it. Okay, fine - what kind of customer service is this! It's no wonder that negative posting about VZ's DSL neglected services and poor OVERALL customer services, especially billing are on the RISE. The corporate culture is what sanction this mindset & that they feel they can do whatever they want and bill you for they argue is valid, and I am not going to spend 2 more days on the phone on HOLD & miss out at work to deal with this nonsense.
I cancel both inside wiring maintenance & extended service plan on the modem. Our contract on the Double Play deal with the monthly discount will be up by end of July 2010, it's now late March & FIOS installation is skipping some blocks around here but available for the Zip Code already, so must be the slowdown in rollout & layoffs that's being reflected. Calling the local business office & even visiting the VZ storefront on Main Street in person didn't get any useful help at all or timeline, "well, you'll probably know about its actual availability & can order it sooner than we do as we have the same access to info in the database as the customers." Wow, that's customer service for sure ....
Within the past week, DSL line conditions have taken another turn for the worst, and that's after the wind/rain storm and I'm back to a daily modem reset/reboot. Doing all the advanced testing & benchmarks, along with results & findings of previous visits all pointing to Verizon not taking proper care of their aging, copper-based DSL equipments & outdoor lines as they selectively made FIOS available to local homes on certain blocks, and further efforts to improve the line conditions are hopeless, useless & a waste of time as they couldn't care less about it.
Unless VZ can deliver FIOS to our house in the next 4 months, we are going to cut the copper wires & port our number to cable, and go with their packages - we might not get better speed at peak time, but at least, we'll surf at a much higher speed plan sometimes while paying about the same or less for comparable level of services, with fewer taxes, fees & surcharges, etc. on our monthly bill. And, if we don't like what they deliver, we can cancel at anytime with ETF or penalty - and you know what, their local field office/truck depot is just several blocks away from us on the waterfront & we can see - on a daily basis - that they are working on & taking care of their cables & making house calls.
Update - 5/7/2010 - The switch to cable's Triple Play package is now getting ever closer as we are nearing the end of our VZ contract as there's still NO Fios availability on our city block (fine with ordering if we move 1 block up north & local CO - business office have no useful info - been on those email lists since 2006 & still waiting .....) DSL line conditions remained in an unstable, fluctuation state with slipping margins, prompty a daily routine of modem/router reboot - any cable HSI package, despite congestions & evening slowdown, will likely still be faster than what VZ can deliver now or anytime soon on their aging copper wires.
Update - 7/12/10 - Last month on VZ DSL, received email that DSL prices will be going up by $5.00 starting next 2 billing cycle since our Double Play contract is UP (finally, this month) and promo offer will end. Thus, nightmare is going to be OVER soon. Line margins has gotten worst & it's now a twice daily (sometimes, 3X) routine of manually resetting the modem to restore line conditions - speed has not drop, line quality tests are fine, just that copper wirings are getting worst & worst as we see more Fios rollout in the area on a selective basis. My patience has run out on it after nearly 4 years for Fios and faster/reliable speed. Emails are getting switched & messages saved/backed up, and ready to get a new unlisted phone number upon switching to cable HSI, for about the same price.
We will rejoin Fios in 2014 (or sooner - since we do not have sign any contract or agreement with cable) - right now, it looks like many others are feeling the same about dsl and ditching it. Watch out, here we go & click, DSL - you are fired.
As of Aug. 13, 2010 - speed & latency continued to worsen, tech. support played the usual games and my contract is finished as of today, planning my next move since Fios is supposingly available but NOT on my block (yes for next city block).
Speed Test #90628646 by dslreports.com
Run: 2010-07-21 21:04:39 EST
Download: 479 (Kbps)
Upload: 374 (Kbps)
In kilobytes per second: 58.4 down 45.6 up
Boost: 479
Latency: 39 ms
Tested by server: 9 flash
User: 1246302 @ dslreports.com
User's DNS: verizon.net
Compared to the average of 784 tests from verizon.net:
* download is 96% worse, upload is 95% worse
Followup comments:
Arlington VA
@verizon.net
| I don't like their new game I live in an apartment building and I'm moving to another apartment in the SAME BUILDING. I have Verizion DSL, and have been a customer for two years. I went online to arrange to move my service and the only option I was given was FIOS at a 40% increase.
Since I'm a neophyte and am perfectly happy with my current service (download music, move files, skype, and essentially live on the d**m thing most of the day), I don't need or want more.
Forced to call V to move the service I was told that Verizion DSL was not available at my location.
When I explained that it was available and I have it at THAT location, I was told that perhaps V had "maxed out" the DSL in the area, and was provided the phone number of the V Engineering Department so that I could negotiate with them on their capacity for delivering DSL to my new apartment... really!
Call me lazy, but I considered this far too difficult to deal with. By this time I was on my 7th telephone attempt encountered far more frustrations that I've included (including being provided numbers by V employees that were invalid, and speaking to employees who's job it appears is to listen to you in order to transfer you on to another therapist).
The capper is, when I called to cancel (another two calls, two automated operators, and three live people), when I was done, I told the lady that as a current VZW customer who spends nearly $400/month with their wireless services, I wasn't thrilled with their obsession for wrangling an extra $20 out of me (in fairness, while I was on one of the calls earlier the wireless group called to help save money because of my wife's spike in text messaging). She said that all she had was my word that the situation was as I presented it, and that I was probably mistaken... so I'm a liar too.
Since I live in an area supposedly covered by Clear, I thought I'd give them a try. They are less than Verizion and Comcast (my other option, also a stranger to customer service), and claim to deliver 4G service... we'll see if the unknown evil is better than the known ones.
Cheers! | |
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Long Island
@verizon.net
| Outages and slowdowns I've had mid-speed Verizon DSL for years, and it's going downhill. Cheap cost is the only positive. Here in Nassau County (NYC suburb) have had several outage and slowdowns past few months. Mail server stops, my Verizon web pages stop, Verizon Central site shuts down- usually for several hours. Web access usually stays up, but often slows- shuts down once or twice a year. Nowhere to report outages, check system status, etc. I used to try to call Support to report outages to get credit, but Techs don't believe it, run through "script" to reset modem, etc etc. Basically, no useful support any more. Can rarely understand Techs ("Wally", "Sally" etc) Online self-support info is outdated or incorrect. I pay $29.95/month with no contract, so alternatives would cost twice as much. Wish I could afford to switch. Great deal when it works, but it's out so much, I'm considering a cheap or free dial-up account as a backup. I wonder if they're letting DSL slide to try to drive people to $$$ Fios? | |
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dataice
Premium
join:2002-10-27
Crisfield, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast Formerly ..
3 edits | My recent ordeal Recently when my current double play bundle I had with them (phone/dsl) expired I called them to sign up for another 1 year bundle deal. That experience was pure hell on earth. Not only did they not give me the agreed bundle deal of $64.99 a month on my next bill as they agreed to do, they also signed me up without my knowledge or permission for their internet security suite $9.99, insurance on my computer $14.99, the dedicated expert tech support (expert care is outsourced to India) $19.99, and Starz Play $5.00 a total of $49.97, on top of my Freedom Essentials $49.99, and $52.99 for 7.1 mbit DSL.
I was outraged. I immediately called them back and had to literally get into a verbal fight with this very arrogant customer support rep in the telephone support dept. That was horrible. My blood pressure had to have been through the roof. This woman all but called me a bare faced liar about not signing up for those services. I told her I would have NEVER asked for those services, as I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable person when it comes to computers. I did not need or want expert care as I am able to do my own trouble shooting, I already get Starz Play for free included with my Netflix subscription, I don't need the on site repair service and insurance on my desktop or laptop, and I already have an excellent virus/adware/malware setup that I am very happy with.
Well, she cancels all of those services and also put me on that $64.99 bundle special I was already suppose to be under nearly 6 weeks ago. Well, I get my bill in the mail about three weeks later, and sure enough no bundle deal, and to add insult to injury I was billed a $59.99 early termination fee for cancelling the expert care tech support that I had never asked for in the first place. I called them back again on Friday 8/20 and demanded to speak with a supervisor after speaking to yet another very rude service rep, who didn't even apologize for what I was going through, and had the nerve to try to upsell me on DirecTV. I told her that I live in a large apt. complex that does not allow a dish to be installed because there is no ideal way to install them on the side of the building. This woman had enough nerve to say, well sir that doesn't sound truthful to me because the laws were changed to allow apartment dwellers to install a dish. Unreal that these people are allowed to talk to loyal customers in this manner, especially those who pay their bills on time every month.
I told her I don't care if you don't believe me, I do not want DirecTV right now even if it were an option at my current address because I already have digital cable with a local provider, and I may be moving within the next 12 months, and it would require a 2 year commitment on my part for the DirecTV service. So, after telling her this and asking for a second time to please transfer me to your supervisor did she finally agree. I was then placed on hold for nearly 35 minutes before I reached a supervisor.
This supervisor quickly transfers me to India support because he doesn't deal with DSL issues, only phone. I spent the next 45 minutes holding for a rep in India. I then had to explain to this rep in India, because none of the previous reps had bothered to place any notes whatsoever on my account of what was going on, so I had to start all over again from the beginning.
That was going nowhere and after spending 10 minutes explaining to her what had happened, she too said why did you ask for services you did not want? Well that did it , any patience I had left was now gone. I said, in a raised voice, I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THOSE SERVICES!!!! ,and only after threatening to cancel all of my services and then contacting my states Attorney General's office did she finally agree to credit my account for the $59.99. I will have to wait until late September when my next bill cycles to see if she actually applied the credit, but after my last ordeal with billing I am not holding my breath. I am NOT a happy camper right now. This has me wondering if Verizon is doing this with all customers who call in to sign up for another 1 year bundle deal. If they are it should be illegal. | |
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