Verizon and the FIOS conspiracy

[Radosti]

OK, I would probably do it eventually anyway. But d*mn, not like this!!! They came and installed FIOS in my neighborhood. Great! But now my DSL, which has worked without so much as a hiccup for the past 2.5 years, has been going on the fritz. It is down for hours, the modem needs constant rebooting and it loses connectivity at the drop of a hat. Is this a necessary tactic? They get my money either way... I just don't want to deal with all this just yet.

[GlindaGoodWitch]

Ohhh. I feel your pain. The have a lock on the phone service in our neighborhood so unless we switch to the cable phone thing, we're stuck.

They installed the FIOS here and when they buried the line in the easement part of our front yard, they somehow hit the sewer and created a GIANT sinkhole. It was right by the mailbox and hard to see unless you were knee deep in it. Thank goodness the sewer never overflowed, but it was dangerous to the small kids and dogs in the neighborhood.

Anyway, it took them FOREVER to admit it was their fault and to come out and fix it. This was like a year ago. And I think the only reason they did is because it was the easement and the city got involved.

In the meantime, we STILL have on the average of 8 mailings a month from them about switching to the FIOS and have had several people going door to door, so be prepared for the bombardment. They used to call us EVERY DAY until I got super nasty about it and threatened to cancel our phone service and just use our cells.

I hope they leave you alone and your DSL connection improves...

[momofmany]

What is FIOS? We have a DSL and it drops all the time, it is slow, and I have to reboot a few times a week. It's totally maddening. I didn't realize there could be external factors, perhaps like you are describing that are causing this. Could you provide any more details? I'm thinking of moving to a cable provider, but don't want to pay more than what we are now for DSL. We aren't t.v. watchers so we don't have cable tv service. Thanks.

[Radosti]

FIOS is fiber-optic to your door... blazing fast and phenomenal. Three times faster than cable, 5 times faster than the fastest DSL. DSL works on the old phone lines, so the slightest interference with your phone and your DSL drops. Like if they did something with the old phone cables while burying the fiber-optic cables. Which is what I suspect they did here... grrrrr....

[tiapam]

I thought I read a post here about FIOS operators removing the copper lines to your home when they put in the FIOS. And they don't necessarily tell you...and then if you are unhappy with their service (or the cost) you can't easily switch back to another provider. I can't find a post, maybe I read it somewhere else. If you Google, you will get a whole bunch of stuff on this - pro and con.

-Pam

DD - 3 YO

[Radosti]

Not when they put in FIOS in the neighborhood, when they install it in your house, they sometimes yank the copper wires and then you have no other options but FIOS.

[tzipora]

We actually just got FiOS, and they told me in advance that they would be pulling out the copper wiring, but when the tech actually came out, he said they've stopped pulling out the copper in case people want to switch back, because rewiring the house would be such a pain. Don't know what they've been doing elsewhere, but it seems like you could request that they leave the copper wiring...