What's the popular cable/internet provider there? (store, FIOS) - Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, Salem County in South Jersey - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

templeu · 06-09-2010, 08:28 AM

I live in the Haddonfield/Haddon Township/Collingswood section of NJ. I've never had a service disruption with FIOS. We just moved here in December and even during the slew of massive snow storms and then heavy rain we've had this year, we never lost our signal nor had a scrambled signal. I've had comcast and as well as DirecTV. My complaint was Comcast is that the cable signal was often disrupted and the internet speed was never great and was outright slow slow at certain times of the day (usually the evening). I read that in some areas they just don't have enough bandwidth to support the number of subscriptions to their service (or something like that

)...and I think I lived in one of those areas. To their credit though, it was pretty easy to cancel our service when we moved. DirecTV went out whenever it rained (and they didn't have On Demand - which I really like). So far FIOS has been the most reliable. Internet is FAST, picture quality on the TV is great. The only strange thing I've noticed with FIOS is that on certain channels the audio is out of sync. It can be like watching one of those old Kung Fu movies... a character finishes saying something but their mouth continues moving 5 seconds later. All in all, FIOS has been my favorite of all the services. We just passed our introductory reduced price and are now paying full price, and it's still cheaper than either Comcast or DirecTV.

GraysFerryB4 · 06-09-2010, 10:39 AM

Comcast is what we have and I hate them as a company. Their agents are rude and somewhat undeducated in dealing with customers. I could tell you horror stories from their service in Collingswood. That being said, I've been told mixed things about FIOS from both ends from "love it - hate it". You should know that FIOS is only in areas where they can dig to get the lines underground. Comcast has the edge there. I look at that obnoxious building in CC Philly and realize how much we overpay for what they give us!

atrixwolfe · 06-09-2010, 03:13 PM

Can you tell me about what yoru paying for FiOS a month?

templeu · 06-09-2010, 03:56 PM

The price would of course vary by package. I'm not sure what a basic package would be. I'm paying about 190/month. But mind you, I have 1 HD/DVR box and 2 additional HD boxes (I pay a monthly fee for each box, with the HD/DVR box being higher than the other two). I also pay for the premium movie channel subscription (HBO, Showtime, etc). I have my phone (local and long distance), and internet on this bill as well. I had a similar package with both Comcast and DirecTV. I think I recall Comcast going up to as high as $300 one month (it seemed to vary, on average I'd say we paid $240ish), and DirecTV may have been around $230ish. But, I had to cancel DirecTV early b/c I was moving out of my rental and into the current home that we purchased and we did not want one of those dishes on our roofs. They charged us a $275 early cancellation fee.

So the FIOS is not cheap (though comparable or cheaper to the other providers), but we have a lot of bells and whistles that are definitely adding to the price.

NJGOAT · 06-10-2010, 07:20 AM

templeu - I generally agree that FIOS is better and I wish I had it in my area. Althought the latest from Comcast really is just as good in terms of the TV. FIOS still wins with the phone and internet (although Comcast speeds are plenty for 99% of people).

However, on the price front, Comcast costs just about the same as FIOS. I currently pay $185 a month. That's for two HD DVR's, 4 digital tuners and every premium channel. It will go up to $190 next year and then $195 after that. The other nice feature is that Comcast doesn't lock you into a contract and you can opt out at anytime, unlike FIOS which charges a cancellation fee for early termination.

Again, I do think FIOS is better overall (especially techs and customer service), but pricing and content wise they are pretty much equal.

southbound_295 · 06-10-2010, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

templeu - I generally agree that FIOS is better and I wish I had it in my area. Althought the latest from Comcast really is just as good in terms of the TV. FIOS still wins with the phone and internet (although Comcast speeds are plenty for 99% of people).

However, on the price front, Comcast costs just about the same as FIOS. I currently pay $185 a month. That's for two HD DVR's, 4 digital tuners and every premium channel. It will go up to $190 next year and then $195 after that. The other nice feature is that Comcast doesn't lock you into a contract and you can opt out at anytime, unlike FIOS which charges a cancellation fee for early termination.

Again, I do think FIOS is better overall (especially techs and customer service), but pricing and content wise they are pretty much equal.

Comcast & Verizon are both spotty in NC, & I'm not aware of FIOS here. I would do business with with Verizon again, gladly, but have never & would never sign up for Comcast. I was working as a tech at WPHL when they acquired PRISM & Sports Channel. I'm well aware of what was done to those employees & can only imagine that it would be indicative of their corporate interest in customer service.

GraysFerryB4 · 06-10-2010, 10:37 AM

NJGOAT, just an FYI. I just had a 30 minute meeting with FIOS and they do not require a contract. It is slightly cheaper if you take a contract but you are not locked in. When I do cost for cost, the price vs. FIOS is probably not worth the aggrivation of changeing over.
You can ALWAYS negotiate a deal with Comcast by threatening to move to FIOS or Dish Network...just let them send you to their retention department. Competition is a good thing as Comcast no longer holds its monopoly.

NJGOAT · 06-10-2010, 12:07 PM

Gray's, that's the catch, you can only get the best rates if you sign the contract. Comcast allows you to pick up the deals and don't lock you in to a contract meaning you can cancel at anytime. I find that for both of them their non-contract rates are pretty equal, but it is hard to make an apples to apples comparison as both of them have differences throughout their different packages.

Comparing the best packages of each (premium TV, internet and phone) they are roughly equal on price. Of course at that level FIOS offers better internet speeds. It's really just a matter of who you like to do business with.

I had FIOS for a year in 2007 when it first came out and at that time I felt it was vastly better than what Comcast had. Fast forward to now and Comcast has definitely caught up making the decision that much harder. 3 years ago I would have even paid MORE for FIOS, but it's not so clear cut today.

templeu · 06-10-2010, 12:36 PM

NJGoat- Agreed. Not having the contract was a bonus with Comcast. When it came time for us to move and we wanted to try a different provider, the cancellation process was pretty seamless. We just had to drop off our equipment on a designated day and tell them to stop service. I think we may have received calls asking why we stopped service and still receive mailers, but it wasn't too big of a headache. We will have to pay a fee if we terminated our FIOS contract. Fortunately, I don't see why we would. We've been pleased so far.

Also, in the previous area I lived, Comcast was the primary provider. So, during the day when everyone was at work the service was typically fine. But at night and weekends when folks were home, service wasn't so great. And it was a total bummer to try to watch the Eagles games. The signal would constantly go out (I'm assuming b/c all of our neighbors were watching as well).

Ally315 · 06-10-2010, 08:04 PM

I have Verizon FiOS for TV and Internet (no land line, we just use cell phones) and I've never had a problem over the last 2 years. There will probably also be Comcast in the area and you can always try to play the 2 off each other to get a better deal when your contract runs out