FIOS or Cable? (new home, maintenance, live in)

[shoboo75]

Hi,

We will move into our new home at the end of April and are shopping around for the best Internet/TV service. I believe we have both FIOS and Cable available in our new home and need to pick one!

My husband and I both use the Internet a lot since we work from home very often and so a fast, reliable Internet connection is a must.

I also liked the bundle option where a Verizon phone connection would come with FIOS! We hate the Vonage service we have now.

Is FIOS really the way to go or is Cable just as good?

Thanks for responding!

[VRE332]

I do not have FIOS, but know people who do say it's fast. I work from home some days as well, and find Cable is sufficient for checking email and doing work related items.

Why do you hate the vonage service? Maybe you can look at the configuration of your vonage and tweak the connection so you get better clearity?

[kevinm]

FIOS all the way. I is always up and does not go down for "maintenance" or whenever the company is adding capacity.

[shoboo75]

We had two phone lines for Vonage and neither worked well. My calls get dropped, the voice quality is real bad and I've had too many clients 'request' me to dial back into the conference call since they cant really hear me. My family says that my voice sounds like I am talking from inside a well!!

We checked the configuration many times. Vonage even sent out someone to see if there is a technical issue, and for a bit the quality was better but its back to being really bad now. I dont think VOIP will work for us any longer!

The FIOS bundle offer has Internet+TV+Phone and it sounded like a good deal.

Has anyone had a bad experience with FIOS at all?

[ManWithoutQualities]

Hi there,

I don't (yet) live in the area and have no personal experience with either option, but I thought you might be interested in some recent Consumer Reports articles on internet, Cable, TV, and phone service. Verizon FIOS had the highest ratings for pretty much everything, based on customer satisfaction surveys. Consumer Reports also recommended bundling in general to get the best deal.

You have to be a subscriber to see the full report online, but you could look for the issue at your library (it's February 2008) and there's a press release available online for free (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cu-press-room/pressroom/archive/2008/02/0802eng0802itt.htm - broken link). It gives a pretty good overview of the findings, if not all the data.

Good luck!

[maggiekate]

verizon does have some great deals when you bundle them together-i vote fios

[arabellava]

Vote Fios..

We also VOIP- one of the unlucky sunrocket customers- the company went belly up without notice.. we were lucky to get fios immediately and not lose our phone number. The quality was sketchy- always fiddling with it. would not say it was worth it- had to forward calls to my cell so my cell bill grew- there goes the savings..

We have the triple play with fios- it's not perfect- tv guide/dvr recording is goofy (we used tivo- very hard to go from tivo to any other dvr)- the HD is nice.. the internet is good/reliable.. we had cox before and i was always unplugging and resetting the modem to reset it..

we have billing issues- that is adjusted every month by a poor customer service rep- (same person) - it's more of an issue for those of us that joined in sections (first had tv and internet and then added phone).. it shouldn't be now..

overall- we are happy and would do it again- though we miss tivo.. oh we also had dish and direct tv- dish quality was horrible.. direct tv was pretty good but this is a much better deal (and doesn't go out when storms)- hope this helps..

[brooktrout]

I've had FIOS (TV, Phone, Internet) for more than a year. The service is very good, but the customer service isn't. My bill was incorrect for 6 months--they did make good on it though. The HDTV service looks great. I like my old Tivo DVR better than the one verizon supplies, but it's good enough. Internet speed is great.

[shoboo75]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Sounds like FIOS is good any way you look at it!!

[tobyro]

We have FIOS. As stated service is good, customer service is worse than cable.

It's hard to get someone actually on the line.

We signed up when they had the free LCD offer but haven't received one. Was this just a gimmick? Has anyone received their LCD?