Verizon www.verizon.com

I have never had such awful customer service in my life as when I am forced to deal with Verizon for any problem. Their online "live chat" is obviously outsourced, so the people answering my questions are just copying and pasting canned responses. I talked to one rep for 1 hour online (no joke), and he told me I could save $20/month by renewing my contract for 2 years. I went through the checkout like he told me to, only to find out I'd be paying $30 MORE per month! When I complained to a rep on the phone, they proceeded to tell me they couldn't get me a lower price.

Then, when I tried to cancel? Oh boy.

I like FiOS, I think it's a great service, but tbh, it's not any better than AT&T or Time Warner. They're all the same. Go with what's cheapest, then switch after your contract's up. It's the only way to save money.

verizon.com has very bad customer service. Problems with billing. In the result service cast 133%+175% what it supposed to. Every phone call take 20 minutes to get to speak to the right person. It takes 3 months to get your money back. Stay away from FIOS and Verizon all together! " That is the best advice I have for you.

General installation: very prompt only about 10 days from the time I called Verizon and ordered the service, to the time I was on the internet. It would have been 3 days, but the outside fiber installation team was delayed because of the snow and ice storm. Actual installation only took about 4 hours total. Part of the speedy installation was that I pre-wired my house with a media center (cable/satellite, phone and Ethernet service to each room and had a COAX cable ran from the basement NID location to my Media center (router location), making installation a snap. There was a problem with the original router, but the installation tech had a spare in the truck "just in case".

Service: what can I say? 1.2Mb download speeds. Verizon FIOS help desk is very prompt and helpful. Internet and phone on one bill is a plus, and I am even thinking about adding FIOS TV, but I'm giving Direct TV one more chance before I convert.

Overall, they are one of the best media service providers, compared to local cable and satellite providers.

I didn't give out any 10's because there is always room for improvement. I gave a 7.5 to the overall rating because of the wireless router, and I think Verizon could have came up with a better choice. Overall, I would and have suggested FIOS to my friends.

I live in eastern Monmouth County, NJ near Red Bank, NJ. In mid-November 2005, I requested from Verizon's DSL Service Dept. a dedicated phone line for DSL service only. The 784kbps service connection that I requested was advertised for $14.95 (US) per month by Verizon. However, since I was requesting that a phone line be dedicated to DSL service only, they informed me that there was going to be an additional charge of $5.00/month. OK, I agreed to that.

I provided them with my e-mail address and office phone number so that I could be contacted if there was a change or problem with my service date. I was given a December 27th 2005 service date because I would be at home at that time.

On December 22, 2005, I had not heard from Verizon. I assumed everything was OK. However, I called them anyway just to confirm my service date. It was then that I was informed by a Verizon DSL rep that my service date had been changed to January 12th. I asked why I hadn't been contacted about this change of service date. No logical answer was given. I pointed out that I would not be able to be at home on that day if access to my residence was needed, but the Verizon rep said that was the earliest date that they could give me service. When I asked him why, again the service rep couldn't provide a logical explanation for the postponement.

Then I asked for their Service Cancellation Dept. When I spoke to that Dept.'s rep, she was very helpful. She was able to explain to me why my service date was changed, I was told that Verizon did not have a enough switch capacity available at their local station in my area in order to handle the volume of new DSL line service requests until they installed or upgraded their switch capacity at the switching station. However, this DSL rep assured me that they should be able to provide me with a DSL line service by January 12th. With at least one honest answer from Verizon DSL, I decided to withdraw my service cancellation request and not sign up Comcast Internet Cable Service.

However, on December 27th, I received both an e-mail and a voice mail message from Verizon DSL that said they were going to provide me with my DSL service connection on December 29th. I was pleasantly surprised, but wondered how they could do this? I called Verizon DSL and they assured me that they could provide the DSL service to me. In my joy I forgot to ask the Verizon rep how they had resolved their switch capacity problem in my area so quickly. As it would turn out, they hadn't resolved this problem at all.

On December 29th after 6pm, I hooked the new Verizon DSL modem to the phone jack outlet in my room. (I had confirmed that the line was 'active' because I found that it had a dial tone when I connected my roommate's hardline phone to it.) However, when I attempted to connect the DSL line to the modem, the modem's DSL indicator light would only blink on and off. This indicated that there was a problem.

I contacted Verizon DSL technical services on my cell phone and went over the entire system for the next 50 minutes. Then the rep ran some tests of his own at his end. He announced that there was a 'connection' problem that needed repair from outside of the house. He gave me a service repair confirmation number and a repair date for January 3rd.

On January 3rd, I called my roommate at 4pm. He informed me that he had been at the house all day and no Verizon repair service crew had shown up. Then I called Verizon DSL and I was informed that their 'repair crew' had tried to contact me at an 817-area code phone number that I had given to them. I told the Verizon rep that phone number was false. I had no 817-area code phone number, nor was there such an area code in NJ (In fact, it is a California area code). I pointed out to him that the phone exchange number or its extension number did not match any phone number of mine. It was bogus. They had made it up! I asked what the problem really was and the rep couldn't give me a logical answer. I asked the rep to transfer me to someone else who could explain what the real issue was. After 5 minutes of 'smoke & mirrors' double-talk with this new rep, I asked her if the real issue was that they still didn't have switch capacity. I was told yes, and that it still wouldn't be available until mid-January.

After this experience, I canceled my Verizon DSL service on January 4th. In the future I will be connected to Comcast cable via a wireless router. It is a better service. At least in my area of NJ.