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Some door-to-door salesman stopped by my door and gave me some pretty convincing arguments to switch from Comcast to Verizon Fios for TV, phone, and internet.
Basically, he said my internet would be faster and more secure, I'd get full 1080i picture quality with more HD content, and some other promotional shit.
So, doing my own research, I found that I have to pay a $108 installation fee if I don't get this through the salesman and he's only gonna be in the neighborhood for a few more days so I'm looking for an honest opinion here.
Does anyone here have Fios and are they satisfied with it? Are the speeds really as high as they claim? Will they jack the price up to ridiculous levels after the 2 year pricelock ends?
Thanks
 
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A lesson that i learned through the phone/tv/internet company business is that
if your happy with the shit u have right now and satisfied with the price
even though another company 'appear' to have better prices or what not...
dont
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Just personally, I fucking love fios. Never had a price problem, either. I'm not big on TV, but internet's nice. You can haggle down your installation fee with the company itself, don't believe the salesman.
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i had a lot of problems with comcast. fios is way faster and more reliable.
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In my area comcast was complete trash and I jumped at the opportunity to switch to FIOS when it became available and I couldn't be happier. However, I've heard horror stories from FIOS from friends in other counties/states as well as people raving about comcast in other areas. I think in the end I'd have to agree with the above poster and say that if what you have is fine and the prices seem comparable I wouldn't bother switching.
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FiOS was just installed in my apartment building and I'm trying to get my parents to switch over... any arguments for fios would be appreciated 
I live in Manhattan NYC if it matters, so urban area fios would probably be more valid. With our current cable line we have trouble getting anywhere near our advertised bandwidth due to many people on the same cable lines.
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I have it. internet is SICK amazing, never worried about speed or consistency again, which was a big change for me coming from crappy (verizon lol) dsl.
tv is alright, but it was really in development when we signed up (lots of blank channels??) and we ended up switching back to comcast for tv based on incentives they gave us.
phone was fine, but again we switched to vonage for our own reasons (calling india is easier).
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I have FiOS internet and comcast television, and have been very happy with ignoring either side's requests to get the triple play.
I don't know what comcast internet is like now, but 5 years ago it was a horror fest of agreements, baffling rules (port 80 is blocked for everyone?), and dodgy service. FiOS performance has been stellar and while I wouldn't want to call customer service, I've never needed it. They're also, so far, very un-Verizonly open about what you do with their internet.
I frankly don't watch enough television to care about either service, and someone in the house needs to see every MLB game, so comcast it is.
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
Any installation fees that are being waved are standard for all sales. You could get that deal over the phone. Basically if you get good feedback on the price/service itself then go for it. I hear the speeds are sick
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Baltimore, USA22258 Posts
I love weighing in on these!
Although, to be up front, I'll have to throw in: I'm a Comcast employee, and a huge Comcast fanboy. That's not to say we aren't without faults (as quality of service and reliability really can vary from area to area), but I'll try to be as objective as possible.
On May 19 2010 11:33 MourningWould wrote:
Basically, he said my internet would be faster and more secure,
The first part is not necessarily true, the second part is 100% salesman bullshit (I'm sure our guys use the same line though lol).
Speed: As mentioned above, this can vary from area to area, but generally speaking, in any of our "FIOS competitive areas", we give out a default 16Mbit/s down, which is barely higher than the 15Mbit/s down that FIOS offers in the basic packages. For those wanting more speed, Comcast also offers 22Mbit/s and 50Mbit/s services utilizing DOCSIS 3.0 for almost identical prices to Verizon's 25Mbit/s and 50Mbit/s tier prices.
So TBH, it's pretty much identical. The individual experience that you'll run into depends on the quality of the signal that you're getting from either us or Verizon, which can vary from both due to a number of factors.
More secure: LOL? I'm really not sure what he meant by this, but if he was trying to indicate that Verizon internet is 'more secure' in terms of dangers to your computer (which is completely dependant upon your OS, browser, browsing habits, anti-virus, etc. etc.), then he was feeding you a load of garbage. The ISP has virtually no bearing on it.
There are a few perks with Comcast though; free subscription to Norton's AV, along with some anti-phishing protection with our DNS servers (although I assume every ISP does this). Not sure what Verizon offers, but I'm sure they have something similar.
I'd get full 1080i picture quality with more HD content, and some other promotional shit.
I think he was misleading you if this is exactly how he worded it, as Comcast has FAAAAAAR more HD content than Verizon. Verizon has more channels in HD (something we are matching in many areas with the Xfinity rollout), but we have TONS of HD content via On-Demand, something they are sorely lacking.
Not sure about what promotional stuff they have... last year they were giving out TV's to new customers but I think that almost broke them. T_T
So, doing my own research, I found that I have to pay a $108 installation fee if I don't get this through the salesman and he's only gonna be in the neighborhood for a few more days so I'm looking for an honest opinion here.
"Creating a sense of urgency" is salesman 101. This is true of ANY business, not just telecommunications. I guarantee you there will be plenty of similar 'offers' for months and months to come. 
Although TBH that install price sounds pretty damn high... our installs are much cheaper than that. I would honestly try haggling with the guy, there might be some give room.
Does anyone here have Fios and are they satisfied with it? Are the speeds really as high as they claim? Will they jack the price up to ridiculous levels after the 2 year pricelock ends?
Thanks
From what I understand, the rates do jump up a pretty good bit after the 2 years is up, definitely something to look out for. Also, another big thing to watch out for with Verizon is the Early Termination Fees, or ETF. You should be able to get more info online about exactly how much it is, but if say, after a couple months you decide you don't like Verizon and want to break the contract, it's most likely going to cost you in the neighborhood of $150-$300. Another thing I'm proud of is that Comcast does not do ETF's or contracts, even on our promotions (with one minor exception from a specific offer last year). Verizon, everything is under contract unless you don't get a promo.
Conclusion: I'm going to side with the above posters who've said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If your Comcast is fine, it honestly isn't worth the hassle of something going wrong, or Verizon burning your house down (google it, seriously). I could understand if your service with us was horrible, unreliable, or you had bad run-ins with technicians or phone reps, but honestly... if it works, I would leave it as is.
All I can think of for now... again obviously I'm biased, but if you want to know anything else (at least from the Comcast side of things), feel free to ask!
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verizon fios is AMAZING. i never had any problems at all for the 6 months or so that i had it, fastest internet ive ever had. if price isnt a problem id go with the fios
when ive had comcast, it always goes down, terrible customer service etc. fios is better in every way.
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Oh man, ETT is such a handome salesman.
For pure internet thought, Fios is unbeaten in the US. It offers the highest upload speeds, extreme stability and lowest pings I've ever seen in my life.
Regarding TV and HD content, no idea, I don't watch tv at all.
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On May 19 2010 12:18 EvilTeletubby wrote:I love weighing in on these! Although, to be up front, I'll have to throw in: I'm a Comcast employee, and a huge Comcast fanboy. That's not to say we aren't without faults (as quality of service and reliability really can vary from area to area), but I'll try to be as objective as possible. Show nested quote +On May 19 2010 11:33 MourningWould wrote:
Basically, he said my internet would be faster and more secure, The first part is not necessarily true, the second part is 100% salesman bullshit (I'm sure our guys use the same line though lol). Speed: As mentioned above, this can vary from area to area, but generally speaking, in any of our "FIOS competitive areas", we give out a default 16MB down, which is barely higher than the 15MB down that FIOS offers in the basic packages. For those wanting more speed, Comcast also offers 22MB and 50MB services utilizing DOCSIS 3.0 for almost identical prices to Verizon's 25MB and 50MB tier prices. So TBH, it's pretty much identical. The individual experience that you'll run into depends on the quality of the signal that you're getting from either us or Verizon, which can vary from both due to a number of factors. More secure: LOL? I'm really not sure what he meant by this, but if he was trying to indicate that Verizon internet is 'more secure' in terms of dangers to your computer (which is completely dependant upon your OS, browser, browsing habits, anti-virus, etc. etc.), then he was feeding you a load of garbage. The ISP has virtually no bearing on it. There are a few perks with Comcast though; free subscription to Norton's AV, along with some anti-phishing protection with our DNS servers (although I assume every ISP does this). Not sure what Verizon offers, but I'm sure they have something similar. Show nested quote +I'd get full 1080i picture quality with more HD content, and some other promotional shit. I think he was misleading you if this is exactly how he worded it, as Comcast has FAAAAAAR more HD content than Verizon. Verizon has more channels in HD (something we are matching in many areas with the Xfinity rollout), but we have TONS of HD content via On-Demand, something they are sorely lacking. Not sure about what promotional stuff they have... last year they were giving out TV's to new customers but I think that almost broke them. T_T Show nested quote +So, doing my own research, I found that I have to pay a $108 installation fee if I don't get this through the salesman and he's only gonna be in the neighborhood for a few more days so I'm looking for an honest opinion here. "Creating a sense of urgency" is salesman 101. This is true of ANY business, not just telecommunications. I guarantee you there will be plenty of similar 'offers' for months and months to come. Although TBH that install price sounds pretty damn high... our installs are much cheaper than that. I would honestly try haggling with the guy, there might be some give room. Show nested quote +Does anyone here have Fios and are they satisfied with it? Are the speeds really as high as they claim? Will they jack the price up to ridiculous levels after the 2 year pricelock ends?
Thanks From what I understand, the rates do jump up a pretty good bit after the 2 years is up, definitely something to look out for. Also, another big thing to watch out for with Verizon is the Early Termination Fees, or ETF. You should be able to get more info online about exactly how much it is, but if say, after a couple months you decide you don't like Verizon and want to break the contract, it's most likely going to cost you in the neighborhood of $150-$300. Another thing I'm proud of is that Comcast does not do ETF's or contracts, even on our promotions (with one minor exception from a specific offer last year). Verizon, everything is under contract unless you don't get a promo. Conclusion: I'm going to side with the above posters who've said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If your Comcast is fine, it honestly isn't worth the hassle of something going wrong, or Verizon burning your house down (google it, seriously). I could understand if your service with us was horrible, unreliable, or you had bad run-ins with technicians or phone reps, but honestly... if it works, I would leave it as is. All I can think of for now... again obviously I'm biased, but if you want to know anything else (at least from the Comcast side of things), feel free to ask!
Yeah, that definitely puts things into perspective for me. Thanks man. I think the main thing that was convincing me to go through with it was because it had me at a lower monthly price than what I get with Comcast so I actually felt like I was getting a superior service for a cheaper price.
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aers
United States1210 Posts
The only reason I could think of to switch is if you're a heavy enough user that you break Comcast's soft cap regularly, or if it's significantly cheaper. FiOS has no sort of cap currently.
tl;dr if it aint broke don't try and fix it.
ps: It's Mbit/s, not MB/s, ETT!
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Fios is amazing. No reason not to switch over.
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Baltimore, USA22258 Posts
On May 19 2010 12:39 MourningWould wrote:
Yeah, that definitely puts things into perspective for me. Thanks man. I think the main thing that was convincing me to go through with it was because it had me at a lower monthly price than what I get with Comcast so I actually felt like I was getting a superior service for a cheaper price.
Well, that's probably true (regarding price) if you're on a promo with them but not with us. Might want to call up see what offers/promos we might have running in your area.
On May 19 2010 12:45 aers wrote:
ps: It's Mbit/s, not MB/s, ETT!
Always mix up my Mb and MB. T_T But TY! ^_^
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Recently today I just got FIOS 15/5, TV and phone for 69.99 (but I already had FIOS with the salesman for 2 years)
They wanted to install this shitty box in the middle of a wall and told me they had to put it there. After bitching about it they finally agreed to put it somewhere hidden.
Don't trust them but its good =D
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ETT brings up some good points, but as he himself admits he's a little biased and leaves out a few of the negatives of Comast:
1) Monthly download limits: Comcast has a monthly download limit of 250GB. This is a pretty high limit if you're just a casual internet user, but again if you actually want to actually use your 50mbps connection you can cap out your monthly quota in ~12 hours (assuming you can find enough stuff to download to keep it going). Since you already have Comcast and evidently haven't gotten a call from Comcast about it, it's probably not an issue for you. Comcast themselves claim that it only impacts the top 1% of bandwidth users.
2) Inferior upload speed. Until very recently, Comcast had absolutely terrible upload speeds that were nowhere near FiOS' offerings. Looking on their site now it appears they offer 2/5/10mbps, which is solid enough for most people, but still isn't as good as Verizon's 5 or 25mbps plans. Again, this is only an issue if you're doing MAJOR file transferring (uploading huge pictures / home movies or whatever), or running a small server (it doesn't impact gaming / web browsing at all).
It's possible that by "security" the salesman means "stability," as in less downtime / fewer outages. In my personal experience Comcast had more outages due to stability issues, and Verizon has been rock solid. Though of course Comcast was very reliable as well and that's only anecdotal evidence from my personal experience, so ymmv.
I had Comcast for ~5 or 6 years because it was the only internet service offered in my area. I switched to FiOS on the very first day that it was available for my home, and haven't looked back since--but again, I'm probably in the top 0.001% of home bandwidth users so the above 2 points are really important to me, but probably don't matter at all to you.
tl;dr : FiOS is faster (and more importantly you can actually use that internet speed because no quotas), but they're both so incredibly fast that unless you're *extremely* hardcore you won't notice any difference at all, so don't bother switching for that reason.
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i never personally used any but everyone i know who used comcast pretty much had nothing but negative to say about it. So i figured this was a nobrainer.
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In terms of "security", FIOS is likely less vulnerable to sniffing / poisoning on the local subnet. Cable networks are inherently terrible at this, I've seen some networks where I could very easily hijack the entire subnet. But I doubt this is what the salesman had in mind .
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Im using Optimum Online right now and I will give an arm for Fios, which isnt available here yet.
During peak hours and weekends my speeds are throttled because of the amount of users in this area, either I have to get a node split or upgrade to Boost and get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem.
Lately Ive been notcing that my speeds during the non-peak hours are only 6d/2u as opposed to the optimal speed of 15d/2u. Im fine if its a few M/bits off but more than half? What the fuck guys?
The government decided to give the ISPs sort of a mini-monopoly in NYC(Each area/borough is controlled by a corporation). So Time Warner controls Mahanttan, while OOL gets Brooklyn, etc. I dont think Comcast has business in the city, maybe in the suburbs.
Sorry to hijack your blog. D:
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On May 19 2010 14:46 R1CH wrote:In terms of "security", FIOS is likely less vulnerable to sniffing / poisoning on the local subnet. Cable networks are inherently terrible at this, I've seen some networks where I could very easily hijack the entire subnet. But I doubt this is what the salesman had in mind .
r1ch do you ever go places (i.e. anywhere with a computer or electronics) feeling really awesome because you know so much?
On topic: I've got comcast and i like it. decent speeds, never really uploaded much so can't speak to that. My dad just got fios at his apartment in virginia for work and says he really likes that too.
tl;dr as everyone else said, if its the same price don't change.
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Definitely sign with the salesman if you want to get FIOS, he did the work, why would you not allow him to get paid? He's not the one doing the installation either way.
FIOS price skyrockets after the deal runs out, it will be way above what you are paying for Comcast. You might be able to negotiate again in 2 years (if that's how long you're signing for) because they are really hurting for money and would absolutely hate to lose a customer. Just tell them you would leave if you don't get the same deal again. The rates you get when you sign up are really good, just make sure you understand what you are signing for (usually there will be things that will see price increase or will have to be dropped in about 3-6 months). Installation itself may take up to 8-10 hours, definitely not as simple as your regular cable.
I believe Comcast still has an early termination fee on their triple plays, should be around 150-175$
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I had Comcast and switched to FIOS a few years ago (near Boston). FIOS was a about 2x faster Upload / 3x Download for about $40/month cheaper (both services included similar cable packages). I had a 1 year contract. After a year I was able to drop the phone service and saved an additional $20/month.
I think the biggest improvement was reliability. FIOS never went down whereas Comcast would go down a few hours each week.
Unfortunately I moved to Florida and I am stuck with Comcast again. The service is about $80/month more than what I was getting with FIOS in Boston and the quality is dreadful compared to FIOS. Comcast said the wiring in my house is old and offered to fix it for $200.
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Baltimore, USA22258 Posts
On May 19 2010 15:52 condoriano wrote:
I believe Comcast still has an early termination fee on their triple plays, should be around 150-175$
A while back (year or so at this point), we did offer 2 year triple plays that required a contract (and of course, an ETF). Those were pretty unpopular, so we did away with them, and our triple plays since have not included them.
On May 19 2010 17:25 Number41 wrote:
I had Comcast and switched to FIOS a few years ago (near Boston). FIOS was a about 2x faster Upload / 3x Download for about $40/month cheaper (both services included similar cable packages). I had a 1 year contract. After a year I was able to drop the phone service and saved an additional $20/month.
I think the biggest improvement was reliability. FIOS never went down whereas Comcast would go down a few hours each week.
I can guarantee 100% that if your services went out 'a few hours each week'; there was either a problem at the home with the wiring/connectors/splitters, or something from the outside feeding in from your tap, the node, or maybe a bad underground.
Did you ever have us come out and take a look?
Unfortunately I moved to Florida and I am stuck with Comcast again. The service is about $80/month more than what I was getting with FIOS in Boston and the quality is dreadful compared to FIOS. Comcast said the wiring in my house is old and offered to fix it for $200.
Another area for clarification here:
For starters, the wiring/splitters in the home is owned by you. Regardless of who installed it. Hell, many houses nowadays come pre-wired. Often times, if someone switches from one provider to another, the same lines get used. DirecTV, Dish, Comcast, Verizon... everyone uses Coax lines in your home. If the issue in your case has been isolated down to bad/old wiring in your home, then regardless of who you have service with, your going to have some issues.
Also- I'm not sure how they do it in Florida, but up here, our guys don't actually do massive re-wiring ourselves, that is typically referred to a contractor (you're free to open up the phone book and pick whoever you want of course). Contractors obviously want by-the-hour pricing, as rewiring an entire home, especially with cutting-and-patching and wallfishes, is pretty time and labor intensive. The "$200" is probably a rough estimate, which again will be about the same price as any contractor rewiring an entire house. Again, I don't think this is a Comcast-specific thing you can justifiably pin on us as reason for your dislike of Comcast. I'm sure I won't be able to change how you feel, but if I can at least explain what you're describing, maybe you'll be a little more open/fair.
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Austin10833 Posts
I'm a Fios customer atm for tv/internet/phone and it's pretty great, especially compared to the cablevision/optimum online service that I had previously. I've never had comcast, and I don't think I personally know anyone who has either, so I can't say a bad word about them, but fios has been far more reliable that my last cable provider.
The only complaint I could even muster is that their on-demand system can be a little buggy at times, giving back random errors or displaying "no assets" under some shows that were there just minutes before. That's a really infrequent occurrence though, and not enough to really be an issue in a decision like this.
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I live in GA and although I've moved around like 10 or so times in the last decade [ all in ga ], comcast has for the most part been amazing. I always get near advertised speeds or [ currently ] even higher speeds. If anything is wrong you just gotta know to let the installer know or give them a call asap after your line is installed.
On my current plan I was able to get some ridiculous discount and since comcast doesn't do contracts I get to keep it as long as I have the service. $37 a month for
![[image loading]](http://www.speedtest.net/result/820865349.png)
and quality of line:
![[image loading]](http://www.pingtest.net/result/17274428.png)
Taken at 1:30 pm
I'm not posting this to say stick with comcast, cuz I've heard even more amazing things about Fios from playing maaaaaany games with friends over vent, I'm merely posting to say stick with what is good in your area. For me, comcast is really great and fios hasn't been available so I stuck with it. Lots of my friends in vent say their comcast is terribad but they can't do anything about it cuz they have the monopoly in their area.
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EPT
