Verizon Service

Today's Consumer Report

Verizon

We've had Verizon FIOS phone, internet and television service for two years.  Score: Quality Interface Phone A  N/A Internet A B+ Television A- C The television interface score reflects my breaking three remote controls (@ $6.95), because I hold it in my hand, find a comfortable feeling button (Volume and Channel in my case) and, Capt. Queeg like, rock them them continuously.  More seriously, their menu system would be much improved if they just copied Direct TV's.  TV quality gets a downgrade to A- for not carrying RFD TV.   Verizon gets a Sneaky Bastard gig too, and here's why.  When we signed up we received a bundled price, but in the past year costs have undergone significant mission creep, which I attributed to rental movies, rate increases, etc.  We were at the point of ditching all but the cheapest phone service, and going with one of the Vonage services for long distance.  But I digress. While I was ordering a High Definition cable box, and exploring my options, the Verizon lady Mrs. Johnson asked, "do you know about our bundled service plan?"  Yes, we have the bundled service.  "I don't show that you do?"  Huh?  "Oh, I see.  It expired."  Huh?  "I'm going to go ahead and renew the contract (one year), is that okay?"  Huh? Bottom line, and you've seen the commercials, we will get all three services for $109/ month (cheaper than when we started) , plus the set box monthly rental fee, and tax.  In our case it means that, after adding a third HD Box (TIVO-like recorder), and getting all HD programming, we will pay about $40 less/month.   Not only that, as a parting shot Mrs. Johnson said, "Oh, by the way, we're upgrading your FIOS internet to "20" download and "5" upload speed, three times faster than presently. Which was blazing to begin with.  How fast is that?  I'm writing this review two hours from now.   I did a speed test last night. Compare yours here. I offer this for what it's worth. And remind me next January to redo my bundle, because they don't.