I just saw an ad for FiOS referencing customer satisfaction

Jstas

In the ad Verizon references a suitably impressive number of "very satisfied" customers that switched over from Comcast. This made me wonder. Is the Verizion service really that good or is the Comcast service so bad it makes mediocre service from Verizon look that much better?

I gotta admit though, this must be a highly contested market because the ads from both companies have been taking some serious hard swings at each other lately.

I guess I would care more which one was on top if Verizon actually offered FiOS in my development.

grimmace19

I just moved into a brand new building (1st person to live in my unit) built last summer. No Fios available in the area... pretty strange to me because I don't have a line of sight for dish but Comcast actually stepped it up a notch in my area and as a starter HD package I have around 80 hd channels. Can't complain much, but the price is going to be outrageous after the 6 months for the cable/internet package.

Overall, Comcast isn't so bad seeing as how I dealt with Charter and Time Warner in Wisconsin (far worse imo).

mantis

I made the switch several months ago.

1) The picture quality is better then Comcast. you can really notice it.
2) The audio sounds better especially DD 5.1. The dynamic range is full.
3) Cheaper channel to channel.
4) the Internet is much faster.

The downside to the service is ON DEMAND basically sucks. Comcast was much better here. Thats about the only thing I have found. The Guide is debatable as I at first missed the Comcast guide. Now I'm use to the Fios Guide and like it better.

For the money Fios is totally worth it. Cheaper and better always wins in my book.

schwarcw

I like my Fios much better than Comcast. Better picture, SQ, faster internet. Comcast was livid when I switched. They scolded me and told me a made a dumb decision. It took them a month to "disconnect" the line. The cable was hanging there, they just wanted the extra revenue. Kind of a one last kick in the nuts.

greg2350

I want to switch to Fios but one major problem I have 5 TV's in my house, Thats $10 a box X5=$50 a month for just the boxes. Currently with time warner I have 2 boxes at $5 each a month the remaining 3 TV's I use the built in tuner. My total bill with Fios would be more than double than what im currently paying. Verizon told me I had to have a box for each TV.

Amherst

Yep, like Fios better than Comcast, but that is not saying much. If you think about it there is only a handful of choices in any given area, cable, fios or two satellite providers. Not much in they way of competition. Prices are fixed and technically close to a monopoly.

The $10 a box is absolutely ridiculous along with extra charge for HD content. Why? Cause they can. There is no REAL competition.

And try and get the old cable line off your house, they refused to remove mine. So I just went outside with a pair of dikes and cut it off, it fell to the street. I called them back and told them their cable is laying in the street and maybe they might like to come get it. Service tech was there within a half hour.

ryanjoachim

I love FIOS. I severely dislike Comcrap.

I'm all about the internet though, and in that respect there is no competition between FIOS and Comcrap. FIOS wins hands-down.

Kex

Amherst wrote: »

... The $10 a box is absolutely ridiculous along with extra charge for HD content. Why? Cause they can. There is no REAL competition. ...

Exactly!

Amherst wrote: »

... And try and get the old cable line off your house, they refused to remove mine. So I just went outside with a pair of dikes and cut it off, it fell to the street. I called them back and told them their cable is laying in the street and maybe they might like to come get it. Service tech was there within a half hour.

LOL! Well done!

hearingimpared

ryanjoachim wrote: »

I love FIOS. I severely dislike Comcrap.

I'm all about the internet though, and in that respect there is no competition between FIOS and Comcrap. FIOS wins hands-down.

Ryan, why do you feel that way?

ryanjoachim

For me, the upload speed is the clincher. Comcrap maxes out at around 5MB/s for residential plans (I currently have a 22MB down 5MB up plan).

Verizon offers up to 50/50. 50!!!!

And their prices are easily comparable in the best markets, and vastly superior in others.

Also, at this point in time Verizon doesn't filter/throttle your bandwidth if you use too much. Comcast has a 250GB a month limit. If you go over by too much, you get a call and a warning. If you do it again, you get your account disabled for 1 year.

Comcast also throttles FTP traffic because "it is commonly used for transmitting illegal movies/music" etc.

Verizon doesn't.

amulford

As soon as it becomes available, I'm jumping. F#&K Comcast...

Ron-P

I've had FiOS for over a year, not a single issue yet.

tommyboy

ryanjoachim wrote: »

Also, at this point in time Verizon doesn't filter/throttle your bandwidth if you use too much. Comcast has a 250GB a month limit. If you go over by too much, you get a call and a warning. If you do it again, you get your account disabled for 1 year.

250 GB?! Thats a lot of ****! You might wanna cut back a little. Just think of it as them doing you a favor

I have always had comcast, but a friend got his own place a while back and decided on FIOS. He had nothing but problems. First, technicians had to come to his place a few times to even get it working. He said once everything was up and running the PQ of HD was a downgrade to Comcast which I kind of thought was shocking. But he was right, a noticed the grainy look too. So he switched back to comcast for about 10 bucks more a month with no problems.

Im not in love with comcast here, but all we really doing is picking the lesser of two evils.

ryanjoachim

250GB isn't that much really. It's 8GB a day.

I do a lot of transferring files from ftp to my computer and vice versa, which ends up adding up after a while. Streaming videos online isn't really something I do a lot, but that eats up bandwidth pretty fast.

Also, Comcast offers streaming TV shows from their website as part of a package plan but using their website ALSO uses your bandwidth, even though it's offered through them.

Both companies have their good and bad points. Many tech sites have tested the quality of both companies' video quality, and most of them found that FIOS was superior. That doesn't mean that it will always be better though.