DSL speed drops 7+Mbps to 1.3Mbps overnight

cjs2012

Here's another good one from verizon. And I thought I would never need to come back for answers.

On 12/18 I went online to pay my verizon double-play bill. After doing so I see that there's a discount involved if I renew my agreement. I renew. Then, overnight from yesterday to today, my speed drops from 7Mbps to less than 1.5Mbps. On the phone for an hour now and tech and billing/sales is telling me the 3-7Mbps is no longer available at my location and can't be changed back to what it was YESTERDAY. Billing no longer has a 3-7M option and says the lines won't handle it. Now only 1-3Mbps is available at my location. WHY? I have a note from the local tech, on his business card, that says my line will handle 10M and I'm now getting 7M. That note from a tech visit not too long ago. Thing is, someone made a physical change at the CO to drop this line speed and unless there's someone out there digging holes and cutting cables with a shovel this is a deliberate action. AND, coincidentally, the max speed is now below the threshold of any online media services such as youtube, netflix or amazon video, to name a few. Very suspicious to be told what I had yesterday and for the last several years is no longer available. All that needs to happen is for the tech support side to turn the 7Mbps speed back on and see what happens. About 45 minutes ago I had a tech actually tell me that I got switched to a slower router at the CO but when mentioned to sales/billing I'm now getting bounced around between sales and tech support or returned to the voice menu. Right now, as I type this, I'm back to a dsl tech giving the same information for the seventh time this morning.

Ok, as I continue typing this I'm being told that during the renewal of the contract to get the discounted price I picked a different bundle (which I didn't because there were no choices involved or any other indications of a change) and they gave my 7Mbps line to someone else and put me on a 1-3Mbps line. This is backed up by the other tech telling me that I got switched to a slower router earlier. This whole business appears to be a bit sneaky. Yesterday 6-7Mbps, this morning less than 1.5Mbps.

More to come. I'm still on the phone and coming up on 2 hours with billing and tech support. Ahh, might be getting somewhere now. I HAVE A TICKET NUMBER for a tech to arrive on Saturday.

Yet even more to come.

Back on Saturday.

This jogs my memory and I'm getting a vision of Lily Tomlin "[snort] we don't care, we're the Phone company"

Accepted answers

cjs2012

The tech called on Monday to say the line looked good (from wherever he was) and that if he came out and found no problem that I would be charged for the visit. Evidently they keep tabs on the techs by GPS. By that time I had already purchased and installed my cable modem/wifi unit and had it activated. It's evident that verizon wants us dsl folks gone so I'll oblige. So, from my hsi 'enhancement' from 6.8-7Mbps down to 3Mbps I now moved to my new cable service consistenly 38-48Mbps down/12-15Mbps up, all the time. That's the middle speed package. Oh, and they'll be losing a bunch of wireless accounts, too.

All comments

smith6612

Verizon will usually not take a 7.1Mbps line and give it to another customer. The time spent to have a tech relocate a circuit and re-program it is worth more money in the long run than Verizon would probably want to spend. If you come out of the central office, it's very likely that all lines originating from the CO will qualify for up to 15Mbps, loop length and congestion depending.

What more likely happened is that due to the agreement being renewed, an order change went through on the backend causing the DSL circuit to be set by ASSIA Optimizer to 1.5Mbps. That is likely what happened, unless your actual speed package changed.

Try asking for help on the Verizon Direct forum over at DSLReports.com. The agents there can often fix these issues.

cjs2012

I'll try that but I'm now getting emails to the effect of 'your change to high speed internet enhanced is now complete' . The account is now a 1.5-3Mbps account and I actually had a phone tech say that the line wasn't available because they gave it to someone else. True or not? Who knows. Enhanced? Ha. What a joke. This bait and switch change is about the most underhanded tactic I've ever encountered. By the way, tech was a no-show on Saturday, rescheduled for Monday. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with on the line speed issue since it's already been tested at 10Mbps+ and I have that in writing from the last tech that was here.

smith6612

Any luck with the tech visit for Monday?

Unfortunately you come across a very common issue seen by other Verizon customers. There's a large number of circuits out there which could take more speed, but isn't being offered. Those that want it have to push for the speed upgrade, until it's very clear that there is no technial/capacity-based ability to offer the speed. (Hint: ADSL when it was created was made to run at 8Mbps/800Kbps in 1998, but gear could operate on anything from T1 (1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps) to OC-3 (155Mbps/155Mbos) with newer ADSL2+ gear supporting OC-3 and OC-12 (622Mbps/622Mbps)).

cjs2012