Repair wait time two days during covid wfh???

Internet went out Tuesday afternoon, I spent literally hours trying to contact customer service via phone, twitter, and the chat (after doing all troubleshooting myself bc I’ve had to do this dozens of times in the last three years that I’ve had fios, and know the drill - usually the problem is some freaking wire again or the internet needing to be replaced again) - finally told that it’s a problem outside my unit and that someone will need to come out — but there’s no one available until late afternoon THURSDAY. I’m working from home because if covid and NEED the internet to do my job, so I effectively won’t be able to work for TWO days or more. That’s insane, what am I paying for?? I could lose my job because fios is awful and unreliable and can’t manage to hire enough techs to send them out on time. I will be switching internet companies as soon as I can.

Accepted answers

lasagna

For a residential service account, two days is actually pretty good for a truck roll. As someone mentioned here, you get what you pay for -- and if you want that higher class of service with more aggressive SLA's, you probably need a business service account.

Even then, I don't know what their business service SLA's are. For an enterprise, this can be a few hours but for a small business account, you'd have to check the contract.

For residential service, I suspect if you read your agreement, the cure for an outage of an extended nature (extended also being defined in the agreement as having to exceed a certain period of time and involve Verizon equipment as fault) is a service credit (i.e. a discount off your bill).

It's unfortunate, but in times like these it's those little details that you don't think about when you get a standard residential service agreement that bite you. I feel for you, but I think the second poster's suggestion of alerting your employer is your likely best bet unless you have a neighbor nearby who is willing to let you borrow their network (or guest network) for a bit. I have a friendly agreement with my neighbor whose Wi-Fi I can see from my home to be able to use his guest network if my network goes down and he has the same promise from me (I have Vz, he has Comcast -- so it does come in handy -- more often him borrowing mine). We just give the other a ring when there's a problem and then turn on our guest network so they can use if for a while.

All comments

Cang_Household

That's really unfortunate. None of the Internet Service Providers can guarantee their service is up and running 100% of the time. If you really want reliable Internet connection, I suggest you to add another line from a different ISP and purchase a dual-WAN load-balancing router, for instance Cisco RV340 (expensive and a little overkill for home use, but you are doing work at home though...) In case one line from an ISP failed, the router will immediate route all traffic through the other line. The backup line really does not need to be gigabit, just enough for work.

CRobGauth

As stated before, residential service does not come with service guarantees.

If you need that type of service, you would need to upgrade to business class service.
Costs more, but you get more.

My guess is that you will find similar performance on other ISPs.

jonjones1

Although you are a residential customer, you should not be subjected to sub par support for a service you PAY MONTHLY FOR. Now you should not need business class service to have the internet, tv or phone you are entitled to.

having said that you must also realize these are not the best of times for in contact service calls. (You yourself are stating you are working from home)

the other posters idea of dual service is viable. Our home is wired with cable and fios.

but not used at the same time. But it is a sword to deal with Verizon in knowing you can change service in an instant.

you must give companies today extra leeway in that others need or will be having issues.

i am sure your company would understand if you alert them.

lasagna

Even then, I don't know what their business service SLA's are. For an enterprise, this can be a few hours but for a small business account, you'd have to check the contract.