900Mbps crawls to 9 Mbps; router replaced and still same

[FloydLover]

Hi all

I have a Gigabit internet connection that used to give me just 80Mbps and when we complained, the Tech came down and said there is a problem with wall port, charged $99 for the visit, and replaced the connector. All was good for a year.

Yesterday, the speed crawled down to 9 Mbps *at the router*. I had a horrible time (3 hours!!) on the so-called helpline chat who made me do everything (restart router, connect laptop with ethernet and check, factory reset the router etc.,) that too with that remote video diagnostics thing. No dice. They said they will send  a technician as  last resort, but their website workflow does not let me go through the steps to log the request and just hangs! It was deeply frustrating. I wonder how Verizon gets away with such shoddy UI (slow, unwieldy and buggy). The chat agent apologized and said there is nothing they can do except for me to go through the workflow!! 

Today I called them instead, and wisely chose not to take the so called self-help web site chat (my unsolicited suggestion to all Verizon users!). After 20 minutes of music, finally get to speak to a human, they do the same old, same old (restart, line test, bandwidth test, video app to see the router speed etc.,) and conclude the router is faulty. I go get a new router (+1 to Verizon to place the order and make it available at short notice).

I get it, configure it and result is the same. 30 minutes of inane suggestions, online privacy warnings and insipid music later, I finally get a human being, who takes another 30 minutes to do the exact thing three of her predecessors did, and after a lot of convincing, finally agrees to send over a technician. 

Will keep this group posted, how this goes. 

Anyone else with a similar experience and any suggestions? 

Cheers,

FloydLover.

[FloydLover]

Sharing an update:

The technician came yesterday:

- instantly knew the router speed was itself low, and suspected the ONT, ONT to home connector (don't know the technical term), then the wall jack. Turns out the wall jack in first floor where the Cat6 cable from my basement comes in (basement is where the cable from the ONT lands), was faulty. 

- He replaced the ONT connector, wall jack connector, secured all ethernet connectors again.

- Problem solved. It took 30 minutes. And Verizon wasted money getting me a new router.