Just had Fios gigabit Internet + TV installed three weeks ago, and so far my Internet is working well.. But I have also learned why Verizon customer service is so disliked. Good Lord, my experience! To keep a very very very long service short:
1. Whole home WiFi was not installed at the time of the original installation, so I contacted Verizon to get the promised extender, which I hoped to connect wirelessly. It took multiple contacts, including tweets ignored by customer service until the fourth try, to learn how to do this. Was told I would receive a shipping notification when the extender is sent out.
2. Ordered the extender, completed the process on the website. Received no receipt or acknowledgment.
3. A week later, still no receipt and no shipping notification. Went through the SAME lengthy process of getting attention from Customer Service. Was told there was no record of my order. Connected to private chat, where they put my order through.
4. A week later, the Extender arrived. It is an E3200. I followed the instructions for internet extension via WiFi , with no luck. Spent 1-2 hours troubleshooting this. Finally contacted Customer Service via Twitter once again, which once again put me on a private chat that lasted about 30 minutes. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark, the person at the other end discovered the information also discussed here: https://community.verizon.com/t5/Home-Internet/Fios-extender-not-working/m-p/1571255 Namely: of course it doesn't work wirelessly. The Extender uses a 5GHz band that was deleted from the CR1000A router to permit 6E wifi. So they literally cannot communicate to provide the service that I was supposed to be receiving (unless I rewire my home to place a coax feed where I need the extender, which I am not going to do).
While on chat with customer service, I verified this independently because there were numerous Reddit posts and others making the same point that come up in a Google search. Now some of these posts date back 5 months, perhaps more. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fios/comments/wquz4g/cr1000a_router_e3200_extender_dont_work/ Yet the same extender was sent to me, a customer with the modem that does not work with it, 5 months later.
What is more, Verizon is even now explicitly advertising this specific Extender as doing exactly what it cannot do with this specific Modem here: https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/internet/equipment/network-extender/fios-extender Quoting:
5. Icing on the cake: It is apparently my job to return the non-functional Extender to a Verizon store or a UPS outlet (no, they can't have a representative pick it up), and my job to remember to request a refund of the $10 shipping fee I am charged on my next bill when it is paid (no, they can't deduct it until it is paid, for some reason).
I do think this is all beyond outrageous. Ridiculous amount of effort to place the order in the first place, item does not work as advertised; Verizon has had every reason to be aware of the problem for months and months; still advertising the wrong information; and it is my job to clean up the mess. This is my first experience of Customer Service as a new Fios customer. Is that really the impression Verizon wants to create for themselves with their new customers?
P.S. Oh, as the Forums post cited above remarks, you do apparently have an Extender that works with my router — and I asked the Customer Service rep about getting that one. The answer: it is not available as part of the Whole Home package. Only the one that doesn't actually work wirelessly with my modem is available with that package.
Yep, VZW_CS is bad.
Clearly. But the false advertising bothers me even more than the confused service.
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