Stop throttling streaming video!

[CamSun88]

I was a satisfied Fios customer in Manhattan for 5 years until this year:

Since early 2017, streaming video hits a bottleneck every day from roughly 4pm through 8pm. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, etc. becomes unwatchable - endless pauses and buffering. 

Now I must considering dumping Verizon entirely because of their contempt for customers. Verizon has paid millions in legal penalties and settlements due to their corporate practices. Respect the people who put food on your table and stop throttling internet service. 

[jonjones1 · Accepted solution]

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@CamSun88 wrote:

I was a satisfied Fios customer in Manhattan for 5 years until this year:

Since early 2017, streaming video hits a bottleneck every day from roughly 4pm through 8pm. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, etc. becomes unwatchable - endless pauses and buffering. 

Now I must considering dumping Verizon entirely because of their contempt for customers. Verizon has paid millions in legal penalties and settlements due to their corporate practices. Respect the people who put food on your table and stop throttling internet service. 

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Lets get the situation straight. Verizon wireless is throttling due to having unlimited customers viewing more content.

Verizon Fios is not throttling their Internet service.

The hours you are stating is prime time in New York City. Broadband Internet is not an infinite resource but a shared resource. The slow downs are because more people like yourself are watching Netflix, and Amazon Prime, Hulu, Directtvnow or Acorn TV as well as gaming and video conferencing.

You have more people using it. If that is a reason to leave then go where you will be the happiest. 

Verizon is still the best Internet. But it is not used just by one person.

[PapaSnippy]

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@jonjones wrote:

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@CamSun88 wrote:

I was a satisfied Fios customer in Manhattan for 5 years until this year:

Since early 2017, streaming video hits a bottleneck every day from roughly 4pm through 8pm. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, etc. becomes unwatchable - endless pauses and buffering. 

Now I must considering dumping Verizon entirely because of their contempt for customers. Verizon has paid millions in legal penalties and settlements due to their corporate practices. Respect the people who put food on your table and stop throttling internet service. 

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Lets get the situation straight. Verizon wireless is throttling due to having unlimited customers viewing more content.

Verizon Fios is not throttling their Internet service.

The hours you are stating is prime time in New York City. Broadband Internet is not an infinite resource but a shared resource. The slow downs are because more people like yourself are watching Netflix, and Amazon Prime, Hulu, Directtvnow or Acorn TV as well as gaming and video conferencing.

You have more people using it. If that is a reason to leave then go where you will be the happiest. 

Verizon is still the best Internet. But it is not used just by one person.

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You are wrong. I have throttle issue with FIOS too. When I open any youtube video - it buffers all the time, when I connect to vpn - video start playing instant, then when I disconnect from vpn - video start buffering again.

[jonjones1]

Again Verizon Fios does not throttle and you are not on metered data.

it is First and foremost the congestion due to usage by your neighbors in your area.

lord in NYC don’t expect a single pipe feed just for your use 😀

a vpn may be better since it may be less congested .

[RDA]

If it is true that Verizon is not throttling internet services, then why do I have gigabit service and multiple devices, including 3 apple tvs that show no more than 100mbs downloads and way higher uploads?  To be clear, gigabit switches all wired, and up to 500 mbs uploads on those apple TVs.  Are you saying that Apple is throttling?

[CRobGauth]

No.

That's the Internet.

Whatever service you buy only guarantees speed to connect to provider network.

After that, you are at the mercy of the connections across the Internet through other providers.

[earlegdall]

We just switched from Comcast and thought Fios was much better until we tried to access our Netflix account by streaming. Can't do it at all. And the response I just read from Verizon is, while adult, just pompous and a sign that Verizon is not customer oriented. We are re-thinking our decision. Verizon could just a few lessons in how to listen to customer concerns and respond with true concern and a desire to help.

[jonjones1]

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@earlegdall wrote:

We just switched from Comcast and thought Fios was much better until we tried to access our Netflix account by streaming. Can't do it at all. And the response I just read from Verizon is, while adult, just pompous and a sign that Verizon is not customer oriented. We are re-thinking our decision. Verizon could just a few lessons in how to listen to customer concerns and respond with true concern and a desire to help.

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Please remember your are conversing with human beings just like yourself. Humans make mistakes, have bad days, and don’t always have the answers.

We use Netflix, Amazon Prime, Acorn TV, Hulu, and DirectTVNOW and never ever have any issues. It is possible there is high congestion on your fiber. Device dependent if you use a Router with a Apple TV, Firestick or tablet be it on WiFi or direct connection via ethernet all of which you never said the type of connection you are using or what.

wifi speeds will always be slower.

if you call Verizon and they say your speed shows no issues then you know it is a streaming service issue and not Verizon’s fault. The speed for the streaming services are not that high so I would guess it’s your devices not set up correctly.

When there are streaming issues like with Netflix there is a trouble code shown. Mark it down and contact them. Verizon does not fix Netflix etc. issues.

[LawrenceC]

Hi earlegdall,

This community is meant mainly for peer-to-peer support. The posts are contributed by users like you.  If you need to talk to a Verizon representative, you should contact customer service directly at 1-800-VERIZON.

[Geocentricity]

1800 VERIZON isn't even the proper number for Verizon Fios support. I've called at least 5 times in the past 30 days and you know what the automated system asks me every single time? "ARE YOU CALLING REGARDING YOUR VERIZON WIRELESS ACCOUNT?" NO! I don't even use Verizon wireless! And to answer the automated system to even consider sending you to a rep takes at least 10 minutes with another 20 minutes of hold time. 

Verizon isn't delivering it's contractual agreement by NOT PROVIDING THE DATA SPEED AS PAID FOR BY THE CONSUMER. If you want to play semantics and claim "oh its UP TO XX/XX up and down, not guaranteed", well then why aren't car makes making cars claiming it gets UP TO 40mpg, but in reality it gets 5mpg? 

[jonjones1]

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@Geocentricity wrote:

1800 VERIZON isn't even the proper number for Verizon Fios support. I've called at least 5 times in the past 30 days and you know what the automated system asks me every single time? "ARE YOU CALLING REGARDING YOUR VERIZON WIRELESS ACCOUNT?" NO! I don't even use Verizon wireless! And to answer the automated system to even consider sending you to a rep takes at least 10 minutes with another 20 minutes of hold time. 

Verizon isn't delivering it's contractual agreement by NOT PROVIDING THE DATA SPEED AS PAID FOR BY THE CONSUMER. If you want to play semantics and claim "oh its UP TO XX/XX up and down, not guaranteed", well then why aren't car makes making cars claiming it gets UP TO 40mpg, but in reality it gets 5mpg? 

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1-800-922-0204 is Verizon Wireless. However Verizon is jumping over to a singular number to handle their calls. Yes it’s asks if you are calling about the wireless etc. but a simple push of a button gets you to Fios.

And Car manufacturers do say up to. Go back and read their ads.

And cable companies also require you to call the right department via phone tree. 

[Geocentricity]

You missed the last sentence in my post. And no, it's not a simple push of a button to get to Fios support. I should know, I called multiple times in 30 days.

[jonjones1]

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@Geocentricity wrote:

You missed the last sentence in my post. And no, it's not a simple push of a button to get to Fios support. I should know, I called multiple times in 30 days.

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I called 1-800-VERIZON at 8 AM EDT and spoke to a young lady about provisioning on my gigabyte service the phone tree asked if I was calling about my wireless account, I listened to the message and pushed the correct phone button to get to fios. It then went into a phone tree listing of what I was calling about. I pushed TECH support, I then waited about 3 minutes before the lady came on the line. 

Yes you may get higher wait times at different times of the day, Verizon has millions of customers and they don't know you are on the line. Even so we as customers must wait our turn. Its only fair.

And your last sentence made no sense comparing gas mileage to fios speeds. Both say up to, not you will sustain this speed or miles per gallon.

[Lady_Blah-blah]

It's true that more people are streaming video, watching Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc.  But they're also paying more to Verizon. (I am, anyway.) So why isn't Verizon buying more bandwidth so we can watch Mrs. Maisel without a dozen extremely annoying pauses?

[jonjones1]

Verizon is the backbone provider. They do not purchase more “bandwidth”

like I said congestion and other device factors are the primary cause of the burps.

some content provider like Netflix and Directtvnow also have issues along the way to your devices.

[Natallia1]

Was hold with verizon support for 1 hour 1 minute!! Ran the speed test on my iPhone - 50 mbps provided by Verizon’s FIOS. Netflix app on the phone shows perfect video quality. When I try to watch Amazon Prime videos in my phone using Amazon Prime Videos App the quality is so bad, I cannot see the faces of the characters!!

 Called Amazon, reinstalled the Amazon video app on my phone, support made sure all video setting of the app are in order - no luck- amazon video looks like crap

is this a business/ politics issue between verizon and Amazon?

[CRobGauth]

I have been watching a series on Amazon for the past few nights.

Have not had a single issue with video quality.

Have you tried another device just to make sure there isnt an issue with that one?

[jonjones1]

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@Natallia wrote:

Was hold with verizon support for 1 hour 1 minute!! Ran the speed test on my iPhone - 50 mbps provided by Verizon’s FIOS. Netflix app on the phone shows perfect video quality. When I try to watch Amazon Prime videos in my phone using Amazon Prime Videos App the quality is so bad, I cannot see the faces of the characters!!

 Called Amazon, reinstalled the Amazon video app on my phone, support made sure all video setting of the app are in order - no luck- amazon video looks like crap

is this a business/ politics issue between verizon and Amazon?

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You are using WiFi not directly to the router with a computer and ethernet cable.

like the other poster who replied below I use my service for DirectTVNOW and amazon and Hulu and Acorn tv and BritBox and a few others. Never have any slow downs or bad quality videos. My wife streams YouTube constantly both on our 4K UHD tv’s and her Apple tablets and her iPhones and has no issues.

my best guess is to reset the router via unplugging then plug it back in.

then hook a computer or laptop with a high processor onboard and run your stream from them. Or if you have a Roku or Apple TV or Chromecast then login to your service and see if that improves. Make sure the tv’s if available have a ethernet connections to your service. We don’t use WiFi on our tv’s because it is meant to be high contrast and definition.

[Topper169]

I agree about the chugging sppeedtest show 71 upload and 30 download. But when I had comcast my videos played much better. I played with my connections and when I bypass my quantum router my videos actually played better even though speedtests showed 30 upload and 11 download. It is not a neighbor thing either because it happens at all hours.

[BluehatHorses]

How do I know if this is happening to me? Is there a place to check? Or are you just seeing slow loads at times? 

[jonjones1]

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@havequestionswrote:

How do I know if this is happening to me? Is there a place to check? Or are you just seeing slow loads at times? 

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This site is the only speed test Verizon will accept.

https://www.verizon.com/speedtest/