Day 6 without TV service

[ac4lt]

We just had FiOS installed on September 19th. The internet side of the service has been great. Unfortunately, the TV side failed 9 days later on the 19th with a "channels unavailable" message on every channel. I went through the troubleshooting steps but nothing worked so I called tech support.

He decided our DVR had failed as a network problem didn't exist. The new DVR arrived on the 1st but wouldn't activate. I called tech support again and they scheduled a technician to come out on the 2nd (a Sunday, I was impressed). The tech spent several hours and was unable to fix the problem. He said that no video was coming into our ONT (why phone tech support couldn't determine that is another question). He escalated the problem.

At 7pm that same evening, I received a text that our ticket was closed. I checked the DVR and it was still not working. I called tech support again and inquired as to why the ticket had been closed. He investigated and told me they had buried a cable that was lying on the ground and assumed that was the problem and closed the ticket without verifying with me that the problem was resolved. Now, yet another tech is scheduled to come out today (with an oh, so precise 12 hour arrival window).

Although both the phone and field techs I have interacted with have been polite and appear to be working hard to solve the problem, I am no closer to a solution than I was back on the 28th. Based on what yesterday's field tech told me we never should have wasted 3 days waiting for a new DVR when they should have been able to determine that wasn't the problem. Now I know that video isn't entering the ONT but nobody seems to kwow why this is (the internet connection is fine).

Apologies for the length but though I am a patient woman my frustration level is rising.

[lasagna]

Do you have the ability to take the DVR and a TV out to the ONT and plug DVR directly into the ONT (disconnecting the cable feeding the house temporarily)?   If so, give that a whirl and see if you get a signal or not.

If there's no signal, then it's definitely something upstream in Verizon that only the tech can diagnose and eventually get fixed.

If however you get a signal, then check to make sure the the tech who installed your service disconnected any other feeds (such as a prior cable provider or satellite) from the coax and make sure you don't have any filters or amplifiers in the connection anywhere.

This might not solve your problem but will give you a good indication if it's something "inside" your home which is the issue or completely outside and thus nothing you can resolve other than press the tech to find and fix the problem.

[ac4lt · Accepted solution]

An indicator light on the ONT was saying the video signal was too low. At least that's what yesterday's tech said. 

Today's tech found the problem: a kinked fiber cable outside the building was causing all the grief. I'm glad it's finally fixed but can't believe it took them five days to solve the problem. At least they didn't give me any grief about five days of credit for television service.