Verizon FiOS modem replacement — way slow!!

I’ve had some of my customers ask me about whether they should switch to Verizon FiOS from Comcast.  I posted a comparison earlier.

Today I got a phone call from a customer that their internet was down.  She told me the only light on the Verizon FiOS Actiontec modem (MI424WR) was the power light.  I had her pull the power and the plug it back in, but then no lights came on.

I went on-site and found the the power adapter/transformer for the modem had a green light and it was blinking.  I didn’t have my multimeter on me, but decided this was a bad sign.  I called the FiOS support line.  It was fully automated asking me what my problems were.  When asked whether the lights came back on for the modem, I replied, “no.”  It then told me it would have someone call me back and disconnected.  Disgusted, I went on the hunt for a power adapter to replace the original.  I went to Radio Shack first.  He looked at it and immediately said they didn’t have any as high as 5 Amps and that he had my customers come in looking for FiOS modem adapters and he knew they didn’t have any.

Undeterred, I went to Batteries Plus, a very cool battery store that is usually very helpful.  They didn’t have any power adapters, except for laptops and cell phones.  I then went to Home Depot, but I didn’t come close there either.  When I got back to the customer’s site, I plugged in the adapter again, and the light stayed solid this time.  I plugged it into the modem and most of the lights came on, but the power was amber, not green, and I couldn’t get any of the 4 LAN ports to light up, so I decided the modem was fried.

I called FiOS support, and this time the automated system said I had an open trouble ticket and that it would transfer to an agent.  It then disconnected me.  Nice.  I called again, went through all the prompts again and talked to a real person.  That person couldn’t figure out what kind of trouble ticket was setup, he hadn’t seen an automated ticket like it before.  He said he would ship out a replacement modem and we would have it by Saturday.  Wait — it’s Tuesday.  I insisted that I needed it faster — how about overnight shipping?  Nope.  How about going to a store?  He suggested calling a Verizon Wireless store.   I called the closest store and they didn’t stock modems at all, but suggested calling the Pittsburgh FiOS office.  I called there and they  didn’t have any either.  She comforted me by telling me that the Support folks would ship it to me within 2 or 3 days.  I told her that I could go pick up a Comcast modem immediately if I wanted and with FiOS I had to wait 2-3 days??

With Comcast, they will usually send a technician the next day to replace your modem.  Verizon will ship you a modem in 2-3 days and you have the privilege of doing it yourself!

UPDATE 11/10/08: Verizon did ship out an A/C adapter only.  When it arrived, it was an empty bubble mailer.  Nice.  I called about that, the tech told me that I don’t even need the modem/router, that I could just plug directly into the computer.  WHY DIDN’T THE OTHER PEOPLE TELL ME THAT!  My customer actually used a router behind the FiOS router, so I just ditched the Verizon router anyway.  All that pain for nothing.  The Verizon router did come a few days later and I shipped the old one back.

In one more interesting twist, a member of my family has the same router and they received an unsolicited AC adapter from Verizon for that router.  It included a letter:  (I will scan and attach)

4 replies
  1. richard sherrane says:

    OMG that is SO Verizon. They are the epitome of everything that is wrong with American business. Their “phone company” mindset permeates all of their business units. To them, good customer service means “not shutting you off”.

  2. brmorris says:

    richard,

    Right now Verizon and HP are neck-and-neck for the worse customer support departments. I tell all my customers considering either of their products and services that they support is AWFUL.

    I do sell HP printers, though, because everyone else is worse — some how.

  3. Max says:

    Have my power adapter blinking and modem is dead…

    Ready for the customer service nightmare to get a replacement modem…

    Just spend 3 weeks trying to connect second DVR from Verizon fios-tv… After 5 dropped connections got really frustrated.

    Had to go outside and
    “unlock” the outside box and rewire cable splitter myself, as Verizon rep in CA is unable to place an order on east cost….

    They need to read the Dell’s story on customer support or they will be out of business soon.

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