Verizon FIOS v Comcast (Hatboro: credit, home, school)

[Pine to Vine]

We need internet and TV/DVR service. FIOS seems a no brainer - internet is faster and cheaper. I'm assuming the TV service is comparable, so we're leaning to FIOS. Has anyone found any significant differences between the two in terms of reliability, service, etc.?

I did a search and found this topic was last considered about year ago. I'm reposting because as FIOS continues to increase it's coverage areas, I'm wondering it that has made any difference - good or bad. Thanks.

[james777]

We got FIOS for the same reasons you are considering it, that is Verizon's claim of the fastest and most reliable service. We did not consider price because the prices are the same if you work it all out. We had a ton of technical troubles with FIOS, both with the phone service and the cable TV service. Many outages and service calls. Finally, we got wise and switched back to Comcast. They give excellent service and we have no complaints. We would NEVER go back to Verizon!!

A little advice about Comcast.

1) Their back office (billing) is lousy, so don't rely on getting a bill in the mail. Set your account up so that your bill comes in your Comcast e-mail box (not in any other e-mail box) every month. Pay your bill online as it is fast, free, and easy. If you ever need any help understanding or paying the bills properly, call their customer service. Their reps are friendly and helpful. And no, this is not a good reason to avoid Comcast and go with Verizon because Verizon's back office (billing dept.) is much worse!!

2) Get a new subscriber special and the price will be hard to resist. Be sure to find out when the special price ends and mark it on your calendar. Just before it ends, call back and get a new special super duper discount price. If you don't do this the price will go up drastically to the regular price. Keep repeating the above and you will always get the best price. Yes, it sounds like a stupid waste of time, and it is, but this is what all the companies want you to do. But the customer service reps do speak english and they are right here in the USA. Amazing!!

And no, I do not work, nor do any of my relatives work for Comcast.

[Wisertime]

Originally Posted by james777

2) Get a new subscriber special and the price will be hard to resist. Be sure to find out when the special price ends and mark it on your calendar. Just before it ends, call back and get a new special super duper discount price. If you don't do this the price will go up drastically to the regular price. Keep repeating the above and you will always get the best price. Yes, it sounds like a stupid waste of time, and it is, but this is what all the companies want you to do. But the customer service reps do speak english and they are right here in the USA. Amazing!!

And no, I do not work, nor do any of my relatives work for Comcast.

Good advice here. I had an outage and after calling Comcast, they pitched me the internet phone (which I didn't want/need), but it dropped our bill to $99/mo from about $126-130 to add it (triple play). If/when it goes up I will just cancel it or get a new price point.

[templeu]

I've had both - but have a different experience to that above.

We had many problems with Comcast. Our internet was very slow during certain times of the day - morning and evenings. I'm guessing when folks got home from work/ school and hopped online the system was overloaded (yes very technical terms here) and it slowed my connection.

Same deal with the cable. Our signal would often get scrambled and this would be moreso during high traffic times (nights, weekends). It's pretty frustrating to watch a big game on Sunday only to have your high def signal scramble out because all of your neighbors are also watching the same game. I asked around and was told that one of the issues with Comcast was that they sold more service than they had the broadband to support (or something like that) and this was why service was slow or scrambled during certain times.

I haven't had any issues with FIOS. Maybe the guy that came out and did our install just did a great job, maybe none of my neighbors have FIOS so I'm not competing for signal (or whatever it is), or maybe it's just better. I don't know. But, my experience has been a lot better and it's actually been cheaper for me. I do have premium channels as well as DVR and HD boxes and that became really expensive with Comcast. It's about $50/month cheaper for me with FIOS (and I'm past the introductory price).

Comcast was really easy to cancel when we moved though...to their credit. I've had nightmare experiences with other providers.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by Wisertime

Good advice here. I had an outage and after calling Comcast, they pitched me the internet phone (which I didn't want/need), but it dropped our bill to $99/mo from about $126-130 to add it (triple play). If/when it goes up I will just cancel it or get a new price point.

if you're good talking on the phone and can deal with some ineptitude i'd go with comcast. The customer service may stink but the actual product I think is much better than fios.

where I work switched to fios last year and it was basically such an unparralled disaster that at one point there was lawsuit pending before verizon just agreed to give back all the money they got from us.

myself, i've been with comcast since college and don't have any major complaints. I can count on one hand the amount of times we've had an issue with them... Although when that happens it's a pain.

also if you don't mind spending 20 min twice a yr to threaten a move to fios then you can continue to get the introductory rate long after your 6 month deal expires. I've been getting the introductory rate for about a decade now.

also if you have an hdtv you have way more hd channels.

[Avalon08]

I've stuck with Comcast each time I've moved because (a) I didn't want to change my e-mail address and (b) I couldn't live without Comcast SportsNet after the Eagles games. I noticed Verizon is now advertising "Comcast SportsNet" in their channel line-up, which I find hilarious -- the fact they would mention the competition's name in their commercial. Anyway, I have Comcast's Triple Play, oops, Xfinity or whatever the heck it's called, and it's been mostly fine. Had a problem with On-Demand (error code) which was easily/quickly fixed by their Customer Service department (American!) resetting the modem remotely.

[WVUPharm2007]

I had Comcast for 7 years in Morgantown, WV...then I moved to Hatboro and got FiOS. It's like night and day. FiOS blows them out of the water. No outages yet in the first 3 months...better picture quality...I get roughly 42MB down/ 30MB up internet...I'm very happy with FiOS so far.

[PhillyViaBoston]

I've had both, and found the number of HD channels & availability of good on-demand content to be much higher with Comcast.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by PhillyViaBoston

I've had both, and found the number of HD channels & availability of good on-demand content to be much higher with Comcast.

I've never had fios but i have friends that do... i do not understand how fios can say that they have more HD than comcast. there must be some kind of loop hool or something because my friend has like 35 HD channels max and he tells me he pays for an HD package. comcast has over 100 and that's not counting premium movie channels or other premium channels that i don't subscribe to, all i have is digital basic... which is basically the lowest level of subscription available... the only thing lower only has like the basic broadcast channels and cost like 10 bucks a month.

not saying comcast is without their problems.... but i think having more hd content is a title that def goes to comcast.

[Pine to Vine]

Thanks for all of this. TV is secondary to internet for us. Based on what we've read plus what other folks have told us, we're going to try fios. Will come back after some experience and let you know how it works for us.