FiOS update
Apr. 11th, 2008 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaFor those that were interested in how it went, I'll just sum it up.
Even though we were satisfied with Dish and Earthlink, the money savings to get the FiOS bundle was enough to make us change our services. The TV picture is prettier and we know get some HD channels. We had had DSL internet so the faster download speed is most noticeable when dling vids and photos--VERY fast. And unlimited calling came in handy when I was up in Vancouver recently.
The fiber optic line from the box near the street to the house was done in one day. I wasn't home for it but the pneumatic 'missle' or 'mole' kinda laid waste to our weeds and few young salvias. No great loss on the weeds but I'm not sure what it was do to a lawn.
The first installer was very knowledgeable but couldn't do his job due to the clutter. The line had to be laid to the part of the house that was under where the phone line attached--which is my Mom's bedroom. :::sigh::: He'd done Tivos before.
The second installers didn't know Tivo so it was a learning curve. Instead of running the coaxial cable under the house, they ran it up the side and under the eaves. It's mostly out of site and obviously easier for them. Under the house would have been better though.
They set up the router and did computer magic to make the laptop connect to their wireless (which took about 10 mins and they didn't charge which they could have--at least they said they weren't gonna charge the $79 for each additional computer.)
The Series Two Tivo was easy. I just needed a Set Top Box (like a cable box) for it. The Series 3 is a HD tivo and it requires two Cable cards so it can get two channels at once. I left the guys alone in the room to figure it out while I took the other Tivo through it's guided set up so it'd know it was no longer getting its signal from Dish. They said they were done and they left. When I went in to check things, I found they'd only installed one cable card even though I'd ordered two and all the literature I had to help them also talked about two cable cards. It was installed correctly though. So, I've rescheduled to have the guy out next week to do the other card. The person on the phone finally understood the problem and said I shouldn't get charged for a second installation (another $79) and if it does show up on the bill, to call them back.
So, not entirely smooth but not a nightmare either. The price was right and service is better.
Oh, I did the chat thing with Earthlink today and downgraded our service from full DSL to Premium Mail which allows up to keep our two primary earthlink addresses for $4/month. I called up today and started to set up our verizon addresses but I like being able to keep the old earthlink ones, too. There is so much stuff that is tied into those addresses it'd be like a tarbaby to become disentangled from it.
So, I've just got to send in for the tivo rebate. And I just got notified we were getting a $100 gift card for Circuit City for signing up with FiOS.
And that's where we're at so far. Once the second cable card is installed and we *aren't* charged for the visit, we'll be done.
ETA: The Verizon guys came and installed the second cable card in about 20 minutes. It took three of them to do it (one supervising and two installers; none had done it before so they were using us as learning experience for all three.) And they accidentally left an extra cable card! They said there'd be no extra charge.
So, we're all done finally. I feel it was a good choice. The first bill was sizable because the old service was partly there, too, along with the first charge of all this new stuff. Next month should be down to $154, down from our usual cost of $225-245 for these services. Monthly, Verizon was $115, plus $4 for each cable card and $6 for the set top box, and $25 for all the movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore and all that stuff.)
Oh, btw, it was 90 degrees here today and will be hotter the next two days. WAAAAAA!! I want to move to Vancouver!!
Even though we were satisfied with Dish and Earthlink, the money savings to get the FiOS bundle was enough to make us change our services. The TV picture is prettier and we know get some HD channels. We had had DSL internet so the faster download speed is most noticeable when dling vids and photos--VERY fast. And unlimited calling came in handy when I was up in Vancouver recently.
The fiber optic line from the box near the street to the house was done in one day. I wasn't home for it but the pneumatic 'missle' or 'mole' kinda laid waste to our weeds and few young salvias. No great loss on the weeds but I'm not sure what it was do to a lawn.
The first installer was very knowledgeable but couldn't do his job due to the clutter. The line had to be laid to the part of the house that was under where the phone line attached--which is my Mom's bedroom. :::sigh::: He'd done Tivos before.
The second installers didn't know Tivo so it was a learning curve. Instead of running the coaxial cable under the house, they ran it up the side and under the eaves. It's mostly out of site and obviously easier for them. Under the house would have been better though.
They set up the router and did computer magic to make the laptop connect to their wireless (which took about 10 mins and they didn't charge which they could have--at least they said they weren't gonna charge the $79 for each additional computer.)
The Series Two Tivo was easy. I just needed a Set Top Box (like a cable box) for it. The Series 3 is a HD tivo and it requires two Cable cards so it can get two channels at once. I left the guys alone in the room to figure it out while I took the other Tivo through it's guided set up so it'd know it was no longer getting its signal from Dish. They said they were done and they left. When I went in to check things, I found they'd only installed one cable card even though I'd ordered two and all the literature I had to help them also talked about two cable cards. It was installed correctly though. So, I've rescheduled to have the guy out next week to do the other card. The person on the phone finally understood the problem and said I shouldn't get charged for a second installation (another $79) and if it does show up on the bill, to call them back.
So, not entirely smooth but not a nightmare either. The price was right and service is better.
Oh, I did the chat thing with Earthlink today and downgraded our service from full DSL to Premium Mail which allows up to keep our two primary earthlink addresses for $4/month. I called up today and started to set up our verizon addresses but I like being able to keep the old earthlink ones, too. There is so much stuff that is tied into those addresses it'd be like a tarbaby to become disentangled from it.
So, I've just got to send in for the tivo rebate. And I just got notified we were getting a $100 gift card for Circuit City for signing up with FiOS.
And that's where we're at so far. Once the second cable card is installed and we *aren't* charged for the visit, we'll be done.
ETA: The Verizon guys came and installed the second cable card in about 20 minutes. It took three of them to do it (one supervising and two installers; none had done it before so they were using us as learning experience for all three.) And they accidentally left an extra cable card! They said there'd be no extra charge.
So, we're all done finally. I feel it was a good choice. The first bill was sizable because the old service was partly there, too, along with the first charge of all this new stuff. Next month should be down to $154, down from our usual cost of $225-245 for these services. Monthly, Verizon was $115, plus $4 for each cable card and $6 for the set top box, and $25 for all the movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore and all that stuff.)
Oh, btw, it was 90 degrees here today and will be hotter the next two days. WAAAAAA!! I want to move to Vancouver!!
