Re: Help: WAN frequently disconnects, Verizon tech says nothing wrong
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

Thank you for your patience. Since a tech is coming to you today, it is likely a line tech. Line techs are typically stationed in the nearest central office. Please keep us updated here.

Re: Help: WAN frequently disconnects, Verizon tech says nothing wrong
EthanMoJunk
Enthusiast - Level 3

Today was the first day in a couple of months that my internet didn't mysteriously go down. And it was glorious not being interrupted mid-meeting and not having the whole family yell at me to fix the internet.

The issue was not related to anything faulty at home. I couldn't hear the full technical detail from the tech over the bad phone connection (I was helping the tech via the phone by reading out the status lights on the ONT as he was working on addressing the issue from somewhere across the street from my place), but the gist was a degraded signal and something about the central office.

I'll keep my eyes on it over the weekend, but all signs indicate it being fixed for good.

As a parting note, support was incredible after being escalated up the chain of command. But something seriously needs to be done at Verizon to help paying customers resolve difficult issues like this beyond running the standard suite of tests and providing a canned response, "Everything looks fine on our end. There is nothing we can do."   Two months of this is unacceptable. Too much wasted time, energy and money. The feeling of helplessness was too real.

I have a follow up call with executive relations this coming Monday, so I'm planning on inquiring about the proper escalation steps. Getting in touch with executive relations feels like an exceptional step and not part of the normal tech support process.

Re: Help: WAN frequently disconnects, Verizon tech says nothing wrong
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

Thank you for your update. Like we have suggested before, you did need a line tech to check the GPON line  going to your ONT.

The current troubleshooting suite is limited to check the connection at a particular time. I guess it would be better if customers' connections are monitored over a period of time.

Re: Help: WAN frequently disconnects, Verizon tech says nothing wrong
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

Appreciate the update. While I can't do anything about how Verizon runs their business, your feedback will help me make recommendations to people who encounter similar issues.

Hopefully your follow up call will give you the opportunity to provide your feedback on how they can improve customer service.  As an engineering director at a major organization, I'm sure you can appreciate how their front line support folk have to deal with customers who have a wide range of technical capabilities.  It's very clear their support processes are setup based on the assumption that users barely know how to plug in a router.  Their social media support team used to be a good route for those of us who can spell TCP/IP, but your experience indicates that's no longer the case.  If you're able to provide that feedback in your followup call, it might help improve things for other users.

The good news is once Fios is working, it's extremely reliable.  In the decade or so I've had it, I can't recall a time I had to contact support for service issues (contract renewals and upgrades are another story).  It just works!  You should be good for a long time now.

Re: Help: WAN frequently disconnects, Verizon tech says nothing wrong
EthanMoJunk
Enthusiast - Level 3
@gs0b wrote:

Appreciate the update. While I can't do anything about how Verizon runs their business, your feedback will help me make recommendations to people who encounter similar issues.

Hopefully your follow up call will give you the opportunity to provide your feedback on how they can improve customer service.  As an engineering director at a major organization, I'm sure you can appreciate how their front line support folk have to deal with customers who have a wide range of technical capabilities.  It's very clear their support processes are setup based on the assumption that users barely know how to plug in a router.  Their social media support team used to be a good route for those of us who can spell TCP/IP, but your experience indicates that's no longer the case.  If you're able to provide that feedback in your followup call, it might help improve things for other users.

The good news is once Fios is working, it's extremely reliable.  In the decade or so I've had it, I can't recall a time I had to contact support for service issues (contract renewals and upgrades are another story).  It just works!  You should be good for a long time now.


If you hadn't recommended that I contact executive relations, I would have switched to Cox by now. One last huge thank you!

Absolutely.  I can empathize with the front line support staff.  I hope the feedback will be impactful enough and helps future Verizon customers. I think most customers assume that a company the size and history of Verizon, having conducted business for so long in this space, would have proper escalation processes in place. But who knows? Maybe cases like mine are rare enough that most people give up in frustration.

Yes, it has been extremely reliable the 7+ years I've been with FIOS! Here's to 7+ more 🙂