The FiOS TV forum might be a better fit for this, but since I posted A Decade With FiOS in this forum, I will stick with that. My very last sentence in that post was, "I'm sure I have jinxed it by putting it in writing, but they are still working away."
Karma. Karma never let's one get away with it.
I am now the proud caretaker of a new (to me, anyway) Tellabs ONT 612. About a week ago, my wife and I noticed the occasional pixelation on some channels. We've seen it before and figured it was the source. Then, we started seeing it on all channels. We happened to try the very lowest channels like 4, 5, 7, 8, etc. (where we usually watch the HD versions) and they were not watchable. Half the screen would freeze and huge blocks of pixels abounded. The problem seemed to be working its way up the channel list. My Internet, which is separately provisioned rather than over MoCA was not affected.
I disconnected the Video feed on my old 611 and ran a cable straight to the STB. (That eliminated the coax in my house as the issue - assuming my other cable was good.) Same issue. From that test, I was pretty sure it was the ONT before I placed the ticket.
I used the Verizon In-Home Agent for the first time and submitted the ticket electronically Tuesday night. The appointment I got was for from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm, Thursday (today). The Verizon technician (I wish I had gotten his name) called about 8:15 to let me know he was in my town, but had one ticket before mine. He expected to be a my house about 10:30. I thought that was very considerate. He did, in fact, get to my house about 10:15.
Here is one "request for enhancement" I have. When the Verizon technician called, he said he had the ticket and my information, but there was nothing on the ticket indicating what the problem was. Since I had just gone through the TV troubleshooting part of the Verizon In-Home Agent, you think it would indicate on the ticket that my trouble was with my TV. Not the case currently.
The technician hooked up an analyzer to the video directly from the ONT and found that all the lower channels were garbage. The ONT was bad. Luckily, the 611 and 612 have nearly the same form factor, so he put the 612 in the same case outside. I thought getting eight years out of the 611 ONT was pretty good considering it's been out there in the rain, sleet, snow and was near by a lightning strike once.
He swapped out the ONT. We checked the video. Looked good. Even channel 4 and 5. Checked the phone. Dial tone. Rebooted my Linux router/firewall. It hung at getting a new IP from the DHCP server. The tech tried a Verizon MI424WR router right out of the box in place of my Linux box. (Eliminating the variables. The same approach I use when I can.) Same thing. It couldn't get an IP. The tech called into the tech support line and the ONT seemed fine, but they couldn't see the router. They thought it might be the Ethernet cable coming into the house from the ONT.
We ran an extension cord out a window so that the MI424WR could be plug directly into the ONT with the Ethernet cable the came in the box. Still no joy. The tech swapped in a second (new) 612 ONT. Still no go. Of course, about the time, it really starts to rain in ernest. Another call into tech support. This time they found a issue in the cross connect configuration. (Probably something to due with the fact I once had two ONTs in service here.) A few minutes of that being fixed and we had a green light on the MI424WR. At least, the rain quit again. Hooked my Linux box back up, and I didn't get an IP right away. The tech rebooted the ONT and my Linux box got an IP and I was up and running. A bit under two hours from start to fixed. In the rain.
Both my wife and I noticed when watching later today that all the channels look noticeably better. They looked that way right after we got the new TV. I think they had been degrading slowly for quite a while, but so slowly, we didn't really notice it. Now, we can really tell it was pretty bad.
We see a lot of posts on here about missed support calls and repairs that didn't seem to be complete. Here's one where the time from reported problem to appointment was one business day (about a day and a half clock time), the technician was on time (and even called to say when he expected to arrive), and he really kept at it until the problem was fixed. I have a pretty non-standard setup, but that didn't seem to phase him in the least.
My calls to tech and customer support are pretty few, but my experience has been pretty good overall. Even with my one "nightmare" story, the Verizon customer service person was really trying to do what I wanted. He just went about it in a highly unusual (not quite approved/recommended) way.
Solved! Go to Correct Answer
I got an automated call last night to complete a short survey on my thoughts on the service call as far as whether or not I was kept informed and happy with the result. It's good that they follow up, and I responded that I was a happy camper. (Technically, I pressed 1 for Yes a lot.)
Today I got a call to see if the problem was (still) resolved and if it was OK to close the ticket. I had to respond to say it (1 😃 Yes it was OK to close the ticket. If I didn't respond at all, the ticket would stay open. I have had very few service visits, but I don't recall either of those two events occurring before.
Good on ya, Verizon!
I got an automated call last night to complete a short survey on my thoughts on the service call as far as whether or not I was kept informed and happy with the result. It's good that they follow up, and I responded that I was a happy camper. (Technically, I pressed 1 for Yes a lot.)
Today I got a call to see if the problem was (still) resolved and if it was OK to close the ticket. I had to respond to say it (1 😃 Yes it was OK to close the ticket. If I didn't respond at all, the ticket would stay open. I have had very few service visits, but I don't recall either of those two events occurring before.
Good on ya, Verizon!
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