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My continuing adventure trying upgrade my Fios TV service


MickinMD

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 Monday

It took me hours to finally connect with a Verizon phone rep and was told she couldn't upgrade my service because I had opened it through a Verizon store and I had to do it through the store. I doubt that's true, but the store is only 15 min. away.

So I drove to the store.  You have to sign up on a digital pad outside, wait for them to send a text to your smartphone, then go in.  I waited in my car 30 minutes, then went in.  I told them I wanted to cut my Internet from 1 GB to 200 MB and see how that worked (saving $40), increase my TV channels from 125 to the most while getting rid of HBO.

I was told they could do upgrades but not downgrades at the store (I just think they didn't know how) and I'd have to talk to customer service.  The Verizon guy waiting on me, Mason, dialed a special customer service number on my phone, said "No," when asked if he was a Verizon customer.  He then had me go to a seat and talk to the customer service guy on the phone.

Make note of this if you have an issue with Verizon: you're almost sure to be told you have over an hour wait calling customer service.  But call 888-389-7299 (a little advertised customer service # and say "No! when asked if you're a Verizon customer and you'll get connected in about 4 minutes.  If you answer yes, you wait over an hour.  The Verizon store guy taught me that.

I and Mason spoke on the phone with the Verizon customer service guy and I had my VMS1100 with DVR set-top box soon after and walked out the door excited to set it up.

I plugged everything in according to instructions and got a "no coax found" message with "error 1202" and the explanation "VMS Moca link down."

That sounded strange because when I hooked my old set-top box to the coax, FIOS TV - with my 125 channel setup - worked fine and still does.  I tried different coax cables to make sure it wasn't the cable.

So I began calling Verizon Customer Service and got nowhere with people who had no clue what they were doing. For example, I told them my My Verizon page said the order number said "effective Sept. 28,"  The first guy said that was the date by which I had to return the old, small, set-top box.  The second said that's the date the new service would kick in.  The third said it didn't just meant when my auto billing would be collected.  I was tired and gave up when they tried to connect me to technicians and I got the "Wait time is over an hour" message with no offer to set up a call-back time.

Tuesday

It began at 9:30 am.  When you call Verizon customer service, they text a 4-digit code to your smartphone and you have to repeat it to them.  I had TEN of them sent to me by the end of Tuesday.  The people continually could not get it in their heads that my apartment wall has ONE coax connection which works fine for my old box but the new box can't get a signal. I had to repeat over and over after they handed me off to someone but all I got was a "more than one hour wait" message.

One rep was semi-skilled and said, after about 1/2 hour, we had exhausted all possibilities: it must be a bad VMS 1100 box.  So I went back to the store around 5 pm, waited outside 20 minutes, went in and they gave me another box.  It got nothing from coax either and said "VMS moca link down."

I called again and got an intelligent woman.  She tried to do everything she could at her end.  I told her I had looked in the Verizon box that's built into the wall in my laundry room and there's a black box with a lot of lights and the one that's labeled "MoCA" is off.  So is the System Status light.

Eventually, she said, "I'm going to write up a ticket for a repair man to come out. That will light a fire under their butts and maybe get them to do something without having to come out."

She tried to transfer me to a technician, but that didn't work again.

I called back, got a different woman and wanted to make sure my ticket was good and finalized and someone would come out.  Before she would answer, she tried to sell me a few things like whole house electrical unit protection (after I told her about my fire and living in an apartment), and computer antivirus protection.  Then she told me I was good.

Wednesday (today)

The ticket said it would be taken care of by Wednesday (today), 9 pm.  I stayed home ALL day waiting for the repairman.  No one came.

At 7:20 pm, I got the text message, "Your Verizon repair request is resolved."

So I plugged the VMS1100 in and went through the setup procedure and got the same damn thing: no coax input and VMS moca link down.

Thursday (tomorrow)

I'll call tomorrow morning and ask if I can get an actual technician to call or else may I speak to a supervisor.  I may end up trying to find a Verizon VP's email and ask him to help.

 

 

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My installation process with a VMS1100 begins with a screen that says "Press OK on your remote to begin the activation process."

About 3 seconds after pressing ok you get a "No coax detected...Press A for details.  Of course, the same coax wall connection is working with my old set-top box.

After pressing A:  "Warning! 1202 ....  VMS Moca link is down..."

I called Customer Service this morning, she tried to do more, couldn't, is a "Tier 1" employee and can't write me a new ticket and I'm currently waiting "25 to 42 minutes" to connect to a technician.  The Tier 1 person I spoke to said she'd call me back after her 12 noon meeting (about 2 hours, they're all working from home) to see if anything got resolved.

I also called the apartment complex's main office to see if it's ok to switch from Verizon (which has a control-panel box built into the wall of my utility room) to Xfinity and was told yes.

If I don't get any satisfaction from Verizon today, that's who I'm calling.

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3 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

My installation process with a VMS1100 begins with a screen that says "Press OK on your remote to begin the activation process."

About 3 seconds after pressing ok you get a "No coax detected...Press A for details.  Of course, the same coax wall connection is working with my old set-top box.

After pressing A:  "Warning! 1202 ....  VMS Moca link is down..."

I called Customer Service this morning, she tried to do more, couldn't, is a "Tier 1" employee and can't write me a new ticket and I'm currently waiting "25 to 42 minutes" to connect to a technician.  The Tier 1 person I spoke to said she'd call me back after her 12 noon meeting (about 2 hours, they're all working from home) to see if anything got resolved.

I also called the apartment complex's main office to see if it's ok to switch from Verizon (which has a control-panel box built into the wall of my utility room) to Xfinity and was told yes.

If I don't get any satisfaction from Verizon today, that's who I'm calling.

Yeah - having my choice between Comcast and Verizon is nice.  I switch between them every few years as one just eventually pisses me off with the "song and dance" - either to get/keep a good rate or to get updated equipment.  I find Comcast more stable and a far better package with better overall service, but even so, it's good to mix it up once in a while.

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22 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

VMS Moca link is down..."

MoCA is a cable based network and your cable router needs to be installed first to get that working.   No router = no MoCA.   And that's my guess why you cable box isn't working. (without being able to see your installation)

You need 2 cable connections.   If you only have 1, then you need a 2 way splitter so you have on connection for for the cable router and one connection the cable box.  And of course you need some more coax cable too.   Get the router working and then work on the TV cable box.

If you've done that... yeah you need a tech to show up or get on the phone. 

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After 90 minutes of waiting for a Verizon technician to pick up the phone, I finally got a real technician.

She had me reset the WiFi router, and a bunch of stuff like "click the menu button on the remote repeatedly, aimed at the from of the set-top box while plugging the power cord in.  Do this over and over until you see "run" on the box display.

Etc. Etc. Etc. for 45 minutes.  Nothing worked.

A repair man is coming out tomorrow between 12-2 pm.  I hope that solves it.

Thank the football gods I get NFL Network and ESPN with my current cheap verizon service until things get fixed.

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1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

MoCA is a cable based network and your cable router needs to be installed first to get that working.   No router = no MoCA.   And that's my guess why you cable box isn't working. (without being able to see your installation)

You need 2 cable connections.   If you only have 1, then you need a 2 way splitter so you have on connection for for the cable router and one connection the cable box.  And of course you need some more coax cable too.   Get the router working and then work on the TV cable box.

If you've done that... yeah you need a tech to show up or get on the phone. 

Thanks! The router has been working fine - all my posts here are utilizing it. I finally got through to a real Verizon technician.  She had me reset the router - pushing a pin on the little red reset button and my laptop began showing no internet connection and the blinking light on the router verified it had been reset and was resetting.  Then she had me play some "secret code" stuff with the VMS1100 set-top box to get the box display to read "run" then scroll down to read "cold"  then restart from there, same old shit.

So a technician is coming out tomorrow between 12-2 pm, with social distancing and masks, etc.  I have a guest bathroom that hasn't been used in months with clean towels, paper, etc. The toilet bowl was almost dry and left few rings, so I cleaned that with Lysol toilet bowl cleaner.  There are untouched towels and hand soap and I also have a hand-pump disinfectant.

If he needs a drink I have room temp Snapple lemon, raspberry, and peach tea that's sealed in plastic in a case where he could open it up in the middle if he's thirsty.

Company rules may prohibit using those things, but I appreciate people working in unknown places during the pandemic.

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4 hours ago, MickinMD said:

So a technician is coming out tomorrow between 12-2 pm, with social distancing and masks, etc.  I have a guest bathroom that hasn't been used in months with clean towels, paper, etc. The toilet bowl was almost dry and left few rings, so I cleaned that with Lysol toilet bowl cleaner.  There are untouched towels and hand soap and I also have a hand-pump disinfectant.

If he needs a drink I have room temp Snapple lemon, raspberry, and peach tea that's sealed in plastic in a case where he could open it up in the middle if he's thirsty.

Your too kind...  Me.. if the tech needs to answer the call of nature... there are many trees in the woods out back.

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