Right. Last Wednesday some Verizon workers were installing/burying my neighbor’s fiber cable, and they (I assume inadvertently) damaged/cut/frayed ours. Ick. Call to Verizon Wednesday night basically resulted in a work order for MONDAY, 8a-12p. No way they would get here sooner. I called Friday to confirm. Yes, still on. Monday came around, 12:30 hit, and no Verizon. I called, and after 30 minutes on hold (I am patient :) ) I got a live person and they basically said, oops, looks like the dispatch was cancelled. Great. They set me up with one for today, between 8a-8p, but “no guarantee someone will come”. Again, great.

Anyway, a technician showed up this morning, and laid new fiber. He called me to let me know he was on his way around 9:15a, and then called once he was done. The new fiber line is laying on the ground, and it “may be some time before it can be buried”. That’s an understatement as the neighbor’s fiber has been exposed for months. Still is (I have no idea what the heck they buried last Wednesday).

Due to the strike, it appears Verizon is calling in techs from, er, far away. The tech who fixed our problem was “on loan” from Verizon California. His business card even has a CA phone number. It appears that he will be around awhile, as he said to call him if an issue arises and he’ll come back to fix it.

I have to say, that we have had no problems with Verizon FIOS in the several+ years we have had it (Internet/TV/Phone). I’ll forgive them the delay in fixing the issue as they have a strike on their hands, and all the actual people at Verizon I have spoken with have been courteous and professional. But if I have to wait months to have the cable buried and it gets damaged in the interim (or when they bury it!), I’m not gonna be happy. At all.

So how is the service now? Just great (back to normal): 30Mbit download and 18Mbit upload, to a server 3000 miles away, on the left coast!

Network download/upload speed - from server 3000 miles away

(speed test is via Speakeasy.net’s Speed Test)