Nerds! Help!

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WiseOne
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Re: Nerds! Help!

Post by WiseOne » Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:40 pm

Let me clarify - I bought the Verizon router. You can use your own third-party router but it's at your own risk if you do, they won't help you troubleshoot and FIOS can be a royal PITA, unlike cable internet. The price difference I was talking about is paying $12/month vs. $140-$180 (forget exact price) up front to buy the router, with no ongoing monthly fee.

The exact same router I bought from Verizon is also on sale for cheaper at Amazon. That's an option down the road, but these days I just assume that anything I order from Amazon is likely to be a fake, Chinese-made knock-off. Not worth it to me in this situation.

Dualstow, it sounds like you got the classic Verizon hard sell. Not sure what you can do about it, but you might call to ask about buying the modem if it's not too old (or maybe they'll give you a break on the price) so you can stop paying that monthly fee. Definitely tell them you weren't told about the buy option initially.
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dualstow
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Re: Nerds! Help!

Post by dualstow » Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:50 pm

WiseOne wrote:
Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:40 pm
Dualstow, it sounds like you got the classic Verizon hard sell. Not sure what you can do about it, but you might call to ask about buying the modem if it's not too old (or maybe they'll give you a break on the price) so you can stop paying that monthly fee. Definitely tell them you weren't told about the buy option initially.
Oh, I will. This thread's appearance is good timing, as we are recently out of contract. Still have service, but I've been just paying the bill month to month because they haven't offered a deal that I want to lock in. Their offer is way more than I'm paying. And, for what it's worth, they waived a ton of stuff when we signed up (may as well be the equipment fee?), so the bill was only $114 until a few months ago. Internet/TV/Landline.
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WiseOne
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Re: Nerds! Help!

Post by WiseOne » Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:41 pm

No idea what the prices in Philadelphia are like compared to NYC, but I'm paying $58 for internet service alone.

For a landline, I bought an Obitalk ($50 for the box) and use Google Voice. Monthly cost is zero. Google Voice has its issues like dropping calls, but if that gets too annoying there are independent services that use Obitalk at a cost of around $10/month.

I wouldn't have pegged you for someone who would have cable TV, though. There are just so many way cheaper and more convenient options (i.e. you watch what you want when you want, and without commercials).
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Re: Nerds! Help!

Post by jacksonM » Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:27 pm

WiseOne wrote:
Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:41 pm
No idea what the prices in Philadelphia are like compared to NYC, but I'm paying $58 for internet service alone.

For a landline, I bought an Obitalk ($50 for the box) and use Google Voice. Monthly cost is zero. Google Voice has its issues like dropping calls, but if that gets too annoying there are independent services that use Obitalk at a cost of around $10/month.

I wouldn't have pegged you for someone who would have cable TV, though. There are just so many way cheaper and more convenient options (i.e. you watch what you want when you want, and without commercials).
I use Obitalk and Google Voice too. It's a great replacement for a landline as long as you have a cell phone in case the internet goes out. And Google voice has really nice features like call forwarding to your cell phone and allowing you to block numbers or report them as spam. Also international calls are reasonably priced and can be funded by Google wallet. I haven't noticed any dropped calls but on a couple of occasions I have discovered that the connection from the Obitalk to Google voice had quit working and I had to go into Obitalk setup and play around to get it to work again.

Unfortunately, not requiring phone service from your cable provider doesn't seem to save much money when you compare the "bundled" price of all three services (phone,cable,internet) to the "unbundled" price of just cable + internet.
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dualstow
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Re: Nerds! Help!

Post by dualstow » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:09 pm

WiseOne wrote:
Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:41 pm

I wouldn't have pegged you for someone who would have cable TV, though.
You’re right, I’m not. But then I went and got married. O0

Edit: And it’s the very minimum of channels.
But I did use rabbit ears and then a nifty HD antenna for ten years.
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