Google Fiber

I got my internet but the technician has no idea how to properly install the device. He completely moved my bed and said he can only install into drywall when the place that would have been best would be the living room. He said company policy but that just means idfc what you want I want to mess up your house as much as possible. And he didn't even clean up after himself. He cut the drywall and just left it all over my bed. And on the ground.

As an overall fan of Google, I am extremely disappointed in the stability of the connection. I live in the RTP area where internet service is needed for the majority of work-from-home jobs in the research sphere. Google has failed to provide proper training to their technicians who should be subject matter experts on wireless networks. As far as my experience is concerned the technician could not activate our hardwire ethernet ports due to Google's policy of "not allowing technicians to do anything besides connect a modem to a router" which most people should be able to do. After months of attempting to convince management, they insisted their hands were tied and that there was nothing that could be done. Additionally, the Google Nest Pro is an absolute joke and was outperformed by a NetGear night hawk purchased in 2016 (7 years ago). Fair warning: if you have to get Google Fiber, do not use their equipment. Streaming is possible with this service, but I recommend avoiding Google Fiber for activities such as work or video gaming. Although $70.00/mo is a decent price for unlimited 1G (which we only seem to ever pull 500-600mps) the incompetence of Google Fiber, their technicians, and constant outages deem them the worst fiber service in my experience to date.

Google Fiber Install Fail. Take some deep yoga breaths before going down this journey. Ordered Google Fiber after receiving the mailer saying it was ready in my neighborhood. Scheduled install for 10 days out from the initial order. The very next day a crew shows up at my door to install the line from street to the house. This was unannounced, no phonecall, email or text from Google. They came with a trencher but had no line detector, or ground markers on them to find and mark water lines or wiring. The team manged to slice through my sprinkler and Spectrum lines. Repaired onsite but had me in a "WTF?!" moment. The day of my install appointment I get a phonecall from the installer my appointment was cancelled. Another "WTF?!" moment as I didn't cancel the appointment nor was I notified by email or text from Google. In fact the only email I had was a confirmation of my appointment. I scheduled a day off to be present for this and I now I'm put out. I called customer service and they stated an additional crew has to come out and install a box on the side of the house, in order for the actual "install" to occur. I was never notified of this when I subscribed for service, not by the representative who handled the call, by email, text, or the crew who dug up my yard unannounced. Instead of doing everything as one job like most providers, Google Fiber has decided to use third party contractors to do each job separately. There is no communication between the contractors, Google Fiber, and the customer. The next available appointment I can get is a week out from the original install appointment to install the box on the outside of the house and who knows when to get the actual product installed inside the home. I've already paid up front so I am going to see this through but so far the Google customer experience has not been a good one. Honestly, this is the result of Google cutting corners; instead of having actual employees, or using a reliable vendor with a good track record, they seem to be contracting inexperienced "paid by the job, not the hour" landscaping/lawn crews to do as many installs as possible, some experiences maybe better than others depending on the crew assigned to the job. I am hoping the end result is worth the hassle, but Google Fiber needs to work on it's communication with customers and contractors. Fortunately I have not yet cancelled my other provider. I'll do that once it's confirmed everything is up and running.

BUYER Beware! The service is fine, not better not worse than former provider. BUT and its a huge but.....their back-end service is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE! I have spent the last 10 days (5 phones calls literally) trying to get my money back with their internal mistake. YES their mistake! I moved from one unit to another in same APT building in Nashville and their installer did not record the equipment properly. They charged me for it and I have been dealing with their complete incompetence ever since. COMPLETELY ridiculous as I have had to start the process over 3 times and my money is nowhere insight.

Great when it works but very frequent random outages. April 27: outage start at 3pm, customer service said it would be back up at 6pm. It is 9pm and still nothing. Now says service will be restored at 7am. This is all too frequent for the San Antonio area. Last occurrence less than a month ago for about 11 hours. Customer service offered no explanation when asked other that weather which there was little over night; not in the afternoon. I’m over it. This is unreliable and not even true 1G. Their $1.70 compensation is nothing compared to the stress of random outages and having to deal during work and school. The rep even had the audacity to point it out as a plus. At least with cable you can forecast any outages due to weather. Clearly infrastructure issue with these guys. GF a joke at least in SATX. Going to spectrum this weekend.

So far the service itself is actually good. However the two star rating comes from having to have the fiber jack installed twice, then having to have 8+ techs out to finally get the blue light (connection) to work since the installation was crap! Then after all that our router wasn't working. And as if all tyat bullshit wasn't enough bullshit, then the ppl who came to fix the other 2 bad installations drew graffiti on my porch. I know it was them because I water between certain plants daily and their team was the only ones there that day. If i could post a picture I would. Unprofessional to the max in my opinion! Lets hope the internet doesn't suck as bad as the installation crew.

I literally have 1 tv ,a laptop , 3 phones in our household, a game system (hardly used and older model) and Vivint security system (Vivint had to install a special device directly to the router because the bandwidth was so terrible) Sometimes with visitors they have phones and even after upgrading In our area we have free service then a $55 plan , the $70 and $100 plans I have the $70 plan I figure just in to ensure it runs well and I still am unable to watch a show all the way through without it lagging at least 4 maybe 5 times or more I cannot prepare my lessons on my laptop and watch video clips Something is going on with Google fiber

I'm 3 weeks into the service and about to cancel. As much as it pains me to say this, I'm reverting back to Cox. as others have mentioned, getting a straight answer from the techs is difficult. I've had 3 techs come out before I was able to install my 1G connection. Google Fiber, when it works it's great, but it's been spotty and really slow. There have been a few times the service would just drop randomly in the middle of the day. Currently for 4 days straight now, it's been super slow. This is how slow it's been lately, after running a speed test, it's been approx. 17 mbps download, and 18 mbps upload. Sometimes even less than that at times. Not sure what the issue is, because google won't send out a tech without trouble shooting with the online tech support. I'm not a technical guy so dealing with them isn't great.

I have had Google service for as long offered in Kansas City,. Which is getting to be too long. Started out wonderful for the first handful of years but has become a bundle of aggravations. With shoddage customer service," use of gimmicky customer service scheme's" that do not solve actual problems but does frustrate the customer to the point of never wanting to call them back again. Frequent drop outs and piles of script driven responses. You would think after several months of calls and providing drop out details they would send someone out competent. No, they send out a person that wants to change easy to get to components and fleeing the scene as fast as possible. With no follow up. Finally switching to a wireless carrier slower speeds but at least it is always working.

I have had positive experiences with their customer service. Their network boxes, however, function as terrible routers. I can have line of sight and an interrupted network, and this has been the case with multiple network boxes at multiple residences. The less expensive of the two plans is INCREDIBLY throttled during peak times (I cannot speak to the more expensive plan), to the point where only one connected device will have moments of very low definition video playback, games lag to the point of getting kicked, and all while within 20 ft of the box. Just because it's fiber doesn't mean they don't still have the same issues of other internet service providers.

Google Fiber is not at all what it claims to be. Once you sign up for google fiber I promise you will be disappointed. The speeds are not at all what they claim. The price is $20 higher than advertised on their website. You cannot get Pay Per View on the Television. You cannot get Amazon Prime and most other apps on your smart TV. When you call customer support they will tell you that marginal speeds are awesome, which they are not. I had Direct TV at my last house and it was faster, easier, and way more flexible than Google Fiber. I would do you research, because this will not be everything you expect it to be.

Let me preface by saying that I changed to Google Fiber when I made the decision to cut the cable cord, mostly because I wanted to be able to use the existing coax cable for the HD Antenna I put up on my house...which works great for local stations. My thinking was that Google adding a fiber connection for internet service would be a better option because the internet service would be isolated on it's own network in my house. Also, I work from home full-time and need the internet service to be consistent and capable of handling my 8-11 hour work days as well as my son's gaming computer and multiple wireless smart-home devices and cell phones. There are pros and cons to my thought process. Pros: In fact, the existing coax wiring to my entire house connected to the digital HD antenna on my house works fabulously for the 40+ stations that I receive locally for FREE. I already use Netflix and Hulu and Prime so there are no "additional" costs by changing ISPs. Google did in fact run a separate cat 5e/cat 6 line into my house and to the modem...which is where the pros end. Cons: 1) My previous two cable/internet providers provided FREE downloadable internet security (Norton) for all devices connected to my network, Google does not offer this and when I asked about it, they seemed totally unaware this was even plausible, to the point of apathy, so my cost $80/yr. 2) The first installer that came to the house to setup connectivity brought equipment and then went outside to setup the connection and found that the 3rd party company that ran the fiber cable up to my house didn't actually turn it on. So they had to reschedule installation for 3 weeks later! Why so long? Google doesn't actually lay their own fiber so they have to coordinate the 3rd party company to come back to your neighborhood and get into the box to turn it on...are you freaking kidding me? They don't have access to their own fiber boxes?? Meanwhile I had already scheduled the disconnect of my Xfinity services and had to call them back and tell them not to cancel and pay for another month of service for which Google gave me zero credit for their delay. 3) Payment - while many may not care that the ONLY option available with Google Fiber is to give them your bank account information or credit/debit card number and they bill you automatically on the same date every month, I personally find this intrusive and overly demanding. My bank account cards are my business to manage and my credit score reflects that I am very responsible in doing so. With all of the large and small companies that have been hacked on a global scale I simply don't trust that Google is any better at protecting my information than Equifax or any other company. And to make this worse, once they have the information you can't remove it from their website. However, a word for the wise, go get a visa pre-paid card and enter that number on your google account to minimize your own risk and you can cancel any time by just not reloading that card. 4) Wifi signal SUCKs with the modem that Google put in my house. I had the exact same setup with Xfinity and never had issues with wifi slowness. The admin interface on the account/modem is real old school. It's like they bought modems from a 3rd party company that are 10 years old and they don't even understand that there is much better equipment available. I have called them multiple times about it and they keep trying to get me to change the setup from splitting out the 2.4 and 5 to combining so the "modem" will decide which connection is best for the device connecting. Uh...no...tried that and it was MUCH worse than manually connecting to the band that the devices are capable of. Then they said to reset the modem...okay - still no better. And of course I got the lecture from them about how wifi speeds are affected by the number of devices connected blah blah blah. Yes I understand that but when I haven't added any devices since switching services from Xfinity to Google and Xfinity only provided 400 mbps and Google is selling their service as Gig speed it should get better not worse! 5) I have my office device (for work) hard wired to the modem and still the speeds are hitting 600+ or - at best, ever. While this is decent connection speed, I've never seen anywhere close to 1000. The wireless devices in the house sometimes get max asymmetrical speeds of 80-120 and sometimes it pegs out at 9-12 mbps. Definitely NOT the hype that Google promises as Gigabit internet speeds. 6) I have inquired multiple times about getting a better modem from Google and their customer service simply isn't equipped to handle any issues themselves. They don't know how to resolve issues that aren't on the script in front of them. So I have also purchased a Wifi extender just to get the signal out to all the rooms in my house, but I still wait and watch as facebook posts won't load etc. Count me as dissatisfied.

Friendly but not so helpful. I signed up for google fiber as soon as it became available in my neighborhood with an installation date set for September 13th. The tech showed up a little later than the 10 am scheduled time but it’s ok. It’s normal. After changing out the wall mounts to their fiber input, the tech stated that we didn’t have a strong enough light reading and we could not set up until someone came out to work outside on our line. He packed up the router and equipment and assured us that either he or someone else would contact us later that day to let us know they were on the way back to install our internet equipment. Well, that never happened. When I called back at 5 pm I was told that our ticket that was created, was marked as complete, and that no one else had been scheduled to install our services. When he looked deeper into our file, the rep said that our reading was still too low and that he was completely unsure how this even happened at all! He offered a $50 credit on our account and scheduled us for a new appointment. The earliest appointment was 8 am September 17th though. So September 17th comes along. 8 o’clock. 9 o’clock. 10 o’clock.. nothing. So we call again. No appointment had been scheduled! I get off work that evening and call myself to get more information. Apparently our issue outside had not been resolved. It had been marked as ok. The advice offered to me by the rep was that I should have kept my old services on until the new ones were up and running. But this is after my walk inputs were REPLACED by google fibers inputs! So it’s not even possible to use the old service! So.. here I am on the 20th with a new appointment scheduled for the 24th just waiting. Yes I’m on a list to have services installed if an appointment time becomes available BUT the issue outside has still not been addressed! So if someone DOES show up nothing can be done! All this and I get a $50 credit. I am beyond frustrated with this company. I need strong service because of the type of work we do from home but is it all really worth it? Im not sure I’ll ever find out. Everyone is nice when I call but I need more. I need results and I need them soon. Unhappy and not even a customer yet.

Ok so I’ll preface this with saying overall, google fibers speed has been fine. But I’ll tell a story that will paint a picture on their customer service. Back in May, a garage burned down in the alley around our block. The garage happened to be right next to the pole holing our cables above ground. We lost service. Act of god, no worries, just hoping no one was injured in the fire. They come a few days later and check our box (even though we told them about the fire), they say “well we have to rule out your network box first, it’s protocol”. Cool, whatever. They come, realize it’s the fire (weird) and day they’ll send out a crew to fix the cables outside within 72 hours. So by then we’re out of internet for over a week. They fix it, it goes out again days later. Because instead of hanging the wire above ground, they lay them on the ground across the alley, and guess what! A bobcat comes in to demolish what’s left of the burned garage. Ok, again not necessarily google fibers bad, but it would have been cool if they’d not laid fiber optic cables on a street that gets traffic. We wait again. Protocol again. Fixed. Out again about 2 weeks later. A large vehicle ran them over again to start rebuilding the burned structure. At this point we’re begging google fiber to hang the wires so this stops happening. 7 outages later we’re in September, out of Internet again and now they’re telling us WE should have been contacting the city or kcpl to have the pole replaced so that they can hang the wires! Ok cool, we’re calling the city, putting in requests with kcpl for a replacement pole. Fiber says they’ll go ahead and fix it again within a day and then come back and hang them when the pole is replaced. 2 more days go by, nothing fixed, we call, they say “oh no, we’ll come fix it AFTER the pole is replaced” which could be weeks for all we know! My partner is a real estate photographer so he needs to able to upload photos as soon as he’s home from work, and if he can’t, he has to go to a friends, or somewhere else that has fast internet to upload. Which means more driving (money) for him, plus less time for us to spend any time together after working all day. I’m mostly ranting because I have to vent about how absurd all of this is. I guess just be aware if you have some wild, random problem pop up like this, don’t expect it fixed for an entire season or more.

I had Google Fiber installed two months ago. During the first month I experience numerous lengthy outages. The second technician came out and fixed it. I was never told what the issue was. I asked for a partial refund for my first month since I was forced to carry another provider (AT&T) while Google worked out the kinks. They refused saying that such outages are caused by "3rd Party Factors". I feel there is an arrogance at the company that hurts reasonable customer service.

There have been outages every single day in the past month Google fiber has pretty much told us if we don’t like it get another provider and gives us a 75 cent credit. We keep waiting for them to get their stuff together I’m not sure it’s gonna happen but as soon as there is another viable option in my area I will be switching over they do not care about their customers whatsoever.

Sub-par customer service. I needed help with a Google Router configuration issue. After a Google Help chat proved completely useless, I reached out to Tech Support, and chose to be called on the phone, because the wait time was over 2 hours. I got a call from Tech Support and was told that somebody will be with me in less than 2 minutes. After 21 minutes on hold, I hung up. This is sub-par customer service.

Buffering.... Buffering... Buffering. Slow. We even bought their signal boosters and put them on each floor... still slow, and constantly losing service. WHEN it works, pretty good, but doesn't work well enough to endure the constant drops.

For the past several years due to my location, I've found Google to be the most difficult to work with in practically all areas. It's slow (spelling or grammatical errors, and often inaccurate making changes that are no where near what I was trying to say.) , inaccurate,

Too expensive they do not offer specials at all. My cable is in and out, slow or freezes sometimes. My Internet is okay. Not happy with Google Fiber.

Constantly get kicked off online gaming saying no internet connection when I'm hard wired in extremely frustrating