Breezeline

[nightrider]

After trying to make some account revisions on line, I have determined that Breezeline customer service is atrocious. It is next to impossible to reach a person to talk to and if you are lucky enough to do so, the language barrier is too great to accomplish anything meaningful. Has anyone had any luck contacting a local office of theirs? They must have local service personnel operating out of somewhere.

[MeredithMan]

Originally Posted by nightrider

After trying to make some account revisions on line, I have determined that Breezeline customer service is atrocious. It is next to impossible to reach a person to talk to and if you are lucky enough to do so, the language barrier is too great to accomplish anything meaningful. Has anyone had any luck contacting a local office of theirs? They must have local service personnel operating out of somewhere.

Amazingly, I had a decent experience with their customer support people back in Jan or Feb. After a power outage, they had to re-set my IP address on my modem/router, and I actually spoke to a local NH cust support tech, who was very helpful. I believe that I Google searched "Breezeline Belmont", as that's where their office used to be, (I think it's closed now), but I definitely dialed a NH number and after yelling "operator" numerous times to the chatbot, I was connected to the live person.

[jeffk]

I have to say, I recently cancelled a Breezeline contract because we had to switch to fiber for higher upload speeds. The call went through almost immediately and was completed VERY quickly. All went smoothly.

This surprised me because a couple years ago I had done a similar swithover and had to be on hold for almost 2 hours and then had the salesperson work up a REQUIRED counteroffer that I had NO intention of taking. The process was finally completed and went through OK but it was a long drawn out ordeal.

So, even though I switched to fiber for performance reasons, I recently found their customer service MUCH more streamlined.

If you want to talk about a mess, the Fidium service access is ridiculous. They send you a passcode to your cell phone, sometimes MULTIPLE times during a call. You start with an AI to determine the purpose of your call. I give the likelihood of the AI being able to help you at 50/50 and I used the phrase "talk to a representative" repeatedly to finally get to a person. Then, I had a fix made to a downed system that lasted 15 minutes. I have had TWO of their routers fail within 6 months, which I find incredulous. They are friendly and helpful people but their AI interface and their equipment are marginal and frustrating. I love the network when it is up and running and am saving BIG BUCKS but they REALLY need to get reliable routers and an AI front end system that works better.

[gokart-mozart]

Two questions:

1) Does their fiber that's in your house connect to a normal router in the regular way (Cat 5/6 ethernet) or do you have to use special equipment that they provide?

2) Do they provide an email service or do you have to use an outside ISP?

Thanks.

[Loub52]

It took 4 hours of wait time on the phone over the course of 3 weeks altogether with time spent waiting on hold before I was able to reach a person to cancel breezeline internet service.

I cancelled to transition to NH Electric Co-op fiber service, which has worked out well.

[jeffk]

Originally Posted by gokart-mozart

Two questions:

1) Does their fiber that's in your house connect to a normal router in the regular way (Cat 5/6 ethernet) or do you have to use special equipment that they provide?

2) Do they provide an email service or do you have to use an outside ISP?

Thanks.

1. Like cable connects to a modem, fiber connects to an ONT (Optical Network Terminator) that Fidium provides. Then an ethernet cable connects to a router. You can use your own router but if you use theirs, they can do more diagnostics remotely if you have problems. Further, like for other providers, they have a list of routers they recommend to best work with Fidium. If you go off that list, I don't know how much of a problem you might have. Any router configuration and issues are your problem. As I mentioned in a previous post, the decision is still out on Fidium's router. When it works, it works well.

I did lose connection to an older WiFI thermostat when I went to the Fidium router. That's a common problem with tech, especially as everything becomes WiFi connected (thermostat, appliances (stove, microwave ("scan-to-cook"), refrigerator, dishwasher, washer & dryer), air conditioner, weather station, medical devices, plus phones, computers, and entertainment components (my DirecTV, Roku, and surround speakers use WiFi))). Will your 15 year old refrigerator remain connected when you upgrade your router. Do you care?

2. No email service. NH Broadband doesn't either. Cable companies provided connection and CONTENT and SERVICES including email. Fiber companies are focused on the CONNECTION and allowing purchase of content and services from the large array available on the internet. That model allows competition that allows consumers to keep their costs down and tailor their selections to most closely meet their needs. It also allows the fiber companies to have a very clear mission, to provide the internet pipe to your home and not have to worry about the highly varied content mix that customers want.

[gokart-mozart]

That's the information I needed!

When I built my house in 2002, the cable run from the pole to the house was put underground and it terminates at a traditional modem (which I own).

Obviously, I am not digging up the yard to run fiber from the pole outside to the house. And I assume that the Optical Network Terminator is an inside thing, or, if it were on the pole, using 24 year old cable to run the 60 feet to the house is either a) impossible; or b) would degrade the speed advantage of fiber so as to make it worthless.

I've tried calling Fidium to address this, but of course any human that a customer can access over a phone line knows nothing about the tech, and when I asked the guys stringing fiber to my pole a few weeks ago they said, basically,
"No idea - call Fidium".

[jeffk]

My cable also ran through an underground pipe. I also had a dedicated phone line and was converting to VOIP so no longer needed that line. They pulled the phone line and replaced it with the fiber. If you don't need the cable, you could replace it with the fiber. It is also possible that you might have a spare underground run that the fiber could be put through. I originally had one but used it for something else.

Yes, the ONT is inside, right next to the router. The fiber comes into the house and all the way to the ONT.

I understand that the people that answer the phones will NOT know what is possible at your site. If you really want to upgrade, you could schedule it and tell them it will depend on whether the technicians can do the underground install. On the day of the installation, they will do an evaluation of what is possible. (That's what they did for me. I am also 600 feet back from the road and the main fiber connection, 450' in the air and 150' underground, and they ran the fiber all the way. There was no extra charge for my long run or the underground work.) If they cannot do it, you will know and you pay nothing for their time.

Another thing to be aware of, they don't run fiber though interior walls. For my install they came into the basement, ran it through to underneath the room where the ONT would be, and drilled small hole next to the baseboard for the fiber. It comes up behind a desk that the ONT is on. I assume if they were going to a second floor, they would have to run outside to the second floor but I don't know that for sure. I suppose they could run through a first floor closet. The installers will talk all this through with you before starting and keep you updated with their progress.

Another factoid, if you get 1+ Gbps service, they don't monthly charge you for the router.

[jeffk]

Another bit of info. If you get VOIP, there is a phone jack that comes off the ONT and I ran a phone line from the ONT to my wireless phone base station. Then I have 2 other wireless hand units.

When I switched, 18 months ago, from Breezeline (internet & TV) & landline phone to Fidium+VOIP & DirecTV streaming, I was saving $1860 a year. Over 20 years, that's enough to buy a new car!

[nj2nh]

Give up. Just cancel it. We cancelled two years ago and switched to TDS. No issues since. No outages. No need to call customer service. No problems at all.

Breezeline was awful to deal with even for the cancellation. They mailed a box for the router to an empty house after promising not to do that. They were beyond awful. Do not try to work with them. Just give up.


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I couldn’t get through in the phone so I tried Facebook Messenger. Our promo code was up and I wanted to negotiate a better price. I got an immediate response. Told them what XFINITY was offering and I got a great deal locked in for 3 years.