Google Fiber Installation Issues and What GFiber Could Do to Improve

I experienced many Google fiber installation issues in our home. The following is a history of what we experienced. At the end of this blog, I summarize our experience and describe what Google Fiber (GFiber) can do to resolve these significant and costly problems and improve customer satisfaction with all their GFiber installations.

 

The amount of resources (money and people) that Google Fiber (GFiber) used for my installation was huge. Once, there were three GFiber trucks in front of our house.

 

Street Installation of Gfiber optics cables

• Let’s start my Google fiber installation issues story from the beginning.
• We were excited that Gfiber laid fiber optics cable down our street and we could replace our current Internet service provider with Gfiber.
• For houses on the street, Gfiber contractors sprayed painted an X on the curb where the house-curb connection was to be. They put the X on the curbside of our house to locate the service point box for both our home and our neighbor’s house.
• For our house, the Gfiber contractor put the X in a place that was not practical for running a fiber optic cable to our home because of our landscaping. Also, connecting to our neighbor’s house would have been challenging because the cable would need installation under/through their driveway for the cable to be laid to their house.
• I told the Gfiber contractors (Mr. X and Mr. Y) that they should install our curb connection box for our house in a different place, which they did. The contractors also put our neighbor’s street connection box on the other side of their driveway.
• Gfiber employee installers gave no input on where the street connection should be so that their NIU (Network Interface Unit) box would be in the correct position to install the fiber optics cable into our house; i.e., no one asked to see where our current modem connection was in our house so there would understanding of where to place the NIU box so there would be a smooth fiber optics installation in our home.

 

Before our first Scheduled Gfiber Installation Appointment

• We received a notice from Gfiber asking us if we wanted to connect to Gfiber, which we did.
• We called Gfiber (spoke with Ms. Z) and scheduled a Gfiber installation appointment for 8/28/2024.
• Before 8/28/2024, two people came unannounced to install the NIU (Network Interface Unit) on our house. Fortunately, I was at home. Mr. S and Mr. T wanted to install the NIU box in the front of our house, which was our garage. I said they should install the NIU box so one could not see it from the street. They installed the NIU box on a wall that did not face the street but was still a garage wall.
• Someone unexpectedly (Mr. Y.) came to our home and told me that our optical fiber signal was too low at the NIU box for an installation and that they would work the problem so we could have the installation on 8/28/2024. I never heard any more about someone fixing this low signal problem.

 

First Gfiber Installation Appointment on 8/24/2024 (In My Google Fiber Installation Issues Story)

Mr. J, a GFiber employee, arrived to connect the fiber optics cable from the installed NIU box to our home. He said that he could not do the installation because:

• The dBm light signal was too low.
• The NIU box was not in the correct position for our home since the position of the box was on a garage wall. He told me they would drill a hole through the wall to install a Gfiber modem. Installing the modem in the garage and running the cable through the attic via the garage to get to where our current Internet modem is located was not acceptable.
• He said that a Gfiber contractor needed to move the NIU box to the right side of our house so someone from Gfiber could drill a hole through the wall to my office and position a modem on the inside wall of my office. The installer should then run an ethernet cable behind my desk from the modem to a GFiber Wi-FI router in a similar position to my current Internet router. This router positioning would provide convenient cabling to our current home Internet connections. The Installation of two GFiber Wi-Fi Mesh Extenders will provide good WIFI coverage throughout our home.

 

Mr. J, the Google Fiber installer, said he would escalate our Gfiber installation issue of moving the NIU box and resolving our low dBm problem.

 

He told me to call 866-777-7550 and escalate the issue from my end, which I did. I told Ms. V on the phone that I wanted to know when they would move and install the NIU box.

 

August 30, 2024: My phone call 866-777-7550

Since I had not heard more from GFiber about the NIU box move and our installation, I called and was shocked when Ms. Z said there was no progress relative to scheduling my NIU box move and installation of service.

 

Ms. Z scheduled our second Installation appointment for 9/12/2024. She said that a GFiber contractor would move the NIU box before then. I asked when. She said that she did not know, but an Installation date of 9/12/2024 would provide enough time for the NIU box to be moved.

 

September 6, 2024: My phone call 866-777-7550

Continuing with my google fiber installation issues story, I called and spoke with Ms. F, telling her nobody had moved our NIU box. Our schedule September 12 schedule call was rapidly approaching.

 

September 7, 2024: Someone unexpectantly came to our home

Mr. Z, who did not speak English, came to our home unexpectedly. I thought he was going to relocate our NIU box. We used a translator on his mobile phone to communicate. I told him where to relocate the NIU box. I placed a strip of blue painter’s tape on an outside wall to mark the location for a drill hole into my office to install the modem. I looked in our front yard later but did not see Mr. Z, the Gfiber contractor. I never saw him again.

 

September 11, 2024

The manager (Mr. C.) of the two GFiber contractors who mounted our NIU box came to our home unannounced with his two employees. I explained how our GFiber installer said the NIU box was in an unacceptable location and that the dBm signal was too low for installation. The manager said that he would cancel our installation tomorrow and would call about a time to come out to move our NIU to the location that I showed him, which I had attached blue painter tape to locate on the wall outside my office. He said he couldn’t make this move today because his original installers would not get paid for their original work by GFiber. He said he would need to get his workers paid for their original NIU box mounting and then assign someone else to move the NIU box. Mr. C, the manager, said he would call to let me know when someone would return to move the NIU box.

 

September 12, 2024, Second Scheduled Installation Date (In My Google Fiber Installation Issues Story)

• I did not get a phone call from the manager, Mr. C., whom I spoke with yesterday. I called him using the direct number he gave me. He said someone would do the NIU move today.
• Mr. J. arrived early for our 2:30 scheduled installation appointment. He arrived at about 10:30. Since the NIU box had not been moved, he could not do the installation. He updated his dispatcher and said he would return at 2:30.
• Two GFiber contractors (Mr. B. and Mr. H, Mr. C.’s employees) unexpectedly arrived to move the NIU box. They thought they could move the NIU by 2:30 when Mr. J. was to return. One of the contractors stated that installers are lazy and that they could have used the current NIU box location and run a cable through the attic. I told them that I was told that the installer needed to drill a hole through the wall to connect a modem and then run an ethernet cable to a router to connect to our existing connections.
• The two NIU box movers waited for a return call from Mr. C. before they would start. They got Mr. C’s approval. I warned them about the sewer line under our sidewalk, irrigation tubing, and landscape lights. They installed the NIU box in the correct location on the right side of our house. They cut and repaired one of our drip irrigation lines when routing the fiber optics cable.
• I told the NIU box movers that the dBm signal was not adequate for the original NIU box location. They said that the “workmanship” of the original NIU box installers was poor, i.e., box location, routing, and connection. I stated that the dBm signal on the street could be inadequate. They said that could not be true but would not test to see the actual level per my request.
• After they finished the NIU box move, I asked if the dBM signal was adequate for an Installation, and they said yes.
• 1:30: Mr. J. called asking if the NIU box move was completed. I responded yes.
• 2:15: Mr. J. arrived and said our dBm level was -32 at the NIU box and too poor for installation. Mr. J. told me that a value from -10 to -25 dBm was good, and -26 to -28 was marginal.
• Mr. J. said he would call to get someone to fix the low dBM signal
• I asked Mr. J. to measure our dBM signal on the street. He said he does not have the equipment to make this measurement (Contractors have this device).
• 3:10: Mr. P. arrived unannounced. He told me that the dBm signal at the house was -24, which is acceptable for an installation. This reading was very different from Mr. J.’s non-acceptable reading of -32. I asked him to measure the level at the street curb. He said this measurement was -23 dBm. He told me that our street did not have as good a signal level as other streets.
• 3:20: I called 866-777-7550 again to get another Installation scheduled. The person who answered, Ms. B, said I should wait. Ms. K., who is in the sales department, joined my call and said I should wait for someone else. This new person (Mr. W) said Mr. V. is a tech working on our problem. He just spoke with him, and I should hear from him in 20-25 minutes. No one came to our door; however, I did see someone leave from a parked car in front of our house. Could this have been Mr. V.?

 

September 13, 2024: My Call to 866-777-7550

• Continuing with my google fiber installation issues story, I told the phone attendant I was not getting any updates about my GFiber installation situation and that my NIU box had been moved. I told this phone attendant there was disagreement about whether my NIU dBm signal was adequate.
• She said she would check on it.
• She rescheduled our THIRD Installation date for September 20, 2024, a week from today, September 13.
• She said that we did not have our phone number activation set up.
• She sent me an email with instructions on transferring our home phone number. I never received previous instructions from Gfiber on the email account I usually use.
• I completed the email instructions on moving our home phone from our current Internet provider to GFiber.

 

September 20: Third Installation Scheduled Date (In My Google Fiber Installation Issues Story)

• At 10:00, Mr. A. showed up for our GFiber installation.
• I insisted he measure our signal at the NIU box before installing optical fiber into our home. He said the measurement was -26 dBm, a marginal signal level for installation.
• I said that I wanted a good signal, not a marginal signal. Mr. A. agreed; however, his boss (Mr. R) said I would need to escalate this issue, which I knew would be a waste of time. The street-level signal seems marginal, which GFiber blames on its contractors. Apparently GFiber is unwilling to pursue getting their contractors to resolve what is believed to be GFiber street connectors issue(s) that probably cause the marginal or low signal.
• I said let’s go with the installation.
• Mr. A. changed my plan from an 8 to a 2 GHz per my request since I did not need an 8 GHz bandwidth.
• Mr. A. drilled a hole through my office wall to my outside blue tape on the wall location and installed a modem to the inside wall.
• I showed him where Mr. J. and I agreed that the router should be. Mr. A. only had a six-foot-long ethernet cable and had no process to make a longer one to reach the needed router location. Mr. J. showed up (he was here previously), so two people are working on resolving my modem-to-router connection issue. Another person in training came to our house (Mr. E.). There were three people now in my office. There was much discussion and confusion about the ethernet cables being too short and trying to do many workarounds while moving things around, all of which had unsatisfactory connections or had an unsatisfactory layout in my office, e.g., a cable in front of my workspace. The time for all this connection confusion was at least one hour.
• Mr. J. did have a tool in his truck to cut a long enough ethernet cable to connect with one cable from the modem to the router – finally!
• The installers set up two Mesh Extenders. They set up our TVs and mobile phones to use WIFI. Our computers worked satisfactorily through cable computer connections.
• Mr. A. said he never did a phone installation. He would rely on Mr. J. for this phone installation effort.
• There were problems with our Gfiber phone installation. We could call out, but incoming calls went automatically into voice mail, where our home phone light did not come on when there were voice messages. Mr. J. set up my mobile phone to use a GFiber app. Mr. J. played around with my phone app’s settings; however, nothing he did would resolve the issue. He contacted his manager (Mr. W), who provided nothing different than what he had already tried to fix the problem.
• Mr. J. gave us a temporary phone number, which I am unsure why we would use it.
• Mr. J. said we could check our voice messages by doing the following: Search fiber.google.com, go to fiber account, then phone (this did not work for me).
• Mr. J. said our phone number could take some time to transfer.
• Mr. J. assured me that we would not lose our current phone number.

 

September 21, 2024

• Continuing with my google fiber installation issues story, I called our home phone number from my mobile phone and received my mobile carrier’s phone message that this number could not be completed as dialed and I should check the number.
• I called Gfiber’s 866-777-7550 number and got a virtual assistant that did not allow me to talk to an agent about resolving my Gfiber phone connection problem. I selected the option that said I had an Internet problem. The virtual assistant said it would reset my computer, which resolves most issues, and call back in five minutes. After five minutes, the virtual agent called back and asked if my problem was resolved. I responded no. The Gfiber phone system then connected me to an agent.
• I explained the issue with my home phone number to the agent. He said he would resolve the problem by changing my temporary phone number to my previous Internet provider’s home phone number.
• I was placed on hold for a long time with this agent. He sent me an email with a link that he said I should wait to click on until he told me.
• He returned from being on hold to the phone and asked for my current Internet provider’s account number and address, which had a nine-zip code number. I had provided only a 5-digit zip code initially. He said the submitted account number for my current Internet provider had one wrong digit. I was confident I entered the correct number but I must have made a typo.
• He initiated the phone number porting process. He said it could take five days, and I would receive an email that stated the phone number porting was completed and my phone should work.
• He said the message light on my desktop phone should work the same as in the past.
• He said he would email instructions on how to use the GFiber phone system. I never received this email.
• I was on the phone for almost an hour with this agent to get our home phone number on GFiber.
• I hope there will be a successful transfer of my phone number, and I will again have a home phone number.

 

Summary

1. The time from my first scheduled installation to an actual installation of GFiber in my home (without GFiber phone being operational) was 27 days (August 24 to September 20, 2024)
2. I had three scheduled GFiber installation dates before a successful home connection installation on the third installation date.
3. People typically showed up unexpectedly. Fortunately, I work from home and could talk to these people, give them directions, etc.
4. The dBm signals into my home and on the street curb are marginal, which can cause future problems with my Internet service.
5. GFiber had to move my NIU box to my house, resulting in frustration and GFiber wasted expense. No GFiber employee assessed where the NIU box should be located in my home initially for a smooth optical fiber connection and communicated this location to the contractor who would install the NIU box.
6. Many measurements of the dBm signal at my NIU box have been unacceptable, and there have been disagreements about the actual signal level.
7. GFiber employees cannot measure the dBm signal at the curb; only contractors can do this.
8. GFiber does not seem interested in improving a street’s dBm level via its contractors if its signal is marginal. Marginal street dBm levels could lead to future issues with a home Internet connection.
9. Often, I was told that my issue was “escalated.” I usually did not see any action from this escalation and was not given any feedback about the issue resolution.
10. For GFiber installation, I met with or was involved with 5 GFiber employees (some several times).
11. For GFiber installation, I met with or spoke with 12 different GFiber contractors (some several times).
12. For GFiber installation, I spoke on the phone with 8 people to schedule my installation or attempt to resolve my GFiber installation issues.

 

Conclusions from My Google Fiber Installation Issues Experience

1. The above descriptions of my experience with GFiber installation offer many opportunities for improvement (OFI) that could save GFiber much revenue (which would improve its bottom line) and enhance its customer satisfaction.
2. Indeed, my experience with GFiber installation is not an isolated event. Many of my neighbors have expressed similar experiences. I would expect similar GFiber installation problems in other regions where GFiber does installations.
3. I believe that GFiber leadership does not know all the reworks and waste occurring within its operations (i.e., from a systems point of view throughout its organization), as my documented experience suggests.
4. GFiber leadership would gain much if they installed a system integrating transparent operations scorecard reporting (“real-time” process-response-output reporting, as opposed to monthly or weekly table-of-numbers reporting) with the processes that created them, where everyone authorized would have 24×7 access. With such a system, leadership would know what is happening in the trenches regarding wasteful re-installs (non-conformance rates) and excessive lead times that need improvement via process improvement efforts – throughout their organization at a simple computer mouse click. With this system, operational employees and contractors (throughout the GFiber organization) would know the up-to-date procedure to accomplish tasks from their mobile devices or computers. Much of the current training for GFiber employees and contractors seems to be done by word of mouth between other employees or contractors.
5. To discuss how GFiber can create the system described in item 4, one should schedule a video meeting session with me through the link https://smartersolutions.com/schedule-zoom-session/