Google Fiber Installation Issues and What GFiber Could Do to Improve

We experienced many Google fiber support 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 time from my first scheduled installation to an actual installation of GFiber in my home (without the GFiber phone being operational) was 27 days (August 24 to September 20, 2024). The time, including my phone installation, is 55 days (On October 18, 2024, phone porting was completed but not to my satisfaction, i.e., it does not have all the functions our previous provider included).

The amount of resources (money and people) that fiber Google Fiber support (GFiber) used for my installation was huge. I estimate that it took 59 hours of labor for my GFiber (Google fiber support) installation with the phone. At a $100/hour rate, this would be a Google Fiber support (GFiber) expense of $5,900 for my installation (not a good ROI for GFiber). This estimate does not address the value of my time dealing with all these issues and my frustration with GFiber’s terrible processes.

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 Support 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 (Google fiber support) 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 Support 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 fiber Google fiber 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 (In My Google Fiber Support Installation Issues Story)

• 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. from google fiber support 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 my Google Fiber Installation Issues Story)

• 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.

September 20 – October 2, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• Since our September 20, 2024, GFiber installation, I called GFiber at 866-777-7550 to inquire about the incompletion of my phone number porting five times. Each of the Gfiber agents said my submitted account number was invalid. The Gfiber agents would say that the submitted account number was missing a number from the account number I provided them.
• Each time after our phone conversation, the agent resubmitted our phone number porting. When I called back, I got the same wrong account number response from the agent, and they resubmitted the porting request.
• In my October 2 conversation, a diligent GFiber attendant, Mary, said she would follow up on my situation after our phone conversation to ensure that her porting request of our phone number went through. She was confident that she entered the correct account number from our previous Internet provider for our phone number.

October 3, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems for our Fiber Google Fiber Support Installation)

• On October 3, I received a phone message from Mary stating that my previous Internet/Phone provider account number no longer exists. Because of the current “non-existence” of my last account number, GFiber could not port my phone number into my GFiber account. Mary said I would have to contact my previous Internet/Phone provider for assistance with this problem. Since I did not want to lose my home phone number, I contacted my previous Internet provider.
• At my previous Internet provider, Jane told me I was experiencing something that frequently occurs. For a successful phone number porting, both past and future provider accounts must be active. (My past Internet provider account was active with my initial GFiber phone number porting request.)
• Jane transferred me to Nickie to see if he could help get my past phone number back.
• Nickie said he could get my phone number back; however, he would need someone to come to our home to reinstall my previous Internet service with a new modem (I previously returned my last Internet provider’s modem) and reinstall our phone number. Nickie said that this would not interfere with my GFiber installed service. This installation is to occur in two days, October 5. There will be a $45.16/month charge for this phone, which I plan to port to the GFiber system after the installation, cancel my previous Internet provider service (again), and return their equipment.

October 5, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• Our previous Internet provider installed a new modem and our previous phone number at our home.
• While the technician, Sam, was at our home, we tested dialing into our installed home phone number from a mobile phone. After Sam had done several wire reconnections, we got our home phone to ring from a mobile phone call, but we could not leave a voice message as we had previously.
• After the technician left, we called a mobile phone from our home phone number. A different phone number (512-893-4198) appeared as a caller ID than our home phone number (i.e., the temporary phone number GFiber provided us during our Internet installation). Also, we heard a recording of our mobile phone voice message.
• We called our previous Internet provider. We explained our situation to Paul, who answered our phone call. He rebooted our home phone number, which did not resolve our problem. After speaking with an Engineer, he said that perhaps in 24 hours, our problem would be resolved.

October 8, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• We continued to experience problems with our phone number on our previous Internet provider’s equipment.
• The problem occurs when we call from our home phone number to our mobile phone and visa versa. Typically, we will hear a voice message while attempting to talk, but something else may occur. The temporary GFiber number often appears, but sometimes, our home phone number appears.

October 10, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from Mary at GFiber on my mobile phone, whom I spoke with on October 2. She was following up on the resolution to my phone connection problem.
• Mary worked with me for about 45 minutes.
• I explained the situation, where we reconnected to our previous Internet provider, as she told us to do.
• I told Mary that we had problems calling our home phone number from our mobile phone in our GFiber phone number porting process.
• I told Mary that someone at GFiber told me that our phone number porting will be completed by October 11, i.e., tomorrow.
• Mary looked into our records and said she saw a difference in the October 11 date. She saw October 14, Columbus Day, as a potential problem since this date is a holiday. She changed the date to October 11.
• Mary told me to unplug our GFiber phone box and reconnect after one minute. This phone box rebooting seemed to resolve the issue of being unable to call our mobile phone to our home phone, where we answered it when it rang.
• However, I could not leave a message if I did not answer our home phone when called from my mobile phone. I would hear a few clicks, and the phone would drop in about 13 seconds.
• Mary said we needed to set up voice mail for our home phone via a mobile app, which she had me install. I felt very uncomfortable installing this app since Mary had me accept many options that gave Google access to much of my phone data. All I want is a voicemail recording. Why does Google need all this information for such a simple desire to receive and hear my voice messages?
• This work to install voice mail via my mobile phone did not resolve our problem. I was not able to leave a voice message on our home phone. Rebooting the GFiber phone device did not help.
• Mary said we should wait until tomorrow afternoon, October 11, to try leaving a phone message. October 11 is the date that the migration is to be completed.
• Mary said she would call me tomorrow afternoon.

October 11, 2024 (Phone Google Fiber Support Porting Problems)

Received an email from GFiber stating:

• Your number transfer is confirmed!
• Your GFiber Phone number transfer has been confirmed by your current provider.
• Your transfer is scheduled to take place on October 15, 2024, and we’ll send you a confirmation when it’s complete.

Mary called from GFiber. I told her about email from GFiber and how a call to our home phone still gives our temporary phone number and will not record a voice message

Mary said that there could have been a problem since Monday is a holiday per a scheduling date she saw previously

Mary said she will call back on October 15 to check our phone status

October 16, 2024

• A mobile phone call to home phone: No ringing on the home phone. For this call, I left a message in voice mail. No message light appeared on the home phone that there was a message.
• Home phone to mobile phone: I heard the mobile phone number voice message over my voice.
• Mary did not call me like she said she would.
• I called 866-777-7550. I asked to speak with Mary (who is familiar with my situation) as Mary had previously said. Lanna said she could not connect me to a specific representative.
• Ms. MM put me on hold several times. My phone conversations with her probably took more than an hour to conduct the tasks below.
• She asked if I had unplugged and replugged my GFiber phone device. I said no. I could not do this while I was on the phone with her.
• She hung up, and I unplugged and replugged the phone device. After this resetting, I still had the same problem.
• She said to do a factory reset on the phone box by pushing a small recessed button on the bottom of the device for 20 seconds. After pressing the button, the lights change from red and blue to a constant blue, indicating the rebooting process was complete.
• The same problem occurred after the factory reset button pushing procedure.
• She called my home phone number, and my mobile number rang, i.e., my home phone forwarded her call to my mobile phone.
• She from fiber Google fiber Support worked with me to change the settings on my mobile phone’s GFiber app, “Voice.” After this, my home phone still did not ring, and the call was not forwarded to my mobile phone.
• She scheduled a GFiber person to visit our home to resolve the problem. At 11:00 AM tomorrow.

October 17, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• Two GFiber technicians called and requested an early arrival than our scheduled time of 11:00 AM. I agreed.
• These technicians, Mr. AA, and Mr. BB, were experienced. Mr. AA worked at AT&T for five years and one year at GFiber. BB worked at Spectrum for 15 years and only a few days at GFiber.
• I demonstrated how an echo occurred when I called from my desk phone when listening to my pharmacy’s voice system.
• I instructed Mr. AA to call my home phone. My home phone did not ring, which demonstrated the other problem with our home phone.
• Mr. AA said there was a problem with my desk phone since calling out from other home phones in our house did not have the echo. I told Mr. AA that this was not a problem with my desk phone since it worked with my previous Internet provider’s phone system. Eventually, Mr. AA and Mr.BB discovered the problem was that my desk phone was connected to my last provider’s modem. Disconnecting this connection resolved the differences between phones. However, we still had the problem of no ringing when calling our home phone.
• Mr. AA contacted his help desk. At one point, Mr. AA indicated that our phone number was fully ported. Another time, Mr. AA indicated that our phone number was not fully ported. Mr. AA said we should terminate our past Internet provider’s service and phone number, which he “hoped” would resolve the problem. I told Mr. AA that disconnecting service from our past phone provider made no sense since it is doubtful that other phone transfers that GFiber made would require this action from their new customers.
• While the two GFiber technicians were at our home, I called the help desk of our last Internet provider to check the status of our home phone number porting from their end. They said they still own our home phone number, i.e., the porting is incomplete.
• These technicians were at our home for about 2 hours without resolving our phone problem. The technicians thought that if my previous provider released my phone number, this might fix my problem.
• Mr. AA created a GFiber ticket number CEW374087075, before they left.
• Mr. AA said I should follow up with GFiber (866-777-7550) on the progress of this ticket.
• At 4:30 PM, I called GFiber (866-777-7550) to check on the progress of my ticket. I was on the phone for perhaps one hour with Ms. GG. Ms. GG looked at the GFiber ticket but still asked me many questions about my problem. I answered these questions. She put me on hold many times. She then told me to open the GFiber app on my mobile phone. She had me open ObiTALK, but the options it gave me were not what she wanted. I asked her why we were looking at a phone app when the GFiber ticket from the technicians said that our home phone number was still with our previous provider, not GFiber. She said she did not know this. She put me on hold again. She said I needed to contact my previous provider to release our phone number. I told her this was inconsistent with what the techs said; they said GFiber should contact my previous provider (e.g., via email). She said that is what I needed to do, i.e., call my previous Internet provider to release my phone number.
• I called my previous Internet phone provider. I had a long discussion with Ms. HH. There was much confusion. I told her that her company had just billed me another $45.16/month charge. She looked at the notes for my home phone number. Eventually, she said that my phone number was released today, October 17, 2024.
• After this phone conversation, I unplugged and replugged my GFiber phone box. I then dialed my home phone number from my mobile number. Still no ring. I left a voice message that went into my GFiber voice app. The message light on my phone did not come on.

October 18, 2024 (Phone Porting Problems)

• Our home phone rang when there was a call from a mobile phone.
• When I left a message on our home phone, the message light did not come on.
• A message left on our home phone did appear in my GFiber voice app.
• However, I want my desk phone to have the same function that it had with my previous Internet phone provider.
• I called GFiber (866-777-7550) at 10:00 AM. I told Mr. HHH I could not hear our phone ring when there was a call. However, the message light did not come on.
• After returning from a hold period, he said GFiber does not support this function. I asked him how I could find out from the phone that there was a message. He said you can’t. I told Mr. HHH that my previous Internet phone provider did, and a neighbor’s phone with GFiber has a phone light that comes on when there is a phone message.
• HHH said that if there is a message, you can depress on the phone *99 to hear the message (our previous phone provider was *98). After hanging up and leaving a message on my home phone, depressing *99 (or *98) only gave two tones.
• I told Mr. HHH that I was an unhappy new GFiber customer since I could not have the functions I had with my previous provider.
• I returned our previous Internet provider equipment for the second time and terminated service with them.

Summary

1. The time from my first scheduled installation to an actual installation of GFiber in my home (without GFiber phone being operational via fiber Google Fiber Support) was 27 days (August 24 to September 20, 2024). The time, including my phone installation, was 55 days (On October 18, 2024, phone porting was complete, but not to my satisfaction, i.e., does not have all the function that our previous provider included).
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. Our home phone porting was very painful and took much time. After everything was done, my phone interaction is not as good as it was in the past in that I have no idea if I have voice mail by looking at my phone, i.e., my phone light does not now illuminate when there is a phone message.
11. For GFiber installation, I met with or was involved with 5 GFiber employees (some several times).
12. For GFiber installation, I met with or spoke with 12 different GFiber contractors (some several times).
13. For GFiber installation, I spoke on the phone with 12 people to schedule my installation or attempt to resolve my GFiber installation issues.
14. For GFiber porting problems, I had more than twenty conversations.
15. This effort was a lot to undertake for basically increasing our Internet speed from 1 Gig to 2 Gig.

Conclusions from My Google Fiber Installation Issues Experience

1. The above descriptions of my google fiber support installation issues experience 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 Google Fiber support 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