My 5G Home Internet Experience (plus how to easily return your equipment)

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share my Verizon 5G Home Internet experience. I'm so disappointed I ended up returning the system, because it was mostly great and I really wanted to keep it. I signed up on Cyber Monday to take advantage of the free Xbox promo. I've seen a lot of negative posts and reviews about what a nightmare returning the hardware is, so I decided to share my experience on here as well as some tips. Here was my experience in a nutshell:

First, the good:

  • Signing up was so easy. Got the WiFi router/gateway in 2 days, as expected.
  • Setting up the WiFi router/gateway was sooo easy. It truly was plug and play. Install the Verizon app, follow the instructions, I was online in 5-10 minutes.
  • The Verizon app isn't amazing, but it gets the job done. It has tools to help you determine the best location to put the router, and it really did help. The app will tell you where the nearest cell towers are, where to put the router, what the signal strength is, and where to move it for better results.
  • My first placed location wasn't great, so I moved in with the app's suggestions, and like magic, speeds were much, much better.
  • Speeds during Mon-Fri morning and afternoon were great. After moving my hardware I got 300mbps down. Upload speeds were around 10-15mbps which is fine.
  • Requesting the WiFi extender in the app was easy. Also received the WiFI extender in 2 days flat. Super easy to set it up.

Now, the not-so-good:

  • All the reviews are right, speeds drop a lot during nights and weekends. My download speeds would be 300mbps at 10:00am, and then 25mbps at 7:00pm for example. Same with weekends, speeds would drop at lot and it was clear mobile users get priority.
  • This wouldn't be a huge issue honestly for the most part if it wasn't for online gaming performance. Latency was terrible for online gaming. Both wireless and with ethernet plugged into the gateway. Games would lag no matter what I would do, and it would be worse during nights and weekends.

If you use the network for streaming, browsing and most other needs - it's perfect. No issues. Can't complain with $45.00 per month either. However, the network is simply not enough for gaming unfortunately. The latency is just terrible.

Cancelling the service and returning the equipment:

As much as I wanted it to work, I decided to cancel and give up 3 weeks after signing up while still within my 30 day return window. Returning the equipment was so easy. I didn't call customer service even once.

I took both the router and the WiFi extender to my nearest Verizon corporate store (not a reseller etc) and explained my situation to them. I did this before cancelling anything or calling customer support. I visited the store while my service was still active.

They took the hardware, scanned the barcodes and serial numbers, and confirmed my service was cancelled. Gave me a receipt and that was it. Done. Took 15 minutes, zero issues whatsoever.

Because I never claimed the free Xbox offer, I had zero issues there. I even got my $45 back as a credit on my next bill (I still had to pay for that first bill after signing up). I basically got my full money back without asking.

TLDR: Verizon 5G Home Internet is great unless you plan on gaming. Love the service, love how easy it was to sign up, love the price. The promos/price/deals aren't bad at all.

That being said, if you do plan on gaming, it likely will not be ideal for you. Return the equipment to a Verizon corporate store before cancelling anything. They can accept the return and take the equipment from you.