frank1492 top-poasted:

Each of the major players has a "direct support" forum, where you
can post your problem and only a bona-fide company rep get to read
and act on them, and will communicate with you as the problem is
worked on.

I will do what you have suggested but am tied up with another matter
at the moment. What can the DSLReports tech do that the phone company
couldn't?

Just to clarify something:

The techs that answer the questions posted to the direct forums on
dslreports work for the various companies (Verizon, Comcast, ATT, etc).
Their normal dayjob is with those companies. They have an arrangement
with DSLReports which gives them the ability to read and deal with the
issues posted by customers.

I don't know the history of how that arrangement came about, but I can
imagine that as DSLreports became popular as the place people went to to
discuss cable, telecom and internet issues, and as the various big
companies were slow (or still haven't) developed a credible on-line
service portal of their own, it became clear that having a presence on
dslreports was beneficial to everyone concerned.