Verizon seems to be in complete chaos today after completely screwing
up my dry-loop DSL order over a month ago when I canceled my land-line
in favor of Vonage. They had no records of my dry loop being
installed and had some dry-loop number reserved for me but never
installed.

Two techs were here yesterday and couldn't make sense out of it. They
came because my service kept going down. They used my computer to run
a test and the result said that the modem was off -- now THAT is
screwed up.

This morning, the internet died. Dead. So I called Verizon and they
seemed like an 8-armed Indian God where the 3rd arm from the left
didn't know what the 2nd arm from the right was doing. I was on the
phone for over an hour.

The final result was that I had to cancel the non-working DSL number
that was never hooked up. That will take 3 to 5 business days. After
that, I have to call them back and re-order DSL. It'll be another 3
to 5 days to get it hooked up. Sure I'll call them. ;-)
Meanwhile, I called our local cable company and got internet through
them. $5 per month more for 4.5X the speed. It's up and running but
they are sending a tech out tomorrow to get the speed up to where it
should be. It is only running at 2X DSL speed right now. The is a
bit more latency in it that DSL but I'll live with it.

So in the last 6 weeks I have dropped my land-line service and my DSL
service. Tomorrow the fax line goes, too, because I have a cloud-
based service to do that for a LOT less than Verizon. So tomorrow
this will be a Verizon-free zone.

It is hard to believe how much technology has changed. Not long ago
Verizon was the ONLY way to get phone service and AT&T was a
monopoly. Now, they are gone from my house. Wow.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a pretty good job
of it. Too bad he didn't invent Customer Service to go along with it.

My brother also had an adventure with Verizon DSL in Hacienda Heights CA.
He was struggling with extreme latency and slow speeds (less than modem
speed) and Verizon kept telling him to check his inside phone wires, DSL
filters, etc. He went into the attic numerous times to double check the
wires. Finally after he got mad and persisted, Verizon switched his DSL to
another phone switching circuit (or whatever it's called) at the telco and
then he finally got decent speed! But they gave him the run around for a
while.

In article , Pat wrote:

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a pretty good job
of it. Too bad he didn't invent Customer Service to go along with it.

Bell Telephone always had outstanding customer service. Verizon customer
service, OTOH, has always sucked, all the way back when they were GTE
(Generally Terrible Electronics).

scorpionleather wrote:
My brother also had an adventure with Verizon DSL in Hacienda Heights
CA. He was struggling with extreme latency and slow speeds (less than
modem speed) and Verizon kept telling him to check his inside phone
wires, DSL filters, etc. He went into the attic numerous times to
double check the wires. Finally after he got mad and persisted, Verizon
switched his DSL to another phone switching circuit (or whatever it's
called) at the telco and then he finally got decent speed! But they
gave him the run around for a while.
Have had similar problems with Verizon.
My DSL was very slow. I ordered
3 meg DSL and was getting, at best, a
little over 1 meg and at times, under
50K. The non customer service in Asia
had me doing things like changing
the data cable from the modem to the
computer and the phone wire from
the phone line to the modem. They said
that I HAD to connect the modem
wall wart DIRECTLY to a wall outlet and
NOT an outlet strip ... like that
will make a difference. They DEMANDED
that the phone line from the
modem be connected DIRECTLY to a
telephone wall jack. I explained
that I am in a motor home and there is
no wall jack. I told them there is
a wire connected to the customer
interface on the house next to the motor
home and wire goes directly from there
to the modem. They repeated the
script line that the modem HAD to be
connected DIRECTLY to the the
wall jack like they didn't even hear
what I told them. After getting the
whole thing escalated to tier 2, still
in Asia, they changed some of the
router settings in the office. Things
improved somewhat, but I still never
got over 1.5 meg. Then they tell me I
CAN'T GET 3 MEG DSL because
my line is "not qualified for it".
Apparently, I am too far away from the
remote terminal. BUT, I still pay the
same .... apparently, 1.5meg and 3
meg are are same price. I'm putting up
with this because it is only temporary
as I will be moving. The new location
is closer to a brand new remote
terminal (slc or the like) and hopefully
things will improve. This line is very
very noisy ... lots of clicking and
popping and lots of 60 Hz longitudinal
hum. BTW, Verizon has just announced
selling off their land line business
to Frontier another company that I'm not
sure will be an improvement.
Right now, this is probably the only way
to get internet service other than
3G off cell towers, also Verizon.

Doug Miller wrote:
In article , Pat wrote:

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a pretty good job
of it. Too bad he didn't invent Customer Service to go along with it.

Bell Telephone always had outstanding customer service. Verizon customer
service, OTOH, has always sucked, all the way back when they were GTE
(Generally Terrible Electronics).

Not particularly in love with Verizon but consider what someone needed
to pay Bell Telephone in today's dollars vs Verizon or most other
carriers. People want cheap. They got it.

Not particularly in love with Verizon but consider what someone needed
to pay Bell Telephone in today's dollars vs Verizon or most other
carriers. People want cheap. They got it.

I have suffered thru FIOS HELL

Including a noisey router so 1 of 12 callers couldnt be heard thru the
static, had to call every day for 3 weeks to get it finally fixed, it
was a bad router at the central office. not bad iunside wiring every
rep said that.

I get at least one mailing daily and many verizon sales people at my
door, even after calling the police on one who didnt have a permit,
the last couple said they were verizon contractors but refused to
identify their employeer.

I could of heated my home for the wnter by burning all the flyers they
send.

my FIOS backup battery failed after 6 months causing a alarm beeping.
they wanted me to pay for the replacement battery which was supposed
to last 6 or 8 years. they finally agreed it should be covered under
warranty but it took over 2 weeks to get a replacement battery. worse
reps dont know about the alarm silence button.

attempts to cancel for poor service gets your under 2 year contract
the penalty is hundreds of dollars.

I WILL NEVER BE UNDER CONTRACT WITH VERIZON FOR ANYTHING!

if it works great if you have a problem your out of
luck, ..............

and in for lots of frustration

George wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
In article
,
Pat wrote:

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a pretty good job
of it. Too bad he didn't invent Customer Service to go along with it.

Bell Telephone always had outstanding customer service. Verizon
customer service, OTOH, has always sucked, all the way back when they
were GTE (Generally Terrible Electronics).

Not particularly in love with Verizon but consider what someone needed
to pay Bell Telephone in today's dollars vs Verizon or most other
carriers. People want cheap. They got it.

Yabbut, when I was a kid, having a working land line was waaaay more
important than it is today. And, I don't ever remember the phone going
out. Ever.

Today, with Verizon, the service is worse and still more expensive than
my cell service. (well, OK, as of two-three years ago, when I gave up
on them)

My parents live in a rural area with poor cell coverage. Their phone
TODAY goes out all the time, and I don't remember that happening when I
lived with them. That worries me somewhat, but they are still able
bodied enough to walk or drive to somewhere with cell coverage if they
have to.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Jun 19, 12:00*am, Pat wrote:
Verizon seems to be in complete chaos today after completely screwing
up my dry-loop DSL order over a month ago when I canceled my land-line
in favor of Vonage. *They had no records of my dry loop being
installed and had some dry-loop number reserved for me but never
installed.

Two techs were here yesterday and couldn't make sense out of it. *They
came because my service kept going down. *They used my computer to run
a test and the result said that the modem was off -- now THAT is
screwed up.

This morning, the internet died. *Dead. *So I called Verizon and they
seemed like an 8-armed Indian God where the 3rd arm from the left
didn't know what the 2nd arm from the right was doing. *I was on the
phone for over an hour.

The final result was that I had to cancel the non-working DSL number
that was never hooked up. *That will take 3 to 5 business days. *After
that, I have to call them back and re-order DSL. *It'll be another 3
to 5 days to get it hooked up. *Sure I'll call them. *;-)
Meanwhile, I called our local cable company and got internet through
them. *$5 per month more for 4.5X the speed. *It's up and running but
they are sending a tech out tomorrow to get the speed up to where it
should be. *It is only running at 2X DSL speed right now. *The is a
bit more latency in it that DSL but I'll live with it.

So in the last 6 weeks I have dropped my land-line service and my DSL
service. *Tomorrow the fax line goes, too, because I have a cloud-
based service to do that for a LOT less than Verizon. *So tomorrow
this will be a Verizon-free zone.

It is hard to believe how much technology has changed. *Not long ago
Verizon was the ONLY way to get phone service and AT&T was a
monopoly. *Now, they are gone from my house. *Wow.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a pretty good job
of it. *Too bad he didn't invent Customer Service to go along with it.

Today the Cable company tech came out because my internet was supposed
to be 8 mbps and it was running at 3 (still twice the DSL speed). He
changed by grounding block due to corrosion (his exact words were, "Oh
my God, that's an antique") (it was at least 20 years old). He then
ran a new cable line for me -- straight from where it hit the house to
the modem. Not it is running between 5 mbps and 11 mbps, depending on
the test, time of day, voodoo and whatever.

There is definitely more lag with this than with the DSL but it also
didn't take 2 weeks to get installed. I did the self install myself,
they tested it from somewhere in PA, and then the tech was there at
10:00 the next morning. You can't beat that.

The tech said that he and the other tech that handle this area (we are
a small community of about 5,000) were doing 9 phone installs today.
Wow. Verizon must not be doing any new installs. That's a lot for a
city of this size.

I don't like the lag but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Here's an interesting detail I found out that is SIGNIFICANTLY
different between cable and DSL. For cable, they provision (register)
the modem but really don't know where it is. So you can take it to
someplace else in the same cable system locality and plug it into
their cable and it'll work. So for example, if my kid is going to a
friend's house for a night of on-line gaming, he could take the router
and plug it into the friend's cable and it'll work. Therefore they
can meet up and bring the highest speed with them for the night.
That's pretty wild.