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#1
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother
trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate |
#2
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote:
.... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... -- |
#3
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote:
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why don't more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate Does she have Verizon FiOS service? If so she may have a problem with the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) attached to her house. It requires constant power and may be plugged into a switched outlet. Once her service has been set up and verified operational the chances of having a phone problem in the network is slim unless there are group outages. |
#4
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:13:19 -0700 (PDT), N8N
wrote: I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate This guy visited the CEO's home. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdO9x8bjmg |
#5
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:54:51 -0700, Oren wrote Re
for those of you who say land lines are reliable: This guy visited the CEO's home. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdO9x8bjmg Good one! -- I filter all messages from google groups. |
#6
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message ... I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) My AT&T Pots line has been as reliable as government taxation for the last 20 years. |
#7
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote:
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Six or seven years ago on Long Island Verizon dug up one of their own cables, which was not where their drawings said it was. Of course the circuits were duplicated -- but the duplicates were in the same cable bundle! Perce |
#8
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 2:44*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:13:19 -0700 (PDT), N8N wrote: Does she have POTS service or the new broadband deal? Dunno about him, but my folks have Verizon POTS service, and it goes out about once a year. They call Verizon and they ALWAYS, without fail, threaten my mother that if they find the problem inside the house, that she will have to pay for the repairs. They don't inform, they THREATEN. |
#9
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote:
N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? yes. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... the only reason they still have it is that satellite would be their only other way of 'net connectivity. nate |
#10
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 2:44*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:13:19 -0700 (PDT), N8N wrote: I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. *I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. *Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate Does she have POTS service or the new broadband deal? POTS. There is no "new broadband deal" in their area. My Embarq/Sprint/United Telephone service has NEVER been down in 25 years except for an hour or two when they were switching over the overhead wires to underground fiber backbone with underground feeds to the homes. You're lucky. My own experiences with Verizon (in two different states, and nowhere near where my parents live) were equally ****ty. nate |
#11
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 4:10*pm, wrote:
On Aug 5, 2:44*pm, wrote: On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:13:19 -0700 (PDT), N8N wrote: Does she have POTS service or the new broadband deal? Dunno about him, but my folks have Verizon POTS service, and it goes out about once a year. They call Verizon and they ALWAYS, without fail, threaten my mother that if they find the problem inside the house, that she will have to pay for the repairs. They don't inform, they THREATEN. make them put in one of those grey demarc boxes where the wire enters the house, that way they can say with 100% certainty that the failure is Not Their Problem by simply plugging a hard wired phone into the demarc with the line going into the house disconnected. nate |
#12
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 2:13*pm, N8N wrote:
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. *I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. *Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate I've been owned, sold and bought again by AT&T a couple of times in the last 30 years. It's always been reliable (except, e.g., when a backhoe ran over the box in the front yard.) I think we're forced to conclude that it's Verizon that's ****ty. When the power in the East went out in 2003, our land line performed like a champ. Cell phones were useless, not just because they couldn't be charged, but also because they were swamped by people using them who only had cordless phones at home. They'll pry my 2-pound (I really should weigh it) Western Electric desk phone out of my cold, dead hands. (They'll have to shoot me first, because it's an effective bludgeon.) Cindy Hamilton |
#13
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 4:10 pm, wrote: On Aug 5, 2:44 pm, wrote: On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:13:19 -0700 (PDT), N8N wrote: Does she have POTS service or the new broadband deal? Dunno about him, but my folks have Verizon POTS service, and it goes out about once a year. They call Verizon and they ALWAYS, without fail, threaten my mother that if they find the problem inside the house, that she will have to pay for the repairs. They don't inform, they THREATEN. make them put in one of those grey demarc boxes where the wire enters the house, that way they can say with 100% certainty that the failure is Not Their Problem by simply plugging a hard wired phone into the demarc with the line going into the house disconnected. Make sure you understand who owns the box. I had an phone line problem that turned out to have been caused by a bad connection in the box. The phone company said their lines were fine, and it was my problem. The box is theirs, but the guy testing the lines was not experienced or knowledgable enough to test the box itself. I ended up having to fix the phone companys problem to get my phones to work right. |
#14
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. She is a very small miniority. My phone line has only had problems once in the last 20 years. My internet connection can't go a week without experiencing outages. And cable? I've had cable in many homes and buildings and I've never once found it to be reliable enough that I would trust my telephone service to it. YMMV... |
#15
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
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#16
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message
... She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. Land lines are reliable because they are powered by the nearest relay station, not the household electric supply, thus function OK during local power outages. Of course they are wholly reliable only with a wired connection. Cordless phones fail during local outages (because they need household current to maintain the base station.) The OP did not say whether the mother uses a reliable wired phone or a vulnerable cordless phone. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#17
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
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#18
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
dpb wrote:
N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? And more importantly did she pick a cell carrier that actually has lots of battery and also generators on most all of their equipment? I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... -- |
#19
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
Don Phillipson wrote:
"N8N" wrote in message ... She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. Land lines are reliable because they are powered by the nearest relay station, not the household electric supply, thus function OK during local power outages. Of course they are wholly reliable only with a wired connection. Cordless phones fail during local outages (because they need household current to maintain the base station.) The OP did not say whether the mother uses a reliable wired phone or a vulnerable cordless phone. Both, so there are wired phones in the house. They're not idiots either, they know enough to t'shoot a house problem vs. telco problem. It used to be only a couple times a year that it'd go down but it is becoming more and more frequent as time goes by. nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel |
#20
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
Zootal wrote:
"N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. She is a very small miniority. My phone line has only had problems once in the last 20 years. My internet connection can't go a week without experiencing outages. And cable? I've had cable in many homes and buildings and I've never once found it to be reliable enough that I would trust my telephone service to it. YMMV... I have Cox cable and internet and if the power is on, the cable is on. In fact it's more reliable than the power. I've successfully been online while the power has been out (laptop; cable modem on UPS) nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel |
#21
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 6:40*pm, Nate Nagel wrote:
Zootal wrote: "N8N" wrote in message .... On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! *She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. *Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. She is a very small miniority. My phone line has only had problems once in the last 20 years. My internet connection can't go a week without experiencing outages. And cable? I've had cable in many homes and buildings and I've never once found it to be reliable enough that I would trust my telephone service to it. YMMV... I have Cox cable and internet and if the power is on, the cable is on. In fact it's more reliable than the power. *I've successfully been online while the power has been out (laptop; cable modem on UPS) nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.http://members.cox.net/njnagel After many years with Verizon, I started having problems with them - I was being charged for out of area calls that I hadn't made. They said they could send someone out to check my line to see if it was crossed with another line but if it was not - so that it wasn't their fault, I would be charged a service charge. I switched to Bright House for telephone. Already had Road Runner and TV.... Verizon has bad customer service down here. Stories in the paper last year, said that people were complaining to the state attorney's office about them. |
#22
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 4:19*pm, N8N wrote:
On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! *She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. *Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? yes. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... the only reason they still have it is that satellite would be their only other way of 'net connectivity. nate Sounds like you live out in the boonies. Verizon doesnt own the lines you are on but probably leases them from some mom and pop phone company that is 30 years behind everyone else. Jimmie |
#23
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
Nate Nagel wrote:
Zootal wrote: "N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. She is a very small miniority. My phone line has only had problems once in the last 20 years. My internet connection can't go a week without experiencing outages. And cable? I've had cable in many homes and buildings and I've never once found it to be reliable enough that I would trust my telephone service to it. YMMV... I have Cox cable and internet and if the power is on, the cable is on. In fact it's more reliable than the power. I've successfully been online while the power has been out (laptop; cable modem on UPS) nate Funny thing, a DSL signal can actually jump a tiny break in a POTS line that would keep analog service from working. A VOIP phone would work when the regular phone wouldn't. I've seen it happen. TDD |
#24
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote:
N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? It's called a car-charger. I bet she had one. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... -- |
#25
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 7:30*pm, JIMMIE wrote:
On Aug 5, 4:19*pm, N8N wrote: On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! *She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. *Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? yes. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself.... the only reason they still have it is that satellite would be their only other way of 'net connectivity. nate Sounds like you live out in the boonies. Verizon doesnt own the lines you are on but probably leases them from some mom and pop phone company that is 30 years behind everyone else. Jimmie I sort of live in the boonies, about 200 yards off of the Rez, and we had Verizon. You couldn't even call what they have "Customer Service". It was horrid. The caused a DSL problem that took 2 weeks to diagnose. At one point the tech was on my computer doing a ping test and it came back that my modem was off. He called "the engineer" who said to turn the modem on, duh. The techies said "but I just ran the test using the modem". Once they realized it was a problem, they said the ONLY solution was to discontinue my non-existent DSL (5 to 10 business days) and then re-order it (5 to 10 business days). That was about lunchtime. But dinner time I had my cable modem up and running and it hasn't been down since. I have Vonage for my phone and faxage for my fax. During blackouts, all cell towers around here have generators so that isn't a problem. Good riddance to Verizon. |
#26
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N, 8/5/2009,4:19:59 PM, wrote:
You're lucky. My own experiences with Verizon (in two different states, and nowhere near where my parents live) were equally ****ty. As a former Verizon FiOS employee who left on my own accord I can tell you there will continue to be ****ty customer and technical service as long as they treat their employees as they do now. Morale is so low that no one wants to take accountability for any issues that require more than 11 minutes to fix. That's right, once you finally get through to the service center the call center representative must fix your problem in 11 minutes or get you off the phone any way they can. If somehow they can justify sending it to the network technician (Level 2) you better hope the first guy who picks up your trouble ticket doesn't just drop it back in the bucket or it'll go through many hands before someone decides to actually work on a difficult problem. God forbid you may actually need a field technician to come out. You must choose either 4-hour or 8-hour blocks of time for that service call. You better be watching the front door also because many of the servicemen will creep up to your door and lightly rap on it and then leave a NO_SHOW tag. Verizon thinks good pay and good benefits make up for bad employee management and constant screaming of "GET THEM OFF THE PHONE!" Couple that with the worthless tools and training provided to the employees and you have a recipe for horrid service. As an employee and now former employee I would not purchase their FiOS service only because I know what happens behind the scenes when you have a problem. Their Verizon Wireless service is a tad better and essentially carries the company. The copper line service is on the way out and they are trying to sell it to whomever will take it. |
#27
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) I've been a homeowner for 43 years in a couple of different states. I honestly can't think of a singe time I did not have phone service, even in severe storms when power was out. Cell reception, OTOH, is very spotty. I don't doubt your mother's problems, but she is a very tiny minority. I'm keeping my land line, and the DSL that is more reliable than my cable service. |
#28
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote:
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) She said she was calling her state representative AGAIN to complain, and that several neighbors were without service as well... nate Hi, Of course land line is reliable. It is the problem of Verizon. I have lived in this city since the spring of 1970. I don't recall any time our phone was down. Had couple power failures which lasted like couple minutes each time. |
#29
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote in
: On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. Explain? OK. 99.95% of the time when I use my land line it works fine & clear. 99.95% of the time when I call someone on a land line it's fine & clear. 99.95% of the time when I use a land line it doesn't disconnect. 99.95% of the time when I call a land line they don't disconnect. 99.95% of the time when I call a cell phone it sucks. Excuse me? What did you say? Are you still there. What was that? Huh? 99.95% of the time when a cell phone calls me I'm always saying Excuse me? What did you say? Are you still there. What was that? Huh? 100% of the time a cell phone costs 4x that of a land line. 100% of the time land line local calls are not clocked. 100% of the time I don't need power company service to use the landline. 100% of the time I can call 911 on the cell I keep in the car that has no service. That is if the ****ing thing gets a signal. Explained. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? yes. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... the only reason they still have it is that satellite would be their only other way of 'net connectivity. nate |
#30
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
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#31
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 11:12*pm, PatM wrote:
On Aug 5, 2:30*pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. *Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? It's called a car-charger. *I bet she had one. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... --- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Back in the BAD old days before COMPETITION when only one telephone company was 'allowed' to operate in any one territory and land lines were almost the only form of technology available land lines were the ONLY RELIABLE means of phoning. Nowadays there are so many alternatives and providers. The one and only telephone company would 'apply' for rates to whatever was the state/provincial or national authority that had given itself the authority to REGULATE the phone system; but increases were not always granted. There was great pressure on the telephone companies as a result to provide reliable service throughout their total territories. An example: Some 55 years ago a hand crank magneto/battery telephone on a multi party line in an outlying rural area, provided you could get one, cost $1.67 per month. That included replacement phone batteries (which lasted several years) and an annual telephone book listing numbers. The manual switchboard service from an agent operator in someone's home in the community was generally very good; in one case a community was so satisfied that it petitioned to NOT have it's agency service replaced by dial! There were numerous MEASURERMENTS of the telephone system which included 'Speed of Service' (Dial tone), 'Speed of Answer' (Operator answer within ten seconds),'Held Orders' (Customers waiting for phone service, and the reason!), 'Outages' (Phone service disrupted/ interrupted for more than 24 hours, and reason.), also priority was given to 'Out of service' (Customers with broken service). And overtime would often be granted to work to restore service if there was anyone in a home sick/needing medical attention/disabled etc.). Some of these were sent regularly to the regulatory authority, which was often staffed by people familiar with the telephone industry and/ or familiar with the REGULATIONS under which the phone company operated. People often complained about the MONOPOLY that the telephone company had and exercised. By the same token the telephone company and it's employees were extremely conscious that they 'Were the only game in town' and stories are legendary about how telephone line staff and telephone operators would perform to maintain and restore service or get emergency calls through. These days it is very different; there are many companies competing for the customer's dollar and a much wider range of services available; many of which were, at least at first, considered more trivial and therefore less essential than POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Nowadays, texting, inter-net access even viewing movies via a cell phone is considered normal/essential. There are many varieties of cost packaging and companies spend a much greater amount of time on selling/marketing etc. in order to get a share of the market. Myself and members of my family have worked under both systems. The older monopoly and the newer competitive one. The emphasis today is on the bottom line. And customers are much more liable to be told "Well if you will live in Little Bottom Cove 45 miles from downtown behind two hills that block TV and cell phone signals (especially if digital!) you can't expect the reliability and grade of service as in an urban area! When there are more homes in your area, etc. etc. one of the competing companies may find it is worth their while to service your area more completely"! This of course still doesn't take the onus off the providing company to make reliable any service they are providing but the emphasis is definitely different than in days of yore. And since many of the alternatives depend on batteries (which have to recharged and/or electrcity supply, in the name of economy not every small electronic site has a backup generator, the newer-electronic technology modes are INHERENTLY less reliable than the two bits of copper wire connected to a switching unit (itself, these days, probably electronic!) in a telephone exchange with large 8 to 24 hour reserve batteries and quite possibly also a back-up automatic start generator. We gets what we pay for. Eh? |
#32
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
Red Green wrote:
N8N wrote in : On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. Explain? OK. 99.95% of the time when I use my land line it works fine & clear. 99.95% of the time when I call someone on a land line it's fine & clear. 99.95% of the time when I use a land line it doesn't disconnect. 99.95% of the time when I call a land line they don't disconnect. 99.95% of the time when I call a cell phone it sucks. Excuse me? What did you say? Are you still there. What was that? Huh? 99.95% of the time when a cell phone calls me I'm always saying Excuse me? What did you say? Are you still there. What was that? Huh? 100% of the time a cell phone costs 4x that of a land line. 100% of the time land line local calls are not clocked. 100% of the time I don't need power company service to use the landline. 100% of the time I can call 911 on the cell I keep in the car that has no service. That is if the ****ing thing gets a signal. Explained. Except your assertions are the exact opposite of my experience. Land line has MORE down time and is MORE expensive than my cell phone! Seriously, the last time I had "service" with Verizon it was approaching 25% down time (this was in MD) and my parents are rapidly approaching that point. nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel |
#33
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
Nate Nagel wrote:
Zootal wrote: "N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. She is a very small miniority. My phone line has only had problems once in the last 20 years. My internet connection can't go a week without experiencing outages. And cable? I've had cable in many homes and buildings and I've never once found it to be reliable enough that I would trust my telephone service to it. YMMV... I have Cox cable and internet and if the power is on, the cable is on. In fact it's more reliable than the power. I've successfully been online while the power has been out (laptop; cable modem on UPS) nate Comcast here. If the electric goes down they do too. I know this because they don't have battery in a lot of their remote equipment and saw it in action one day when I was sitting here and the power went off. The UPS kept everything up here but the cable modem instantly lost sync. requested a primary line |
#34
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
PatM wrote:
On Aug 5, 7:30 pm, JIMMIE wrote: On Aug 5, 4:19 pm, N8N wrote: On Aug 5, 2:30 pm, dpb wrote: N8N wrote: ... ...Verizon ... ... Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) Because the land line _IS_ more reliable. It never ****ing works! She called me on her cell phone to tell me her land line wasn't working again. Now explain to me how the land line is more reliable. Does she have backup generator to keep the cell charged during power outages, for example? yes. I'd never consider eliminating the land line in a rural area, meself... the only reason they still have it is that satellite would be their only other way of 'net connectivity. nate Sounds like you live out in the boonies. Verizon doesnt own the lines you are on but probably leases them from some mom and pop phone company that is 30 years behind everyone else. Jimmie I sort of live in the boonies, about 200 yards off of the Rez, and we had Verizon. You couldn't even call what they have "Customer Service". It was horrid. The caused a DSL problem that took 2 weeks to diagnose. At one point the tech was on my computer doing a ping test and it came back that my modem was off. He called "the engineer" who said to turn the modem on, duh. The techies said "but I just ran the test using the modem". Once they realized it was a problem, they said the ONLY solution was to discontinue my non-existent DSL (5 to 10 business days) and then re-order it (5 to 10 business days). That was about lunchtime. But dinner time I had my cable modem up and running and it hasn't been down since. I have Vonage for my phone and faxage for my fax. During blackouts, all cell towers around here have generators so that isn't a problem. Good riddance to Verizon. You may want to verify that too. If you see a typical multi carrier cell tower you will usually see one generator. It belongs to and is only used by the one carrier that is anal about that kind of thing. |
#35
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
VERIZON FIOS is NOT reliable took them 2 MONTHS to get a network tech
to find a bad router at the central office which effected EVERY FIOS customer in our area. geez I HAD to call every day for 3 weeks and esclate to the verizon presidents office. tried to cancel no sir we stand behind our crap servioce with a contract with 300 buck cancel fee, doesnt matter if your phone isnt reliable....... note to verizon contract up in october, I am canceling them the problem was finally fixed, but it shouldnt take 2 months when every 12th incoming call is all noise |
#36
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
In article , N8N wrote:
I just got a call from my mom, to tell me yet again to not bother trying to call on the land line, to call her cell instead if I need to tell her anything. Land lines *are* more reliable than cellular, and the signal quality is much higher. this is getting rediculous, Verizon There's the problem, right there! |
#37
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 5, 10:49*pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"N8N" wrote in message this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. *I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. *Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) I've been a homeowner for 43 years in a couple of different states. *I honestly can't think of a singe time I did not have phone service, even in severe storms when power was out. *Cell reception, OTOH, is very spotty.. I don't doubt your mother's problems, but she is a very tiny minority. *I'm keeping my land line, and the DSL that is more reliable than my cable service. It just seems odd to me that she would be in a "minority" when I've had the same problem in two different states. so that's at least three states in my experience where you can't count on the phone co. nate |
#38
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
N8N wrote:
On Aug 5, 10:49 pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote: "N8N" wrote in message this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) I've been a homeowner for 43 years in a couple of different states. I honestly can't think of a singe time I did not have phone service, even in severe storms when power was out. Cell reception, OTOH, is very spotty. I don't doubt your mother's problems, but she is a very tiny minority. I'm keeping my land line, and the DSL that is more reliable than my cable service. It just seems odd to me that she would be in a "minority" when I've had the same problem in two different states. so that's at least three states in my experience where you can't count on the phone co. nate Ed is referring to the idea of statistical sample size. Your observations (because there are so few) are just statistical noise at this point. |
#39
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
On Aug 6, 9:14*am, George wrote:
N8N wrote: On Aug 5, 10:49 pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote: "N8N" wrote in message this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. *I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. *Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? *(I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. *Otherwise...) I've been a homeowner for 43 years in a couple of different states. *I honestly can't think of a singe time I did not have phone service, even in severe storms when power was out. *Cell reception, OTOH, is very spotty. I don't doubt your mother's problems, but she is a very tiny minority. *I'm keeping my land line, and the DSL that is more reliable than my cable service. It just seems odd to me that she would be in a "minority" when I've had the same problem in two different states. *so that's at least three states in my experience where you can't count on the phone co. nate Ed is referring to the idea of statistical sample size. Your observations (because there are so few) are just statistical noise at this point. Then I must be colossally unlucky, having moved at least once a year for a while and ALWAYS having problems with my POTS. (and usually getting rude, indifferent service to boot.) I didn't bother having it turned on the last time I moved and I haven't yet missed it. Been there for almost three years now. nate |
#40
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for those of you who say land lines are reliable
"N8N" wrote in message ... On Aug 5, 10:49 pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote: "N8N" wrote in message this is getting rediculous, Verizon has to have the worst customer service of any "legitimate" company in the history of this country. I mean, I can't imagine anyone else providing such awful service and staying in business. Why *don't* more people just cancel their land lines? (I know why my parents don't, they live too far out in the country to get cable. Otherwise...) I've been a homeowner for 43 years in a couple of different states. I honestly can't think of a singe time I did not have phone service, even in severe storms when power was out. Cell reception, OTOH, is very spotty. I don't doubt your mother's problems, but she is a very tiny minority. I'm keeping my land line, and the DSL that is more reliable than my cable service. It just seems odd to me that she would be in a "minority" when I've had the same problem in two different states. so that's at least three states in my experience where you can't count on the phone co. nate I don't think anyone has mentioned that, at least here, Verizon will allow you to continue to purchase the DSL service when you drop your land line phone service as long as you can bundle the billing with another service such as Verizon wireless. Thinking about doing that as we almost never use our land line phone, especially since all of our friends and family (some 2000 miles away) have Verizon wireless and the long distance is free. I have to pay Verizon $5 per month on my land line because I never use the long distance service on it and they won't let me drop that long distance service. Tom G |
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