A thumb of the nose to Verizon

[vsp]

Originally Posted by wolf

I know you love DSL, vsp, but you seem to have a lot of problems with it.

The service _itself_ has been superb, with few exceptions. The _tech support_ can be excruciating, as you need to fight your way past the first few waves of drones before getting someone who can actually diagnose things instead of reading a checklist.

In the years I've had my 768k DSL, I've had only one period of downtime I can think of that required intervention, and that was cleared up in thirty seconds once it reached Level 3 tech support. The uptime has otherwise been very steady, the USENET servers have unbelievable retention for a major provider, and transfer speeds have been very consistent at all times. They had a region-wide DHCP issue recently that fucked up Guild Wars and had a lot of people (myself included) upset, but they seem to have fixed that within a couple of days of hubbub being raised, which I can live with.

Where I've had problems with them is not with what I've had, but with what I've sought (faster speeds) and been told that I could have, only to end up being disappointed when it turns out the person who said I could have it was a fuckwit.

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Have you looked at their DSL service-on web page?

Heh. I just plugged in my buddy's phone number, and this is what I got:

<img src="http://img233.echo.cx/img233/2203/dsl3vc.jpg" border="0" width="577" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" />

The second block contradicts the fourth. If the Scheduled Ready Date is indeed still June 6th, then why is the "You may now install" checkbox checked, and why did he get a recorded phone call from Verizon saying "You may now install" two days ago?

When I called the phone number on the DSL installation documentation and checked order status, it said "Your service is active as of May 31st," not June 6th.

SOMETHING's cocked up date-wise.

What killed me was that as an existing Verizon customer, I can dig up tech support and work around issues. (I found a chat function thing on Verizon Online's web site, but I needed a working Internet connection _and_ a Verizon Online login and password, which he didn't have yet, to activate it.) My friend Rick, on the other hand, can barely work a toaster when it comes to technology, and people like him who need basic-level support most are the ones being told to install at a time when the support isn't available. Hah?