Tuesday, January 16, 2007

I have never been as mad at a service provider as I am now with Verizon. They have caused so much interuption in my work yesterday and today, most likely tomorrow, and possibly for a week.

If you were planning to switch to FiOs, watch out. I signed up with a saleswoman on the phone a couple of weeks ago. My super duper new internet service was supposed to be installed Monday. I had to arrange to be there for 4-6 hours. So I did.

No show. No call. Actually, when a Verizon representative called, she was calling to see if I'd like to sign up for FiOS. She investigated my complaint and had to reschedule me for the 25th.

Then I lost my internet connection. I tried all the standard rebooting procedures. I checked my wires and firewalls. I rebooted in a different order and checked my network connections. Nothing.

So this morning I spent an hour getting to a human being to see if they could figure out why I have no connection. After working with a girl somewhere in the far east for half an hour, she determined that the cause of my problem was that Verizon had cancelled my DSL service. Didn't I have FiOS now?
grrrr
So I was transferred to billing. The young man I ranted to was frightened into reducing my bill, but he couldn't give me internet service. Well, he offered dial-up, but that doesn't count.
So I waded through all those computerized switchboards to get to another human hopefully empowerd to restore my DSL. I did get someone, but she was working with someone else on my problem and asked to call back.

By now I had to leave. I needed to do some things for my exciting new job which I was hoping to post about today. So she said she'd call on my cell. She did and said that my DSL should be restored at home.

I returned home a few hours later to find she was wrong. Still no service. I called again. It is so annoying how many times you have to repeat the number you are calling about. I had a computer tell me to call back. I was disconnected. When I finally got back to another human tonight, I was told I had to call during business hours.

If Verizon can't restore my DSL tomorrow, I'm switching providers.
Any recomendations? I like Earthlink's commercials, but that might not be enough.

3 comments:

Lolita's Momma said...

oh my! they just lost me as a potential customer. i'll stick to cable.

Anne said...

You need to make it painfully clear to them they are about to lose you as a three-way customer if they can't get this straight, like yesterday, and give you 3 months free in all services: land phone, wireless, and Internet. But, I'm happy with Cingular as my wireless carrier, if you're going to cancel all things Verizon.

Linda said...

The way to get through to an actual human is to say "cancel service" when prompted. That gets them on real quick. Keep us posted--I've been holding out on digital Comcast waiting to see how FIOS is. Sending you calming energy....