Verizon...ahh what a company

[melanie2]

so our phone has been going out off and on for about two weeks..and will eventually come back on..this last week when it happened again, after the phone came back on, i called Verizon..after a charming conversation with the computer, i was finally connected with a human..wow imagine that..a human on a phone..well anyway..when i told her about the problem, she rather talked me out of having a tech sent over yet..as it would cost us dearly...like one hundred dollars..so she should never have suggested that to me..because i followed it..and she said it's better to let them know of the problem while the phone is actually out..oooooo yea like that makes sense..seeing as how we don't own a cell..except for his track phone, which was with him at work..so yesterday morning it goes dead..and stays dead..and is still dead..they were supposed to come out yesterday between eight and five..we waited..we had to be home so she said..we waited..and waited..and waited..in the meantime the internet is still working of sorts..which is weird, as it's DSL connection..oo and get this..if it hadn't been for the fact our phone is connected to our alarm system or vice versa..they wouldn't have come until january 2nd..welllllllllllllllll they never did show up..so hubby calls the company...after speaking endearingly to the computer yet again..he gets the human..and she says...after assuring us all day...she says.. THEY ARE DONE FOR THE DAY..well he was livid..we friggin waited around all damn day...we had things to do..

so they are supposed to come today..is this anyway to run a phone company??? and although the internet is working..it's damn slow...as molasses in January..and damn frustrating..in the meantime last night he goes to verizon.net and rates their performance etc..you can imagine how well he rated them...

 

[meteor]

Are you on broad band we had similar pobs with british telecom went to Virgin Media broad band and problem solved £12 per month, for basic service internet, plus phone similar, plus calls about £50 per month, lot more when son was at home, don't know about USA system.

 

[poppameth1]

Do yo have a gray box on the outside of the house? This should be your junction box for the phone. You can open one side of it with a regular screw driver. There should be a set of regular phone jacks in there. If you only have one phone line there will probably only be one jack plugged in. Unplug it and plug a normal corded phone into the jack. Do this when your service seems to be out. If you get tone at the box, something is wrong in your house. You can also unplug the DSL modem from the line and see if that makes any difference. It's undoubtedly a Verizon problem. If it's with their equipment or in their line outside of the house though, it shouldn't cost you a dime for them to fix it. If it's something with the wiring in the house, that's a different story.

 

[melanie2]

no we don't have a gray box outside the house, as he looked yesterday since she told him to take a land phone out there and hook it to that..we don't have one in our basement either..also...i'm thinking that this isn't helping my modem any...and the fact that it takes forever for a page to load is frustrating as hell..as before it was lightning fast for DSL..runs screaming around the house...grrrrrrrrr

 

[the_jimmy_james]

Ditch POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) and replace it with wireless phones. I'll bet you already have cable TV. Get cable Internet.

 

[melanie2]

ah yes...maybe finally now hubby will listen to reason and get us cell phones..

and the phones are fixed...it was squirrels eating thru the lines..the neighbor's phone was off also..

 

[the_jimmy_james]

To me, there's honestly no reason to have POTS in this day and age, aside from sits where you can't get cable to your house and you want FAST ASS INTARWEBS. Then, they make you have phone service to get DSL, since ya know... they can't sell you one service without bilking you for some other garbage like shitty old telephones that you can only talk on. FO SIRIUS!

I'm not a good person to ask about telephones since I kinda hate them. They require your full attention during use for one. You can't do anything else involving sound, that's for sure. Fucking sucks because I can't talk on the phone and play guitar at the same time. That's why I only talk on the phone about twice a month for as short a time as possible.

 

[melanie2]

hmm well i would choose listening to a guitar also..i hate talking on the phone for the most part..hubby wants vonage, it's available now..however they don't do alarm systems..that's what sucks the most..the fact the alarm system needs the phone to work through to the main office of the alarm company..and i hate alarm systems...we got burglarized shortly after we moved in, so hence the alarm system...at night if i want something to drink, i have to turn it off first before i can go downstairs, since i would set off the motion detectors..

i bet you sound great on the guitar...

 

[the_jimmy_james]

hmm well i would choose listening to a guitar also..i hate talking on the phone for the most part..hubby wants vonage, it's available now..however they don't do alarm systems..that's what sucks the most..the fact the alarm system needs the phone to work through to the main office of the alarm company..and i hate alarm systems...we got burglarized shortly after we moved in, so hence the alarm system...at night if i want something to drink, i have to turn it off first before i can go downstairs, since i would set off the motion detectors..

Oooooh... that's right. Home alarms do require POTS. Okay, that's a good reason!

i bet you sound great on the guitar...

Not too bad. Been at it for 12 years.

 

[QueenBeeBeeMari]

WOW where is a manager when you need one!

 

[kopfhorer1]

...hubby wants vonage, it's available now..

No, Izzy! Don't do it!!

I made the mistake of subscribing to Vonage. Lousy service. Lousy equipment. Non-English-speaking, outsourced "customer service". Had to call the Attorney General's office on them at least once. When I tried to cancel, their outsourced script readers refused to take my cancellation order seriously until I pretty much told them what they could do with my account. I now use Skype. 2 cents a minute, even to Europe. Better sound quality on some calls than my POTS service. Totally reliable. No BS that I can see.

 

[poppameth1]

No, Izzy! Don't do it!!

I made the mistake of subscribing to Vonage. Lousy service. Lousy equipment. Non-English-speaking, outsourced "customer service". Had to call the Attorney General's office on them at least once. When I tried to cancel, their outsourced script readers refused to take my cancellation order seriously until I pretty much told them what they could do with my account. I now use Skype. 2 cents a minute, even to Europe. Better sound quality on some calls than my POTS service. Totally reliable. No BS that I can see.

Sounds about like Verizon's service.