Verizon DSL and phone service

On May 6, 2006 I called Verizon to set up a local telephone service account and a DSL account for my new apartment. I was told both phone and internet service would be up and running by May 25, 2006.

I moved into the new apartment May 21, 2006. As May 25 approached I called Verizon to check the status of the phone and internet service to make sure everything was in order, as I had not yet received my set-up package in the mail or the wireless router I had ordered (which is supposed to arrive several days before your service ready date).

Verizon told me that my order was "on hold" for an unknown reason, so Verizon cancelled my order, without attempting to call or e-mail me (they had both my e-mail address and multiple phone numbers from when I ordered the service). After about an hour of unfruitful conversation trying to figure out why this happened and to reinstate my order on an expedited basis, Verizon told me the only thing they could do was to start everything over with a new phone number and a new order.

Given no other options (despite the fact that I had already given the old number to everyone, including important business and financial contacts) I re-ordered the phone and internet service. They told me that it would not be ready until mid-to-late June. I explained to them that I had ordered the service at the beginning of May because as I was working from home for the month of June, having functioning internet was essential to my job. Therefore not having internet service for the first three weeks of June was unacceptable. They told me that I needed to just place the order and wait a few days to call back to try to expedite the service because they could not alter the computer-generated service ready date. The Verizon employee assured me that she had noted all of this on my account and when I called back it would be easy to change the service-ready date.

When I called Verizon DSL a few days later the Verizon employee informed me that there was no record of my mistakenly cancelled order or my previous hour-long phone call and that she would be unable to expedite the service because the phone service was not yet set up.

I then called Verizon local phone service office that also had no record of my previous conversations with Verizon and again told me that she was unable to expedite my service and I would just have to wait until June 21 for my service to start. I explained to her that this was a unique circumstance and the result of a problem caused by Verizon and that I absolutely needed the service to start in the beginning of June. The Verizon employee told me she would look into my options and would call me back the following day between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m.

I waited for the call the following day and when I did not hear from anyone I called Verizon at 4:00 p.m. The employee informed me that there was nothing she could do to help me because it was after 4:00 and all the managers had gone home for the evening.

I called again the next day and spoke to the local phone service office again and they again said there was nothing they could do to expedite my service and that I should receive my materials in a few weeks and service would be ready June 21. I asked if I needed to be present for them to turn on the service. They said "no" and that everything was done remotely.

A few weeks later I received my wireless router in the mail. A few days after that I came home from a trip out of town to find a note my landlord had received from Verizon. The note said that a technician had come by my apartment to service my phone, but was unable to do so because I was not home at the time. I was extremely confused since Verizon had explicitly told me they would not need to enter my apartment to start my service.

At this point, it was past the service ready date, so I tried to connect and use my phone. There was no dial tone. I then called Verizon and a customer service representative told me that there was an inside wiring problem with my phone and they would need to send someone over to the apartment to service the phone jack. I told them I would not be home all day but my landlord could let them in to my apartment to perform the service.

The next day a technician came by the apartment to "fix the inside wiring problem." My landlord let him in and stood by while the technician worked. The technician did NOT fix any wiring problem or perform any service. Instead he simply unplugged the telephone wire from one jack and plugged it into another jack. He did, however, leave us with a $95 bill. When I came home that evening the landlord explained to me that the technician did not perform the service he claimed to have performed on the bill.

When I received my bill several weeks later I called Verizon to dispute the $95 charge for "servicing a jack". I explained to the representative that we had a charge on our bill for "servicing a jack" when in reality the technician had done nothing other than plug in our phone. The customer service representative apologized for the discrepancy and said he would remove the charge from my bill.

Several weeks later my fianc