Verizon DSL: pathetic support

I had an hour-long session with Verison DSL Live Chat help. The crummy DSL modem Version supplied broke. I need a new one. However, the only way to get a new modem is to call the 800-number Customer Support Team. Unfortunately, I have Verizon telephone and that is ALSO inoperative.

The Live Chat help online claims it CANNOT communicate my problem to the Customer Support Team and CANNOT supply an email address for them them so I can. So, I am left with an inoperative modem and an inoperative telephone. Who would have thought that Verizon would have no means of communication between it's on-line support and telephone provide support.

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I use to work for Verizon, and I know exactly what you are talking about. I worked for a couple of months for verizon. And I completely understand your frustration, I felt the same way working for them. I worked for the Verizon Highspeed internet dept. And basically my job was to keep the customer going in circles until they eventually gave up trying to fix their problems connecting to the internet. Being that I use to repair computers for a living, I know quite a bit about computers,modems, etc. After going through the so called 'training'. A group of about 20 of us were thrown to the 'wolves', so to speak. After a few weeks of lying to people...my conscience started bothering me. It was a particular customer, an old lady...very sweet. She reminded me of my grandma. She literally started crying on the phone, About how she could never get connected to the internet. The first thing I did was to check to see if service was even available in her area, or if some ass had sold her "verizon high speed internet" some where, where it wasnt even available.(I had already seen a few cases where customers had signed 2 year contracts, and they didnt even have service in their area!). And sure enough, after I checked on the system...the service wasnt even available in her area. I just told her the truth "mam, verizon high speed dsl internet service is not even available in your area...." she had been going back and forth with "Technical Support Agents" for about a year...and no one had even told her that service wasnt even available in her area. Yet she was signed up for a 2 year contract and was even paying! So from then on, I just started telling people the truth of why they couldnt sign on. For example I noticed that every evening at about 6:00pm, people would call real angry about not being able to connect to the internet. And they were always from the East coast. They would call saying "it was working fine a few hours ago..." I remember one guy, he was a profesional network technician. And he even knew that something was wrong with Verizons network. He even told me "your network is down somewhere." So after a while, I started jogging my memory...I was thinking to myself, where have i seen this before? And I remembered, some years ago. When I first signed up to the internet back in about 1995-1996, with America Online. It was damn near impossible to connect, Id always get a busy signal. And thats when I put 2 and 2 together! Verizon was having the same problems with their DSL service(not enough capacity). They were filled up to the max and couldnt get all their customers onto the net. So I just started telling the customers the truth. "Sorry, sir but the networks are full, thats why you cant get connected...wait a few hours and it will clear up." And I just started to really fix peoples problems, they would tell me "finally someone tells me the truth." or they would just get mad and hang up. I remember I figured a way out to stay on the phone a lot longer than the maximum allowable time of 13-15 minutes. After that WE HAVE TO hang up.(they watch our call times, using a computer) So I would stay on the line with people and actually connect to their computers and FIX their problems,

(the ones having software issues, with verizon's software.)

I remember with some customers..I would stay on the phone for about 1 hour. But they were so thankful I would fix their Verizon Software problems. I actually started to enjoy my job. THEN, the management started to eaves drop in on my calls. And started to hassle me. And One day I just got tired of hiding of doing the right job. So instead of hiding that I was staying on the phone longer than I was supposed to, I just let the timer run. And sure enough on about the 25th minute, my supervisor came and barked at me and said "hang up on that customer now!" the customer and I were having a great time talking while I was connected to his computer getting his Verizon Software installed and working correctly. I just ignored, my supervisor and explained to him, what she was telling me. And he said "well im the customer and I am paying for this service and I want you to fix this for me." I told him, "yes, sir I feel the same way..." and I just kept working..Then another supervisor came he pushed the back support of my chair down...and told me "get off the phone." Then I told the customer, "sir, my supervisor is telling me I need to get off the phone." then the customer told me, "let me talk to him." So I said, "ok.." then I took my head set off, and handed it to the supervisor that pulled my chair down, and said "He wants to talk to you" Obviously, since there are "procedures" a customer must go through to reach a "supervisor". The supervisor denied the customers request to talk to him. So I told the customer "he doesnt want to talk to you" then the customer said "why?" then I said "because he is not man enough." Needless to say, I ended up getting escorted out of the building by security, and recieved my termination notice through the mail a few days later. So, if you are a Verizon Highspeed DSL Customer and are always having problems connecting, its not you computer or modem. Verizon doesnt have enough capacity they are always selling contracts that they cant fulfill. So When you see their commercials and it says "Its The Network." It really is.