Verizon, Verizon, I hate Verizon

Excuse my rant, but I am very angry.

Three words that would describe Verizon are crooked, backward and not helpful (okay, that’s a phrase). Here’s the story:

I live in a small town with no “options” for services. Land lines are only available through Verizon and as far as I know, the same goes for DSL. So I had just a basic, local-only phone line and semi-slow DSL, but was satisfied enough.

Then I moved. Well, back up a little. I was about to move and called to arrange a service transfer. The woman was helpful and I thought we had everything set up. We needed satellite service, so I decided to bundle the three and get more services for a good deal. Sounds great.

Then I moved. Phone works at my new place. Great. Satellite hooked up and working at my new place. Great. Internet does not work at my new place. Why? After calling tech support, I learned that Verizon had upgraded my connection speed as planned, but hadn’t changed my service address. Frustrating. Why on earth would I want to change the service address for my phone line but not my internet connection? My connection comes through my phone line, kinda necessary to have both at the same address I would think. Whatever. Now I’m told the Saturday shift can’t help me so I need to call X number on Monday. Like I don’t have things to do on Monday.

So like a good girl I say okay and call the stupid number on Monday. After waiting on hold, being cut off, holding again, getting cut off again and then told I need to call a different number, I finally talk to the internet sales and order department. I’m pretty sure I could have talked to this department on Saturday (because when it comes to making a sale, Verizon is always open, but getting tech support is a Monday thru Friday issue) if the no-nothing Turkish man from Saturday understood what I was trying to tell him.

Moving on. The woman in S&O pulled up my info and was also perplexed as to why they hadn’t ordered an address change. She calls her supervisor over and gets things set up, but then discovers that the reason my service address wasn’t changed was because DSL isn’t available at my new address. If you are from Blythe or talked to anyone in Blythe, you’ve probably heard of this. They have a limited number of slots available for DSL and until someone moves, cancels service or Verizon gets their act together and updates their technology, you’re SOL. Apparently my new neighborhood is full and I am SOL.

Verizon is so focused on building their wireless customer base and expanding coverage (which I appreciate as I use that service) that they don’t care about their original market—residential services. I get that. I’m sure they make a lot more money on their millions of cell users, but if you only want to do that then sell your auxiliaries to someone who would actually provide a service. I don’t think my area even has caller ID for crying out loud.

This is where the crooked part comes in. When I called originally to change my service the lady said we were all set. Now call me stupid, but I assumed that meant I would actually get the service I was paying for.

So all this brings me to my current dilemma. What do I do? I don’t need all the bells and whistles that are part my new, unlimited phone line. I’m perfectly happy with local only—in fact I’d survive without one. I do need satellite because I’m married to Troy. I do want internet!! I guess I need to do some research and find out if I can get internet through anyone else and see if my satellite contract is through DirecTV or Verizon. If I can deal only with DirecTV and cut Verizon out of my life completely, I will.

Enough said.