If I have to be home, call or stop by during the 12 hour window I am supposed to be around to give you access to the premises. But I know that you don’t want to because you’d rather clear the call w/o doing anything.
On the second call, (2 days later) when my wife catches you up on the cross street and you say that “you did something but it wouldn’t fix the problem” clear the call again.
On the third call, (the following week) when I ask you why you cleared the second call, answer with a peculiar “I told your wife the other day it wasn’t fixed”. Then turn away and refuse to talk further.
This is why every DSL invite goes right in the trash. You make the cable guys look good, and I never thought I would say that.
When my phones go out, first thing I do is look for the truck. Last time you tried to put a new line in for my neighbor you broke 2 of my 3 lines, failed to give her the new line, and took out her existing line, then vanished. Do you just grab any convenient pairs and see if someone comes out to complain?
First SBC guy said I had a tone on my line when I moved in. Cleared the ticket. Left.
No tone on the line (old line not disconnected five months after first tenant moved out. SBC clued to the fact that there was an active tone, plus a DSL tone, in an apartment that shoulda been disconnected five months ago).
Second guy said no tone on the line. Went to check out the “box”. Couldn’t get in cuz Super not around. Cleared ticket, left.
(Intermeaning call to SBC - BASTARDS!!! - “We are not responsible for problems at the box. You’ll have to pay to fix the box. How would you rate the level of service you’ve received today?”)
Third guy came. Confirmed no tone. Went to check box. Super on vacation in England. Chased down Serbian fill-in (Sub Super?). Yelled at Serbian. Taught me that when dealing with Serbians (himself a Serbian) to not back down when they shout at you. They’re just trying to make you go away. Got Serbian Sub Super to give access to the box. Phone line up.
Received bill for $90-plus in Service Connection fees.
Man, I hate Verizon. I always laugh - long, loud, and cynical - when those stupid “can you hear me NOW” ads come on and they say they’re working to give us BETTER SERVICE.
Yeah, guys, howsabout you start working on giving better landline service and I might consider using your cellphones. Might.
When I moved into my new house, Verizon somehow didn’t realize that their phone number (which they took with them) was now hooked up to their new house, AND their old house. It only took them three months of complaints from both me and the actual holders of that telephone number to get THAT little problem taken care of.
Then they decided to start screwing around with the neighborhood phone lines, after which, every time it rained, my phone would go out until they came out and diddled with the line. No, drying out didn’t help. They tried that the first three times I called. “Oh, as soon as it dries out your phone should work again.” Clear ticket.
Once, they checked my neighbor’s phone, decided that since HIS was working, mine must be, and cleared the ticket without ever even thinking of coming on to my property.
Another time, I called in to them on my cellphone to complain once again that my phone was out and the call desk person was extremely rude, telling me I must be lying because if my phone was out then how was I making the call to them. Yeah, because i have absolutely nothing better to do with my time than call you people and log phony fix-it requests. Soooo I told Ms. Snotty (in my best Snotty Voice) that we have progressed to a level of technology wherein more than one phone was actually in existence now, and that I was in fact calling her on another phone, and I didn’t really care whether or not she believed me but I had been having these phone problems every time it rained (a pretty much constant occurence in my part of Indiana in the spring) and I was getting very tired of them screwing around with my phone service and I better be getting a discount on my phone bill, like say a month free, since I wasn’t getting any damn phone service thanks to them screwing up the lines and when were they going to get out and fix the problem and may I speak to your supervisor NOW please?
Oddly enough, it was that rant that finally got the damn line fixed. “Ooops, when we were installing the underground cables, we accidentally broke through the insulation on one of the lines. I guess your phone WAS cutting out when it rained.”
Duh, you think?
I would change in a heartbeat to something else if anyone else offered phone service in my area. But that is one of the very few downsides to living in a small town.