# Verizon, you suck. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 24, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434 "2002-04-24T21:22:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/1 "2002-04-24T21:22:41Z")
I have been attempting to pay my phone bill for more than a week now, and every last one of your automated systems / web sites for paying my bill either fails to allow me access, fails to permit me to proceed with the transaction, or simply fails to connect. Thanks to your nifty online service, which **used** to work, I suppressed my paper phone bill, so I don’t even have _that_ to work with. Specifically: - The phone tree to the automated account information initially did not allow me to proceed past initial login. - The phone tree to the automated account information now doesn’t even connect… it simply drops the call, or refuses to provide any information. - None of the automated phone line options _that are specifically mentioned in the script_ leads to a live person. - Pressing “0” in a billing section of the automated phone script _used_ to connect me to a breathing person, whom wasn’t equipped to take my money (I guessed at the “0” bit. Easy guess, but still, not in your $#@\*& script). - _Now_, pressing “0” in the billing portion of the automated phone script either drops the call, or generates a busy signal. - I’ve had to have my online password reset, too. It worked just fine yesterday, why not today? - I _still_ haven’t had any of your people contact me, either by e-mail, or by office phone. Do you want my money…? Why has it been made so **hard** for me to give you my money…? Why are your various systems so poorly maintained…? Did you all set out to _deliberately_ suck as hard as possible…? As you can see, I’m very frustrated and angry at this point. My phone service is in interrupt, **I can’t get through to you to fix it** , and it’s **your** systems and services that are providing the roadblock. Thank you for your kind attention, that will be all. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/2 "2002-04-24T21:27:52Z")
Oops: Forgot to mention: - Once I finally got my access fixed to the website, any and all attempts to pay on-line generated non-specific error messages, and even your help desk people are baffled. - Your help desk people are the only people to answer their phones, and they can’t help me one little bit, save to tell me that they’ve “been hearing this a lot, recently”. Verizon _sucks_. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/3 "2002-04-24T21:28:56Z")
I have yet to hear of a phone service provider that doesn’t suck. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/4 "2002-04-24T22:07:04Z")
My current long distance provider gives free hand-jobs to all its customers once a month. Well, no, it doesn’t, but that’s what I tell the creep from MCI when he tries to convince me their service is better. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/5 "2002-04-24T22:14:42Z")
Don’t worry! When your payment is past due , they’ll call you. Then they will demand a payment over the phone, which won’t work either. Tinkertoy (Who is just waiting until her contract runs out) ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/6 "2002-04-24T23:07:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*My current long distance provider gives free hand-jobs to all its customers once a month. > > Well, no, it doesn’t, but that’s what I tell the creep from MCI when he tries to convince me their service is better. \*\* 😃 Is that all I have to say to get MCI to stop calling on a nightly basis? ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/7 "2002-04-25T01:14:40Z")
I would just like to mention that I completely agree with **Tranquilis** , and that Verizon does, in fact, suck. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/8 "2002-04-25T14:16:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferrous \* > \*\*I have yet to hear of a phone service provider that doesn’t suck. \*\* True, but you’d think they’d at least make it easy to accept money. That is, after all, the reason they’re in business, or so I presume. But after this last week, I’m begining to believe that Verizon is being run by Dogbert, who is using it to abuse people for his own entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/9 "2002-04-25T14:26:41Z")
I’ll bet you that Voice Stream sucks harder. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/10 "2002-04-25T14:28:17Z")
In the latest version of “all telcom companies suck”: My phone company (SNET), a division of SBC is going to be changing it’s dial-up services to the new [sbc.yahoo.com](http://sbc.yahoo.com). That’s right, for a mere $21.95 a month, I can have a glorified Yahoo account. Complete with all the spam I can eat and forced-down-your-throat marketing offers. What a country! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/11 "2002-04-25T15:00:04Z")
Speaking as a Verizon WAN tech I can assure you that I do, in fact, suck. I’ll never wear anything with the company logo on it in public for fear that some pissed-off DSL customer will shoot me (even though I have nothing to do with DSL). But the big picture is of course, that for every person who can’t get their line fixed, or who can’t get their DSL to work right, or who can’t get to the web site to pay their bill, there are (hopefully) thousands of people who have favorable (or at least indifferent) opinions. _shrug_ Can’t please everybody, but I guess that’s what the BBQ Pit & the public service commission are here for. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/12 "2002-04-25T15:20:43Z")
Here’s my Verizon bitch fest. My husband set up the accounts for our two cell phones, and he very specifically discussed things like networks, roaming areas vs in-network areas, and so on. Specifically, he wanted to see if we would get full digital service, including voice mail, in Madison, WI since we travel there from Chicago a few times a year. He was assured that yes, we would. Fast-forward to trip to Madison. We give friends our cell phone numbers to contact us. What we get when we call them is the statement that they left messages. Huh? We didn’t even hear a ring, much less voice mail alerts. Check the phones. They say they’re roaming. We try test calls. They don’t even **ring** , but go straight to voice mail. As we’re driving back home after our vacation, not too long after crossing into Illinois, the voice mail alert goes off for all those old messages. He calls Verizon and gets assured that there must have been some technical problem, blah blah, whatever. We’re barely assuaged by their answer. Next trip. Same thing. We find out we can call our voice mail system to check messages at least. What we don’t find out until we get home and get the next bill is that these calls to check messages are billed at a long-distance rate, and we have huge cell phone bills. Once again, the company can’t really give a good explanation, and our interpretation is that we’ve been bullshitted, royally. Before our next trip, we’re getting a new cell phone company. The only problem is finding which one doesn’t suck as much as Verizon. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/13 "2002-04-25T16:26:48Z")
Verizon blatantly and flagrantly lied to me about the availability of DSL in my new house. They scheduled a date for installation and up to the very last minute, assured me that there were no problems. ONE DAMN DAY before the scheduled date, Verizon called and said they couldn’t install DSL in my location and didn’t know when they could. At the time, I was working from my home and HAD TO HAVE full time internet connection. I went with a cable modem. Two months later, Verizon began billing me for internet service AND for DSL, neither of which I had with them. It took another two months to get them to stop charging for services they had never provided. Verison sucks. ---
**Author:** ![pezpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@pezpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezpunk)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/14 "2002-04-25T16:33:28Z")
I don’t work in sales for Verizon DSL and I swear I did not sell you service LouisB. 😃 I too am in the same boat as Attrayant. I never wear my verizon DSL paraphernalia outside of the office for fear of eggings. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verizon-you-suck/105434/15 "2002-04-25T17:18:38Z")
'Round these parts we have QWest, who decided it doesn’t have to pay the city for use of its communications infrastructure. It’s currently in arrears for around $5 million. [Article.](http://wweek.com/flatfiles/News2658.lasso) > [@](#): > > Qwest, the cuddly 14-state telecommunications behemoth, is still refusing to settle an outstanding tax bill with the City of Portland–a bill for $4.8 million and counting. > > For many years, Qwest forked over a “franchise fee” of roughly $6 million a year, or 7 percent of its gross revenues, in return for the right to string its telephone poles along city streets and run its cable under our pavement. > > But last May, based on its interpretation of a federal court decision in Washington state, Qwest decided that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 made franchise fees illegal–and abruptly stopped paying them.