Verizon DSL Sucks
July 1, 2003
by Chris Orcutt

Actually I can't say for sure if Verizon DSL sucks because, after a month and a half of waiting, broken promises, and insanely unhelpful customer service reps, I told them to forget it. So let's just say, Verizon sucks.

I just moved back to NYC from Washington, DC and was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to work my same job from my new home in Manhattan – a first for my office, so a lot of people would be watching to see how it went. My job entails dealing with large graphic files so a high-speed internet connection was essential. The Verizon salespeople told me it would be no charge to install a second line and, if I made an appointment to get it activated the day after I moved in, they would have the DSL kit waiting for me. And as soon as the technician was finished I could hook myself up. I believed them.

So the day after I moved in (a Thursday) the technician showed up with the wrong work order, and he was pissed. He told me this happens all the time and he and the other technicians are the ones who get yelled at by the customers. He also told me the salespeople had misinformed me and that there was no way I would be up and running with DSL for at least a week. And that a new line was $148.00.

I call the customer service people and they tell me there is no way that I'll have DSL for at least 10 days. I needed to start working in four days. I explained the whole situation very politely, saying I don't think I'm special but I was sold and promised one thing and now you're telling me another and my job will be seriously affected. No luck. I asked if there was anything I could do to help expedite the process and they said NO.

I called back on Monday – my first day telecommuting – after spending an hour downloading a file through a dial-up. I explained my situation again and was given a tiny bit of hope: my phone wire could not be tested for DSL-ness until my billing information was in "the system". That info needed to be transferred by my local Verizon office. I asked the guy if he could call over there to get the information and he didn't sound too enthused so I asked for the name of the computer system and called the local office myself. They said my info would be in the next morning. I checked with them the next morning and they said it was in there. So I called the sales people back and they said, no, sorry, the local office lied to you, it's not in there, sorry. I asked to speak to a manager (something I've never done before), explained the whole thing all over again, stressing my job was at stake, and she says they can't do anything without my billing information in the system. I'm like, can we maybe put that in now while we're on the phone? She says no. She gave me her name and phone extension and said call her back anytime but when I called back the person answering the phone wouldn't put me through to her. The same thing happened FOUR times with four different people – they just want to get you off the phone, knowing you'll never be able to speak to them again, and they sure as hell don't call back. Kind of ironic that they're a phone company.

Since this whole thing was failing so miserably, I had to go back to DC for the rest of the week in order to work. Not a good thing for the first "telecommuter". In fact – it was really bad and started raising doubts about the viability of the whole arrangement.

On Monday, back in NYC, it was finally DSL time, right? They had said it would be up around 6pm. I called around 2 just to make sure – and was told, sorry, the new date was the NEXT Monday. And they couldn't explain why. I wasn't even mad at this point; I was just feeling so crushed and beaten down by this horrible, horrible company. The woman offered to send me to the tech support department, I said yes and after a 25 minute wait (no shit – 25 minutes on hold!) I was told the same thing again: no one knew why it was going to take another week. There was no information about it in that "system".

Now I hit the roof. I got on the phone with a supervisor, and blew a gasket, not on him but on what a mess Verizon was. He seemed very sympathetic, especially when I told him I had to go back to DC last week to do my job. He said he was going to send my case to a "special" department that handled special situations like this and they would call me back most likely in 24 hours but surely no more than 48. I told him, I'm sorry, I would like to believe you but I just can't, no one at Verizon has EVER kept a promise to call me back. He said this was different. I asked if there was someone I could talk to now, or a number where I could reach these "special" people, and he said no, they'd call me back.

They didn't. I called back after 48 hours, they said now they couldn't even promise I'd be up by that next Monday anymore, and I told them forget it. At the cancellation department they asked if there was anything they could do to keep my order and I said sure, get my DSL running. She said hold on and after ANOTHER 20 MINUTES ON HOLD someone answered "Tech support". She just transferred me back to where I was! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I hung up, direct-dialed the cancellation department and when asked that question again said NO.

I called Time-Warner cable at 6pm on that day, Wednesday, they had a technician in my apartment Friday morning and 15 minutes later I was enjoying high-speed internet access via my kick-ass cable modem. And it turned out cheaper then DSL!

Don't ever ever, ever, have anything to do with Verizon, James Earl Jones notwithstanding. They'll be very nice initially and promise you something but they won't back it up, they won't keep their promises, and they will refuse to help under any circumstances. I've never had a worse experience with any other company in my life.

(Chris Orcutt is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)