The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Death By Verizon

August 30th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Posted in Blog

Can you hear me now?

Some readers have inquired why I haven’t posted to the blog for the past six weeks. A move into new digs, while simultaneously renovating the new digs, is part of the reason. The other part is that while we moved our phone around the corner, our Verizon internet service still has not activated after nearly a month.

We’ve now made about a dozen calls to Verizon–each taking somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour or more–trying to learn why we are subjected to this delay. First we were told it was because we upgraded the speed of our service. Then we were told the internet had been installed. Perhaps we should check our computer and modem.

We have now checked every phone jack in the house, rebooted the computer numerous times, tried at least two different modems. Another call to Verizon (1 1/2 hours) today finally revealed that while we’ve been “connected,” in fact the activation of our internet service is snagged in a long backlog. Remember the Verizon strike?

I waited maybe 30 minutes to be passed to a supervisor, who, after himself making additional phone calls while we waited, informed us that he could get us connected September 14. In other words, we will have been six weeks without internet after we notified Verizon we were moving–assuming the new activation actually takes place.

In the meantime, I purchased an IPad to at least maintain some connection to the internet. Until now, I have mostly resisted modern technology. I have to admit the IPad is a lot of fun, although I am loathe to blog from it.

So until we have an internet connection from our computer, I do not intend to blog, even though I have lots to report on. Please bear with me. And feel free to forward this on to your friends at Verizon. It seems that everyone we know has a similar story to tell. So much for modern technology.

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  • Kim M.

    I’d get rid of Verizon. They are losers. Used to have them for cell phone and couldn’t get service at JFK of all places. They didn’t understand why that was a problem. I have Cox for Internet and my sister has Charter (both are cable). Both are responsive, reliable, and on the ball and their connections are lightening fast. While I’ve been pleased with AT&T for cell phone, they are similar to Verizon for cable (friends and neighbors have shared horror stories). I recommend giving your cable provider a try. They seem to be hungrier for business than Verizon and AT&T.

  • Mrs Q

    So happy you are blogging again! Missed you and your wise thoughts.

    Regarding Verizon, starting tweeting them NOW! A friend with plane tickets on two separate air carriers to/fro Boston during Hurricane Irene called up the airlines and was told, “Sorry pay $200 per person for any changes.” He tweeted simply that he was having trouble (nothing nasty) to both air carriers’ tweeter handles. They contacted him through Twitter. Everything was resolved within one hour and it was free of charge.

    Verizon doesn’t have a clue that you’re sort of a big deal online! And that we need you back. Tweet them, then tweet me and I’ll retweet. 🙂

  • Stephanie Jenson

    Boo! Hiss! Verizon. I have AT&T for cell and it isn’t any better. I can’t even get cell service in my house (I sit outside to call friends) and we don’t have a landline.

    Welcome to the Ipad world! Love it! I do almost everything on it, especially traveling (I pay the 14.99 a month for the 3G network to almost always get coverage), and take payments with Square when I am at the Flea Market at Eastern Market. Plus I can read in bed without bothering Craig!
    Looking forward to your posts when you are up and running…

  • Joanna

    Hi Ed …. moving house so stressful, but changing modem/service provider the MOST stressful thing of all in modern life. Here, the equivalent to Verizon is BT, where you get the same sort of blank wall instead of service. I’d go with Mrs Q’s idea, Twitter really does seem to work with this kind of thing. Looking forward to hearing your news when you’re up and running again.

    Best wishes
    Joanna