This makes the Verizon billboards and other adverts that I see saying, âThanks, Rochester, for being the best customers out there!â that much more infuriating.
This is what I want to do to all Broadband / Cellular providers, especially Verizon.
I finally filed an FCC complaint just to say that Verizons prices for my service were too high. They called me and basically said tough shit. And then the FCC closed the case.
I think we need to up the bandwidth to the FCC on this.
Roger That!
Iâm not sure why but âKevin Serviceâ is just about the funniest name Iâve noticed recently.
Verizon has brought new meaning to the word âserviceâ. Actually quite an old meaning, but not what the customers were expecting.
Well that âpassedâ thing sounds hilarious, but itâs perfectly reasonable. If the intertubes run right past every house, then everybody can order service. Thatâs a big step forward - my ghetto neighborhood doesnât even have that. I would happily upgrade if I could.
I wonder how many enraged customers have actually done anything to force Verizonâs hand, beyond crying to their imaginary advocates elsewhere.
âhomes passedâ or âpassedâ is actually a telecom term. Essentially what they are saying is that if someone calls in to order they can get service because the mainline is close enough for them to immediately service. It wouldnât make since for them to pre-wire every address in hopes that they might order. This would get outrageously expensive. It makes more financial since to only install the line to the address when someone is going to order so they will get a return on the investment of installing that line. It can cost around $3-6k or sometime more just to cross a street or bore under a parking lot to get to a customer. No telecom company would pre-wire every address from the main line. They would probably go out of business if they did. I donât work for Verizon and I am not defending them. It was that when I read this article my interpretation of what the author gathered from the Verizon employeesâ statements is incorrect. The rep isnât stating that they are just nearby, they are saying they can immediately service these customers because the main line is close enough â⌠weâre passed if, when we get the request for service and have the necessary rights of way, what we have left to do does not create a delay in bringing service to that customerâ
According to the linked article, Verizon currently has 42,000 outstanding requests to install FiOS, 75% of which have been active for more than a year. So they are not actually letting people order the connection, even when the fiber âpassesâ their property.
Too bad we donât have a government agency that could take care of this.
âWe hope you have enjoyed being serviced by Verizon.â
Iâm in one of the first cities where FiOS was rolled out. When they sent a tech to install FiOS in the building (to the D-Marc) I called for service. I was told it would not be available.
We relocated to another location in the same city. I watched as Verizon ran fiber to the school next door. Still, Verizon says we are not eligible for fiber. When I asked why they said it was because we didnât own a multi tenant building. So, here we are stuck with unreliable Time Warner Business Internet as the only high speed business internet available.
I donât know whatâs worse, being ignored by Verizon or having to deal with TWC.
We are being screwed over by our internet providers here and we can do exactly zero about it.
I have FIOS, but all these stories of woe are making me feel guilty about not upgrading to higher service tier, and fully exploiting the wonders of fibre optic.
[quote=âdoctorow, post:1, topic:67794â]
âŚwhat we have left to do does not create a delay in bringing service to that customerâŚ[/quote]
Well, golly, Kevs. If you have ANYTHING left to do prior to bringing service to the customer, then youâve got a delay in bringing service to the customer. Your non-lawyer cred is showing, dickbag.
Oh, do please go and fuck yourself, Kev.
"My name's Kevin, but me mates calls me Kev."
I wonder how many enraged customers have the wherewithall to do jack shit to force Verizonâs hand in any direction at all.
Indeed. So, do they find out by actually trying something? Or do they decide that they canât from the outset? My experience is that the biggest obstacle is a sort of self-censorship where people can be counted upon not to act not because they know what they can or cannot do, but rather, that they feel that they occupy a role where powerlessness is expected of them.
If even 5% of their enraged customers acted against their personnel and infrastructure, I suspect that this would change how they did business. But if not, why are they suddenly going to be equitable?
Sure, failure is certainly possible. But it is guaranteed when people arenât willing to even try.
Thatâs a somewhat fair critique (self-censorship), but even as a well-educated (and sexy) person, Iâm not entirely sure how Iâd attack that particular system. Write (another) ignored letter to my elected representatives? Explain, again, to my friendly Comcast telephone representative that I hate their company (but not them) and that I wish Mothra would descend from the sky and destroy them with the collective white hot sphere of burning rage (h/t The Onion)? Hell, I canât even shift my business elsewhere because Comcast is one of the few companies offering internet access in my area.
Lastly, much as Coryâs example shows, the Telecoms could sign an agreement saying theyâd mine the sun for kitties and puppies, but thereâs always language in those agreements that allows for the perversion Cory quoted above. See, we âpassedâ service to you, so now we owe you nothing.
Against my better judgment about whatâs good for my mental health, I read the linked article. And I was almost ready to believe that Verizon might have until a reasonable point, until I got to the point about how they consider some homes âpassedâ by fiber a mile away. In NYC.
My in-laws have Fios in MA. They had constant outages until they convinced Verizon to switch them from coax to ethernet WAN, which they were extremely reluctant to do. A month or so ago they managed to get switched back to coax without meaning to, and had to go through the whole fight again. So even if an individual house is already actually set up for fiber, they still donât want people to use it.
