So I live out in the sticks and the only internet service available to me is Verizon DSL, which is only moderately better than two tin cans on a string on its best day. But today my internet has been cutting out every few minutes and I've discovered that it is completely impossible to contact Verizon to see about getting it repaired. On their website they don't even give you a phone number to contact them. The options are online chat, email them or have them call you. Of course not having internet makes the first two rather difficult and the option of having them call me has been a no go either. I did eventually find a number to call them via an internet search, no thanks to Verizon. I'm currently on hold going on an hour with no end in sight to be able to talk to someone whose accent I won't be able to understand. For the eighty some dollars a month that I have to pay for this crap service and a phone line which I don't use, I think maybe I deserve better.
I don't remember their service ever bing good but this is the worst it has ever been. I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to how to maybe contact a real live person.

800-922-0204 always worked for me.

how good of phone service are you getting?

Thanks I will give that number a try. I just sat on hold for over an hour only to be told that their business hours were now over. It is incredibly frustrating. As far as phone service goes, I don’t use the landline at all. The only reason I have it is because it’s the only way I can get DSL service.

Wow, DSL? That's pretty ancient technology these days. You must really live out in the boonies!

So, obviously fiber hasn't been laid out your way, so FiOS is out of the question. Have you considered satellite? It too, isn't without some issues (weather being one of them), but maybe looking into it as an alternative?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by vandrv:
Thanks I will give that number a try. I just sat on hold for over an hour only to be told that their business hours were now over. It is incredibly frustrating. As far as phone service goes, I don’t use the landline at all. The only reason I have it is because it’s the only way I can get DSL service.[/QUOTE

no cell service?

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
satellite? It too, isn't without some issues (weather being one of them)

Weather, ping, speed (though, not compared to DSL), cost, data limits, .....

I actually don't live too far off the beaten path but the problem is that the road I live on is mostly farms that are spread out enough with long enough driveways that nobody wants to run cable down it. There are several houses clustered together at the beginning of the road that have cable service but it stops as soon as the houses spread out. To make matters worse, I live just about at the distance limit from the substation for DSL to work.
I did have a satellite dish for tv for a while and other than weather outages, it worked ok. But I've not heard anything good at all about satellite internet. It seems to be the last resort for people.
I do have cellular service with unlimited data and use it as a hotspot when the DSL goes out but I don't know if that would be a good full time alternative.

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
Wow, DSL? That's pretty ancient technology these days. You must really live out in the boonies!

We live in the boonies, about 8 miles from the phone company CO, so traditional DSL is out. We've had decent wireless service for a number of years from WISPs.
 
Recently CenturyLink laid fiber out our way and further on upstate. Though we're a mile from the main fiber run, they ran a piece over to our development's phone box (all of our lots in this one section development have underground copper). They installed a remote DSLAM next to the phone box and uplinked it with fiber, so now we have VDSL (very high bit rate DSL). They crosslink our copper phone line to the DSLAM, an voila, we have 50/5 Mbps using VDSL. Certainly not fiber to the home speeds, but tons better than anything we've had since building out here in 2002.
 
I wouldn't recommend satellite to anyone, unless there is no other service available.

It's their slimy sales tactics that annoy me. I dumped their cellphone service a year or so ago. So, naturally, they regularly bombard me with offers to come back.

I got another just today. $35 for unlimited talk, text, and data. Wow, what a great deal!

But, wait. That's $35 per line and you have to buy at least 4 lines of service.
- And, it does not include taxes or Verizon's obscene fees.
- And, you have to sign up for auto billing.
- And, you have to sign up for paperless billing.
- And, your data gets throttled if you use too many GBs.
- And, your service is second tier so you get bumped if there is too much congestion on the network.

There was more fine print, but the offer was already headed for the garbage can.

My problem with Verizon is their “authorized dealers”. I don’t mind having third party companies selling your stuff, but they should have their own name on the building. Verizon third party retailers have a giant lit up Verizon sign on their building and a tiny sticker on the door that says whatever the name of the third party is.

For years I could never figure out why if I went to some Verizon stores the people were absolute trash, while others actually had the ability to help and give me accurate information. Finally I asked one of the salesman at one of the corporate stores and he explained to me the difference.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
It's their slimy sales tactics that annoy me. I dumped their cellphone service a year or so ago. So, naturally, they regularly bombard me with offers to come back.

I got another just today. $35 for unlimited talk, text, and data. Wow, what a great deal!

But, wait. That's $35 per line and you have to buy at least 4 lines of service.
- And, it does not include taxes or Verizon's obscene fees.
- And, you have to sign up for auto billing.
- And, you have to sign up for paperless billing.
- And, your data gets throttled if you use too many GBs.
- And, your service is second tier so you get bumped if there is too much congestion on the network.

There was more fine print, but the offer was already headed for the garbage can.

after 20+ years with verizon i recently switched to xfinity mobile....uses verizon towers.

1 shared gig $13, unlimited $45.

i'd have been paying just under $100 for 2 out of contract, 4 year old phones with verizon.

just got the xm bill, with new iphone 11 + galaxy s10+, $87 month.

Just wait until they sell your lines to Frontier, then you'll wish you the pleasure of dealing with verizon.

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:

after 20+ years with verizon i recently switched to xfinity mobile....uses verizon towers.

1 shared gig $13, unlimited $45.

i'd have been paying just under $100 for 2 out of contract, 4 year old phones with verizon.

just got the xm bill, with new iphone 11 + galaxy s10+, $87 month.

Spectrum has essentially the same plan. My wife and I are using it. Very cost effective for those of us whose data usage is mainly wifi, with not much cellular data.

Important to note, the quoted prices are what you pay. Unlike any other cell phone service plan that I'm aware of, there are NO added taxes or junk fees with Spectrum, and I assume with xfinity.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Just wait until they sell your lines to Frontier, then you'll wish you the pleasure of dealing with verizon.

really, frontier isn't very well represented in the national isp landscape, compared to comcast/xfinity.

Kskelton's sure right about the "other" Verizon dealers. I cracked the glass protector on my Iphone 8S, so ran over to the new Verizon store a couple blocks away.

I asked them and they told me they were the "other." I thought (see what happens when I try to think?) what could go wrong with buying a new protector?

Well, when I got home I got an email from Verizon-the guy at the "other" Verizon added some thing (can't recall the name- a Bing, a Blue, a ...?) on my account for $5 per month and locked me in to a 2 year contract.

I pretty much exploded and it was fixed PDQ, but I'll never darken their (or any other) fake Verizon store again.


Bob

Not a Verizon customer but you can find a corporate store on the their website www.vzw.com. I am an AT&T customer and only deal with the corporate store.

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
after 20+ years with verizon i recently switched to xfinity mobile....uses verizon towers.

1 shared gig $13, unlimited $45.

i'd have been paying just under $100 for 2 out of contract, 4 year old phones with verizon.

just got the xm bill, with new iphone 11 + galaxy s10+, $87 month.

I don't have a problem with Verizon, but I must say, there is NO company anywhere on this planet I hate more than Comcast/Xfinity!!!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:

after 20+ years with verizon i recently switched to xfinity mobile....uses verizon towers.

1 shared gig $13, unlimited $45.

i'd have been paying just under $100 for 2 out of contract, 4 year old phones with verizon.

just got the xm bill, with new iphone 11 + galaxy s10+, $87 month.

Spectrum has essentially the same plan. My wife and I are using it. Very cost effective for those of us whose data usage is mainly wifi, with not much cellular data.

Important to note, the quoted prices are what you pay. Unlike any other cell phone service plan that I'm aware of, there are NO added taxes or junk fees with Spectrum, and I assume with xfinity.

exactly, $12/1g-$45/unlim + tax + prices of the new phones.

also using wi-fi most of the time.

fwiw:
comcast/xfinity has been decent so far.

Verizon chat worked great for me the one time I tried using it. I needed to have two old landlines disconnected from my house since I rid myself of landlines back in 2012. I spoke to a Verizon rep using the chat option and the next day there was a Verizon tech at my house removing the old lines. There's no reason you can't use the Verizon chat feature via your smart phone or use your smart phone as a hot spot to gain internet access for your computer. I used my phone as a hot spot for years before I finally broke down and signed up for Fios internet.

quote:

Originally posted by vandrv:
I actually don't live too far off the beaten path but the problem is that the road I live on is mostly farms that are spread out enough with long enough driveways that nobody wants to run cable down it. There are several houses clustered together at the beginning of the road that have cable service but it stops as soon as the houses spread out. To make matters worse, I live just about at the distance limit from the substation for DSL to work.
I did have a satellite dish for tv for a while and other than weather outages, it worked ok. But I've not heard anything good at all about satellite internet. It seems to be the last resort for people.
I do have cellular service with unlimited data and use it as a hotspot when the DSL goes out but I don't know if that would be a good full time alternative.

a friend lives in SW VA, and is unable to get cable in his area,
he ran Dish for a long time, including inet, and had intermittent issues with it,

basically fast enough for most things as long as you did not download pics, vids, etc, (basically email and forums,)

Sprint or AT&T, cannot remember which he sues, gave him unlimited data, 4g, hotspot, which he now uses, since he has good cell coverage in his area,

no idea what he pays, but it is not that expensive