Borough Citation

This morning, I was frightened by a loud knock at my back door. So I went to see who was out there, and to my surprise, it was a member of the town borough. I asked him what I could do for him, he told me that he was here to give me a warning. I promptly asked what the warning was for, he told me that it was a warning citation for not having a lid on the trash bin that sits on the rear deck of the apartment.


The trash bin is not even close to being full, at most I would say that its only about one third to half full. So, I think this is an official way of getting back at my roommates and I for building a snow fort on our balcony a few days earlier. We were merely trying to enjoy a blast of winter weather in a creative way, when a borough official informed us that we should promptly cease construction.


I seriously think its ridiculous that we can't exercise a few a basic freedoms at our own expense.

Verizon Business DSL? Think twice.

So, let me start out my first opinionated post, by saying, Verizon Business DSL sucks. Opinionated as I may be, I will back up my claim with a first-hand account of the situation that prompted me to write this post.

February 2006, I signed up for Verizon's Business DSL package for the office. Thus completing the monopoly of my services Verizon owns. They have 1 phone line with two numbers, a family share Cell plan with 4 phones, and now my "high speed", "reliable", "cheap" internet access. The only thing that turned out to be true, was "cheap", and not in the monetary sense.

Mid December 2006, I started experiencing random, however infrequent disconnects from the router. So I called Verizon technical support. Like most large corporations they have a menu system in place, however rather than pressing 1 to continue, it is voice activated. This, alone is a huge annoyance, as it doesn't always understand different accents. So after navigating through a phone system with more options than a text based RPG, I finally managed to speak with one of Verizon's 'highly trained' technicians. Highly trained is a far cry from the truth. After re-verifying my information with the tech support, they decided to run some tests on the line. After 2 to 3 minutes, they get back with me and tell me that the line is fine, and that its probably just a temporary isolated incident. Reluctantly, I accepted their diagnosis and went on with my business.

The next day, I was back at the office, and little to my surprise, the random disconnects where still happening. I checked the log of Westell 327w wireless router/modem they had given me, only to find that there had been nearly 100 disconnects / reconnects over a 24 hour time span. So, for the second time in two days, I called Verizon tech support, navigated my way through their phone system maze, and finally connected with a live tech agent. I told him about the issue, and he said he wanted to run some tests on the line, so once again, I waited patiently as he "tested" the line, once again he said it was fine. I assertively told him about the completely unacceptable service I was receiving and asked him to refer to the notes from my previous call. He then told me that there was no record of my call the day before. He then told me, that he would open a ticket for my case.

So the next day, I'm back in the office again, and once again, I'm experiencing random disconnects. At this point, I'm starting to lose the little patience that I had left, so once again, I'm forced to call Verizon Tech, and once again..I had to navigate the phone system, by now though, I had the path memorized. For the first time, I get a woman who not only seems knowledgeable about DSL and networking, but also compassionate toward towards Verizon's naive loyal customers. She told me that it was probably a problem with my router, so she had one shipped to me "over night", how ever it took 3 days to arrive. High Five Verizon *sarcasm*.

The new modem, I was excited to receive it, thinking that it would magically solve all of my connection problems. Boy, was I soon disappointed, no less than 15 minutes after I had plugged it in and set up everything up, the random disconnections started again. Verizon 3, me 0. So I called in again, and told the tech agent what had happened, because of course they had closed the ticket again. So after testing the line again, they told me to change the set up of the lines and filters. I had carefully read the manual before setting up the network, but I decided to heed to their advice and switch things around. Once again, their solution failed me, and I was still high and dry with out a stable internet connection.

So once again, I was forced to call tech support, this time I neglected to go through the testing of my line, I immediately asked the tech for their supervisor, to which they responded "I'm sorry, they don't take calls"...I was furious, being the jerk that I am, I assertively informed them that they now had a manager that did take calls, and sure enough, they said they would transfer me, and asked me to hold again, for 2-3 minutes. I was actually on hold for 20-30 minutes, before I was able to speak to their manager, I informed them of the situation, and they told me they would have somebody come to my office to look at it. Before the conversation ended, I asked him why it had taken so long for somebody to recommend this, he said he wasn't sure, but if he "owned" any of the people responsible, he would let them know. Apparently management owns the peons below them now, but we'll let humanity deal with that.

The tech agent. Let me start by telling you that my office is open by appointment only, so that means that I'm not going to be their every day. When I was trying to schedule an appointment with Verizon, they didn't seem to understand that, I had to insist that, yes, there were days in which nobody would be in the office. So, when they wanted to schedule a time, they said they needed a 2 day span, with a 4 hour time window each day. I wouldn't have many clients left if I tried to schedule them like in such an unprofessional manner. Verizon said they'd have a guy their either Thursday or Friday of that week, two days I hadn't planned on working. Desperate for a working connection, I went to the office Thursday, I sat their for more than 4 hours, before realizing that the tech agent wasn't coming that day, thanks for a courtesy call Verizon. Friday morning I got a call from the agent saying that he would be in shortly after 12 noon, I was relieved. I made it a point to get their a little bit early, to ensure that I would be their when he arrived. He did indeed arrive, but not until 4:45, another 5 hours wasted by Verizon. So when he came, he looked around, acknowledged that I had the correct setup, "tested the line", said that it was fixed and left. This took about 5-10 minutes max.

The next day, I realized that he hadn't fixed anything, I called Verizon again, told them what happened and said that I wanted out of the contract. They said they needed to transfer me to the billing department, after 10 minutes of being on hold, tech support told me that their had been a power outage in Boston, and that I would have to call back another day. I was outraged, so once again I was able to speak to their manager, who finally told me that he would have my contract nulled...what an ordeal. Think twice about Verizon Business DSL.

I have a feeling, that it is going to get very Comcastic around here.