Alternative to Verizon?
I can’t seem to get any service from Verizon. When I call, I get passed around to different departments and then the line mysteriously clicks and disconnects. Is there any other LAND LINE alternative to Verizon? Or do they have a 100% monopoly? I need a land line phone service because cell phones don’t work…
I can’t seem to get any service from Verizon. When I call, I get passed around to different departments and then the line mysteriously clicks and disconnects.
Is there any other LAND LINE alternative to Verizon? Or do they have a 100% monopoly? I need a land line phone service because cell phones don’t work very well in my area (Ft Greene).
THANKS!
ha. I have to laff. Verizon is so far behind- and I don’t even have to talk tech, I’m just talking customer relations. I quit them years ago to go to the dreaded Vongate- I survived a couple of years of crackling lines and dropped and missed calls. Finally heard enough of the wife complaining about the stupid landline that we didn’t use anyway, so went back to Verizon… and was going to do dsl and the package until they got ficos tore up in my yard. After a month of getting the wrong # at my house, the guy screwed up my 4 lines on my house, getting the “filters” (wow!) for the dsl, but nothing else, and the runaround every time I called.. Oh, let me connect you to that dept. I finally cancelled, said I wasn’t paying them a dime and if they wanted their filters back they could come get them. I ordered cable- great customer service, the guy stayed until I was satisfied with all of the work (phone, tv and internet). Now I’ve moved and I can’t get cable, so I have to go back to a landline and satellite, etc. I ordered the landline on the internet and tried to order dsl. Oh, you can’t do THAT on the internet, and when I call the # given, that’s for customers that got their phone # someplace besides the internet, I have to call a different #. On and on it goes.
My telephone lost its dial tone on Monday, August 6th and I’ve been trying to get it fixed every day since then. I have spoken to Verizon “customer service” fifteen times. They have sent technicians four times. I missed 1/2 day of work on Tuesday, to hear that the problem was not in my apartment and that they’d have it fixed later that day. Of course they didn’t have it fixed. Each day they say it will be fixed. Each day still no dial tone.
Thanks for the above info on how to complain. I am seeking another service as well.
Anon 2:55pm,
I agree this is more an issue of the Verizon support people not escalating properly, I really wouldn’t expect front line support people to be able to order up the paperwork for this.
BTW To everyone who hasn’t worked in Telecom, the cartoon Dilbert was written by a PacBell middle manager; he worked on the unsuccessful late-90’s roll-out of home internet service in Silicon Valley, something that is almost impossible to comprehend failing in that market. They had decided to charge $4,320/mo for deathly slow 0.128 Mbps; a POTS modem @ $20/mo ran at 0.056 Mbps. These same old ILECs are rolling out 30Mbps down/ 5Mbps up at $180/mo now, when other countries are experimenting with 40,000 Mbps both ways, and have for years offered 100 Mbps both ways @ $20/mo.
danielk –
Alot of those forms have default values for most of the fields (or should LOL). 90% of the time you are only concerned with a small fraction of the fields that you could populate. Ordering POTS service is not complicated, ordering a local loop OTOH …. The OPs problem has more to do with customer service reps not being trained to handle exceptional situations and not having a way to easily handoff the problem to someone who can deal with it. All the OP needs is a seperate NID for their property, that should be something an ILEC can handle 🙂
During the telecom boom I worked on software that assisted CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) provision telephone lines from the ILEC’s for their customers. It took 40 steps to provision a line from Verizon when everything went correctly, since the ILEC’s aren’t supposed to make this any more complicated for CLEC’s than it is for them, that means 40 forms need to be filled out when there are no problem. In your case there is a problem, which is why you are having such a tough time of it, there is probably no one at Verizon who knows how to get a line installed by the book in your particular case.
You need to bypass the system by filing a form with the PSC. Those complaints are handled by a separate team that is not restricted to doing things the way Verizon forces CLEC’s to do it.
As for competition, competitive phone companies can either rent lines from your house to Verizon’s CO at $20/mo and rent space at the Verizon CO for their equipment, they can lobby the city for permission to run their own lines at very high rates, or they can rent wireless spectrum from the Federal Government and provide you with Cell Phone and other wireless service. Generally, the Federal Government option is cheapest by far. There are some exceptions in the two Manhattan CBDs where it can make financial sense to run fiber optic lines for large businesses, and renting lines can make sense for DSL, but then they have to go through a very complicated process and I doubt anyone would accept the task in your case.
In short, unless you are willing to spend a few million $ a month, Verizon or Cable are your options. Neither has good service, both will disconnect you randomly and deliver generally bad service and your only recourse is the PSC. Verizon doesn’t even keep the phones running during power outages anymore, they terminate regular phone lines in street furniture with a battery life of 8 hours at the absolute most.
VOIP has its downfalls..like enhanced 911(not local 911 but routed 911-google it)..and when you lose internet well you lose your phone…
On the other hand Verizon does have a monopoly and they are way overpriced for what you get…No matter what other company you go through like MCI(they still exist yes)..the odds are you will be using a Verizon landline…as most other companies do not have the capacity or sheer ability to install hard wired landlines throughout.
My advice use the cable or DSL lines to get a Vonage like service..If there is a disaster odds are everythings going down and even your cell will be out of service(because of call volume)..
Sadly your best bet in an emergency is a payphone(yes they still exist as well)..Many payphones get power from undergorund lines independent of electric lines..hence when power goes they still work..
So save your money and get internet and vonage for the same price of a Verizon phone only landline.
OP here: Everyone, thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate your time and effort, and I hope I can return the favor on other subjects (I usually try!). 10:58, that’s a brilliant idea. I think that’s exactly what I have to do: Start from scratch.
I’m getting in touch with PSC immediately.
I had Vonage at my business for a few months and we couldn’t function, we literally lost work because of it and could probably have sued them, so I can’t do the cable thing. But i’m glad it works for others, it must be SO NICE to be free of Verizon.
Monika
How is it that verizon has a monopoly on land line service in new york. they are the worst company on the planet and have absolutely no incentive to solve problems. I left them 2 years ago and have been using a cable phone ever since. I am 90% satisfied with the service but it is a whole lot cheaper and I will never go back to verizon.
We had Time Warner cable phone for less than a month and canceled it. Kind of didn’t like the part where you lose phone service anytime the cable goes out. Not the greatest thing to happen in storms or God forbid disasters, which are times of course when we need our phones the most. Also if there is any service worse than Verizon, it’s Time Warner. Time Warner is the worst company on the planet. That’s not said out of mere bitterness. It’s a simple fact.