Support

A pox on clueless tech "support" people! I'm trying to ditch Charter in favor of Verizon's DSL. Thursday, I received an email from Verizon telling me that my service was ready and to use the self-install kit to get on-line with it. All well and good, except that I had no signal to the modem. I call "support" and run through the guy's script to keep him happy. End result, since I"d earlier received an email saying that it would be up today, let's wait and see if they jumped the gun on the 12th.

Over the weekend I went out to the network interface box and connected the modem directly to the utility's side, bypassing my household wiring. No joy. I also measured the voltage across the red-green pair. Zip. Tonight after six, same drill with the modem and again, no-joy.

I am convinced there is no signal to the house and call "support" again. Again the guy wants to run through his script, AFTER I told him all of the above! How long is the phone cable? How the hell should I know, you sent it to me! How many phone jacks do you have? Dude, I BYPASSED THEM ALL, I HAVE NO SIGNAL! And the kicker, "Are you using Windows or a Mac?" I'm using a Mac, but have Windows and Linux machines. What part of I HAVE NO SIGNAL don't you understand? Well, sir, since you're using a Mac, I'll have to transfer you to our Mac technical support so they can schedule your technician visit. Fine, then for argument's sake, let's say that I'm running Windows. Okay, what kind of Windows? 98, but who cares? It's not an OS issue. Fine sir, I've run a line check and we'll transfer you to our dispatch agent to schedule your appointment.

Hi, sir, I've got tomorrow between 0800 and 1900, will there be someone home? No, you'll schedule the appointment Friday between 0800 and 1200. Fine, sir, I have you down for Friday between 0800 and 1900. No, you'll schedule the appointment between 0800 and 1200 if you want someone there. Well sir, I can only give you between 0800 and 1900, but I'll put it in your notes. Fine. Thank you for calling Verizon.

What a joke. These guys couldn't support my privates with a jock. I'm hoping that they'll at least send a phone guy on Friday, not some generic outsourced tech "support" weenie from God knows where.

Sleepy

Pet adoption day at Pet Smart is such hard work!