A New Testimonial

Haven't heard from Verizon since they stupidly sent me a check. Sucks for them. But I have heard from a few friends who have recently switched from Verizon to other TV/internet providers.

One coworker is going through an ordeal where Verizon sent his alleged outstanding bill to collections - they claimed he never returned the equipment, when in fact, they moved it for him when he moved to a new home. So he remained a Verizon customer, they did the new installation, and they are claiming he never returned the equipment. Freaking brilliant! Of course he didn't return the equipment, you morons. He is still using it, and paying for the service. He is now switching to a new provider.

Just this morning, an old buddy of mine IMed me about his recent experience. Another typical Verizon nightmare. As he mentions, he speaks "redneck," so you'll have to excuse his spelling and grammar. The transcript is below, with some great one-liners.

friend: just thought i would share, Cox is outside right now hooking up my new cable modem
friend: i blew a fuse on Verizon yesterday
Me: nice
Me: seriously, they are freaking maddening
friend: so here a little history for your blog
friend: i have DSL
friend: i got upgraded
friend: to 3mb down 768 up
friend: all to hell after that, every time my phone rings it drops for 10 seconds
friend: every time i call they want me to delete temp files, reboot, unplug, etc
friend: i can unhook every single phone in my house
friend: call from my cell phone and my interent still drops
friend: that rules out their damn dsl filters
Me: that's useful
friend: so i call Verizon yesterday and spoke redneck to them
friend: guess what, today no drops and i never touched a thing
friend: but cox is still here because this has went on for 6 months now and they were never able to fix it before
Me: you'll be good with cox. they have been good with me.
friend: I can call verizon and tell them a tree is down and they will want me to still reboot my computer and delete temp files
Me: that quote is going on the blog
friend: and power cycle my dsl modem
friend: i call cox and George answers
friend: i call verizon and Saldfsajfkdsajfkdsajfdsafakjs answers
Me: that quote is also going on the blog
friend: so its Cox and Vonage now
Me: music to my ears
friend: i am sure the FIOS service is great just working with verizon sucks
friend: my buddies have 20/20 FIOS at their house and its good
Me: thats what i always said. FIOS usually works fine. just the customer service is downright asinine.
friend: i cannot get even try FIOS here because they destroyed our community and the HOA banned them from digging until further notice
friend: we had a congressman here talking against Verzon asking them to pay for the repairs

Also, last thing. Remember when I compared Verizon to Sprint a few months ago, in that Sprint foolishly acquired Nextel and created a huge pile of crap thereby sending the stock plummeting? Well Verizon Wireless recently agreed to buy Alltel for $28 billion. See a parallel? Time will tell, but if Verizon Wireless' service is anywhere near as crappy as their FIOS (and apparently DSL) service, Verizon stock should be on a Southbound train to Crapotown in the next few years.