Dear Verizon,

[DCKit]

It's been twelve years with a really lousy connection, static so bad I couldn't hear my calls (even to you) and constant disconnection from the internet. Even when I couldn't hear or understand your representatives when they tried to tell me there was nothing wrong with my line, I was sure you were doing your best - to ignore the problem.

You've been here countless times, telling me something was wrong with MY equipment, MY wiring, MY choice of phones. However, as I've told you innumerate times, the issue was YOUR wiring, and it took a F@#%^Q robot to admit it and only five days without service to provide a clean line.

Regardless, thank you for finally fixing the problem and I'll consider keeping your service.

But you know I have other options now... which is probably the only reason you finally fixed a decade old problem.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Time Warner has been a different company since competition arrived

Amazing how that works, isn't it? We now have 3 or 4 choices for cable and internet and TW is reducing bills and fixing service problems we have complained about for years.

[doc03]

2. Verizon is one f---d up company. My brother signed up for

a special telephone/internet deal they had last year. Instead of the upgrade they cut his service off. It took him over three months and a dozen calls to India or wherever until he got his service back and 6 months for them to get his billing straightened out.

[DCKit]

4. I was kinda expecting that level of service...

until we explained our options to Verizon customer service. Suddenly they were interested.

What I didn't mention: last week a Verizon employee hung up on me over the bad connection, and never called back.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

3. every month i have to call them to fix my bill

i supposedly have free long distance - which is why verizon won over comcast. The internet/free long distance package was slightly cheaper.

But, they charge me for long distance every month, and I have to call them every month to get the charges taken off. Yet, it takes credits over a month to apply to an account. So my account is all messed up, billing is incredibly confusing, with wrong charges for this month, plus credits from last month. They finally said that they fixed the problem last month, but we'll see.

[name not needed]

5. Sadly, I get better service with AT&T than I did with Verizon.

[Paper Roses]

6. Just the same happened to me but it was Comcast. It was a

year long battle with them over a terrible connection. In the end, to make a very long story short, they ended up giving me a years worth of free service because all their customer service people and tech visits could not find the problem. Kept telling me nothing was wrong with my computer. I gave up and bought a new computer. Immediately after the new one was set up and plugged in, same problem.

Through some serious sleuthing, I finally got to the regional VP of Comcast on the phone and told him the whole story, which had been documented on their records and also with Compac, the maker of the computer. I had spent hours and hours on the phone. There was nothing wrong with the computer. They finally sent a very high on-the-ladder- tech guy to the house. It seems their outside connections were all loose. None of their other techs ever checked.

They made good on their mistake but I still find the word Comcast to be the most foul in my vocabulary.

[aquart]

7. Might I suggest writing your state representatives?

You can't imagine how swiftly they got back to me after I sent those snail mail missives (SINCE I'D BEEN WITHOUT PHONE FOR TWO WEEKS AND INTERNET FOR ONE). I now have a nice no phone tree number if anything should go wrong again.

Nothing says sincerity like getting government involved.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Better yet

There's always one state agency that handles utility complaints, when something comes down from that board or agency, they usually put a high enough level person on the problem to make sure it has a decent chance of going away.

[LongIslandGuy]

8. Verizon blows

[NV Whino]

9. It's amazing how much my AT&T internet connection

has improved now that ComCast is stringing cable up my hill.