an infuriating exchange with tech support

[prudy250]

Since Verizon seems to have no higher tier than this to register concerns about service, I'll air my grievance here.

I few days ago, I began to have trouble logging in to servers hosted by a well known web hosting company. I've been logging in to these servers several times a week for more than a year. I figured that the problem was at the server end, so rather than calling the web host tech support, I just went about my other business, figuring that they'd probably notice something askew and fix it within a day or so. But, on the following day, I had the same problem.

I did all the usual stuff at my end, as in trying a different browser, clearing the caches on both browsers, trying a different computer and yet another browser, powering everything down and reseating all the cabling connections... all the usual things. Occasionally, I was able to log on for a few minutes, then the connection would time out or I'd get a "can't find server" error message as I would move from one task to another.

I checked with some team members that work on that web site with me (not Verizon customers), and none of them was experiencing the kinds of difficulty I was having (and yes, we all use the same login credentials). I called the web host and they said they were not aware of any problem at their end. After a fairly thorough discussion of the problem, they said it sounded like a problem with my isp. That would be Verizon.

Ok, so I call Verizon tech support, and I get this very nice gentleman who tried to help me. We went over the whole history of the problem, and even got the web host tech on a conference call. No joy. This goes on for a couple of hours, and as we all know, at a certain point you're actually going backwards in terms of troubleshooting. We reached that point. But that's not the infuriating part.

Things started to unravel when our attempt to create a new network connection failed. Lost my original network connection in the process, too, which gave me some consternation, but I managed to get it back after a few mumbled curses. On hold for awhile, and then the nice gentleman comes back and starts to talk about the fact that I'm running an airport extreme as a router for some of my equipment. It's actually a redundancy but it's definitely not the problem, since the machine I normally run doesn't even use that particular network connection. I'm a little frazzled at this point and do not appreciate this detour.

My time is not entirely without value, and during this troubleshooting session I received an email message from a client that needed me to address a task for them immediately. I told the nice Verizon gentleman that we didn't seem to be making any progress, I had work that needed to be done rather urgently, and asked if we could take a breather for awhile and attack the problem later with a fresh outlook. He asked me to hold while he spoke to his supervisor. Ok, I go on hold again.

After a few minutes he comes back and starts talking about my terms of service not allowing me to run an exchange server... which has nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with my problem. I find it troubling that after being on the phone with this gentleman for more than 2 hours, he comes up with something completely irrelevent to talk about, but you know when they start referring to your terms of service, they're trying to absolve themselves of responsibility. He might have had better luck if he'd said the terms of service did not guarantee access to a particular web site or service. It does in fact say that, but you know they only bring that up when they have no clue how to solve your issue, and they're done trying to help you.

That infuriated me. If you can't help me, fine fine fine, but don't keep me on the phone for 2 hours, doing increasingly absurd tasks, and then have some supervisor (whose name is purported to be {edited for privacy} Jimenez, and this call center is ostensibly based in Costa Rica) go rooting through the TOS to find an excuse not to deal with it any more.

I told him the nice gentleman that I know he tried to help me but that we'd run out of road, and that although that was frustrating, I wouldn't have been so annoyed if Mr. Jimenez (if that is indeed his name) hadn't suggested that TOS gambit... which wasn't even the correct TOS gambit.

So I'm now back at square one, and seriously considering other options for an isp. I'll continue to look for answers at this end, but I can't really use a service that can't establish and/or maintain a connection to a very common web hosting service (it's a top-of-the-line company, not Fred's super discount web sites or anything) that I need to access on a near daily basis. What I really don't understand is, what's changed in the last few days? Nothing has changed at my place.

Thanks for the opportunity to vent. I'm now going to look for an address for Verizon Corporate... sometimes they can goose people to find solutions to intransigent problems when no one else can. If anybody has the least clue of what this problem might be, please respond. And wish me luck!

[LawrenceC]

Hi prudy250,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

[Verizon_Support]

prudy250,

      We are glad that we were able to clear up some trouble and provide a more stable connection to the webhosts in question, as such we are closing your Private Support Case. If you have any further questions about your service or account, please make a new post and we will be happy to help.

-Adam