Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3
Where has Verizon acknowledged this problem? I have not been able to find any such place. I have not received any communication from Verizon concerning the problem. The Verizon support people that I have contacted do not have a clue about the problem. The solutions that have been reported are useless for many people. When I have called Verizon support I have strongly suggested that Verizon be open about the problem. Nothing has happened. My only avenue of communication is via forums like this one. Even here there is misinformation, which I have tried to correct but to no avail, as some people on this forum have the ability to create posts that cannot be replied to. Fortunately I am now back home, but I am now in the process of moving further away from Verizon so that I am not affected the next time I travel.
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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

I know Brittany did not make it very clear but it is mentioned in her post

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/td-p/744863

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

@tns_2 wrote:

I know Brittany did not make it very clear but it is mentioned in her post

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Email-Account-Password-Lockout/td-p/744863


This post does not match what was happening to us.

There never was suspicious activity on our acccounts. Our accounts were never disabled.  (We could still use webmail, by and large.)  We do not have overseas accounts.   We were never notified.

Because our accounts were never disabled, re-activation is not a remedy to the problem at all.

There is no information on either of the referenced pages that is relevant to our problem.

The problem is that the Verizon POP and SMTP servers were (and almost certainly still are) refusing to accept any connections from a large part of the internet.  Verizon made this problem dramatically worse by not having any effective remedy for many affected parties, by not telling their support staff about the problem, and by not putting up any information on it.  There is not even any way to correct or comment on the post.

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

I've directly discussed this with Brittany and yes its meant to explain that FOREIGN ACCESS was cut off.  Unfortunately some domestic were  also cut off.  Both may be addressed if you ask them to whitelist you.  If for example all ABCD ISP's addresses are being blocked (or at least a lot of them), it would be better if you asked ABCD to contact Verizon about getting their addressses whitelisted.  That way if you get a different IP address from ABCD the next time you connect, you will have access.

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

Well if the referenced post was supposed to refer to the situation what we find ourselves in, then it is very badly written.  The post talks about suspicious activity on our accounts and the remedy is to get our accounts reset.  Nothing about access being cut off or whitelisting.

Also your remedy does not work when travelling.  When travelling you get a different setup at each hotel, with potentially different addresses and ISPs.  Getting put on a whielist is impossible and would not be a remedy even if it were possible.

It seems that there is a lot of confusion within Verizon on this problem.  You would think that Verizon would know what it has done, but I guess not.

I think that the only thing saving Verizon from the ash can of history is its monopoly position.

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Its much clearer now then it was.  Have you read it recently?

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
djb5
Contributor - Level 3

@tns_2 wrote:

Its much clearer now then it was.  Have you read it recently?


With all due respect (and thanks for all the help provided here on the Forums, especially from unpaid customers helping the rest of us) ,

Forums are NOT the place for a business to announce service outages or limitations. When an action to discontinue is planned, all customers should be notified. And the situation should be clearly posted on the top level Support Page, at least with a link titled something like "Known Outages or Service Disruptions".

And, ideally, when trying to access a curtailed service, it would be helpful to receive a more meaningful message than the one we all received here "Server not responding" (perhaps could include where to go to find possible reasons for receiving the message).

And, no need to even go into the issue of updating all technical staff (or the database the help desk people search) soif you call for help you get the answer.

I know, preaching to the choir here, but it does seem Verizon has been reading these threads, so I'm hoping they will pay attention.

And TNS_2, it's great that you are so helpful (truly, you are a treasure for all of us who come here for help), but I don't agree with your position that posts on a customer forum are a substitute for keeping customers informed of service disruptions or outages. Although, it is through the support of Verizon that we even have these forums, so we have to appreciate that!

Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
pfps
Enthusiast - Level 3

I had read the post just before my post of 23 November, and I reread it just now.

The post still talks about particular accounts being affected, instead of a blanket prohibition of access from large parts of the internet.  The post still talks about using password reset to fix the problem, instead of the partial remedy of whitelisting.

So, no, the post is no better.  It talks about a different problem and its remedy is  entirely ineffective.

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

It now says

"Additionally, we have implemented measures to prevent future unauthorized access attempts which may affect your ability to access your Verizon.net email from locations outside the U.S. If you experience difficulty reaching your Verizon.net email account, you can always access it online at mail.verizon.com or through the Verizon My FiOS app for mobile devices. For further information see the Verizon Webmail FAQs. "

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Re: yet another victim of the Verizon blacklisting
PHB-Oz
Enthusiast - Level 1

Well, it took me some months to finally find out what was happening to my emails when I tried to retrieve them from Australia.  It took many calls to tech support before my insistence to speak with a supervisor eventually yielded a reluctant acknowledgement that my access had been blocked because of a 'hacking problem.'

Why did Verizon find it necessary take action that significantly reduced service without notifying its customers openly and immediately?  More interest in corporate image than truthfulness, I suspect.

This blog is the most complete explanation that I have found so far concerning the extent of Verizon's 'punish the customer' approach to their security problem.

Any one have any better experience with another US ISP, at least one that notifies its paying customers when the cut their service?

Cheers