gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA | reply to gcarper
Got a call from the Verizon Robot today - asking me to reschedul
I cancelled last week - now I am on some kind of automated callback service to reschedule my install. Unreal... |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA | Re: Got a call from the Verizon Robot today - asking me to resch
There automated callback is still trying to reschedule an install - not going to happen. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
edit:
March 28th, @09:13PM
| Synovate Inc. another 3rd Party Verizon non - accountable party
Got a call from SYNOVATE INC @ 8:54PM EST from (305) 716 6807 (Miami FL exchange) on behalf of Verizon to do a market survey. Since I am on the "DO NOT CALL" list, they violated an FCC law.
They were trying to determine if I worked for a competing telecom company - I told the nice lady on the phone that I don't. She then asked me if I had signed up for Verizon Voice, Data and TV. I said I did. She attempted to close the call when I interrupted and told her that they never installed on the planned install date. Therefore I cancelled. In May my Cell phone will be free from Verizon as well. They should spend more money on Business Process Re-engineering and less on a 3rd party market survey centers.
It's obvious they don't care and continue to use 3rd party everything without accountability. Unreal... |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
March 29th, @11:18PM
| Verizon Wireless - $99 Unlimited voice deal
No resolution from the FIOS department, however the wireless guys have special running right now UNLIMITED voice for $99 a month.. they just locked me in for two more years. Picked up the Blackberry 8830 World Phone as an upgrade to the Blackberry 8703 (which has been a wonderful phone). We'll see how the 8830 does. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
April 20th, @09:08PM
| Ok. Tried to reorder service tonight online - 3 hours of frustation and a quick dialog with Dexter - did not achieve the mission. Tried to order 30/15 Internet $89.95, 3 HD Settop boxes, and Home phone and add in my two verizon cell phones. once I selected the internet speed it blew out all the promo offers (which equalled $1040 over the lifecycle of the contract), and that was before the $50 premium for 30/15 over 15/15.... I grow tired of Verizon... next time they show up at the door i will hand them a copy of this blog to take back to their 3rd party boss... |
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birdfeedr
Premium
join:2001-08-11
Warwick, RI
·Verizon FIOS
| Ordering online
said by gcarper  :Ok. Tried to reorder service tonight online - 3 hours of frustation and a quick dialog with Dexter - did not achieve the mission. Call in to order and you'll likely have more options available than by ordering online. If you got hold of Dexter and didn't complete an order for whatever reason, call again. You'll get a different person. Maybe the chemistry mix will be better.
Discounts related to speed seem to make the step up from the lowest speed tier the same price. Of course that gives them the opportunity to drop the discounts in a later renewal. High and highest speed tiers are not discounted as much if at all.
And that other thing was not a Do Not Call violation, you have a previous relationship, and they were calling doing business directly related to your previous Verizon business. Now, if you told them to put you on their internal Do Not Call, and they called again, that's a different story. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| submitted an online order today - still no confirmation from Verizon.... had to downgrade service level on the FIOS internet to 15/15 from the desired 30/15 rate in order to get it take my order. It is unbelievable that I can order a book from Amazon and get an instant email response. I order a $150 a month service from Verizon and they can't even send a confirmation email..
I looked for a call in number last night - when I called I got the call back during business hours message - I refuse to waste my day on the phone getting asked to provide my non-verizon phone number 15 times - followed by we can't find a record of you in our system....Dexter the chat room guy was even more comical last night. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
April 22nd, @09:29PM
| Verizon Executive Resolutions
Ok two positive things happened today - I got a call from Verizon -"Executive Resolutions" from my order back in January. (It's now April 22nd - approximately 89 days later). The irony of the whole thing is that "Executive Resolutions" (Ms. Brown) sounds like the lady that I cancelled with back in January (Ms. Booth). She left voicemails on my Blackberry and home phone - I tried calling back three times today and got her voicemail all three times... so I am not sure this is as positive as I thought....
Second, I got a welcome email confirming my new order - unfortunately for the 15/15 service not the 30/15 service that my neighborhood is capable of supporting. At this point I view this an positive move - Let's see if they can hit the 30 April install date with an AM appointment. I wonder what Executive Resolutions has in mind - Ms. Brown sounded sincere on the voicemail today - wonder if she really works for Verizon? The phone number resolves to a Verizon Landline in Woodlawn Md (410) 594 XXXX, but that could be just the provider for the 3rd party company...
We shall see:
Scheduled Installation Date -- 04-30-2008
Scheduled Technician Arrival Window -- 08:00-12:00(Hrs)EST
Verizon FiOS Service Order Number -- VA000089494XX
Semper Skeptical |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| Update today - Ms. Booth called today to ask for my order number - I didn't have it at work - so I attempted to reference this blog - only to realize that I had redacted two numbers off the end of the Service Order Number. Later today she called back to confirm that she had found my order #, but was unable to tell me what I had ordered. She did say that they would hit the 30 April install timeline. I am not sure what her role is yet - but she is pleasant and seems to be responsive - even if she doesn't have all the data yet -- there maybe promise in Verizon yet. Time will only tell. My wife has watched me with amusement on this - she is a professional shopper and recommended that Verizon hire a company like the one she works for to "shop" the system and provide feedback on individual reps. I think that would be a great idea...
I did like that Verizon PC Security program that they provided in a link on the preinstall checklist - it cleans all spyware off my system.... now they just need to invent the ISP anti-spyware...since they can see all traffic that you access and could sell that data.... Wonder if I can get the 30/15 service that I wanted.... hopefully Ms. Brown will call tomorrow with more details |
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Ulmo
join:2005-09-22
San Jose, CA
 ·Comcast
 ·SONIC.NET
| reply to gcarper
Re: Verizon Wireless - $99 Unlimited voice deal
said by gcarper :Ok. Tried to reorder service tonight online - 3 hours of frustation and a quick dialog with Dexter - did not achieve the mission. Tried to order 30/15 Internet $89.95, 3 HD Settop boxes, and Home phone and add in my two verizon cell phones. once I selected the internet speed it blew out all the promo offers (which equalled $1040 over the lifecycle of the contract), and that was before the $50 premium for 30/15 over 15/15.... I grow tired of Verizon... next time they show up at the door i will hand them a copy of this blog to take back to their 3rd party boss... Why did you try to order service when they treat you so badly?
Sounds like at your cost level, you ought to be able to hire someone to handle the Verizon FiOS ordering process for you, so you don't have to deal with it.
Are there any Verizon FiOS ordering and provisioning service companies? They'd make a killing in the current environment. (They'd insure for billing amounts, and do all the back end suing and billing corrections for you.) |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
April 30th, @09:49PM
| No one else provides 30MBPS service --- essentially they are a monopoly and I am forced to use them or deal with a much slower service speed. That is the only reason I would even attempt further dialog with this company. If Cox HSI provided them same service level I would remain with them. Cox has been great - much like a utility company, unfortunately they do not have asymmetric service or 30/15 that VFIOS offers.. If you have any other ideas - I am all ears - So far they have cost me $4200 in lost labor - I haven't forgotten that.... I like your idea of hiring a third party to deal with them...I guess I just expected more - I didn't realize I needed a third party to deal with their third party... |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| Installed today
Install tech was awesome -he actually worked for Verizon too. He showed up first thing in the morning prepared and did a quick site survey and knocked everything out in about 3.5 hours. Did a nice clean install job of the ONT and Battery Backup system in a nice out of the way place in my basement. He was a welcome change from the phone relayathon's I experienced on several calls in the past.
Negatives:
30/15 service was not in the "order" (I actually wanted and could get 30/15 in this neighborhood but signed up for 15/15 because the ecommerce system kept screwing up when I tried to order it.) My actual wugnet speedtests are 13/6 not much different than COX HSI on the download - but about 3 megs faster on the upload. To be honest I can't tell a difference between Cox HSI and FIOS Internet. Absolutely no difference.
TV service is good when compared to the DirecTV SD SetTop Box I had before (the SD DirecTV box was 7 years old - so I didn't have their latest and greatest stuff either). Negative is that you can not delete channels that you don't want to see - so the menu could use some tuning. Other negatives the only HD channels I am getting are all the local ones that I can get over my HD Antenna in my Attic (for free!!)exception is AE/Discovery and a couple of others. Also NBC, FOX and ABC do not stretch to the full 16.9 frame, but I have that same issue with the OTA antenna too at times. I have not tried the DVR or the on demand movies yet, but it looks very simple.
Phone - was a cluster F.... voice mail is not enabled. I actually expected this to be the easy piece for Verizon...but it wasn't -- Caller ID was not working and I am getting Audio pixelation (not sure what to call it) - it sounds like digital drop outs - it doesn't happen all the time but during approximately ten calls today it happened twice during the complete conversation. I did the usual six handoff phone call routine and was finally told to wait 24 hours on the voicemail activation. I didn't bother to mention the audio stuff. Called in again later once I realized that Caller ID was not working - (my wife noticed - I didn't catch it)..and was shocked by a one call resolution!!!!. Seems that none of the value added services where enabled when the phone was ported over. Not sure if there is a mega time delay on pushing the order out to the Switch or what.. - My favorite was the rep who tried to sell me international service and HD ('cause it's not included in FIOS) when I tried to get my voicemail fixed. Guess they don't know about Skype. Three way calling isn't working either (deal with this tomorrow)
I did the email (POP3) setups on all three computers - Verizon did not handle this and I spent the rest of the day figuring out how to do that and deal with the phone issues. I did like their TrueSwitch ASP service for email updating on my new email address. This was a labor intensive day - but I expected that.
I am not sure I gained anything moving over - let's see what Executive Resolutions resolves...they have been silent since checking in yesterday to remind me of my appointment.
Net / Net:
No 30/15 or 15/15 (like the order I placed)
No voicemail / 3 way calling - hope to resolve tomorrow.
Still don't know what my account # is (it's not the order number)
3 additional HD Channels (verses my OTA Antenna - I need to check again it might be more)
Picture quality is very good on HD (but not as good as the OTA Antenna) and better than DirecTV on Standard Def Channels.
I found out there is an HBO and Movie Channel promo today that I did not get - will update on progress tomorrow. More labor hours will be invested tomorrow - most will be mine....
I don't have buyers remorse yet - but let's just say little was gained in the switch. When you add in the hassle factor it was a monetary loser - 2 days of my time (due to the earlier missed appointment)...
Interesting note - the tech told me that I am the only one on my street who has switched at this point...(market penetration of 1 out of 28 homes is pretty weak)... I am not a champion yet - just a 2 year test case. Let's see if they resolve the Internet speed issues, voicemail, etc...
More bus stop conversation tomorrow... |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
May 4th, @04:41PM
| Blue Screen of Death
Now I they have really done it... the Laptop that Verizon loaded their software on too, to do the install will not boot up and now has a fatal error (AKA Blue Screen of Death) !!!!! The two others systems I configured manually work fine....
That Laptop is my wife's Creative Memories Laptop with all our family photos on it....I am done... another wonderful experience I will be dealing with today. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
May 4th, @04:42PM
| Only 8 Mpbs Down - supposed to be 15/15
Ticket # VADQ02P55 (8 MPBS down / 8 MPBS Up) complaint on 15 MBPS/15MPBS connection submitted today.
8 calls later Voicemail now works.
Verizon denies liability for the Blue Screen. Says it's not a program - that's interesting - it showed up under "PROGRAMS" in the windows startup?
Don't ask me how I feel about Verizon right now there are no words I can utter in this forum.
»www.liveleak.com/view?i=aeb_1205333475
The beauty is my wife spends hours on the phone talking with the neighborhood gossip section -- I can hear her voice re-telling the story now -
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
May 4th, @04:43PM
| Voicemail still not working - day 4 after install
Ok -- Voicemail is not working - we were able to setup our Voicemail box - but it never picks up when the phone rings. Tech support "Optimized" my connection to 8.133 MBPS Down and 10 MBPS up. Still worse than my 15 MBPS service with Cox HSI.
Billing is closed - so I guess we will do without voicemail until Monday (Today is Friday) - when I have to call back again and waste another 45 minutes on the phone. You gotta love coming home after a long week to deal with this....
Laptop is still toasted! What the tech support guy told me tonight was that because I loaded Verizon PC Checkup it corrupted the registry. But it's not their fault but was required in the "prepare for install" instructions..
Here are some stats:
Do a search on Verizon Sks - how many hits did you get?
Do a search on "Verizon Sks" - how many hits did you get?
Add one to that number and it's me...
»ochsenhirt.org/2008/01/25/my-ver···-longer/
Another neighbor is getting the "Verizon Debrief" as they pickup thier kids up from a play date. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
May 4th, @05:53PM
| "I got your 1490, your 1310 and your 1550"
Darryl,
Where ever you are thanks for fixing the voicemail! I am now out of the doghouse and will be allowed to sleep in the house on the sofa.
Thanks for resolving the voicemail issues.
Now can we check out the issue with 8/8 verses 15/15 that I subscribed too?
Are you any good with fixing Registry Errors that were created by Verizon PC Security Checkup - that gave my HP DV9060us Laptop the blue screen of death?
Learn more about your installation at »www.verizon.net/whatsnext
I would be happy to sell you that boat anchor for the $2200 I paid for it last year...
Pavilion dv9060us Media Center Notebook Computer - 1.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500 CPU, 2GB (2x1GB) RAM, 240GB (2x120GB) 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, HD DVD-ROM with SuperMulti DVD Burning, nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB Graphics, 17" Widescreen Display, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, Windows XP Media Center Edition, 7.8LB
Right now my switch to Verizon has cost me:
2 days off of work - low side ~ $5000
A laptop computer ~ $2200 (value today - $1600)
Our complete family photo album (digital photos) - Not sure what a divorce costs - but my wife is checking into it for me.
About 50 Phones calls and headaches - $?????
The competition should make a commerical that shows a FIOS customer actually calling customer support and getting the runaround - and do it live - it could span several commerical breaks and days-----show him growing facial hair - in fact get the Cavemen from that GEICO Car Insurance commerical and have them on the phone as the customer - Did you reboot your router?, Did you do a traceroute, did you go to Speedtest.verizon.net, did you go to Wugnet.com/speedtest, did you got to speakeasy.com/speedtest, did you got to www.pitstop.com/bandwidthtest, did you optimize your computer? Did you really optimize your computer?
I could do a cool comercial:
Let's call this one "I got your 1490, your 1310 and your 1550"
That means I am only out - $7000!!! I am overjoyed!!!! Can you Feel my quadrature amplitude modulation now? Can you fix my 1310nm and get it to go 15Mbps Upstream verses 8MBPS? Can you fix my 1490 an get it go 30Mbps downstream verses 8MBPS? I am definately +20DB hot -- and it's about to move to +40DB!
Here is a link to explain:
»41miles.wordpress.com/2007/07/13···plained/ |
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JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA
| said by gcarper :Are you any good with fixing Registry Errors that were created by Verizon PC Security Checkup - that gave my HP DV9060us Laptop the blue screen of death? You should be able to just boot the laptop in safe mode and remove the Verizon software with Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel. |
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| I tried all this - it's still f'ed.
First off, note down all relevant information when you see a BSOD flash across the screen. This includes the error number and friendly name from the 'bugcheck' section of the stop error (see above), and any file names specified in the 'driver information' section.
If the BSOD comes up on the screen for a split-second before the PC restarts and wipes all the useful information away, we need to change some settings within WinXP. In most cases, it should be possible to stop your PC from automatically restarting when it develops a major error, allowing you enough time to jot down the BSOD error message. (This is what mine is doing) If you are using WindowsXP, right click on my computer > Properties > Select the 'Advanced' tab > and under 'startup and recovery' click the 'settings' button. This will open a new window, and under the 'System Failure' heading, uncheck 'Automatically restart.'
Continuing on, attempt to restart the computer normally into Windows. If the BSOD occurred while booting Windows, you may be taken to a troubleshooting menu and will have to select 'attempt to start Windows normally.' If your computer starts correctly, continue using it and store the error information for later reference. If the BSOD reoccurs at random or irregular periods, see Section D below on troubleshooting intermittent stop errors.
If your system does not start correctly or the stop message happens again, reboot the system. When the POST (memory checking) screen comes up, press F8 repeatedly. This will bring you to the Windows advanced options menu.
In the Windows advanced options menu choose 'safe mode' to attempt to boot into Windows Safe mode. Safe mode loads Windows XP with a minimal set of drivers and no automatically loaded software. If faulty software or drivers are causing your BSOD problem, safe mode should load correctly. If safe mode loads correctly, refer to Section A below on 'troubleshooting software stop messages.'
If safe mode does not load correctly, and/or you get the same stop message upon attempting safe mode, it's time to try the 'restore last known good configuration' option in the advanced options menu.
Restart your computer, pressing 'F8' again to load the advanced options menu and select 'last known good configuration (your most recent settings that worked).' This uses Windows XP's built in system restore utility to restore the most recent save point, which should be the last time you installed any drivers or other software. If your system boots normally after this operation, hopefully your problem has been fixed.
If you are still receiving a Blue Screen Of Death after the above procedures, or if system restore was disabled on your system, note down any new information on the error and start thinking. Did you install any new hardware or software just before this problem occurred? The driver information section of the BSOD may help with this. (This is me - I loaded Verizon PC Security Checkup - which was the triggering event)
If you did install new hardware or software, and you think you know what it might be that is causing the problem, this gives you a big boost in resolving the situation.
Otherwise, proceed to the advanced troubleshooting sections below. Chances are your error is hardware or system file based and will require more effort to repair.
Specific Repair Instructions
If you have a reoccurring Blue Screen Of Death or crashing problem, and can't use Windows effectively because of it, it's time to look at more specific methods of troubleshooting your problem. Depending on the results of the basic troubleshooting steps above, you should have a good idea of whether the problem that is causing the stop messages is related to software or drivers you have installed, or is a hardware or system file issue.
Essentially, if you can't boot into Windows XP safe mode because of crashes or Blue Screens Of Death, you likely either have a hardware error or one or more essential system files is corrupted or missing. If you can boot into Windows XP safe mode, but get constant or frequent BSOD's when running XP normally, you have a software or device driver problem.
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gcarper
join:2008-01-23
Centreville, VA
edit:
May 5th, @03:41PM
| XP Startup Error (Microsoft Security Corruption)
Anybody got any ideas?
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status o
f 0xc0000022 (0x00000000 0x00000000).
The system has been shut down. |
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JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA
edit:
May 5th, @05:32PM
| reply to gcarper
Re: "I got your 1490, your 1310 and your 1550"
said by gcarper :I tried all this - it's still f'ed. Does it boot in safe mode, or are you getting BSOD in safe mode also?
It sounds like it corrupted a system driver (LOGON error). If you can boot in safe mode, you may be able to correct it with CHKDSK or MSCONFIG. Not my best subject. Start a thread in »Microsoft help and listen for the answer from someone that sounds like they're positive, of the answer they're giving you. |
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