Paul Robinson wrote:
> I have volumously described over the years in this Digest my problems
> with (what was then) Bell Atlantic of Maryland's back office practices
> and later as (its reincarnation with GTE) Verizon, such that I was
> afraid if I ordered a simple change I'd end up with Foreign Exchange
> service from West Virginia or something wierd like that. When I was
> able to get competitive local service (in Maryland) from Starpower, I
> switched to them. Yes, they resell Verizon's service but at least I
> could symbolically tell them "up yours."
More importantly, when Verizon breaks things, you get to let Starpower deal
with the problem instead of having to call Verizon yourself.
> As an extra note, I want to point out that despite the problems I have
> had with Verizon's back office, I have, in over fifteen years of dealing
> with them, never once found a lineperson who was not polite,
> knowledgeable, and more importantly, willing to call in and ask for
> technical assistance if they weren't sure.
SBC is malicious, clueless and does a lot of stuff that borders on
criminal, but SBC's Advanced Services group are wonderful. They're the
guys who actually maintain the DSL lines -- the group was spun off to
avoid regulatory hassles. Their Hi-Cap people and linemen are terrific
too. I think that's pretty standard, regardless of which telco you
deal with.
> have switched. I mean, I used to deal with GTE in Long Beach,
> California and it seems like "the worst phone company in California,
> bar none" according to the California PUC, was perhaps better in
> some aspects than Barf Atemetic, err I mean Bell Atlantic!
Hm. If you really think Verizon is the worst phone company in California bar
none, maybe you should try SBC.
After my experiences with them in Ohio, I am pleased to be able to pay
Verizon instead of SBC for dialtone out here. (Verizon in the Victor
Valley was formerly GTE, which in turn was formerly Continental
Telephone.)
It will be very hard for Verizon to piss me off the way SBC did.
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, CA ** 888.480.4NET (4638) ** sjsobol@JustThe.net
Resident of Southern California -
the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is exactly how I feel about SBC. I
do not know which is worse; their inaccuracy in their billing and
procedures, or their arrogance in claiming they are never wrong and
always have it right. At one point, at least an appeal to the chairman's
office got you someone who would attempt (and usually succeed) in
making things right. Now they just do not seem to care at all; and I
have heard they are outsourcing their customer service reps mostly to
India and Hong Kong. Any truth in that if you know? PAT]
Steve Sobol (sjsobol@JustThe.net)