Verizon DSL comes with no dialup access at all?

[SunnyD]

Well... what a bummer this has been. My DSL Ready Light still blinketh.

We had a billing related outtage for the last two weeks. Finally got things all straightened around, and they said all services including DSL would be restored the next morning. Well, next morning came and went, no DSL. Call to find out (dialtone service was back) why, they had no clue. Run tests. Everything seems appropriate. Finally send a trouble ticket to the local CO to check the circuit - answer should be the next morning. No answer, nothing wrong, so they prepare to schedule an on-site tech visit.

I ask the Verizon agent I'm talking to... in plain english:

Before we waste a tech's time on an on-site that probably will determine nothing I don't already know... Since it was a billing related outage, can you tell me whether my curcuit has been removed from the DSL switch and restored to a normal line?

Made perfect sense to the agent, so they checked a few databases, made a quick communication with the CO, and DUH. I was right. Of course, by no bureacratic corporate policy, it would take 5 to 7 days for a SERVICE ORDER to go through to the CO to switch me back (it's not like we were already talking to the CO or anything at this point you know...).

So, I ask about dialup access in the mean time.

It turns out that the DSL package Verizon offers includes ZERO dialup. Ya gotta talk to billing and order it, incurring additional charges (not cheap either - there's no discount, you basically have 2 internet accounts at this point from different ISPs). How wonderful.

So I decide to go with cable and cancel DSL. Turns out Time Warner wanted some $100 to install what I could do myself. Money I don't have. So, my wife calls Verizon back and reorders DSL. Another week of broadband-through-a-straw.

Sorry, had to vent. Nef away.

 

[Kevin]

Go to Best Buy and get an MSN disk. The 1 month free trial should get you going...

 

[shopbruin]

i have verizon dsl and they put me through the same garbage.

first they don't bill us for five months. so they cut off our access. they enver let us know. we changed the credit card even for billing and they STILL don't bill us. so they cut it off. we go "wtf" and call. they said "you haven't paid." "you haven't charged us and we even called to get billed!" "oh" so we have to wait for the line to be reactivated (5-7 days) and they send us new software to install, but all it was was installing msn 8 or whatever.

and then i move. i put in a move request. "yes it'll take about 5-7 business days." i'm like ok, fine, i have a free dialup account from school. so i wait. business day number 7 comes and goes and i call them back.

"we don't have a move request on file." excuse me? so i put in ANOTHER request. "yes it'll be 5-7 days."

erghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

been running fine, no dsl glitches since then. verizon never seems to have major down time.

now what would be nice since they're charging 34.95 a month is like 20 hours/month of dialup in case they go down!

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: freesia39
been running fine, no dsl glitches since then. verizon never seems to have major down time.

now what would be nice since they're charging 34.95 a month is like 20 hours/month of dialup in case they go down!

Indeed, I've had service since around X-mas last year, and it's been very reliable. The house wiring is the only problem I have - and since I rent, I can't do anything about it.

$34.95/mo for 1.5Mbps/128Kbps and you actually get rated throughput and no caps, price/performance is identical to RoadRunner. But you have to pay $6.95/mo extra to get 5 hours a month of dialup for roaming or downtime - RoadRunner gives you (slowass) dialup for free.