[Karmakaze]

Michael wanted to upgrade his DSL to a better plan, but Verizon wasn't having it. Michael could never figure out why. Each successive CSR told him a different story, which is common among telecommunication call centers. Fact of the matter, CSRs don't know anything. Well -- they know what their company wants them to tell the customer, which is usually wrong to begin with.

Michael was a Verizon customer for seven years, while always making sure his payments came in on time. After checking the Verizon site to see if he could upgrade his current DSL, the site told him yes. His neighbor had the faster plan, so why couldn't he? So he called Verizon Customer Support to upgrade. No bueno.

After seven phone calls to Customer Support, a duration of 1 hour and 42 minutes in total, Michael's Internet was still the same speed. The only difference was that Michael had gotten really frustrated. "That's not available at your address." "That's not availabe for an upgrade." "That is only available online" and four other excuses were given, but the best is saved for last. One CSR told Michael that the Internet DSL upgrade would actually burn his house down. Can you say "LOL"?

"I directly asked 'why is it I can open a new account with 7MB but I cannot order it as an existing customer?'. Her response: 'your home cannot handle the 7MB speed. If I put in the order for 7MB, it will burn your house down," Michael writes to The Consumerist.

More than likely, this probably has you thinking that Verizon customer service is horrible. But it isn't. All of the excuses listed above are fairly probable. I know because I've heard them in another call center: AT&T.

Truth is, Michael's neighbor probably does have the faster speed of Internet. And Michael probably cannot get that Internet speed due to his loop length from his house to the DSLAM, or Central Office. The DSLAM is the building that all telephone and Internet lines run into for creating faster Internet speeds that extend outside their normal range. In 2006, Verizon's maximum loop length was 18,000 feet away from the DSLAM in any direction.

AT&T's maximum is a little less, but around the same figures.

It also depends on the way that your house and corresponding telephone lines are ran from the DSLAM to the house. Sometimes depending on how the lines are laid, your neighbors can get the faster DSL speed, but you can't due to the probable issue that your telephone lines run a different route back to the DSLAM. This is fixed by paying your telephone and Internet provider to rerun the lines to your house. Which can get pretty expensive.

Another truth to this story is that customer support representatives aren't trained how they should be. AT&T's training is 4 weeks. It's enough time to learn all the things you need to know, but if you don't pay attention, you can miss valuable tips to give the customer when he asks why his neighbor can get a faster Internet speed than he can. Out of my original AT&T class, only myself and another person remain with the company. Everyone else has seen quit, and quite a few of those were still in training.

This is the problem with call centers. They are managed very poorly. By the time that Ralph de la Vega's note hits the call center floor, it's pretty much mangled with important information missing.

Maybe Verizon employees don't know about loop length. Maybe they don't know what the DSLAM is. They probably don't. I could make up a survey at my call center and I bet that under 50% would know what it is. Blame the management for not really giving a rat's *** about the consumer.

[Justin]

Burn your house down.
What next?
"Upgrading will cause an alien invasion"?

[Steven Doran]

Well, I do remember some FIOS installations burning down houses...

[Ryan Price]

Quote

It also depends on the way that your house and corresponding telephone lines are ran from the DSLAM to the house. Sometimes depending on how the lines are laid, your neighbors can get the faster DSL speed, but you can't due to the probable issue that your telephone lines run a different route back to the DSLAM. This is fixed by paying your telephone and Internet provider to rerun the lines to your house. Which can get pretty expensive.

Not entirely true , each house has a small hub that sits about 2 1/2 feet tall near their home and that runs from the telephone DSLAM Hub but also runs directly to your home, so the route is quite simple, if you are not getting the faster speed it is directly related to the wiring in the home that could be old or the coax wire they bury in the yard that is either old or corroded. I've personally watched them re run one for when i was getting my phone line installed and the guys tested my line and said i was theoretically capable of 9 MB but was capped at 7 because thats all they could offer.

[Patrick Laughner]

Well. At least they aren't telling folks with their home phone service that if they get internet through someone else they will turn off their home phone.

/att rant

[Karmakaze]

Patrick Laughner, on 13 December 2009 - 06:10 AM, said:

Well. At least they aren't telling folks with their home phone service that if they get internet through someone else they will turn off their home phone.

/att rant

What state do you live in?