I don’t know what the hell is wrong over at Verizon but I’m beginning to think the place is being run by monkeys!

For the past few months my internet connection has become unreliable in the evenings. Usually by 7pm EST I’m experiencing constant disconnects. Sometimes the the modem doesn’t even blink, literally. The DSL light on the modem never blinks but when I check my router, I’ve got 0.0.0.0 for an IP address. The DNS servers are still listed, but no connection.

Usually if I try to disconnect and reconnect, the modem with then go into reconnect mode and start blinking. Frequently, this hasn;t resolved without a hard power cycle of the modem. The light blinks slow then fast and appears to connect for only a second, then goes back to the slow flash. I does this over and over until I power cycle the modem.

Ok, so it’s time for some support from Verizon. I want to call someone and see if there is anything they can see in logs or whatever that would show why I am dropping.

So begins “The Quest” to find a phone number to call for support. You would think most companies want you to be able to locate the various phone numbers they use for contacting them; sales, support, business services, etc. I load up verizon.net, get myself logged in and click the link that says Help.

Once in the help section, I see a link on the left that says Contact Us. Well, that’s what I am here to do, I want to contact them. Off we go to the Contact Us page. Ok, I can get three kinds of support here. Email, Phone and Chat. I click on the Phone support option.

This takes me to some Quick Support option and it’s anything BUT quick. It’s ironic that the url is quick.verizon.net because it barely loads completely and fails outright to install some application in FireFox. Ok, lets see if it works any better in IE. Nope, just as slow, but at least I can now install “PortalInstaller.exe”.

Wait a minute… I came here to find a PHONE number. Why do I need to install some application? I know I am going to regret this.

Installer gives NO options and drops an icon on your desktop. I’m beginning to think I should have pulled out the jar of Vaseline first. I fire up this application and a window opens, says it’s loading then tries to open a page in FireFox. Well, I’ve already established that doesn’t work and yes, I can confirm is still doesn’t work. Trying to open the URL or the Quick Help in IE does not work either. Thanks for the additional waste of time and useless software Verizon. Who do I bill for that? Now where’s that uninstall.. wait, I better get the Vaseline first.

In the meantime, a friend that I was chatting with googled up an actual phone support number from Broadband Reports. It’s really sad that I have to look to a non-company website to find a support phone number.

My connection has stabilized for the moment, it had been going wonky prompting all this hassle and now I don’t want to deal with it since I am too worked up. I don’t even know if that phone number from BBR is any good. Probably not, but I’m not going to worry now because I won’t get anywhere chewing the ear off some tech support stooge.

If I was living on some tropical island and had connection issues, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I’d stand up, go outside, take a swim at the beach and forget ALL about the problem and come back refreshed and ready to deal with it. *sigh*