Issue #3 - Dead Outlets, Conflicting Answers, Ridiculous Charges

I recently discovered that when Verizon turned off my second phone line (at my request, to save money), half of the outlets in my house went dead. Including the outlets for the alarm systems and the Tivos.

When I called Verizon it took about 45 minutes to get to the right person who understood that when the second line was shut off the first line was supposed to ring on all of the jacks in the house. She said this would be no problem, they just had to do a cross-connect at the office and all of my phone jacks would work. She said it would be done that night.

Two days later I called again and was told that someone has to come out to my house to do something with the fiber box but there wouldn't be a charge. I ask to speak to someone else who told me that of course they don't need to come out -- they already came out and installed a fiber box! And, obviously, both sets of jacks are hooked up to the box. He will just make the change there and the outlets should work soon.

Three days later nothing worked yet so I called again and Mr. Pierce says I definitely DO need someone to come do an installation. After a long back and forth we agree on 2/14/09 as the install date but he says that every time he submits the order it "goes into error." After nearly 75 minutes on the phone he says that he will get back to me later that day to confirm the appointment. He understands that I shouldn't be paying for this but that isn't his department. He just makes the appointments and every appointment generates a charge so I will have to take that up with someone else later. (Oh boy.) He says it is almost certainly complex invasive running wires to jacks and in either case I am going to get charged a bunch by default. And even if not, it will be nearly $200 in charges because it is "working on two lines."

Will it suprise you to learn that he never called back and that no one from Verizon showed up on 2/14/09 and that when I called they said the installation was listed for 2/26/09? After much further conversation they said someone could come on 2/16/09 between 8am and 5pm. I asked do they really give a ten hour window? The answer: Yes.

As of the morning of 2/16/09, the window has been narrowed now to 1pm to 5pm and the rep who is doing the worked called this morning to touch base about timing, which I appreciated. When he gets here I can't wait to see what he says.

UPDATE: The Verizon technician arrived, walked to the box, and 2 minutes later was done and everything was working. He said someone did the ports wrong and he is not going to bill me for the visit since it was "a nothing." I thanked him and now we wait to see if any charges will show on the bill. Anyone want to bet?