Too Many Taxes

Remember that expression about the certainties of life: "death and taxes?" Well, I sure do, and especially during the month of April when we file our 1040's it's all too fresh in my mind.

I've been waiting to hear from Verizon to see if they could do better than Optimum for a triple play deal. I figure if they can come in at a similar price, I'd be willing to stick with them. Even given my recent DSL issue, I decided that I'd simply offer competitive bidding, and see where the dollars fell.

So, today I called up Verizon, who I had expected to call and hadn't, and asked for a better deal. I started with the 800 number, and this was for Fios for the nation. The lady explained "the deal" and told me the best they could do was $132 with taxes for triple play with a HD-DVR and another standard STB (set top box). When I told her nicely that she was over by at least $25 monthly, she connected me to the local office "for a better deal." She was also unsure of the taxes as they vary by locality.

I then bounced to a generic service rep, who then connected me to the Retention Specialist. We'll call her Ms. A, and she was far more pleasant than everyone else I had spoken to at Verizon during the course of the last week. I explained to her what had happened with my DSL, now deactivated, and how they were on the verge of losing this household, after decades to the cable company. What could Verizon do?

She told me I could go with a Verizon Unlimited phone plan for $19.99 (Freedom Essentials?). At first I'm thinking that I've been paying around $25 for a copper phone line for years now, and then paying my the call. I was thinking this was a really good deal, and I've been ripped off for many years. Anyway, I then ask her what the tax is on this, and I'm told that it will run around $38 monthly. So much for the bargain.

I plunge onward, and when we add in Fios internet, we are up to $72, including tax, and a 6 month discount. The discount is for 6 months, and the contract is for 12, and then the price goes up by $10 for the remaining 6 months, although I could "call and ask for another discount," but I'm not sure that they'd really do much for you at that point. Still, I plodded on.

She explains to me that because Verizon was traditionally a phone company, the user gets taxed on the phone portion of the bill. Because the cable companies are traditional TV providers, users get taxed on the TV part of the bill. I will say that first, this is unfair to Verizon because it makes their service more expensive just because of taxes that date back to the Spanish American War when a phone was a luxury. However, as a consumer, who hates to pay tax on things as this is hardly value, I'll opt for the less taxing one just on principle.

Next, I ask her about a triple play. I point out my phone bill which has a triple play deal for $94.99. When she adds in the boxes, we're back up to $132. I tell her that Optimum is coming next week, and the $102 + tax price I signed up for,at least for the first year. She tells me that the best they can do is to give me the standard box for free for 12 months, and $10 off the internet for 6 months. It comes to $116 monthly, which is simply more than I'm willing to go for right now.

While she did let me know that Verizon charges $55 for each cable run to the TV set, she also pointed out that the phone won't work from cable if their modem goes out. She didn't point out that they have only 25 hi def channels, although she claimed they were sharper, which I've heard. I thanked her, and told her that I was going to cable. I figure the worst is that I try it, and go back to Verizon, but after the $55 coax has been run to both my sets. All of this from a DSL modem dying...

Jonas

Gasps From Verizon On the Way Out

Well, I scheduled an install for Optimum to come and triple play things up around the house. As the DSL isn't working from Verizon, I figure I might as well cancel it in the meantime. I'll cancel the POTS (plain ol' telephone service) after the Optimum install.

Now, all of a sudden, Verizon wants to do something to keep me. Never mind that I had mentioned that I always pay the bill in full on time for years and years now. Never mind that I've been connected to the house for over three decades, and counting. Now that I'm leaving, they want to make it right.

On the phone, they offered to send me the modem for free. Yup, that's right, for free. That same hunk of plastic that was $59.99 before is now mine for free. They'll credit my downtime as well. The funny part is that they'll only do this if I sign up for a monthly 99 cent fee for a "modem maintenance plan." I'm guessing that they're thinking that they'll make this up long term.

While they'll give me the modem for free, and even the first month for free, I'm still not thrilled enough to come back. While they deserve for me to take the modem, and cancel next month, I'm not gonna play that game. Rather, I just told them to cancel it (ironically, these were the same folks that didn't want to sell it to me in the 1st place, and only wanted to sign me up for Fios), which they did reluctantly, after being passed around three times.

What do I want? Well, I've been with them a l-o-n-g time, and a faithful customer. I'm gonna triple play somewhere. I've requested that my number be ported to Optimum. I've started that process. I'm hoping that when they get that request, and call to retain me, they get really serious, sharpen their pencils, and can make me a more competitive offer than a free modem. If Optimum can do it for $102 monthly, plus tax, then why was Verizon looking to charge me $125 for the equivalent package today? I'd be willing to pay a little more for Fios over Optimum, but not 25% more. Besides, when I put this in under an address on the block that currently has cable, the price was only $114 for the year.

While the content will be spotty for the next weeks on TNL while this all plays out, I'm hoping this will all be worth it with some high speed goodness. Who knew that my DSL modem dying would cause all of this? In the meantime, I'll stay objective, and may the more competitive company win my business. When the dust settles, I'll be sure to let you all know how this played out.

Jonas

Update DSL

I spoke to the folks in the Verizon billing department regarding my DSL issue. They told me that a new modem would be $59.99!?!

Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like a rip off. After all, I was given the 1st modem for free when I signed up for a $14.99 plan, so it can't be an expensive part in my mind, and it feels like they're taking advantage. I also nicely told them that I was essentially keeping the copper line for the DSL, and I would be potentially canceling the whole thing if we couldn't get the DSL working for a more reasonable cost. I was told that perhaps a 3rd party modem would work, but they wouldn't recommend it.

Surprisingly, they didn't try and sell me Fios, and were fine with me heading off to call the cable company. Not so smart on the part of their marketing. Stay tuned...

Jonas

DSL Modem No Go

I've been a generally satisfied DSL customer from Verizon. While I need to have the overpriced copper phone line to get internet, the DSL (for 768/128 kbps) is a veritable bargain at $17.99 monthly and suits me fine. I've had it since 2005, and to the best of my recollection, it was only down for one night in all that time- a good uptime record my anyone's measure. Even when my phone line died, the DSL kept chugging along.

With that in mind, I present the following. I went to turn on my internet yesterday, and the modem wouldn't connect to anything. In fact, while the other lights for power and connections glowed green on the box, the modem, a Westell 6100, had an orange light for internet- clearly not good. The computer acted otherwise fine, and I had made no changes to anything, so it clearly wasn't the problem.

Hmmmm. I went to check for a dial tone on the phone line, and it was connected so that wasn't the issue. I also double checked the wires and everything was still hooked up fine. Ok, time for some outside help, and a consult of the networking kind.

I called Verizon, and I wandered through their voice menus to "Repairs" and "DSL." They did a line test, and told me it was working fine (which I already knew). The next step was to speak to someone. I figured at this point I was going to tell them that it wasn't working, and they were going to tell me that they had a network outage, or a switch down, and they were working on it or something.

Not quite. The tech support is clearly outsourced, and I had reached somewhere on the Indian subcontinent. The reps accent was very thick, and her English was much less than fluent. She painfully talked me through rebooting the router, and reconnecting the wires to no avail. Then she talked me through some DOS commands to try to manually connect the modem to Verizon which didn't work either. She also had me take the wireless router out of the mix, even though I was plugged into it with a wire anyway. After over 45 minutes of this "just one more minute," and "thank you for providing this information," the two key American phrases she had mastered, we were no further along, and I had somewhere I needed to be, so I thanked her, and told them I'd call back when I could work on this further.

After dinner, I gave it another shot. This time I reached the Philippines, and guys English was quite fluent with much less of an accent. Yay! At least now I could focus on fixing the connection, and not repeating everything four times. After a few minutes of me explaining what had gone on before, him reviewing the notes of my previous encounter, an on hold consult with a network specialist, and my modem was pronounced dead. Ok, now what?

Here's the frustrating part. I was told I needed to contact billing, and they would figure out how to get me another modem. I was connected to them at 7:55 pm, but they close at 8, and they didn't pick up the phone. Clearly mediocre service.

I'm wondering how this will go at this point. If I have to buy another modem, I'll probably cancel the service, and try with something else. The original Westell 6100 was a piece of junk, and I was surprised it lasted as long as it did. The ideal would be if I could just bring it to a Verizon store, and they could swap me out, and hopefully charge me a nominal fee for a refurb.

Stay tuned, Verizon billing opens in 40 minutes or so...

Jonas

Forced Upgrade?

Let's face it, no one likes to be forced to do anything. After I've researched something to death, and gone through the effort to get something working, there are plenty of times I'd like to leave well enough alone.

I recently spotted this article on Broadband Reports that mentions that they're going to be forcing Verizon DSL customers to upgrade to the Fios offering. It leaves me rather annoyed.

I am in a Fios neighborhood, but I simply can't justify the cost. I currently have the slower DSL (768/256), and a regular phone plan. Together they run me less than $45 a month (with all of the ridiculous phone taxes), as I use my cell phone for most of the outgoing calls. The DSL is $17.99 monthly; it was $14.99 for the first year, and it generally works just fine, with an occasional hiccup, or two.

As we've all figured out, the copper phone wires of years ago are not aging gracefully, and Verizon has bet the farm on fiber optics, marketed as Fios. At least in my area, it's a jump in price to around $65 a month for phone and internet (I'm not sure if it includes the taxes; it may not). True, it's faster, but I can already stream video, and my WiFi isn't getting any faster, so it's fast enough for the time being. I'm just not sure what the $20 a month would get me, and it would add up to almost $250 at the end of the year!

When I originally tried to sign up for Verizon DSL, I practically had to beg them, and then threaten them, to get it. I kept saying that I would only get Fios if it was comparatively priced, and they finally acquiesced after I wore the Fios rep down, and mentioned that I would be exploring "other options." I guess a DSL customer was still better than no customer to them, although that may be changing.

While I didn't get any email from Verizon yet, I really don't want to go through this again. While the article doesn't mention it, if fiber cable is cheaper to maintain, then shouldn't the cost savings passed along to the consumer? I think they should have a "bargain Fios" offer that could offer slower speeds for less dough. If they're going to force me to upgrade for their convenience, and their cost savings, why should I have to pay more for it?

While I doubt we'll ever see Fios internet at DSL speed for under $20 monthly, it would be a compelling offering, and get their fiber service in more homes. And that might just be good business in the end.

--Jonas

Internet Issues

My regular readership will realize that it's a rare event when I don't get a post up on a Thursday evening. Here's the reason why, and it's not that the dog ate my homework...

I turned on my internet connection last night, and my desktop. My USB WiFi adapter connected to my router, but FireFox kept not connecting to the internet. I then tried MS Explorer with the same result. Clearly the problem must be with the WiFi adapter (as an aside, the Buffalo one has worked really well, but they stiffed me out of the $10 rebate claiming I didn't send the UPC even though I did, c'est la vie). After trying two others, including this one, I simply wasn't connecting to anything despite a reboot of the 'puter, WiFi router and modem more than once.

Ok, time for the next plan, and some network troubleshooting. I powered down my desktop, and fired up the notebook wondering if something had monkeyed with my settings. Again, I connected to the WiFi router, but couldn't load a page in two different browsers. When I looked at the router, the LED for internet was on, so I was starting to wonder if my WiFi router had gone haywire and need replacing, although I was able to detect its signal.

The next plan was to bring the notebook to the router, and plug directly into the Ethernet port, completely bypassing any wireless issues. Should work now- except it didn't. Ok, maybe the whole router is bad, and I plug directly into the modem taking the router out of the equation. When I send a request, I then notice that the modem light blinks red (normally it's green). Hmmm. That's a new color, and probably not a good one that everything is working fine.

I then think back to what happened in June, and wonder if the whole telephone line went down, and realize that I probably should have checked for a dial tone before getting so far down the troubleshooting tree. I also take a minute to check all the wires are still in place, which they were. Yup, I still have a dial tone on the phone, so that's not the problem. Guess I'll need some professional help.

Next, I pull last month's Verizon bill, and call the company. I'm immediately greeted with the "We're experiencing heavy volume" message so something is probably going on as we're after business hours. I work my way through the voice prompts, and when I'm asked what my problem is with my phone, I say "INTERNET" until the voice recognition kicks in. The robot then tells me that I should contact my ISP. Huh? Verizon is my ISP so I'm confused now. Wait a sec, they give me a new number to call that wasn't on my bill.

Calling the second number, I'm again told that they are experiencing heavy volume. Yeah, I bet if the internet is out. I'm then told that it's out for most of my entire area code, at least on the DSL service. I didn't get to speak to anyone to find out what was really going on, and when it would be fixed.

Curiously, I checked with a neighbor, and their Verizon Fios was working fine. I'm not sure if my DSL ever came on, as I called it a night, and accepted I was off the information superhighway. Could a whole county's DSL really go out all at once? Would I be better off on the newer fiber optic network: Fios? The conspiracy theorist might think that perhaps the phone company would do this to get at least some of us to switch to the higher priced offering, but as I've been generally satisfied with the DSL service for two years now, I'm not going that route quite yet.

Keeping this in perspective, I've been without electricity, heat, hot water, phone service and even any water for more than a few hours at various points in the last several years (thankfully not all at the same time), and the lack of internet is probably the least painful. It's probably in the same category as my cell phone outage which is annoying, and inconvenient, but not terrible or dangerous in the end. I just hope this doesn't turn into an unending saga. If I hadn't taken so many steps to diagnose the issue, I could have just read a book.

--Jonas

PS: I looked online to see if anyone had posted about this, but if the internet is down, that would definitely explain why "mum's the word" on this issue.