Message-ID: <20210325153512.GB12012@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:35:12 +0000
From: Bill Horne <malQassRimiMlation@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: This would be funny except it's not
On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 10:31:36AM -0400, Fred Goldstein wrote:
> Companies have been competing lately on who can deliver worse customer
> service, largely by putting up more impregnable IVR jails. Nowadays it's
> more like IVR fortresses. Comcast used to be reachable if you said
> "agent" enough times. Now that gets you to a recording that, if
> triggered, sends a text to your mobile phone which can activate their
> appydoodle on the phone which has a sort of dumb text chat, but no phone
> capability. Essentially useless.
>
> But I did find one way to get through which I suspect works with
> Verizon. Call from a phone number not theirs, so they don't recognize it
> and try to jail it. Then pretend you're a potential new customer and get
> connected to sales. Then demand that they transfer you to a real person,
> and stay on the line until a real person answers. That is apparently the
> only way to reach Comcast technical support now, which it seems is
> pretty much all in the Philippines. Not that they are likely to be able
> to fix much.
It was a wide-area outage. I don't know how wide, but my phone is
working today.
I will, however, keep your advice on hand for future use. I have a
VoIP phone on Callcentric, which works more reliably than Verizon
mobile.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20210325153003.GA12012@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:30:03 +0000
From: Bill Horne <malQassRimiMlation@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: This would be funny except it's not
On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 12:23:13PM -0400, Julian THOMAS wrote:
>> On Mar 24, 2021, at 12:17, Bill Horne <malQassRimiMlation@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> If anyone knows how to reach a human at Verizon Wireless, I'd love to
>> hear about it.
>
> If there's a VZ store nearby, try calling or storming the store.
>
> For excellent customer service as well as flexible plans [no contract],
> we've been quite happy with consumer cellular.
The nearest Verizon store is an hour away, in Marion, NC, but all I
see inside are android robots that appear to be wating for someone
named Norman to coordinate their consciousnesses. The automatons react
with a crude imitation of humanity, and robotic smiles, if I wave a
hundred-dollar bill in front of their sensory arrays, but any request
for help with an existing account seems to send them into
deep-discharge mode.
I can't use Consumer Cellular unless they're piggybacking on Verizon's
network in my area. Other ham radio operators who work in the industry
warned me that only Verizon has service in this part of North Carolina
- such as it is: I can get one bar if I stand on the corner of my
porch and lean to the right.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20210325020149.3B1B8721@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2021 02:01:49 +0000 (UTC)
From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org>
Subject: The long, painful path of net neutrality
Where the war over net neutrality stands, and why it (sort of) matters
today.
By Shira Ovide
People may scream at me for saying this, but net neutrality is one of
America's longest and now most pointless fights over technology.
The principle is sound: Companies like Comcast and AT&T that sell us home
internet service shouldn't push some online data to computers and TV
sets faster than others. (The internet companies say that it's
counterproductive for the government to impose this.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/technology/net-neutrality-explained.html?searchResultPosition=5
*********************************************
End of telecom Digest Sat, 27 Mar 2021
