My very own Telephone-DSL-Verizon Nightmare +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ The people involved: - ME (me) - MB (my beloved) - Verizon - Speakeasy - Covad - AceDSL Locations: - A (dumpy little apartment in Manhattan) - B (nice big apartment in Manhattan - same ZIP code as A) May 1999: ME and MB move into A, where they order local telephone service from Verizon with the number N. The line is installed and all's well. Nov 1999: ME places an order for SDSL with Speakeasy. The line is installed and activated without any problems on the same line as the phone-number N. Mar 2002: ME and MB find a better place to live and determine that they will move out of A and into B on or shortly before April 1st, 2002. MB informs Verizon of the change in location and requests that the same service with the same number N is activated at B on April 1st. Verizon assures MB that this would not be a problem. ME informs Speakeasy that he intends to move and requests that a new service is installed at B on April 1st or at the earliest possibility thereafter. Speakeasy assures ME that this would not be a problem. On March 30th, ME and MB move from A to B. The fun begins... April 1st, 2002: ME and MB find that contrary to what Verizon told them, their phone line has not been activated. MB calls Verizon and requests that the line be activated. ME informs Speakeasy that Verizon has not yet activate the line. April 2nd, 2002: Verizon comes over to B, activates the line and informs MB that they probably won't be able to install DSL on that line, since the phone-line is connected to the apartment-buildings intercom. Everytime somebody rings the buzzer, the phone rings, interrupting any calls in progress. ME calls Verizon to inquire about this. Verizon tells ME that I need to install a second phone-line in order to get DSL. The quote was along the lines of $200 for the initial setup, plus the normal $15 or so per month for having another line ME informs Speakeasy of the problems. Speakeasy tells ME that they are not sure if what Verizon told ME is true, as Verizon supposedly is known for not being honest with customers who receive DSL from a competitor. Speakeasy advises ME to keep the current DSL order in place and to wait a few days. April 4th, 2002: Speakeasy informs ME that they can not install SDSL at B due to the problems with the intercom. Speakeasy tells ME that he might be able to get ADSL on that line. ME decides to not get ADSL from Speakeasy but to evaluate other options instead. After indicating the possible difficulties to AceDSL, AceDSL suggests to ME to place an order for ADSL and see if it works out or not. ME cancels all orders with Speakeasy and places an order for ADSL with AceDSL. Speakeasy sends ME a bill for two months of DSL service at location A. ME informs Speakeasy that they should know that ME moved out of A and to B and that all services have been cancelled. April 5th, 2002: Speakeasy informs ME that there appear to be some problems with his order, and that they would look into it. AceDSL informs ME that my order will be processed normally, and gives ME an install-date of 04/11/2002. April 6th, 2002: AceDSL informs ME that they can not process the order as an existing DSL order is already in place on number N. ME calls Verizon who state that ME currently has DSL service on N at B, which is fully functional. ME instructs Verizon to remove any old records of any previously existing DSL orders. Verizon replies that only the DSL carrier can do so. ME instructs Speakeasy to cancel all orders of any DSL with Verizon for the line at B with number N. Speakeasy informs Covad to cancel all services for ME. April 8th, 2002: Covad informs ME that as of April 8th, 2002, all DSL orders are cancelled. ME informs AceDSL that all previous orders are cancelled. Speakeasy informs ME that they are happy to tell him that his order is approaching completion and that the local delivery date is 03/25/2002. ME informs Speakeasy that obviously there are quite a few mistakes in the system. April 9th, 2002: Speakeasy sends an autmated email to ME informing ME that ME owes Speakeasy money for DSL service delivered to A. ME informs Speakeasy that that order had long been cancelled. Speakeasy informs ME, that according to their records ME owes Speakeasy at least the money for the month of March for DSL service delivered to A. ME informs Speakeasy that the amount for March had been billed to MEs credit card on March 7th. Speakeasy informs ME, that according to their records ME owes Speakeasy at least the money for the month of April for DSL service delivered to A. ME informs Speakeasy that that order had long been cancelled. April 12th, 2002: ME asks AceDSL what timeframe they are looking at with respect to the installation of ADSL service at B. AceDSL informs ME that a new order was placed with Verizon and that some time during the next week an update would follow. April 16th, 2002: Speakeasy informs ME that all outstanding balances have been zeroed, but that there may be still the month of February that ME owes Speakeasy for Service at A. ME sends detailed information regarding the previous six months credit card statements to Speakeasy to convince them that ME did in fact pay all bills. Speakeasy finally informs ME that all outstanding balances have been zeroed. AceDSL informs ME that the ADSL order has been cancelled, as ME does not have telephone service from Verizon. ME calls Verizon, who confirm that ME does in fact have local service from Verizon. In the mean time, number N at B remains fully functional. April 17th, 2002: ME informs AceDSL that Verizon now admits that ME has local service from them and places a new order. April 24th, 2002: ME inquires with AceDSL regarding the status of the order. AceDSL requests more information from ME on what might be disrupting service at B. ME replies that it is most likely the fact that the intercom is hooked up to the phone as ME indicated in his first email to AceDSL. ME mentions that ME and MB moved to B at the beginning of April. April 25th, 2002: AceDSL states that as far as Verizon is concerend, number N at B does not (yet) exist, as MB has not yet been billed and to wait some more time. April 26th, 2002: Number N at location B has become disfunctional. No dial tone. ME calls Verizon. Verizon informs ME that somebody pretending to be MB had called on April 25th requesting that the service for number N be transferred back to location A, and that service at location B be cancelled. As Verizon does not keep any kind of log or requests any kind of verification for people calling in and cancelling somebody's account, the number N at B has in fact been cancelled. Verizon tells ME that ME needs to place a new order and that maybe line N at B will be functional by Monday, April 29th. ME tells Verizon that this is unacceptable and eventually Verizon states that they will "try" to get line N at B functional again by April 27th, 2002. Verizon asks ME if ME wants to also have his DSL service from location A transferred. ME instructs Verizon to remove any and all records of any DSL service on line number N. ME instructs Verizon to only accept changes to line number N if the person requesting the change is either ME or MB, and, in addition, calls from either line number N or from a second specified number. ME instructs AceDSL to cancel the DSL order -- it appears there are other issues that need to be resolved first. April 27th, 2002: Verizon fails to turn back on the phone. MB calls Verizon -- they assure her that our line will be back up by 6pm. Verizon calls MB. They don't have anything to report. The guy indicates that somebody at the central office has to do what is necessary. Verizon assures MB that the line will be back up by 6pm, by 8pm the latest. 6pm comes and goes -- the phone line remains unfunctional. 8pm comes and goes -- the phone line remains unfunctional. ME calls Verizon, but of course nobody's working. April 28th, 2002: Assuming that nothing's working, ME calls Verizon and leaves a message that our phone needs to be put back on line. Miracolously, the phone starts working at some point. ME wonders if my previous call will cause the phone-line to be disconnected on April 29th, 2002? April 30th, 2002: Phone line still working! ME decides to place an order for a second, independent phone line in order to finally get DSL. After entering the phone number N into Verizons web-interface, the system tells ME that this number no longer has service with Verizon and has been disconnected. However, the phone-line is still working. May 6th, 2002: Verizon sends a "Welcome" package outlining our "new" phone-line, including the caller-id blocking "as we requested". Of course, neither ME nor MB did ever request caller-id blocking or placed a new order. When attempting to place an order for a second independent phone line in order to finally get DSL, the website fails with a "Processing error". May 8th, 2002: When attempting to place an order for a second independent phone line in order to finally get DSL, the website fails with a "Processing error". MB calls Verizon and orders a second phone-line, which will cost $200 to install. They said they would come over on May 14th "between 1pm and 5pm". May 14th, 2002: Verizon installs the new line. It takes quite some time. After the line is installed, the Verizon guy announces that the line is not yet functional, as the central office needs to do something. He assures MB, that the line will be functional tonight, tomorrow the latest. If that should not be the case, MB should call the office. Just for the heck of it, ME calls the number that is assigned to our new line -- not too surprisingly, somebody else's answering machine picks up. This means that the line is apparently still in use, so ME predicts that a) Verizon will switch that number to ME tomorrow or so b) that other person will call Verizon to complain that her phone line has been disconnected c) Verizon will disconnect our second line and give it back to the other person d) Verizon will have to come over to install a different line/number/whatever e) this is going to take at least 2 weeks f) ME will not have DSL working before June 15th Later MB determines that the new line is functional - maybe ME dialed the wrong number? May 15th, 2002 ME informs Speakeasy that ME has a new number and orders ADSL from them on that line after they assured ME ealier that it's worth a try to attempt to place the order even though ME has not been billed for the new number. May 17th, 2002 Covad determines "that cancellation of this order may be necessary for No Customer Service Records found". May 20th, 2002 Covad's status page reads: "Long Term Facilities Issue Our vendor has informed us of a long term facilities issue on May 20, 2002 07:46:58 AM for this order. We are currently working with the vendor to obtain additional information and resolve the issue." "Manual type: We have been in contact with our vendor regarding the status of the loop necessary for DSL service and been informed that there are no records of service being provided to the end user. We will need to verify that service is provided by Verizon and their database has been update as such. Please provide confirmation of this to COVAD @ 1800-GO-COVAD prior to Wednesday May 22, 2002. If no response is received by this date your order will need to be canceled. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause." Sounds really promising... May 22th, 2002 SE informs me that they can not complete the installation, as Verizon does not have any record of ME being a customer of theirs and asks ME to provide the name, address and number as stated in Verizon's last bill. May 26th, 2002 ME informs Speakeasy that ME does not have a bill for said number, as indicated to Speakeasy when ME placed the order. May 28th, 2002 Speakeasy informs ME that their "vendor" has informed them that the line in question (the one I specifically ordered and got installed to get DSL on) is not able to support the type of DSL I requested. Speakeasy's status page tells ME that there is no order for ME's username. Speakeasy's answer page tells ME that Covad may cancel my order as this number has not been billed yet. June 5th, 2002 Since Verizon has billed ME, ME places a new order with Speakeasy (again). Speakeasy sends an email to ME confirming the order and furthermore confirming that Verizon now knows that ME has service from them. Speakeasy gives ME a "Covad TELCO Date" of June 10th June 14th, 2002 ME receives the "DSL installation Kit" from Covad. June 15th, 2002 ME is hooked up with DSL again. This fulfills the prediction made on May 14th quite exactly. Let's hope it lasts... September 9th, 2002 After having been assured by Speakeasy staff that ME qualifies for a DSL rebate of about $200, I submitted the necessary forms some time in June. Today, ME receives a postcard from Speakeasy stating that my DSL rebate request was denied since the address supplied did not match the DSL address. Apparently, Speakeasy and/or Covad are *still* unable to determine MEs current status. It's a miracle that the line is still functional.