Ok… They didn’t say “we hate you” but they diit add a new crazy, stupid “convenience fee” to online payments. So even though they did say it… Actions speak louder than words.
Verizon Wireless: “We Hate You.”
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Tag Archives: verizon
Shooting: It’s Not Just for Zombies, It’s for Other Trouble Too…
A few months back my car’s flaky ignition switch gave out and literally fell out of the
steering column. The replacement works great, but it has a quirk that you have to turn to exactly the right spot to take the key out without leaving the radio on. A few days ago, while traveling for work, I did this part of the procedure wrong and left the radio playing all night. When I came out the next morning to go to the office, my keychain buttons didn’t respond and I could hear the radio playing from ten feet away. My immediate assumption is that the battery would be too dead to start the big engine. I sat down, put the key in, turned, and the car just wheezed without turning at all. Clearly my initial assumption was correct, so I dialed up roadside assistance and waited.
How many times have you picked up your VoIP phone and not had a dialtone and said, “damnit, service is out again.” I can’t count the number of tech calls I have been a part of or heard about where a piece of equipment suddenly stopped working and the user declared, with passion generally reserved for Samuel L. Jackson and Al Paccino at the climax of a movie, that they were positive it was plugged in and it just stopped working. After a long line of troubleshooting, unplugging and replugging it in miraculously cures the ailment, clearly a function of some latent factory problem.
Since purchasing my 1994 car some three years ago, I have on three different occasions forgotten that it has a kill switch on the ignition. If it sits for some small period of time, the kill switch engages and the engine won’t turn over. Lights work, radio works, but trying to start it results in a non-response. If the ignition is not fully disengaged, for instance if it is slightly on and leaves the radio playing, pushing the unlock will not disengage the kill switch. After forty-five minutes of non-response from Verizon’s roadside assistance, I walked out to the car, pressed the unlock button, heard the familiar “BEEP BEEP”, started the car and drove to the office. Even the pros sometimes forget to follow the basic troubleshooting steps and end up falling into the assumption ravine.
Two minutes of stepping back, forgetting that I know everything, and following a basic checklist would have saved me a lot of time and embarrassment.
Cn I by a vwl?
Dear Children of America, Continue reading
Acer Aspire One – Innocent Netbook
Or cleverly disguised secret agent for the video phone revolution?
I R Eatz U R Dataz!
I love my netbook. I love my netbook so much, I have two of them (okay, one is the wife’s). Surprisingly, I managed to survive months on nothing but my netbook doing fairly intensive SQL / VoIP / Web work. The hard drive is a little slow, but the overall performance is outstanding.
When I travel, I can use Skype to video chat with the built in webcam and get great quality (both ways) for both picture and sound. It’s like a giant smart phone. It reminds me of the $1000+ “video phones” that were supposed to be the future of talking on the phone… then people realized they really didn’t want to “get pretty” to use the phone. Now, for around $250 a unit, you can have that and so much more.
Verizon Announces SMB VoIP Package
Verizon recently issued a press release where they introduced two new “packages” aimed to help small to medium sized businesses through “rough economic times.” Although the packages are detailed and named in the press release (reprinted below), the release and website are a little lacking for information regarding costs and fees. If Verizon will be making it easier (and cost effective) to get SIP Trunks to end users, this may open a great window for PBX systems such as Asterisk, SwitchVox, FreeSWITCH, and more.
The press release follows:
Small and Medium-Sized Business Options Are Focus of Verizon Global Wholesale Offers
Voice Over IP and Powerful Internet Access Packages Bolster Business Success In Rough Economic Times
March 15, 2010
NEW YORK – At a time when small and medium-sized businesses look for every technological advantage to help them continue as the fundamental economic growth engine in the U.S., Verizon is providing support with three new voice-over-IP and Internet packages available through the Verizon Global Wholesale division. Continue reading
And we’re back!
Can you believe that we haven’t posted a true VoIP Tech Chat in over a year? Although many of you are thankful for the break, we have decided to invade your favorite audio player once more (with feeling) with the first of (what we hope) will be many podcasts for 2010. This week we discuss Verizon Wireless, Vonage, Customer Service, and well, just a good ol’ fashioned VoIP Tech Chat.
As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:
- VoIP Tech Chat (download mp3)
- iTunes
- And, thanks to popular request, you can also stream the chat by pressing the play button below
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Links of “Interest:”
What we lack in commitment, we makeup for in loyalty.
Good things come to those who wait…to cancel. On the heels of the “announcement” that Verizon Wireless will be doubling their early termination fees, I found myself considering how commerce and service has changed. As I have mentioned in our previous chats, I pay some $400+ a month for my extended family and I to have Verizon Wireless. Every month I give Verizon about $400, and on top of that, have spent over $2,000 on phones and another $500 on applications, ring tones, and content (that’s phone specific — if I buy a new phone, I get to buy new applications, ring tones, and content).
Businesses routinely (and almost exclusively) employ “short-timers” for their front line contacts — people that work at most six to twelve months answering phones, then move to another company. Customer service itself seems to follow the same pattern of always looking six to twelve months ahead, and making all judgements on a short-term basis. Have you been a great customer for 10 years? Who cares. What have you paid us lately? Continue reading
VoIP and the Residential Phone Bill
Residential VoIP - No Operators
Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.
Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).
Continue reading
US VoIP Market Grows like Weeds
Pike & Fischer recently published their Residential VoIP Market Outlook. The reports advises that more than 8.5 million household will start using VoIP within 2 years — bringing the estimated number of US residential VoIP users to 30 million by 2010. Clearly 2010 will be a VoIP odyssey.
Traditional POTS providers such as at&t and Verizon will notice decreasing numbers of residential customers while stand alone VoIP providers (such as Vonage, Packet 8, and voip.com), Cable companies, and wireless providers pick up the slack.
Verizon VoIP scores a big one
Hotels provide nightmarish dreams for any phone engineer and many business were built solely to provide solutions to the hospitality industry. (The word hospitality almost never makes us think of a visit to a hotel, but that’s another story). Thing5 entered the business in 2004 to provide inbound, outbound, voicemail, IVR menus, and more to the hotel industry.
Well… yesterday Verizon Business announced that Thing5 will leverage the Verizon’s VoIP and hosting services to bring VoIP service to about 1,300 hotels having more than 275,000 telephones. Hotel phone service without VoIP — now there’s a true nightmare. Could you imagine changing an extension for thousands of phones without VoIP?