Wet telephone lines
Verizon will not repair their telephone circuits in Groveland. When it rains, I get no phone service. I have gotten used to this, really. When I contact repair service, they do nothing. Sometimes they pretend to come to my house, but they lie because the “network interface” box, that plastic garbage thing they hang on the side of your house, is never opened.

Verizon lies
I wrote many unanswered letters to Verizon, including a “return receipt requested” one that was “refused.” I also wrote to every Email window on all the Verizon Web-Pages I could find.

Verizon’s sole response to my plight was to increase my monthly rate by ten dollars. Therefore, following the advice of others on this list, I got Vonage. I installed it and it works --simple.

Today I received the following long-awaited response from Verizon –enjoy!

Verizon's final response
Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Verizon. We are sorry for any delays in our response. Recently we have had some email systems issues, which have prevented us from replying to your inquiry in a timely manner. If you still require assistance, please email us again using the contact us page, at the following link.

http://www22.verizon.com/Residential/Support/ContactUs/

If your issue is related to billing or ordering questions, please contact Verizon?s customer service centers. Use the following link to find the customer service number for your state. Simply select your state on the right hand side.


https://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/ContactUs/ContactUsPhoneState.aspx?cbostate=

Additionally, for a detailed breakdown of your charges, you may view your bill on verizon.com. Again, we apologize for the delay in our response. We value you as a customer.


Sincerely,

Verizon

The solution
I have a poor Internet connection because I use Comcast. However, it is better than nothing at all. Therefore, I installed Vonage. Vonage handled the telephone number transfer and the service disconnection. After the Verizon service was terminated, I paid the final bill.

Verizon then charged for disconnection and billing
This is not a bad dream. Two months after the service was disconnected, Verizon sent me a bill for $1.80 plus tax, plus FCC line-charges, etc. I'm not going to pay it.