I'm just saying -- I am become Death

Shatterer of --- corporate computer systems.
It happened inevitably, as everything does nowadays, that the anniversary of my signup for FiOS rolled around.
And my account went to a very bad place.


You have to understand that there was some kind of synergy going on in the universe when I signed up.
My copper wire was deteriorating, and Verizon wouldn't fix it.  My ability to connect to the net was shaky.
So I asked Verizon to install FiOS.


It was the hottest summer on record in the DC region.  At the end of June we were having "feels like" temps over 100.
Then the derecho came through.  It wiped out power for a couple of million people from Richmond Virginia almost to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. 
The only reason I survived not having even a working ceiling fan is that on a whim a few months earlier I bought a Victorian-type lady's fan from a website in California that specializes in steampunk clothes and accessories.  So I did have some airflow.
I expected power to be out for as much as 3 days, which happened in the year of Hurricane Isabel, the worst hurricane in the DC region in 70 years.
It took only 22 hours in 2012 and I was lucky at that.


Meanwhile at a Verizon data center, a generator burned up and Verizon was out of commission anyway, so even my copper wire didn't work.
I managed to borrow a cell from somebody I knew, and call Verizon, and tell them not to have the techie call ahead to see if I was there, but just come ahead and install the FiOS.
It was scheduled for Monday, July 2.
But Verizon had the torched data center and hundreds of downed wires to deal with.
I felt blessed when the tech showed up Tuesday, July 3.
So I had Internet again, and the power was back, and I gave a big sigh of relief.



Exactly 1 year later the FiOS went out. 
I got a tech to come out and it was something outside the house and after a couple of days I was back.
The next year the identical thing happened, and I went to Starbucks, bought a coffee, and used their WiFi to convince Verizon that this was identical to 2013, so the next day a tech came out and fixed it.



2015's incident was even more bizarre.
I could get online.
I could email from gmail.
I could login at Verizon's website.
But it said that my primary email address was at the ISP I had been using in 2012 when I signed up!!!!
It took 3 tries and 4 hours to get their computers to let me change that.
Then it wanted a verification email.
So I clicked the link and it told me it had successfully sent the verification email.
One small problem.
There was NO email in my inbox.
Not on Verizon's webmail, not in the Outlook on my computer.
I tried back for a total of 24 hours with no successful email.
I sent a feedback survey every time.
Finally after lunch I called Verizon's tech support line.
I proved to the guy that between the link to send the verification email, and my inbox, there existed a huge black hole into which the bits were falling.
He said he got their email experts involved.  They could see immediately that I was telling the truth.
It took them like 10 minutes to find out which server was dropping the bits and restore the links.

I'm just shaking my head.  There's no way to tell what horrible thing will happen next June 30.

I'm just saying...
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved