If you want to keep your sanity, don't use verizon

This is my last resort. Can't call, can't email, can't log on to their help forums, several trips to the verizon store proved to be fruitless. If they won't listen, then maybe someone else will.
If you want to keep your sanity, don't use verizon wireless internet connection, especially if you live in a remote area where a signal may be iffy. Oh and don't forget to read their fine print. Breaking your contract is not $175, it is much more than that.

It started wonderfully on this snowy day in February. I got the modem, hooked it up, and oh my, the internet was flying by so fast it nearly made me dizzy. Interruptions were rare and never lasted more than a few seconds, a minute tops. Okay, I paid $77 which was more than the $59 they said it would be but hey, I had a decent internet connection, who cares!
Life was great until the trees started to sprout their leaves. That's when the quality of my verizon wireless internet connection started to go down considerably. It went from 4 bars to 3, then 2 and now I have 1 on a good day. My general speed is slower than dial-up, when I need to get something done "quickly", I switch to dial-up. You get the picture.

First, I tried to call verizon for help. Good luck with that! Press 3, press 1, press this, press that.. an hour later I was still pushing buttons on my phone and had not been able to talk to a human being. I tried again, several days in a row. Nothing. I even googled the cheat code, which didn't work. I spent a total of 10 hours, spread out over several days, trying to talk to a verizon customer rep on the phone. It worked once, by pressing whatever number it was, to indicate I was not a customer and was trying to buy something. The lady who talked to me was nice, but couldn't help. That's the phone part of my story.

Next step was to go to the verizon store down in the city. Mind you, a friend had picked up the modem while he was in the city and had given his cell phone number. If you want to discuss your connection, you need to give them the cell phone number which I didn't have. I never call my friend's cell, I always call his land line. Without the cell phone number, they wouldn't discuss anything with me. The name on the account wasn't enough. All right mister hard-to-get, how about we discuss wireless internet connections in general. Hypothetically speaking, if you had no connection, what would you do? He said he'd add a booster cable to the modem, which goes from the modem into two USB ports. Sure, let's give this a try. I added the booster, no change.

Second trip down to the city, this time armed with the cell phone number plus my account number. Oh my how strange, now they didn't need it, my name was sufficient to look up my account. This time I was told I needed an antenna that would go from my modem out the window. The antenna was not in stock, but no worries, you can pay now and it will arrive at your home in 2 days. He charged me $19, but I had already done my homework and knew it came in two parts. One part was $19 the other $10. Good thing I knew how to do his job or only one part of the antenna would have arrived here.

Two days went by and no antenna on the horizon yet. Three days, nothing... In the afternoon of day 4, they showed up with the antenna. It did not have a 30 foot cable like they said it would. It had a 10 foot cable which wasn't enough to reach the window from where my computer was standing. It took 4 hours to move things around and get the computer in a location where I would be able to put the antenna out the window.
Did it solve the problem? No it made it worse. No bars and no connection. Problem was that from where the computer was located now, my phone jack could not be reached, so I could not switch to dial up.
Everything had to be switched back again so that I'd be able to reach my phone jack, because I am still using my dial up a lot, due to no connection with verizon.

I am stuck in a 2 year contract, paying for a product that does not work. Verizon has done little or nothing to help, other than making me buy an antenna and having a tech call me, instructing me to unplug my modem and let it sit out for 2 minutes. Thanks for the tip buddy, but I had already done that several times and it did not make a difference at all. I was also instructed to go into my task manager and end the process. Hello? I may not be the brightest bulb, but I know that killing the process isn't going to improve my signal. Sure sure, let me kill the process, just because you said so. Of course, it didn't make a difference.

Four months later.. I still do not have a signal to speak of. I am still waiting for *real* help. I am still stuck in a two year contract. I am still paying for a product that doesn't work. I am still paying for an additional ISP service because my connection with verizon is too unreliable to make sole use of it. I am still angry.

Before you think about signing a contract with verizon, take a look at those screen shots:
http://yukitagazette.yuku.com/topic/879

Then sign your contract at your own risk.

Op de boerderij (2)

Op de boerderij

May 26 2008

For a Dutch version, scroll down a bit.
De Nederlandse versie is onderaan de Engelse.

Is it really Memorial day? Where did April and the first part of May go?
Planting season is in full swing and I'd like to say that I'm catching up but I'm not. The blackflies are slowing me down enormously. Those little bastards act as if my blood is the only gourmet dinner miles around. Why not just bite the chickens? They have blood too, you know. They got me in both my eyes, nose, ears, on my hands and all around my neck. Two swollen eyes and a swollen nose, the ultimate blackfly defeat. Staple laundry softening sheets on your clothes I was told, it keeps the bugs away. I'm slaving away on the land, looking like a piece of laundry coming right out of the dryer with sheets stapled all over me and sometimes I feel as if this actually attracts the bastards. Please don't tell me we need insects as food for the birds because the birds can eat grass and seeds.
They are dense this year, and aggressive as ever. On the positive side, the June sun will kill them in a hurry. A couple more weeks and they'll be gone to make room for the house flies. Those don't bother me. The average life span of a house fly is one week and all they do during that week is have sex and leave tiny black spots on my white walls. No big deal.

I picked a huge bouquet of lilacs earlier today and put it in the living room. The whole house smells like heaven although I'm not quite sure what heaven smells like.

****

Is her echt herdenkings dag? Waar zijn april en mei heengegaan?
Zaai seizoen is volop aan de gang en ik zou willen zeggen dat ik niet achterop ben met mijn groenten te planten, maar ik ben tamelijk ver achterop. De zwarte vliegen maken het me onmogelijk om vlug te werken.
Die onnozelaars denken dat mijn bloed de enige gourmet maaltijd is, uren in het rond. Waarom kunnen ze de kippen niet bijten en mij met rust laten? De kippen hebben ook wel bloed.
De zwarte vliegen hebben mij in allebei mijn ogen gebeten, mijn neus, oren en nek. Twee gezwollen ogen en een gezwollen neus zijn het bewijs dat ze gewonnen hebben!
Er wordt gezegd dat je die zwarte vliegen van je af kunt houden met die doekjes tie je in de droogkast stopt als wasverzachter. Ik ben op het land aan het werken met die doekjes vastgeniet aan mijn kleren, ik zie eruit alsof ik juist uit de droogkast gekropen ben maar soms denk ik dat die doekjes de zwarte vliegen aantrekken!
Waarom hebben we eigenlijk insecten nodig? Het is niet om de vogels van voedsel te voorzien want de vogels kunnen gras en zaadjes eten!
Nog maar een paar weken en de juni zon zal die onnozelaars doden. Opgeruimd staat netjes. Dan krijgen we de huisvliegen, maar die doen geen kwaad. De gemiddelde levensduur van een huis vlieg is een week. Gedurende die week, het enige wat ze doen is sex hebben en zwarte puntjes op mijn witte muren achterlaten.

Ik heb een grote bouquet paarse seringen geplukt van de struik die in mijn voortuin statt. De seringen zijn in a vaas in mijn woonkamer en gans het huis ruikt naar seringen.

Ingesneeuwd

Dit is hoe het eruit ziet wanneer ik ingesneeuwd ben.

This is what it looks like when I'm snowed in.

Sneeuw, alweer.

Trachten om de deur vrij van sneeuw te houden.

Trying to keep the doorway snow free.

cuppa tea

Water opwarmen voor een kopje thee op een koude dag.

Boiling some water for tea on a cold day.