As I sit here watching my network connection go up and down, like it did a few days ago, I’m reminded of a problem I have with Verizon any time I have problems with my DSL (which I’ll happily admit is very infrequently, so kudos for that). And that is, there is nowhere.. NOWHERE.. that I can go on their website to file a problem report. No, call their 888 number, it’s “faster”! Yeah, except when I don’t have time to call and wait on hold for a half hour for the next available representative. I know they’ve got a trouble ticketing system in there somewhere, because once you’ve called and reported a problem you can track its status online. But a company that deals heavily in Internet products having no way on the Internet to report problems? Don’t suck.
I’ve had this conversation with people there every time I’ve had a problem with their service (since the first time I ever did when I asked, “Where do I go to file a ticket online, I couldn’t find it?”) and every time I’ve been told they’ll forward my request “up the chain” to someone else. So I can only guess that there’s someone there who thinks end-users are either too stupid or otherwise undeserving of the ability to type in what their problem is and click submit. At least calling the business DSL office, when you can get in touch with someone, usually doesn’t result in a comment about rebooting Windows…