Posted on 08/03/2011 5:14:26 PM PDT by randita
Went to the Verizon store in eastern PA today around 3:00. Couldn't do business because computers were down. Went home and called back about 7:45. Computers are still down and the salesperson said they were down across the entire East Coast. He hasn't been told why.
Verizon Wireless has verily little in the way of a union workforce. The wireline company may be another story.
Point at the beautiful, overflowing french fry container showing on their menu board over the counter...and say: "I want my container of fries to look just like the one you have up there on the sign."
...and I feel fine...
It’s spreading. I tried to use my GPS to locate the eastern seaboard — it gives a 404 Not Found error for everything east of St. Louis.
I guess you could be right. But more likely a fuse blew on a router somewhere and they have to go out and get one.
In any event hacking Verizon’s retail computers is not really a big deal to anyone but the kids in the store.
It mattered to us because of the inconvenience. We were going to buy an iPhone with a sizable data plan and upgrade another regular phone. We wasted about an hour in there going through the various options, then when we whipped out our credit cards, their computers died. So we're going to have to waste more time going back to get the deal done.
Do it online toomorrow.
I am sure you are a nice person. But I am also sure the folks trying to get this fixed are doing the best they can.
Is our world so “connected” that we cannot wait a day to buy a cell phone? Also, is it newsworthy to post a run of the mill service problem online as if it were a huge deal?
PS: the iPhone is great.
My online banking is down too!
Just kidding.
I didn’t post it in breaking news. I rarely post vanities, but compared to other vanities I often see, I thought that a network outage (albeit specific to one company) blanketing the entire east coast was somewhat of interest considering the reports of late about hacking. If you didn’t find it of interest, why did you click on it and post?
Sure I can wait a day to buy a phone, but it’s going to take an additional two hours of time. Now if you’re retired or not working, that’s not a big deal, but for a working person it is. The issue is not that we have to wait a day to get the phone, it’s the unproductive use of time.
I appreciate your frustration. I really do. I worked in the customer service profession (for telecom companies and large US Banks.) I have been on the other side of this coin more times than I would like mention. Of course, the telephone computer system did not go down—just the retail ones. Imagine a million angry phone calls in a day. I am glad that I left that behind a few years ago.
I really did not intend to come across nasty or mean.
On the other hand. I ordered both mine and my daughter’s over the internet at the Verizon web site. All in all it did not take long at all. When it came, the instructions for getting it going were as simple as “plug it in.”
Ordered on Day A and got it Day B.
The other advice is to order the insurance. The first one I had was dropped into a cup of coffee. Insurance got me another one. The second one lasted a week before the died a natural albeit early death. I got another in a day. I use the phone as a modem when I am on the road for work so it is critical for my work.
I hope you get the phone thing cleared up. It is truly an amazing piece of technology.
Again, I must have been typing before I took my happy pills. I apologize for coming across like a dope.
Apology accepted. No problem.
Re: ordering online. My husband has a guy at the Verizon store that he has been working with for at least 10 years. They have a common love - fishing. So part of the deal is to go to the store, get a new phone, and swap fishing stories.
He got his iPhone today and so far, he’s delighted. He would have actually been happy with a regular phone, but I urged him to go iPhone (imagine that - the wifey talking her hubby into getting an electronic gadget-must be a first!). He’s a manufacturer’s rep with a large customer database (was using an iPod Touch with Filemaker) and fields calls all day long and even into the evening. Now he can have all he needs in one device rather than two.
We also had a MiFi which we used when RVing - at least two months out of the year. The cost of having the iPhone and using that as a hotspot while on the road is about the same as having the MiFi, so for me it was a no brainer. He wasn’t so sure the iPhone hotspot would work as well as the MiFi. We’ll see in a couple of weeks when we go out into the boonies. How has your experience been with the iPhone/hotspot connection?
Being able to access the web and receive/send emails 24/7 will be a great convenience to him which he will come to appreciate, I know.
As we found out, the outage yesterday was nationwide and even affected customer access to their own online accounts. No report on why it happened, but all was fine today.
Again, no harm done. Best wishes.
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