SIVACRACY.NET: Quitting Verizon

So I called up Verizon to cancel our phone and DSL service with them. We are switching to our cable company, which offers a phone-cable-Internet deal that is dirt cheap and much faster.

Plus, I got to make a political point. Well, I thought I could. Here is how the conversation went:

Verizon representative: This is _____ with Verizon. How may I help you?

Siva: Hello. I would like to cancel my service please. Immediately.

Verizon: I can help you with that. May I ask why you are cancelling service?

Siva: I have two reasons. First, because Verizon has been fighting legislative efforts to ensure network neutrality. This is very anti-consumer. And second, because Verizon has been cooperating with the National Security Agency to allow it to monitor calling patterns of its customers. This is a violation of our privacy agreement and probably the law.

Verizon: (Pause) Uh. How did you learn about these things?

Siva: I am a communication professor. It's my job to follow these things.

Verizon: (Pause. Page flipping) Okay. Would it change your mind if I were to offer you a free month of service?

Siva: (Laugh) No. No. You could not pay me enough to use Verizon any more.

Verizon: Okay. Your service will be terminated today. Thank you for being a Verizon customer and don't hesitate to call us back if you change your mind.

Siva: Thank you. You have been very helpful.

Comments

Here's to you. I respect and admire your reasons for quitting Verizon.

I offer the following caveat on cable modems: Don't do it if you upload big files. Cable modems are potentially faster than DSL on the download side but are nearly always, fantastically, hugely slower on the upload side. There are methods of testing your upload speed and my own system has never uploaded faster than 128kbps(hardly better than dial-up) compared to five mbps on the download side.

Also, I never accept a package deal from a single provider. You are up a creek if and when you you decide to quit them. And you will quit them, everyone does, eventually. I have separate companies for internet voice, data, and TV and I pay about eight dollars more, per month, separately than as a package deal. I think eight dollars is a small price to pay to keep my options open. I also pay twenty-one dollars a month for a stripped down traditional phone service with no long distance and no caller options. It's comes in handy when the lights go out or the cable company fails you from time to time.

Posted by: Jardinero1 | June 6, 2006 02:13 PM

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