Verizon ISP problems

[bucolic_frolic]

I've called their tech support 3 times this week. I was told to reverse the router cable. That appeared to help. I was told there was an outage in my area and it would be solved the next morning. They called to notify me, and it was solved. Sort of. Now I'm back to the same old problem.

Each day, the internet works fine from around 5:30 am to 4 pm. At about that 4 pm, usually before, my signal is dropped. Then from 4 til around 10 pm or even later, the signal is dropped every 2 or about 10 minutes. Sometimes I get 15 or even 30 minutes. The DSL light blinks red, the Internet light goes out. Sometimes there is loud erratic static on the phone line. Often the phone line is out of order (no dial tone). I reboot the router frequently. Sometimes it appears to be in good order, but the internet gets no data. Lots of "Server not found" messages, as well as 'insecure connection' messages when it starts to connect. Sometimes I think it involves periods of rain.

Verizon tried to sell me a new router/modem, told me the one I have is too old for software. But no one will explain why it works so well daytime, and so poorly in the evening. I am well along in preparations to ditch the phone and ISP altogether and work around library access one day a week (when I get there). It will mean loss of eBay. But I can't see paying for this service that does not work. I get no credits for outages, just lies. Verizon is simply incompetent.

Or is this net neutrality? Is there no bandwidth for rural end-of-line customers during periods of peak usage?

[MattP]

1. They are horrible

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Update

It finally got to the point where it disconnected every 2 minutes. Tech support flagged a problem with the line. Then, without telling me it would be an extended outage, they disconnected my service for 9 days while the "central office" fixed the problem. It would have been 14 days if I hadn't plagued them to reconnect me. And they acted like the outage was an accident all along.

And the Supervisor told me on the phone it was a 9 day outage and to ask for credit. So far they credited me for 4 days. Petty thievery rules!

The result: I do have the option of Cable TV internet access. I'm looking into it, it's about the same cost. Librarian told me they have another cable provider, they had to ditch the phone company because they consider this area a "dead zone", whatever that means in terms of services, upgrades, reliability, or maintenance.

I have resolved to disconnect Verizon as soon as weekday steady employment puts me near reliable access such as a library. I can run eBay off that too, as well as all else.

So whatever you do, keep plugging. I get tired of fighting for every inch. Sometimes I just want to hang up on it.