DSL Dry Loop & Verizon

[Jake]

Updated saga- When I ported my # to Ooma it was scheduled for 12.22.09. I was running the hub in combo mode. The land line was shut down and I also lost VOIP to Ooma system. As it turned out Ooma rep's said Verizon turned off my line before Ooma could do their part, which I don't know what that is but I lost the ability to use the Ooma for a few days in addition. I just thought it was part of the normal port process. On 12.28 I called support again and on 12.29 and said they would bring this to managements attention. No change on 12.30, so I called again. This time I was told the rep would call me back in 2 hours after he researched and fixed the issue. Test calls were made to the number and its started working. By the time 2 hours passed everything was working correctly. I did all the usual things everyday like reboot the hub and modem so i must believe that someone started working on it (at Ooma central) and left it for the holiday which left me disconnected or whatever. In the days of cell phones my wife I really weren't to excited about the loss of connection anyway. So the the unit is working fine now as advertised, finally.

Verizon did try to pull a fast one though. Sent me an email which said since you disco'd your land line your 3mb DSL is now 49.99/mo. So I made a friendly call and told them they must be out of their minds. I can enable the cable modem for 50$/mo. with any additional TV service as I am a Directv person. AND on their website they advertise 29.99/mo with or without a land line. So on hold I went and when he came back on he was very sorry and changed my billing rate back to 29.99/mo with a pro-rated bill. I just love these guys always trying to dig another nickel out of you.

So beware....and good luck. Keep your eyes on your accounts as things change during this process and when the dust settles, its pretty cool. Hi-tech stuff is never easy to set up : ) so be patient. Nothing a bottle of scotch can't cure...

GSP exit 74, down the shore....

[cruzitude]

Uggh, my number was ported from Verizon last Wednesday and everything was going OK. The next day Verizon left a message telling me to call their billing department within 7 days, otherwise my DSL service would be cancelled. I called today (day #4) and the Verizon rep told me that they have already scheduled my DSL to be disconnected and the orders in "the system" cannot be changed ... he said they will disconnect my DSL and it will take several days to get it re-activated!

I asked to speak to a Supervisor, but was told they will have to call me back tomorrow since its Monday and they're swamped. The rep said that they will just tell me the same thing ... "the system" cannot be changed (WTF is "the system" anyway?) Utterly useless service

[Jake]

I wouldn't sweat it. The rep I spoke with said if the order is to drop the land line that's all that will happen. Your DSL account # is the phone number you are porting so technically they drop and renew your DSL with a new account #, that will still be some other local area phone number, but it will be left active. The dolt you were talking to is just uneducated and I was lucky in talking to someone who actually had guided other VOIP folks like us and knew what was going to happen from the Verizon tele-office perspective.

So on d-day if DSL stops working just reboot your modem and router and you should be back up and running. The whole account # thing will solve itself auto-magically on their side. Believe me they don't want to lose a day of your money. Its in their best interest to keep you connected.

But don't let them fool you they can over-ride all this carp if they want to. But the dolt on the customer service phone can't. Which is a good thing if you consider how badly they could screw things up.

[Oremus]

After days of battling with Verizon I "think" I'm done.

As I explained in my previous post Verizon attempted to change my rates three times from $29.99 to $49.99 to $41.99. Each complaint I made garnered a different reason, "Since you cancelled your land line. . ." "You are now on a month-to-month rate and. . ." "That $29.99 rate is only for online orders so. . ." "You have a $31.99 rate but that's promotional so your rate will be increasing to $41.99 and. . ." I also noticed that my next month bill was sxheduled to go out at my previous billing rate and collect charges for services I no longer had.

After complaining to the Verizon CEO and Board of Directors I was able to work with a representative from the "Executive Escalation" office (??). In about four days they told me that I had the $29.99 rate but, if Verizon's standard rate went up after one year my new contract would as well. All this to get the same deal I was contracted at back on December 10th.

Ooma has been working fine and I appreciate the fact that you can get direct contact with their techs and reps on this forum (well, more contact than you'll get from Verizon). When dealing with Verizon I make the following suggestions:

1) Save all email received from Verizon.
2) Check your account at MyVerizon.com and save copies of the pages.
3) Record all telephone conversations (Make certain that you live in a "one-party" state. That is, as long as one party of the conversation is aware and consents to having the conversation recorded there is no violation of the law. If you do not live in a one-party state you must tell the person you are speaking to that the conversation is being recorded. Recording calls when neither party of the conversation is aware of the recording is a federal violation and, possibly, a state violation even if you pay the bills.)
4) If you call Verizon customer service you'll be connected to an out-source site. Don't bother dealing with them. Ask to be connected to your local office or "Retention." If the local office doesn't satisfy you ask to speak to someone in the Retention Office.
5) If you still don't get satisfaction, go to the Verizon investor's page. Take a look at how email addresses are formatted for one of the investment counselors or maybe the media contact. Next look at the Board of Gevernance page and get the names of the Directors. Format your addresses as you've determined appropriate, (You can use nwtools.com to check an email address to see if it's valid), then you can send a well written, brief, no-rant concern to the CEO. Remember, most big bosses are addicted to their Blackberry type device and never shut them off so choose your send time wisely.
6) Other than that, by the looks of this forum, a class-action suit may be in order.

[sraft]

New Ooma user here and I wanted to thank the folks that have posted their experiences so far - they helped me prepare for the phone call to Verizon to get things going with my transition from Verizon (Phone + DSL) to Verizon DSL and Ooma.

Even after reading others experiences, it amazes me how many different answers you'll get from Verizon CS, depending on what department and who you get. One CS rep informed me that going dry loop before the port would not result in loosing my phone number, and that dry loop DSL would result in a $40/month cost (already discounted as much as possible). I complained and threatened to switch to cable at this point. She put me on hold and and came back with a second CS rep from a different service group who stated that doing the dry loop up front would cause me to loose the current account and that I should just proceed with the port and the DSL would convert to dry loop automatically. She also offered the dry loop DSL for the $30/month that I pay now as, long as I agree to a one year commitment. She made a notation in my account of that offer.

In general, most of the bad information came from the phone CS side of the business - the second CS rep was from the Internet division, and gave me the information that matches the better deals that people have been posting.

My advice is if you're trying to set up an Ooma with a Verizon dry loop DSL account, get in contact with the internet support group, NOT the phone service support group. Additionally, ask the CS rep for their Z-code which is an identifying code for that individual. Write down what they promised you. Additionally, if they enter notes into you account file, get the ticket number for that log entry. With that number, any CS rep can look up the promises that were made to you at an earlier time.

Now I'll keep my fingers crossed and see if it goes through as smooth as I'm hoping it will.

[amoney]

So my question to all is if you were automatically transitioned to dry-loop dsl service, then when do you find out your new dsl account number (phone number).

I would be VERY cautious as there is a inherent risk that someone can screw up and you will loose your dsl connection.

But glad to hear that they are handleing the transition well.

[Oremus]

So my question to all is if you were automatically transitioned to dry-loop dsl service, then when do you find out your new dsl account number (phone number).

I would be VERY cautious as there is a inherent risk that someone can screw up and you will loose your dsl connection.

But glad to hear that they are handleing the transition well.

For me, the transition to the dry loop was not a problem. Everything went as was explained in the Ooma literature. The process took about three weeks and I received emails from Ooma and one or two phone messages from Verizon. The port of my existing phone number was transparent. (I chose to keep my current number rather than receive a new one.)

I think the key factor was separating my telephone service from my DSL to create two distinct accounts. Once that was done I could cancel the phone service, (after the port otherwise you'll have DSL but no Verizon and no Ooma), and pick up the VOIP. Verizon will issue you a new telephone number that will deliver the DSL, however, that new number cannot receive or place calls.

The only problem was with Verizon billing. Even after my last post when I thought I had all settled with Verizon I discovered that they were charging me twice - once on my credit card and again drafting my bank account. They were quick to send me a refund check but my second month's bill should be posting soon.

[UrbanVoyeur]

Update:
As I reported earlier my number port was transparent, with no interruption in service and excellent advanced notice and follow-up by both Verizon and Ooma. Verizon did the conversion to a "dry loop" behind the scenes and automatically as promised.

There was a little confusion in the Verizon billing department as to what I owed and as another poster mentioned, they did bill me twice for the same month and threaten to cut me off after 7 days. That was cleared up with a phone call.

The bigger problem has been cost.Verizon originally promised a price of $29 per month for 7meg. Then it became $49. Then $41.

So dropped Verizon I switched to Cablevision and now have 15 megs @ $29, taxes and fees included. The cable internet service has worked flawlessly with Ooma. If FiOS were in my area I would get it, but until then, cable will do.

[Jake]

Update:

Verizon turned off my 3mb internet service Feb 1 after I setup the continuation of my 29.99 service fee in December 2009. My Ooma was mysteriously flashing its red LED. So I called and all they could do was give me another contract but charge me the new pricing of 44.95 or whatever. So I went a little AWOL on the person on the phone after I did the deal last December with one of their associates in internet billing. So I told her this was a lame attempt to slam customers into the higher pricing tiers for crap slow speed service and I was about to call every official committee that would listen including the newspaper about their conduct since the service stoppage was not stimulated by me, but by Verizon. I also asked them why they think a person with a brain would pay them 45$ a month for 3Mb when Comcast (my state locked-in cable provider) charges 42.95 + 5 equipment fee per month for 7Mb??

She said there may be a better price offer on their web site so she asked to put me on hold to find out. She came back and said her supervisor 'authorized' the 29.99/mo if I pre-pay with a CC every month. So for the lower fee I compromised since I don't need to set my hair on fire with bit speed (3 vs 7Mb) anyway. I'm wagering that after 12 months I'll get a letter or my fees will just jump to the new pricing at which point I really hope the 4G Wi-Max is available in NJ. 7Mb for 25$ + equipment. I'm in. Or like the others I'll just go back to cable.

Here in NJ back in the 90's when the great long distance war raged between AT&T, Verizon and a few hundred third party suppliers AT&T was sued by the state(s) for a few billion (and Verizon a little less) for slamming customers (changed them without any knowledge until you got your high phone bill) who had signed up to the lower cost per minute third party long distance suppliers.

This smells a whole lot like that deal. I suppose now that 4G Wi-Max is supposed to hit NJ this year there is going to be another war very soon. I'll drop Verizon the second my contract ends. Verizon is financially on the ropes already losing large chunks of land line voice customers in 2009 so expect shady dealings going on.

Good luck to you if you elect Verizon for a service provider....I can't recommend it at all after this experience.

[JamRowZ]

I'm curious if anyone has been okay with one bill. When I called Verizon to ask, they said my DSL would go up $18/month if I got rid of the unlimited land line since my discount was part of my triple play package. I already switched the landline to measured service, but was told by Verizon CS that I could keep everything on one bill since I would still have DSL and mobile with Verizon and that the DSL would automatically convert to dry-loop. I will look into getting the 29.99 rate back with a one year contract once my number ports, but don't want to chance that they will add the land line to the one year contract in the meantime.

If I do need to separate out the landline before requesting the port, do I just cancel one bill?