customer service

verizon has just launched FIOS (Fiber Optics to the home or building)--high speed internet access
plus reliable phone service--and most heralded of all-- FIOS TV--the promise of fiber bringing nearly unlimited capacity and choice of video content into the home...

this is very similar to 1994 when DirecTV launched, followed swiftly by Dish Network and Primestar...digital spectrum to the home...what could be better? especially in non cabled areas, but also everywhere due to the presence of the exclusive NFL package on DirecTV and international packages on DISH....so, cable finally had competition...

pent up frustrations at cable company customer service sent folks scurrying to the stores to disconnect cable...satellite customer service edged out cable service in all industry surveys

when I lived in the burbs of westchester i had one of the first ever directv systems installed (another story!); and later on I had DISH as well...for the Russian channels and because the management of that company (EchoStar) were my business friends and I wanted to try their product...

so i have had3-4 cable companies, 2 satellite companies and of course for many years, the bells, baby bells, kinda bells, us west etc....and verizon for land line here in nyc and wireless...

when we moved into the loft, I decided to go with TWC's triple play...for lots of reasons...I had pretty good internet service form them at 30 Park, and of course my channel wa son their system, so I took the plungr...

well several outages and repair calls later, and some with escalated help from supervisors due to my complaints to a sr exec friend...I have had to disconnect the phone..and the slow internet...

so here comes fios yesterday but of course they got the order wrong...and only had the "phone number " win back from TWC for one of my numbers...at one point we had five techs from verizon here, plus verizon on two lines and twc on one phone line

so my hope for an effortless customer service experience were once again dashed...why can we get this right???

customer service on phone --bad enough...in the home for 9 hours..shame on verizon

oh well here we go...another service provider...

2500 hours of Olympics online

prime time ratings are excellent, nonetheless..nbc has extended Olympics coverage as far as it can in 2008...especially given time zone and piracy issues...but the costs and the commercials...oh my...4 min on, 3 min in commercial sometimes....coca cola's semi commercial free sponsorship of the redeem team was appreciated and probably creates more positive brand recognition...it's like 18 days of super bowl ads, but i am getting kind of bored already....and enjoying the coverage mostly in prime on the 'ol cable receiver...great to see shots of china...a murder/suicide in Beijing and a war between russia and georgia have occurred since 8 8 08 ..day 1 of olympics..and the yankees and mets continue to lose ground...

we've been having quite a few storms lately..this one moved in and out quickly this morning..i captured it at various times
media=my media