[thedr]

Here is my problem (our problem as a country also) my 80yr old Mom is having nightmares with her Verizon DSL hook up - these morons (many of them! in the US and India) have been running her in circles for four+ months! resetting - every setting, each time! and giving new passwords, etc. Bouncing her 30min at a time round and round. I can't believe how rude these people are! and how little they know about The Mac. She calls me crying saying she is at her whits end with trying to hook it up. This Infuriates Me!! I want to punch Verizon is its corporate collective face. All i wanted was to help her research my fathers cancer sickness online and to send her some happy pictures from California - Betty is in Westchester NY. I have tried many times over the phone to get the settings right but the service works then it doesn't. Granted she is not a computer wiz but she is no dummy, graduatingvaledictorian of a NYC High School she is very very sharp. I guess its time to bag the DSL but it has workedintermittently which makes the process sofrustrating. I saw that someone had mentioned some piece of hardware between the mac and the router which helps it recognize the address better - is this the route of the problem with Verizon DSL and an iMac 1gig running OSX 10.3.9.or is there some other solution? God knows Verizon will never get a soul and actually care about an 80yr. old women trying to help her husband in his last years!
I wish i could help her however I'm 3000 miles away and have no way of setting it up for her.
Got any ideas how i can straighten this out? Without going postal on Verizon.

[pdrayton]

Been there, done that.
What I've discovered, however, assisting seniors with ISP connectivity issues is that the directions they terribly mangled the directions they had been given over the phone and wound up doing things that made matters worse, not better. Additionally, there's a problem with the ISP subscriber accurately describing to the support people what problems are being experienced.
ISP support can be terribly frustrating, but the eye-opener for me was doing a 3-way support call with my Mom. There simply was no way the support folks could fix her problem given the mis-information she was dispensing to them.
Best I can suggest is:
1). Pay for professional installation and complete set-up of the ISP service.
2). If problems are experienced go for, and pay for, an ISP technician to visit the home and fix the problem. Trust me, it's worth the money!
3). Advise your mom never to tell tech support that she "knows nothing about computers", is "a dummy when it comes to computers" or similar statements. That's something I frequently find seniors announcing to tech support at the beginning of the call and it's a trigger to the tech support people to start at square one and go through an inordinately long process checking things that don't need to be checked.

[MacSis]

I have to agree with pdrayton on this one.
Many dsl companies hire tech support to read from a basic script, which doesn't help in every situation.
A friend of mine knows computers inside and out, has built her own computer and she has major problems with the same company your mom uses.
I like the idea of just hiring someone to help her. If money is a consideration, see if there is a mac user group or even someone in a local cancer support group who can help her.
Let us know what happens.

[Lieutenent_Mac]

I used to work for an ISP doing tech support. When I started there they hired people based on their technical knowledge. by the time I left they were using people from a temp service who did not know much about computers. Those people just read the scripts on the screen. By that time most of the people that had technical knowledge we fired for not meeting call times. This also saved the department money as the people with the technical expertise were paid more then the Temps.
The original hires would stay with a customer until their problem was fixed. The temps were told to read one script, discontinue the call and continue on to the next customer. The company was also limiting us to a 3 minute call time. We were supposed to complete the call within 3 minutes. If you failed to do so you were given a point. After 7 points you were fired. That is why most of the original hires were fired by the time I left the company.
In comparison on call times a call center for a phone company that takes reports on phone trouble, who only need to get the callers Name, Location, Phone number, and difficulty. Those people working the call center were given 20 minutes to complete the call.
While tech support were given only 3 minutes.
It is a sad fact that most ISPs put people in charge of tech support that are used to running telemarketing departments. That is what they did to our department.
Within a year if you called tech support you were no longer get a technician to fix your problem, but a tele-marketer with a script. The department head was successful in converting tech support into a telemarketing department, complete with advertising pushes to sell product and services to customers looking for tech support.
It is difficult to help someone over the phone with their computer. I would often explain to customers that asked why we were going through all their settings, that it was as if they were talking to a blind person. I cannot see their screen so they have to describe it to me so I can help them.
Also, if you are having problems with the DSL going down every now and then it could be:

[*]you are too far from the DSLAM


[*]there may be noise on the line ( to have this fixed call phone repair and tell them you hear static on the line )


[*]The phone cord connecting the router to the jack may too long


[*]If you are using a splitter on the jack it may be bad


[*]Their may not be DSL filters on all the phones, If she has a fax machine it should have a filter on it as well


[*]It also makes a difference if Verizon is PPPoE or PPPoA.

[/list]

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[dougster]

Hi -Doc,
Also as -DF, been there done that w/ Verizon helping out a senior. Since I already knew these folks, and have tutored them I knew just a little help would be needed :::NOT::: went to their house, and called Verizon. Asked for tier 2 support right away w/ their case #. OK..finally got DSL working, but 'NEVER' did get Entourage working 100%. I'm not a jenius, but they (seniors) got [filtered] and canceled them, and went back to dialup. I'm not suggesting that by any means, but I have to agree that Verizon should send a tech out if your mom wants to keep their service. Sorry, because this is not what you wanted to hear from a member here. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
[Edit] I asked for Mac tech support dude...tier 2 said NOT available. :-/