Why is everything so broken.

[nixomose]

I have fios tv internet and phone.

The tv and internet work well, but the phone does not. I have a copper line with 80 year old wires, I opted not to get voip because in my opinion it is a step backward from copper in terms of functionality.

But given all the taxes and fees I think I want to get rid of my triple play and just get internet and tv.

So I figured I'd use the web site to see what my options were:

Here are some of the options I was presented with.



--- option 1

https://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/MyAccount/Main/MyVerizon/MyVzServices.aspx

Gateway Timeout
The proxy server did not receive a timely response from the upstream server.

Reference #1.757ffea5.1274932688.bbdaf6


--- option 2

https://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/MyAccount/Main/MyVerizon/MyVzNProfile.aspx

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable



---option 3

http://www22.verizon.com/ForyourHome/Registration/Reg/OrLogin.aspx

Internal Server Error - Read
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Reference #3.7d7ffea5.1274933129.801b5b



The great irony here is that I used to work for SBCT&T. I used to work on the registration system for the website. I can completely understand how it is that Verizon could build a system that has so many layers of bad software lopped on top of each other that systems time out before they can return a response to the user.


I remember our handle reservation system would take over 3 minutes to come back with a suggestion if you told it your name was "John Smith". I got that down to 40ms. It can be done.

Verizon is a descendant of the same broken bureaucratic BELL system AT&T comes from. They probably both use the same broken system of development for software design and implementation, so I'm sure Verizon's stuff is just as broken as AT&Ts.


The difference now is: I'm the customer, and while I know there's a few competent people way down in the trenches that want to make everything work, the layers and layers of bureaucracy and deadlines that must be met require them to build software that can't work.


But I don't really care. I'm the customer. I pay your exorbitant fees, then I pay your fake taxes and fees to cover the cost for you to collect fees, and I feel that perhaps if I want to remove a service from my subscription, I should be allowed to. I shouldn't be presented with error upon meaningless error with no guide as to what to do next. This isn't Brazil (as in the movie) and this isn't a communist country. It's free market, and I'm not free to unmarket.


Every error page I receive should result in a big red flashing light in some operations room somewhere, and people should be woken up at 3am, (and I don't mean people in india) to fix the broken system. And there should be a post-mortem to discuss where the failure occurred and plans put in place to keep it from happening again.

But likely what happens is somebody opens a red jeopardy on some other group so they can cast blame away from themselves and not take responsibility for the failure. I know all these little games because I was taught to play them myself.

Stand up, be the better man, and fix your broken system.

[Garfield702]

I just want to pay my bill. Verizon's website is broken 7 years later.

[kh-gary]

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