Is there a better way to deal with Verizon and my DSL issues?

[DSLUser1234]

My family and I have been with Verizon for as long as we've had broadband internet. For the past 5 years or so the internet has been shaky at best. For the most part it works, but a coupe times a year it stops working all together or becomes VERY intermittent (and is usually working by the time I get finished sitting on hold and the test the technician runs shows no problems). Every time I have to wrestle with the "tech support" on the phone and listen to a recording tell me the same things over and over again that never fix my problems.

Every time my internet gets to this point, it requires a visit from a Verizon technician. Usually they go out into the neighborhood and find a length of cable and replace it. Usually that fixes my issues for a while, but I know it will happen again. It always happens again.  It seems to me that the entire length of line that my internet runs through is old, and needs to be replaced. Instead of fixing the problem before it actually becomes a problem, Verizon continues to leave me and my family without service for periods of time.

Last week was the most recent time we dealt with this situation, which was fortunately short lived (Only all day Sunday, into Monday when the technician arrived). It's getting VERY tiring dealing with this situation over and over again, and it's getting offensive honestly. To hear the tech support person tell me that I will be charged $91 if the problem is found and is inside my house is ridiculous. I would understand if this was the first time this situation had occurred, or if I frequently reported non-issues. But no, I'm simply reporting the same issue that Verizon has failed to fix MANY times before. 

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this, is that we've never been compensated for our lost service. Last year we lost service for an entire week. That's an entire week with no internet service at all. After we finally got it back, we spoke with the billing department and they told us that we would be credited for the week we lost service. At this point, we are yet to see any credit for the time we have been without the service we pay for. Perhaps we would have tried dealing with Verizon again to get our weeks credit, but attempting to contact someone in Verizon seems futile. Unless you're calling sales you end up sitting on hold for extended periods of time, only to be bounced from person to person until you get to someone that has no excuse not to pretend to help you. 

Unless something changes, this is Verizon's last opportunity to keep our service. We have dealt with the loss of service followed by the insult of attempting to deal with Verizon's customer support for the last time. Next time it happens (and I'm sure there will be a next time) unless Verizon shows us that they are actually going to correct the problem, we will cancel our service and give our business to the competitor. This post is being written for a few reasons. I'm hoping that perhaps Verizon can give me a better way to contact someone locally when we have a problem (I would LOVE to speak with a regional manager, or even a local manager of some sort), or at least recognize that there is a problem that will end up costing them money. 

Thank you,

A long time customer.

[enough_already]

I've decided to give up the fight and go to another provider.  I have work to do and having to wait at speeds slower than dial up is insane.  At least with dial up I'd have some stability.  I can't even run speedtest because it won't connect.  At hotels, wi-fi, and hanging by blackberry the laptop works fine but to actually use dsl, nope.  Multiple machines and multiple browsers - it's all the same worthless bandwidth.  

If they won't give you fios then there is no reason to stay.  They've been promising me the service is coming for the last 6 years.  They could have run it here by now for the postage they've spent trying to get me to switch to it even though it isn't available.  Waste, waste, waste ....