Verizon Fios

Last week I received a Verizon bill for $219.53, due January 14.  But I just paid a Verizon invoice for $219.53 on January 2. So I called the company to find out what was up. Silly me.

Among the problems with this naive endeavor:

• The voice mail system did not recognize the account number I punched in -- exactly as it appears on my statement.
• I was forced to listen to countless sales pitches for new programming as I navigated my way through endless levels of the voice mail system.
• The hold time was 13 minutes when I finally got to the right level.
• The online email system also did not recognize my account number.
• The list of selections attaching a reason to my email did not include my situation.
• The auto confirmation I eventually received told me it would take 48 hours to receive a response.

I am keeping my money until (a) I get an answer (b) that makes some degree of sense. Failing that, I think I'll switch back to cable.