Perhaps the most important tool a home based business owner has is Internet access. Without it, many of us would be hard pressed to get much done. Most of us pay a decent sum each month for either DSL or Cable Internet service. In my case, it's DSL, courtesy of Verizon. Having Internet access is crucial for my business. If I can't get online then I can't do business. My clients don't get the work they need done, so I don't get paid. You can imagine then my frustration when my DSL service, which had been rock solid, started constantly going out for reasons unknown. I called and has a tech come out a good half dozen times over the last few months. While it would improve for a few days, maybe a week or two, it would always go back to being spotty. It's not a case of being too far away from the Central Office, nor is it my wiring or hardware. It's been a real mystery-that is until the other day. I had another tech come out because my DSL was once again on the blink. Not only did he once again confirm the problem was on Verizon's end, not mine, he told me Verizon had begun to deliberately mess with their customer's DSL service. He said we were easily the 7th or 8th service call he'd had concerning DSL service not working, and not a single one of them had any problems on their line or with their service!

At first I was shocked and figured he was feeling disgruntled (as of this posting some 65000 Verizon workers have set a strike deadline-one of their issues is the fact Verizon is contracting out FIOS jobs rather than giving them to their techs) just but in thinking about it, it makes sense. I've been bombarded with pitches for FIOS for months. Postcards, flyers and sales pitches show up in my mailbox on a weekly basis. They call me constantly, and just a week or so ago someone actually knocked on my door and tried to sell FIOS to me. Hard. He even came back the next day and tried again! Completely ridiculous. I've never felt so harassed by a company before.

I'm sure FIOS is nice, but I'm just not interested! I think I know the reason why they are pitching it to the point of harassment. The compensation of the CEO is directly tied to the FIOS rollover. In other words, the more area Verizon is able to cover with FIOS service and the more people they get to sign up/switch to it, the more money the CEO gets. Nice huh?

Needless to say I will be switching to Roadrunner service as soon as my DSL contract with Verizon runs out. Internet access is not a luxury for me, it is crucial for my business.

Have you had similar experiences with Verizon? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!