Press One for Frustration

I absolutely hate automated phone trees. I'm not overly fond of Verizon at the moment either. Back in March, Verizon and Yahoo parted ways, thus disrupting my email service through Outlook Express. I was briefly able to access my email through the web, but then the incoming and outgoing addresses changed and I wasn't able to access my email at all. So, I called Verizon.

After pressing or saying one for English, I had to press or say my phone number. Then I had to say internet, then email, then tech support all so I could hear a overly friendly, annoying computer voice tell me I could get help on line. It made me wonder why that would even be an option if I was having trouble accessing the internet.

But I had internet. I just couldn't access my email. But then once I jumped through all their hoops to get to tech support for email, I was put on hold. Five minutes later, the annoying voice asked for my phone number again and the phone tree hell began again. By the time I finally reached a live person, I was already pissed.

But after two days and changing incoming and outgoing POP 3 addresses, I finally had email. I thought that would be the end of it.

Wrong!

About two weeks ago, I got an email from Verizon telling me they're changing to Frontier Communications and my email address will change. The date for this big change was slated for July 1 and the email stated there would be no disruption in service. But the change began today. And there was a disruption in service.

So, once again I called Verizon and got stuck in phone tree hell.

Not only do I not have email for at least twenty four hours, I'm still going to get a bill from my email provider who's done a piss-poor job of providing email service for these past three months.

I can't access my email through Outlook or via the web. And because my email address is changing, I have to fill forms out and alert God knows how many people, loops, blogs, etc to give them my new address that I don't even know yet.

Of course, Verizon promises a smooth transition. They promise to forward all my mail and alert all my contacts in my address book. Then again, they promised no disruption in service and said the change wouldn't occur before July 1 too.

I'll also have to change my email address on my blog. And my website. And I don't even want to think about Facebook and MySpace.

Did you know you can change your password on Facebook and MySpace but not your email address. So, for the rest of my life--or for as long as I have Facebook and Myspace accounts--I'm going to have to remember my OLD email address to log in.

What the crap?

And I'm sure Verizon--soon to be Frontier--will not reimburse me for all the money I spent on bookmarks with an email address that's going to change. And I'm sure they won't adjust my bill for the days I go without email. Or change my email address on paypal, Amazon, and all the other sites and places I can't even remember who'll need to know my new address.

Maybe I just don't like having change forced on me, but this is looking like a monumental pain in the butt. And I haven't even had email for the past eight hours so I don't know what important emails I might be missing.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there an easy way to transition through this?

And what about my Facebook account? I do NOT want to start a new one. I already have pictures and friends. I don't want to start from scratch. But using an old email address will annoying the crap out of me.

I do feel sorry for the customer service employees at Verizon. The lady I talked to was nice despite my irritation when I called. Like I said, by the time I finally got to talk to her, I was already annoyed because of the phone tree hell I'd been trapped in for ten minutes.

She was sympathetic and apologetic, but she was stuck in the middle. There was nothing she could do. Verizon's stand on the matter is this:

"We're sorry for any inconvenience but Verizon email services will be down for at least twenty-four hours while we make the transition to Frontier Communications."

I just hope their communication and customer service skills improve. Because right now, I am NOT a happy camper.