But each time I call, the level-one people always make me go through the same song and dance about what operating system I am using, whether everything is connected properly, et cetera. Using a first tier of support reps to handle the easy problems is a common, and commonly exasperating, practice in the tech business. Verizon spokesman Larry Plumb says the company is working to make this more effective. We've hired hundreds of additional people, beefed up training, added diagnostic tools. . . . Most of them have been resolved.
Quality of service is another issue.
But several users volunteered that Verizon's uptime has improved remarkably. After a good seven or eight months of constant DSL problems . . . Even that, however, would leave plenty of time for the brief disconnections other customers reported. Finally, there's the protocol Verizon uses to connect customers to its own network. Plumb said PPPoE also offers more security for Verizon, allowing it to tell who's using its network and when.