After last night’s final entry, Verizon eventually answered the phone (note to self: Don’t try to read a book like Hyperion while listening to music on hold, even without continuous interruptions), and I spent half-an-hour with the technician, while he tried different things. Nothing helped much, not even when he “rebuilt my line”, but at the end of the session, my link was, once more, faster than dialup, and Verizon was going to dispatch someone to my house today to work on the problem from outside; if they wanted access, they’d call me. And they’d call me and let me know what was going on.
When I came home, there was a doortag from Verizon, saying that a tech had been there and hadn’t found any trouble, so they’d need access and to call them to arrange it. So we had dinner and ran some errands (including an emergency trip to Costco to replace our electric blanket, which failed sometime during the summer); then I came home, prepared for a long wait on hold.
I decided to call my DSL provider first, and much to my surprise, the phone was answered by a human being instead of the automated attendant. I resisted the urge to blast Touch-Tones in his ear, just out of habit, and told him what the current status was. He put me on hold (what a surprise!); while I was holding, my cellphone rang, and it was Verizon. I asked them to call back after 8pm (so I’d be on night-and-weekend minutes), figuring I’d be done with my provider by then.
They took me off hold and asked me to try a speed test. No joy. Back on hold.
Off hold — please try another speed test. No joy. “Wait a minute; we’re going to rebuild your line.” Try again. No joy. Try one more time…and suddenly, it’s fast again!
I have no idea what “rebuilding your line” really means, but it seems to be a magic cure.
So far, anyway.