Sunday, December 10, 2006 10:23 AM
Lately I had been experiencing extremely slow speed overout DSL, so this morning I called Verizon to see if they could help me figure out why. I had run several speed tests from DSLReports.com and my connection speeds were horrible...ranging from 80 to 90% worse than their average Verizon test.
The Verizon tech had me do all the usual stuff (empty my browser cache, reboot the modem and my computer, etc), and when I wans not seeing any change, I finally asked if they had a line speed test I could run. I had searched for this on the Verizon help website, but could not find on, but it turns out they do:
http://infospeed.verizon.net/speedtest/
The speed test also showed horrible down speed, so the tech asked if I had filters installed on all the phones in my house...initially I said well, but then I remembered, we just put a phone in our basement and I did not remember putting the filter on that phone. Sure enough, when I checked no DSL filter. DUH! Unplugged that phone, ran back upstairs and tada! bspeed test now shows fast downloads speeds again.
Overall my tech support expereience was good...the woman on the phone was not the warmest voice I have ever spoke to, but then again, it is Sunday morning and I am sure it would suck to have to sit in a call center early Sunday morning and take phone calls from ppl like me.
One thing I wish they would change is to get to the line speed test in their call center script faster. Would have gotten me to the solution much faster. Once she had run her external line tests and found no problems and I had told her a couple of times that these symptoms were not unique to my desktop PC (same symptoms on both of our laptops as well), she should have told me to run the line test. After I cycled the modem and my desktop the first time she ask me if the connection looked faster, and while it seemed faster, it seems like it would make much more sense for them to have them run the line test before and after they have you make changes in order to get an objective comparison, rather than simply asking if it "looks" faster.