Verizon DSL tech support summary: it’s bad

I used to live in area serviced by Qwest.  I thought their tech support was bad, but I’ve come to appreciate them more, because their tech support people actually listen to what you’re saying.  With Verizon, you might as well be reading off their communication script yourself because anything not on that script is either rebuffed or just flatly ignored.

Me: “I’d like to report a DSL outage.”
Verizon: “OK, thank you for calling, I can help you with that.  What operating system is your computer?”
Me: “Um.. (Did she not hear me?)  Sorry, I would like to report a DSL outage.”
Verizon: “OK yes sir, I can definitely help you with that.  What operating system is your computer?”
Me: “I’m sorry, there must be something wrong with your connection.  Can you hear me?”
Verizon: “Yes, I can hear you fine.”
Me: “I would like to report a DSL outage.  Is this the repair department?”
Verizon: “Yes you’ve reach the Verizon DSL repair department.  I can certainly help you with your DSL outage problem.  Before we begin I need to know what operating system your computer is.”
Me: “Macintosh.”
Verizon: “OK, can you please hold?”
Four minutes later…
Verizon: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with Macintosh.”
Me: “I don’t think you heard what I said earlier.  My DSL is out.  It is not a configuration problem.  It was working fine until 7AM this morning.  I made no configuration changes.  Nothing changed.  It is not my computer.  The DSL is out.  I just need to report to someone that it is out, and then I will hang up.”
Verizon: “Sorry, I can’t help you if you have a Macintosh.  Please hold and I will forward you to another department.”
Me: “PLEASE listen to what I’m saying.  The little DSL light on my DSL modem is OUT.  That means the problem is on your end.  It is not my computer.  Can you please file a repair ticket?”
Verizon: <type type type> “I’m sorry sir but no one else in your area has reported an outage.”
Me: “Can I be the first?”
This went on for about 15 minutes.  Finally I caved, told her I had a PC and let her walk me through the typical reboot modem crap that I already of course tried several times.
After about 45 minutes she told me that the modem was the problem and that I would need to be sent a new modem.  At this point I had had enough and politely hung up.  She called right back, insisting it was the modem, and I got pretty angry with her for wasting my time.
It hurts to be right.  This morning I woke up and the DSL light was back on and it’s all working fine again.  Nothing in the modem configuration ever changed…  I want that hour of my life back please.