{"id":341,"date":"2005-04-19T07:11:44","date_gmt":"2005-04-19T11:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scaredpoet.com\/wordpress\/?p=341"},"modified":"2005-09-14T09:50:59","modified_gmt":"2005-09-14T13:50:59","slug":"verizon-is-evil-and-it-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/?p=341","title":{"rendered":"Verizon is evil, and it shows."},"content":{"rendered":"

While I had no delusions at all that Verizon was the epitome of corporate evil, part of me always held out, thinking my opinion might be just a tad<\/em><\/strong> exaggerated.<\/p>\n

Well, nope! Verizon’s CEO was interveiwed recently by the San Francisco chronicle, and their agenda is laid out in black and white:<\/a><\/p>\n

The head of the country’s largest phone company ridiculed San Francisco’s interest in building a municipal Wi-Fi network that is designed to offer cheap or free Internet service throughout the city.<\/p>\n

“That could be one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, during a meeting with Chronicle editors and writers on Friday<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What, providing internet access is a dumb idea? Competing against the almighty Verizon is a dumb idea? For you it may be, but for quite a few people, competition is… well see, it’s the American Way<\/em>, Ivan. This is kind of the equivalent of Barnes and Noble<\/a> saying that public libraries are a stupid idea. Yet, they seem to co-exist just fine.<\/p>\n

“Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well gee<\/em> Ivan… I kinda spend a lot of time in my house. You see, I kinda live<\/em> there. And considering I spend so much time in two places – at home, and at work – I kinda thought it would make sense that if I pay a monthly charge for a service, it should at least work in the places where I live and work, and the points in between would be nice too. But hey! You’re right! I was sooo unrealistic<\/em> in assuming that was reasonable. Silly me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered all phone companies to give customers 30 days to test a service without slapping them with hundreds of dollars in early cancellation fees. But after the PUC suspended the rule a month ago, Verizon shortened its trial period to 15 days to match its 15-day return policy in other states.<\/p>\n

“We think there is a deal,” he said. “We invest in the business and have the best service. But when you sign up with us, we’d like you stay with us.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh blast, Ivan’s right again.<\/em> I shouldn’t have to have a reasonable trial period, because in Ivan’s all-knowing opinion, Verizon’s service is the best no matter what. And if it turns out it doesn’t work for me, well I was just expecting too much<\/em> and being a bad, naughty customer with unrealistic expectations, and it’s all my fault<\/em>, and I’m just screwed. How right you are, Ivan!<\/p>\n

And now, all of you know why I go through such pains to make sure that I use services<\/a> that compete<\/a> with Verizon, and see to it that Verizon doesn’t get a dime<\/a> from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg explains why verizon is the Evil Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets-widgits-and-whatzits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}