Network trouble with FiOS, April Fools Joke on me?

Florida had a really big band of thunderstorms go lazily down from the Northwest to the Southeast yesterday. My FiOS service is out. I'm thankful that I'm able to post from my mobile phone. Editing on such a small screen is a big treat.

Verizon's telephone support number connected me to an infuriating voice response system that wanted me to identify myself over and over in different ways. Then I was forced to listen to the same music segment over and over and over. Eventually a person came on the line.

Although I was interrogated within an inch of my life and passed the computer voice's test, the first thing the agent needed was for me to repeat all of the same information. To make it a bit more fun, I did my best to imitate a Southern drawl. As my friends would point out, my drawl isn't very good.

The first thing the agent tried to do was sign me up for another service of some type. I stopped him and told him that my network is down and I need it to work. I told him I wasn't interested in hearing a sales pitch at the moment.

Verizon, why do you take every opportunity to try to sell your customers something.  When they're dealing with a technical problem with the service you're offering, it is not the time to try to sell something. All it does is infuriate them even more.

He ran some diagnostics and then said that he needed to get help from technical support.  I was placed back on hold with the aimless music to play over and over. He was kind enough to check back from time to time to tell me that he hadn't forgotten me.

I'm sure that we'll get the problem resolved eventually. I'll check back later with what, if any, progress is made.

6:30 AM

The nice agent came back on the line. He can't get to a technical support person. He's trying to reboot my router.

6:40 AM

It appears that I've got the network back.