My Love Hate Relationship with Verizon

Verizon, the phone provider for most of the Mid-Atlantic, has had an interesting relationship with me over the years. I last had their standard phone service 4 years ago, before I switched entirely to cell phone and VOIP. They charged a fortune, billed incorrectly often, and had terrible service. I was extremely happy to have them out of my life.

Until one summer day last year, when the Fiber Optic man came to lay cables in my backyard. "Whatcha doin mister?", I asked. "Laying Fiber Optic cable so you can get FIOS TV and Internet". "Whats that you say? A dedicated 15mbps downstream for the same price I pay for cable? Who would provide such a wonderful service?", I winced at the answer. "Verizon".

I didn't order right away. I hated Verizon, and my Internet speeds get me along OK. Until a friend got FIOS TV. It basically offers all the channels Comcast and DirectTV combined, for less then either of them. Now, they are really selling to my cheap side. So I ordered it. The install date was a month in the future, with an old fashioned service window of "9-5". Great, gotta take a day off of work or Telework for you Verizon, this better be good.

But just as Verizon was winning my heart, I realized that all of my email sent to Verizon.net email addresses was bouncing back. At first I just thought the sender had changed their email address. Then I noticed the pattern. Every single email I sent from a hosted Gmail account bounced back. I tried contacting their Whitelisting service, but they claim I'm not blocked. I havn't been able to get anyone to help me figure it out, and keep getting chain mails. As happy as I am that there is finally someone helping to break the monopoly cable has over TV, why does it have to be Verizon?? If anyone knows what the deal is with Verizon blacklisting Gmail, let me know.