EVDO is one of those technologies that finds its way into our lives and causes us to not be able to imagine life without it. Currently offered primarily by Verizon and Sprint, EVDO (Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized) is a technological gift that essentially allows you to be your own hot spot providing fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service directly to your laptop. In other words, you can take the internet with you and surf the web in your car, on the train, in the airport, at a convention, on the beach, etc.

One of the more popular forms of EVDO is found in the Verizon USB720 EV-DO USB wireless modem adapter. It is a nice little device and has received great reviews in the past year or so. I personally use one and have had great connections in places as remote as Death Valley, California as international as Paris, France and as mundane as Terminal B22 in Atlanta’s Hartsfielf Jackson Airport. In face, my folks who live in rural middle Georgia use their 720 for complete Internet access as an alternative to dial-up, sattelite, or no ‘net at all. They too have had great success….until recently.

This past Monday both my folks and I woke up to no ‘net connection. I was on the Carolina coast and she was at home in Georgia. We were receiving an error code: 913 generated by Verizon and their VZAccess Manager software. You can imagine at least my dissapointment. I quickly called Verizon for help in troubleshooting. Unfortunately, “Debra” was no help. She walked me through a reboot, a reinstall, another reboot…she even tried to have me download the latest update (had she forgotten my initial problem? I COULDN’T get on the web at all.). After about 45 minutes of tech support she told me my computer had a problem and I should take it to a technician. Only that would fix the issue. I simply was not satisfied. I went up to the public library and began searching forums and such to find this mysterious error code that perplexed even “Debra”.

My point in this post though is not to criticize Verizon and their tech support team. It is rather to point out that because “Debra” didn’t recognize the error code she immediately launched into the Tech Support Trifecta:  reboot, reinstall, replace. Has this, in fact, become the only cost effective way of providing such support? I simply could not accept that my computer needed to be fixed and/or replaced. All of my hardware diagnostics were returning without error.

About an hour later I called Verizon back with a larger sense of urgency and much more verbal aggression. I felt as if the customer service had given up on me and was ready to just mask the problem and have me replace my computer. After asking to speak to someone a little higher up I finally found out that Verizon had indeed been experiencing some connection problems in the Southeast but was unable to release that information to the public as it was being fixed immediately. My question is this though…why didn’t they at least tell their techs there was some issues with the region and ‘net connectivity? How can quality customer support and Tech support be offered when the Technician is completely uninformed. I felt so bad for “Debra”. She was clueless and was operating on an issue that she simply had not been informed of.

This experience was eye opening for me. I realize now that communication between all tiers of Tech Support is essential and that at MinuteFix we are right on with humbling ourselves to actually solve some problems for our customers.