We'd had troubles with Verizon's telephone and service many times.  We used to have two phone lines and I'd asked for AT&T long distance on both phone lines, but Verizon had assigned it to only one line and left the other bare, allowing a skeezy company to put their service onto the line at $1.50 per minute long distance.  After my first bill from that company, I had to call Verizon to ask them what the heck was going on and get it corrected, but that horror story is nothing compared to their DSL internet service, which is so incredibly inept, I'm surprised they have any customers at all....