crappy verizon customer service

[javasaurus]

Verizon tends to provide decent product at reasonable rates. Not great rates, but reasonable. Their customer service, however, is getting worse. We have DSL through them. Time to renew the account. I go to the online page, and I think it locked up. It gets stuck on a page that says "retrieving account information, please do not close this window." So I let it sit their for an hour. Nada. So I close the window. In my most recent bill, it gives me another website to visit. So I do. It tells me my account is fubar, and provides a number, says to ask for billing.

I call the number. Automated response asks if xxx-xxx-xxxx is my phone number. It is. Do I type 1? Do I say "yes"? No instructions provided. I say yes. It says, "this is the main menu." so I assume "yes" was what it wanted, but I really have no idea. It gives me some options. "Billing" was not one of them. I say "billing," and it connects me to billing anyway. After a few more Q&As, I get told that all reps are busy call back later. When I call back later, I'm told that they are closed on the weekends, call between 8 and 6 on weekdays. WTF? Oh, it asked for my 10-digit account number starting with area code. Verizon account numbers are 12 digits, and not based on your phone number, so they don't have area codes. again, wtf?