A coworker offered me an insight into Verizon customer service, with which he also had found inefficient and intransigent. The insight is this: Verizon is not just a very large company with a labyrinthine bureaucracy -- it is also a monopoly.

Unlike some of the other businesses which Verizon oversees (internet, wireless) with land-lines Verizon has captive customers. We customers in north-eastern PA are required to purchase our land-line connections from Verizon so they has no incentive to pander to us.

Thus, the corporate culture of Verizon telephone is like the post-office. It's a Ticky-Tacky Little Boxes Culture.

However, VOIP is a disruptive influence. Verizon telephone is still subject to the rules and regulations that go hand-in-hand with being granted a monopoly. However, VOIP providers are not subject to those regulations. It's not that Verizon *can't* innovate - it's that those same government regulations that protect them from competition disincline them from doing so.

I suppose when you have a really big hammer, you like to imagine every problem as a nail. Verizon is good at working within the framework of government regulation. It's no surprise then that this is a tool that they use when threatened by Vonage, a serious competitor.

On another note, I am now two thirds of the way through "Atlas Shrugged" and it is seeming to me that there are strong parallels between Wesley Mooch and George Bush.