Bet it would have worked on Edgar's PC, though

This scenario is repeated

This scenario is repeated every time, so far 5 times in last 3 years, I call Verizon DSL "Technical" support 800-567-6789.
The drone on the other end always goes through the script without listening to any of the description of error I see on the screen and logs.
Each time, to get to the crux of the matter, I call the Verizon Business DSL support line and find out what is actually failing in the local area.
The residential Verizon DSL Support never does have this information.

Verizon just does not care.

NEW website that lets us know which companies...

We need a spoiler website that has a running list of companies that employ these offshore companies so we can know when expect this kind of support or not choose products of these companies. I would rather have the companies save the money they are throwing away (spending towards bad reputation marketing), have no support and offer cheaper products. This kind of support sounds like a crotchless jockstrap.

Why do so many companies

Why do so many companies persist in calling off-shoring "best-shore", when we all know it is in fact "cheap-shore".

helpless desk support

Lately I have dealt with Woerthlink. Absolutely, the worst support I have ever experienced. They shutdown my email for 6 months (no lie). I finally got incoming but it took another hour and a half to convince the helpless that I had 2 accounts and using one account to send and the other to receive was not going to solve the problem. I eventually was escalated to a person who found out that the account was located on the wrong server.

Then about a month later, my daughter had problems with her email. Instead of fixing the problem they created another account (billing wise) and billed me. I didn't pay it and finally steeled myself to again call Woerthlink. After 45 minutes of trying to communicate with several techs, I was told that a supervisor would call me back in 20 minutes. That didn't happen either so I started again at the bottom of the foodchain. One tech insisted that I give him the password so he could do something with the unwanted account. I told him that I wasn't going to pay for this anyway, so he might as well delete it (I didn't have the password to an account I didn't create.) And I also wanted the email account returned to whence it had come. I was told that that could not be done. I told him that I knew that it could be done and to find someone that could make the move. Amazingly, they found someone who moved the email account and closed the unwanted billing account. At this point, I lost track of time and was sure that I should not take by blood pressure.

That sounds eerily familiar

My previous company outsourced their help(less) desk to an offshore company. They apparently saved 300 million dollars, but probably wasted it in lost productivity. If I ever had a computer problem, I had to call India, speak with someone named John (I doubt it), and let him take over my computer and try to figure things out. It usually took anywhere from 30 - 60 minutes.

I decided to create a "rubber-band ball of wasted time" to illustrate just how much time I lost as a result of the outsourced help desk. Basically, every time someone had to remotely take over my computer, and prohibit me from working, I worked on my rubberband ball. It got pretty big, and was the subject of many conversations. It was especially fun to explain it to management:
Management: "Where did you find the time to make that monstrosity?"
Me: "Every time I'm on the phone with the help desk and they take over my computer."
Management: "oh..."

That's entertainment!

The above conversation reminds me of the classic Abbot and Costello routine, "Who's on First."

Same help, both useless.

I wonder if CISCO is using the same "internal help desk"?
If so, then Allen (Edgar) is still in trouble.
That has happened to me. Different helpers, but the same lack of help.
Try asking the help desk if you can call him/her "cheap". Most of the time they'll agree.

nevermore

Seems to me they should get Edgar and Allan together...might be some good POEtry that results.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my VPN. "'Tis some hacker," I muttered, "tapping at my VPN—

Only this, and nothing more."