for my friends who are having problems with verizon... CEO's email address and phone # to his assistant.

*note- Quite some time ago Mike and I were charged by Verizon for services that we never received. After dealing with a year of total bullshit from them we had had enough. I did a bit of sleuthing online and found the verizon ceo's email address. After a year of total b.s. I sent an email to this man, and approximately a half an hour later I received an email from his assistant... needless to say, it pays to be persistent: it was all resolved within a couple of months. here is a copy of my email. The ceo's email address follows... I have never felt closer to hell than I did when dealing with this customer service nightmare...


"need customer service here!‏
From: marissa DiGirolamo (marissadigirolamo@hotmail.com)
Sent: Tue 5/20/08 4:46 PM
To: ivan.seidenberg@verizon.com; ivan.seidenberg@core.verizon.com
Cc: marissadigirolamo@hotmail.com

May 20, 2008

Mr. Seidenberg,

I am contacting you after having exhausted and re-exhausted all of the other possible
avenues of arriving at a solution to my dilemma. What I have on my hands here is to
me nothing short of a customer service nightmare in which I am sinking in the depths of
a 'no-exit' sort of purgatory, and am desperately seeking resolution. I am hoping that you
may be able to assist me and my family.

My husband and I were satisfied Verizon customers until we decided we no longer needed
our home phone (because we had our trusty Verizon Wireless). We wished to keep our Verizon
Internet service intact, but were told that this service would have to be disconnected and a "dry loop"
would have to be installed in its place to accommodate the connection lost when we cancelled our
telephone service. This was fine, however after weeks of our reconnection date being rolled back,
we decided we could no longer live happily or productively without our internet and proceeded to
terminate our relationship with your company. This was on February 6, 2007.

During the month of July in 2007 we received a letter from a debt collector stating that
they were attempting to collect a debt for Verizon in the amount of $89.85. We were shocked,
as our account was paid in full through the time of cancellation. Upon contacting your company,
Sir, to try to determine what this charge was, it was revealed that we had been charged $29.95
during the months of February, March, and April of 2007 for the dry-loop service which was
never even established! This amounted totalled $89.85, and we were told that it was a misunderstanding
and our account would be credited and the debt collector would be notified. No problem.
Except that this same exact predicament has occurred three more times, with a grand total of four
times. This amounts to At Least approximately nine hours of phone calls speaking with representatives
and being shuffled around from various Verizon company departments here and abroad. Multiply these
approximate nine hours , by oh, about 89.85 and you might understand the amount of headaches, frustration, and stress this has caused. Did I mention that I am five months pregnant? Doesn't it bother you that your fine
company is causing such stress in the lives of pregnant women? I spent an hour and a half this morning
speaking with pleasant Cheryl in Pennsylvania and quiet Ciolat and 'trying to be helpful' Mohammed in
India who told me this would be resolved. However I have heard these words before, and I am not
convinced this will ever go away.

Which is why I am writing to you. The account # in question is ********70957547. That is the account #
which was assigned to the dry loop connection that never existed. Our old telephone # at the
time was 757 *** 1785. The account # associated with that number was *********772 00Y. The
account was in my husband's name, *****l DiGirolamo. It is under that account # above that the three erroneous charges of $29.95 appear. My husband who works very hard has wasted so many of his lunch
breaks so that he could try to resolve this, because your department which handles such calls is only open
from 8am until 6pm, which are the hours of his workday. It was his name on the account, so he
has been the one who has had to call all of these times. We are about to begin construction on
our home, and it would be horrible if an error on the part of your company, sir, has blemished our
credit and endangered this endeavor. This "dry loop" which was never even created but for which we have
been charged and made to suffer for have made me feel like I am trapped in just that: a dry-loop,
Mr. Seidenberg.

Please let me know if you can be of any assistance in this matter. I have a blog that is really just a small
blog; but my stat counter reveals that I get an average of about 40 unique visitors a day. Not a lot, really,
but wouldn't it be great if you could resolve the matter and I could post your reply letter of help so that all
of my visitors could see what a great CEO you are and read about how Verizon is a fine company after all?
If this doesn't work then I will have to do the contrary, only after contacting my local state regulators.
Really, thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Regards,

Marissa DiGirolamo"


What follows is the message back I received from the CEO's assistant:


"Dear Mrs. DiGirolamo:

Thank you for your recent correspondence to Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman of Verizon. I have been asked to respond on his behalf.

I am sorry that you have had such a difficult time in resolving a billing issue related to cancelled DSL service. I will be happy to insure that it has been cared for, I would like the opportunity to discuss with you. Please call be at your earliest convenience on 1(800) 483-5288 or directly on the number below.

Thank you,
Lois O'Connor
VERIZON
Executive Customer Relations
(212) 321-8459"

Please note that it still took a couple of months for the issue to be resolved. It was obnoxiously frustrating, but I do think it is over. I hope. (if not, I think I know who to contact.)

I hope this helps anyone who is having problems with Verizon.

blahblahblahblah. I've got the winter blahs. (And btw I'm sick of facebook now- haha, go figure.) I am really ready for the spring. And some sleep would be nice, too.

a rare encounter:

My sweet babies.

unicorns!! and rainbows!!!!!!!

This reminds me of when I was a kid and collected stickers. And stuck them everywhere, much to my mom's dismay. Once I got a hello kitty stamp, and stamped a million hello kitties onto my bedroom door. It is what little girls do! Here is a grown-up version:


(hit the cornify button)

marissa is.... addicted to facebook.

i am sort of addicted to facebook. my eyes are going to roll out of my head. and i know i'm not alone on this one.

People (especially people who don't even know what it is) scoff at this, but whatever. As a
C.A.S.A.H.M. (cool ass stay at home mom) it is such a wonderful way to feel connected, socially, to the rest of the world.
It is warming my heart to reconnect with old friends whom I'd lost touch with. How in the world did C.A.S.A.H.M.'s survive
without this wonderful world wide web?? How??

My sun room, which was supposed to be my "reading books/listening to music room," has been taken over by trucks. And balls. And matchbox cars.

Henry thought Elmo might be hungry for a crayon.

zzzzzzzzz.

We have been busy hibernating. Regular programming to resume shortly: I'd like to begin February with super-regular updates, 2007-style. We'll see. Each day, life with two little kids is a reminder that I really can't get overly ambitious about anything. And boy do I mean anything... I've decided I'm making no apologies though, and just enjoying my little ones.

busy noel

I haven't posted in forever and a day due to an insanely hectic and stressful holiday season. The normal busy-ness of christmastime compounded with keeping up with a two year old and a newborn (adjusting to life with both and not just one has proved to be a challenge) and also trying to finish up the massive renovation/addition...
Henry has been busy perusing the pages of Target's holiday toy catalogue... This time of year is so different when you are an adult with young kids. I am more excited to give Henry his presents than I am to receive any of my own. Ahh, to be a kid again...
I refer to this toy catalogue as "Henry porn." The pages are well-worn. This is him before a nap.

We finally got a tree and I was able to properly decorate for Christmas. (don't let all of those packages fool you... my mom brought over the presents she got us early, because she thought that it looked too 'bare' without them)

I have been savoring my time with this little one too. She is so unbelievably sweet. I am just in love with her... I am trying to make the most of my days, as crazy as they are.

trying to create a "handmade christmas" -----

and failing miserably. Loved ones who are expecting gifts: please, please, please excuse my major lameness this year. You know I'd give you the moon if I could. Unfortunately money is tight, and due to the fact that I haven't actually slept in a bed in over two and a half months, inspiration is running a little low. I'll make it up to you in the coming year, I promise.

even though I haven't been able to do my dishes in the kitchen sink... I have been doing my dishes in the bathroom sink for the past month while waiting for our granite countertops to be cut and our plumber to connect our kitchen plumbing. I have enjoyed bathing some things in our new bathroom sink more than others.... I am just glad I talked Mike into getting the double sinks. Annie seems to enjoy them....

Annie is more than likely our last baby, and I am going to so miss the sweet and tiny perfection, the wonderful compactness that is an infant. Nothing in this world is quite as sweet and dear as a baby.... I will forever remember dancing Annie through her fussy evenings next to our tree from this year... and the feeling of watching Henry hang his first ornament, with his tiny, agile and determined hands.
Merry Christmas, friends, and wishing you a happy, happy new year!

paper cut house

So the title of this blog has been bouncing around for forever and it is getting on my nerves. What the hell was I thinking with the whole 'starfish' business? A totally ridiculous name, really. I do have somewhat of a connection to the name; however not enough to live with it or like it any longer.

I have painted sporadically over the past sixteen or seventeen years or so, and it has always been a major passion of mine. It is a medium that I love and cannot live without. Work output has always been sporadic; some years there are months of work released at fever pitch; some years there are spells drier than the Atacama Desert.

Around eight years ago I began really dabbling with collage and instantly fell so in love with it. I ended up filling an entire book with collages, pages front and back. Last fall/winter my output was satisfactory, enough so that I decided I would open and etsy shop and begin offering some affordable prints for sale. Cassie designed a nice shop banner for me and I set up my account. Approximately a week later I began projectile vomiting around the clock (I became pregnant) and sort of lost my drive to be creative or enterprising.

Lately, even on no sleep, the stress of the big renovation, pushing another baby out of my vagina, dealing with a gregarious toddler, etc. the inspiration has been stirring. I can feel some more work coming and I just have to roll with it. I am officially changing the name of this blog to the name of my etsy shop, Paper Cut House. It will still be a blog mostly for me to look back on so I can remember what was up with me and Mike and the kids at a certain point in history. There will maybe still be some stuff for you, too. I'll announce here when the shop is up and running, but I'm shooting for late January.