Nine robo-calls in 24 hours, all from Verizon: Nothing could make them stop; not my wife's increasingly urgent pleas (I was away); not the hapless customer service reps who promised relief; not the "in-charge supervisor" who wasn't in charge; and, not even the ever-so-helpful individual who said the barrage was "a national problem" before adding, "We're suggesting that people just unplug their phones."

Unplug our phones? How about you unplug your bloody robo-caller first?

And here's the most amusing part: Verizon's rogue motor-mouth was calling -- nine times -- to inquire as to the McNamara family's satisfaction level with recent Verizon customer service. (If only the options had included, "Press 4 for 'Stop asking.' ")

About 1,400 FiOS and DSL customers -- all in New England --- endured a similar fate, Verizon says. We'll get to the company's explanation right after the gory details.

The first call came at 1:49 p.m. on Sept. 9. Recognizing it as a robo and being busy, Julie just hung up. Fly swatted. Kids will be home from school soon.

Second call, 3:34 p.m. Answered, hung up; life's too short. Third at 5:22.

By the 6:28 call it had become clear the onslaught was not going to stop of its own accord, so Julie set about probing the mechanical monster's outer defenses in search of a controlling earthling. This meant wading through a labyrinth of prompts -- there was no up-front option to speak to a representative -- followed by the obligatory 20-minute wait on hold.

Reward: Plenty of sympathy; no help.

The 9:09 got her back on the line with yet another kind but useless Verizon employee. "He apologized -- everyone I spoke with always apologized," she would tell me later. "And they all said the calls would stop."

The 10:23 call served as punishment for her having had the audacity to fall asleep.

The 11:40 earned her the attention of that supervisor in the Dallas Fiber Solution Center, which, as Julie pointed out later, is "ill-named," at least in terms of offering a solution to this problem.

That would be it for this night. She unplugged the phone.

Next day? First call, 10:12; second -- and final of the nine -- at 12:59. Julie answered neither. Who would?

"I hate Verizon," she'd write in an e-mail to me. Who wouldn't? (And it's not as though this is our first spot of trouble with FiOS, as regular readers know.)