You know those “live chat” support and sales folks at humongous companies like Comcast and Verizon? Ever wonder how informed they are? My one live chat support experience with Comcast I would rate as excellent. I’ll let my Verizon experience tonight speak for itself.

I asked Verizon if it had notebook discounts if I signed up for wireless broadband for the typical two year contract. Indeed, Verizon has promotions through June 30 on Dell, Sony, HP, Lenovo, OQO and the Panasonic Toughbook notebooks. I wrote about these notebook promotions and similar ones from AT&T in an April 17 post.

He got the answer half right — nothing public on netbooks yet. I substituted Verizon for the person’s name as given (you never know if it’s their real name). Here’s how it went.

You: do you have deals on netbooks or mini-notebooks if I sign up for wireless broadband?
Verizon: I’d be happy to help you with that.
Verizon: Unfortuantely, we do not.
You: how about deals on notebooks?
Verizon: We do not sale Notebooks.
You: but don’t you have discount coupons on notebooks if i sign up for wireless broadband?
Verizon: Unfortunately, we do not.