Does Verizon Care About Your Landline?
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Neighbor Helene Silverman has been without Verizon landline phone or DSL internet service in her East 19th Street home since September, and has had no signs of getting the service back anytime soon.
“Every time I call they move the date of completion two weeks later,” she said when we first discussed her issue last month. “And no one from Verizon has ever called to explain the situation.”
After I spoke with Verizon to find out if the outage is more widespread–as it was back in April, when several hundred Verizon customers lost service in our area–Silverman finally heard back from the company, who said they thought it would be back soon (not yet, though).
With Verizon putting a major push on its fiber optic FiOS service, which has also brought some controversy to the neighborhood, how is its copper communication network holding up? Because other options are available, and because more people are abandoning landlines for mobile service, Verizon’s landline customer base is dwindling–CBS reported Verizon had a loss of one million landlines in the first two quarters of 2011. And following a recent widespread outage in the Bronx, one resident claimed Verizon is intentionally allowing a degradation of the copper system, and is pushing people to switch to FiOS instead, an allegation that Verizon denies.
In our area, the company explained that they know of the problems, and that they fix them as they happen.
“We are aware of past outages in this area,” said John Bonomo, Verizon’s Director of Media Relations. “And we obviously handle each outage when they occur, whether it be an individual customer problem, or something that may affect service to many customers. While we are maintaining the telecom infrastructure in the area, we are studying various factors on how possible modifications to the landline network in the area may enhance service to our customers.”
Enhancing service would be a welcome change for many Verizon landline customers around here, but just getting the current service outages fixed might be enough. Much like Silverman, neighbors Ellen Bilofsky and Dave Newman had problems with their Verizon landline service in the West Midwood neighborhood, losing their dial tone two times in about a month. After the second complaint, they learned the issue stemmed from a rotting telephone pole in their neighbor’s backyard. A repair crew came and told them that Verizon would probably not fix the pole, and as a result, they’d likely never get their service back.
Unwilling to accept that, Bilofsky and Newman contacted the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to file a complaint. The agency, which regulates utilities such as Verizon, was instrumental in getting the company to repair the service. They now have their landline connection back, and a new telephone pole.
Reports from PSC show that complaints to Verizon regarding landline service dramatically increased in 2011. There are valid reasons for some of those: the union strike in August, and the damaging weather of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Even so, PSC has seen complaints rising since 2010, as is noted in its Verizon Service Quality report for the third quarter of 2011:
…the complaint rate trend is worsening. While performance in August and September was impacted by the work stoppage and major storms, it should be noted that July’s performance continued the worsening trend that began last year…. Service-quality-related complaints represented 90% of all complaints in the third quarter. A fairly large number of all complaints (46%) were due to delayed repairs. Again, the significance of the quarterly numbers is tempered by the events in August and September. Also, generally speaking, while complaints are increasing, it is important to recognize that a significant number of consumers who file complaints may be classified as “non-core” and have competitive options.
“Core” customers are defined as those who “lack competitive wireline alternatives to Verizon, who are Lifeline customers, or who are special needs customers (e.g., elderly, blind, or disabled).” “Non-core” is everyone else (those who have other options for service, not counting mobile service), make up 92% of Verizon’s landline customer base, and are, as allowed by PSC, to be a second priority after the core customers.
Many people in this area still have landline connections, so we’d like to know how your service has been in the past year. If you have landline service from Verizon, or any other company, have you experienced any outages recently, either due to the hurricane or some other factor? If so, what was your experience in getting that service restored or repaired?
If you’re experiencing unresolved trouble with your phone service (or any utility) you can file a complaint with PSC by calling 1-800-342-3377 between 8:30am and 4pm, or online here.
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Anonymous
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Andrew Weakland
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Alsivi
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Ben
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flatbushfred
