Calls from Schumer's office, my assembly member, and Verizon today.

[aquart]

Because last week I snail mailed this to my senator Schumer and my assemblymember Glick as those were the only two addresses I could locate without phone or internet service:

My 89-year-old mom is a newly-diagnosed lymphoma patient. We need to be in contact.

My phone service failed on Wednesday, November 10th. Right before Veterans Day. Verizon told me, through my mother who phoned them from her house, that they would do nothing until Tuesday, November 16. On Monday, November 15, I got a dial tone in the morning. By noon the phone was dead again as well as my DSL connection to the internet. Nobody came on Tuesday.

My mother called again. They told her it was a COPPER problem. A CABLE problem. That hundreds were also out and they working working working and all would be fixed on Monday, November 22.

On Friday, November 19, two repairmen rang my bell and tried to get in to my neighbor’s apartment which is the only access to my line. They couldn’t but went away without informing me or asking for my help. Another weekend without phone or internet.

It is Monday, November 22. This morning Verizon assured me the repairmen had an appointment to enter my neighbor’s apartment this very afternoon. Last night my neighbor insisted she hadn’t heard from them. Did they make a very early morning appointment?

It is now 5:56 pm. It’s dark out. No one has come from Verizon.

Question: Is Verizon scanting service to force people into super-profitable cell phone use? Or the optical FIOS connections?

Question: Does Verizon have ANY obligation to restore service in a timely manner? If so, how does Verizon define “timely”?

Question: Do I have any rights here at all? I’m already out of pocket $65 in prepaid cell phone minutes for a phone I only have for emergencies. Who is protecting ME? Who is guaranteeing that I will get the service I paid for? If Verizon will not honor its obligations, where do I turn?

Question: If Verizon is regulated, is it required to compile statistics on the length of time customers are left without service? This is the longest I’ve been without phone service, but they rather routinely leave me without DSL for weeks at a time. If I don’t rate a weekend repair after nearly two weeks, who has been left without service for longer? Are those statistics online? If not, WHY NOT?

I don’t know if you’re the right person to write. Or if the service will finally be restored by the time you can attend to this letter. But the question is, what’s to prevent them doing this again next month? Next week? What are the checks? What are the protections? What is the recourse? How was this allowed to happen and then continue for so long? My phone has a long, troubled history and my DSL even worse. What is Verizon neglecting? Is this common? Unique?

Is there anyone who is looking out for me?

PS: Yellowbook lists phone and email for you, but no mailing address. Not terribly useful if you have a problem getting phone and internet service. But indicative of how vital that service is.

RESULT: Both offices got back to me this morning to make sure my service was working and then Verizon called and gave me a direct number to the cable department if anything else happened. No phone tree.

For years I have been telling people, if you have a problem, get your representatives involved. They want to be responsive, to earn your loyalty. Do it even if they're Republican. They get tax money for staff whose job is to help constituents. Use that resource.

Be the squeaky wheel.

[nykym]

1. Best thing to do

is file a complaint through the consumer protection agency. I had a similar problem in NY got tired of waiting and filed a complaint. Go a response pronto and got a call from Verizon's Head of Customer service. She even asked if there was anything else she could do. I asked that the supervisor who indiscriminately canceled my service call be reprimanded, she said she would take care of it. So once again the squeaky wheel gets the grease. They do follow through when you file a complaint.

[mitchtv]

2. Call the PUC

Telco will react immedately. I know I worked for PacBell repairs for years. You are entitled to credit for each day without service. Here in Calif , you can sue for missed appointments in Small Claims Court, but I don't know what you have in consumer protections where you are.

[Hannah Bell]

3. kr. glad your mom got her service back.

[csziggy]

4. My parents had an outage a few weeks ago, Verizon was horrible in their response

And the issues are STILL not resolved.

Friday evening a branch went down, taking out electricity, cable TV, telephone and DSL. Mom went across the street to borrow their neighbor's phone. In two hours, they had electrical power, the cable guys ran a temporary line, and Verizon temporarily restored the voice line. Verizon never contacted them to see if they had the bundled DSL.

We were down for a visit, arriving Sunday evening. Monday I called in about the DSL - it took an hour on the phone to get that done. Verizon said there had been a trouble ticket for the line but that had been cleared early Saturday morning. A Verizon tech was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

A little while later, Mom needed to call some people, and the voice line was no longer working. I called Verizon back - another 45 minutes on hold, then back and forth with the Verizon customer dis-service representative. She scheduled a Verizon tech for Wednesday afternoon. I asked about the DSL tech scheduled for Tuesday and she said he would still be out.

Tuesday - no tech, nothing. We had a family get together that afternoon. Since we were planning to leave the next morning, I was worried about leaving my 89 year old mother and frail father alone with no communication. So I got back on the phone with Verizon - and so did my sister. Another 45 minutes on hold, longer hassling with the unhelpful service person.

It was not until I started getting mad and told them about the age of my parents, how Mom needed to be able to call an ambulance if Dad needed help again, that the service person budged at all. Two hours later, a service guy was there and got the voice line back in order. 8:15 the next morning the DSL tech was there and got that working.

But they needed a new DSL modem - the old one had a through put of only 160kbps and it was supposed to be 1.5 mbps. The DSL line tech could not order a new one. So back on hold for Verizon, hassle with them about getting a replacement modem at no charge, hassle with them to upgrade to a wireless DSL router so they could skip the old router and so when I visit I can get online with my laptop without stringing wires.

Last week my sister called me - the DSL modem had not arrived. Verizon sent it to the incorrect address THREE f***ing times and never checked why there was no at the address. I had verified my parents' address at least twice while on the phone with Verizon, so we can't understand why the modem was shipped to a completely different location.

Now the modem is there, but Verizon will not hook it up without payment. Since the entire family was there the other day for Turkey Day, no one is planning to be back to visit for another week. Verizon did not send any printed instructions on how to install the modem. Dad would try to hook it up, but as frail as he is, we don't want him climbing around behind the computers. And since he is deaf, he cannot call Verizon for help. Mom can hear, but she is technologically naive, so she is not willing to try to connect it.

My next step is to call the Florida Consumer Complaints line but I did not feel like sitting on hold with them today. (Since it is bundled phone and DSL, Public Service Commission no longer handles complaints.) The good thing is that Consumer Complaints is under the Department of Agriculture and the new commissioner-elect of that department lives just down the street from Mom & Dad. I am embarrassed to say, they donated to him (Adam Putnam) when he was a Representative. But maybe he can help.

Damn I HATE Verizon.