VERIZON DID "STOP WORKING" FOR ME MONDAY AT 4:20 PM

As I write this on Word at 7:28 PM Tuesday October 4, 2005 I have been unable to post to my blog, do anything on the internet or use my house phone since around 9 AM Monday morning. That’s a few minutes after a crew working for Comcast began trenching in the park strip in my cul-de-sac to lay new underground cable. Even though all the underground utilities had previously been “marked out” for them so they could avoid the existing electricity, telephone and TV cables, they promptly sliced through the telephone cable servicing the entire street. Encountering hard ground they, unfortunately, decided to use a pick-axe and did the deed.

They notified their office, who notified Verizon, who arrived on the scene in a short time and began work on the already located cut cable. Between 3 and 3:30PM, splice completed, the Verizon lineman left. But he apparently did not bother to check whether service was actually restored to the homes! The Comcast crew, who had suspended work and hung out pending the repair, quickly learned from the neighbors that the phones were still out. They again notified their office, who again notified Verizon and were told a crew would be dispatched. This crew never came.

I had arrived back home around 4PM and quickly got up to speed. Was I ticked!! I phoned the Verizon repair line to add some urgency to the matter. I managed to get them to have a repair foreman call me, which he did at about 4:20PM. I explained that many families were without phone service and how inconvenient and unsafe this was. I demanded that he send a crew immediately to fix the problem. Through his profuse apologies he steadfastly refused to do so. He claimed that he “had no one to send” and danced around my questions about their capability to field crews in an emergency. He assured me that he and a crew would be on site at 8AM sharp Tuesday morning.

So much for “We never stop working for you”, an empty refrain we see repeated ad infinitum on Verizon’s TV and in print ads.

As my neighbors began arriving home from work I filled them in, one by one, on the events of the day and Verizon’s refusal to dispatch a repair crew to restore service that day. The first one told me that in addition to his phone, the Comcast work detail had knocked out his TV cable as well! The second, a professional who operates a business from his home, was furious to find his phone line still dead. He conducts business on his DSL line via e-mail, as well as by telephone. His work was greatly impeded. The third has a second phone line dedicated to an alarm system which automatically notifies the police or fire department in case of an intrusion or fire. He too was quite frustrated and angry. I advised all three that I had also called the Washington Township Police Department to see if I could get their support in motivating Verizon to return to finish the job. I argued that the lack of phone service to so many homes constituted a public safety emergency—people would not be able to contact police or fire officials quickly should emergent situations arise. Police, after all, are responsible for public safety in the community. The officer I spoke to did not see a role for the police in this situation and could offer no help.

Eight AM Tuesday morning came and went. It was actually 9:04AM when the first Verizon truck rolled up. I was still so pissed that I was keeping close score. More and heavier equipment kept arriving throughout the day. It seemed that Verizon was relying on the Comcast subcontractor to do the actual digging in the effort to locate a second cut in the phone cable (the Comcast crew foreman confided to me on Monday that there was a good possibility that they had cut the line in another place). At one point during the morning there was some very lethargic hand digging going on by two young guys. No supervisor was in sight. Much of the day was devoted to locating the problem and excavating. It wasn’t until late afternoon that a lineman actually started splicing the second severed line together.

Darkness fell with the lineman persevering at his tedious task. Portable lights were now in place. I kept wondering: “They ended up working into the night today so why couldn’t they have done that yesterday and restored service sooner”. I saw it as Verizon’s blatant disregard for their customers, proceeding at their own convenience instead of giving us the service we pay them well for.

At 7:45PM my wife told me that the phone was now working. The activity out in the street continued well past 8, the last time I checked.

This kind of situation always reminds me of how little freedom and power we really have. Fact is, in many ways we are at the mercy of corporate America. Mundane activities such as banking, shopping and going to the doctor take place within a tightly controlled scope determined by the policies of the banks, credit card companies and HMO/health insurers that we are necessarily entangled with. Those companies make the rules to suit themselves. We are a captive audience. Participation in modern life is just about impossible without interfacing with those institutions. And to do so, we must do it on their terms. The corporations that control our lives have the enormous momentum of the “free-market” juggernaut behind them. That includes the sanction of our government for their anti-consumer behavior. “The customer is always right” and “customer service” are quaint, outmoded concepts. Corporations in these service businesses are aggressive and punitive in pursuit of their profits. They are also devious and deceptive. They know most people will give up out of frustration when trying to pursue fair treatment. The few outfits out there fighting on our behalf such as Citizen Action, NRDC and Consumer’s Union are invaluable.