FIFTH DAY OF TOTAL PHONE OUTAGE: TUES 11/22 - SAT 11/26 JAMAICA, QUEENS

[BJK8]

I am posting this in a last resort attempt to get the Verizon landline division that services this part of Queens to do something.

It is also a request to anyone to provide any advice/instructions as to how to go about filing a formal complaint with the FCC, and what other STATE and CITY agencies have any jurisdiction over a utility that refuses to provide services which are being paid for.

This is a multi-residence, multi-customer outage.  It occurred in the evening of Tues Nov 22 during a weak rainstorm with mild wind.

I suffered the same type of total outage approx 3 years ago, same season of the year, same weather conditions.  I was without a telephone for over one week.

Verizon repairmen made at least 3 trips to my residence, the first two claiming my equipment/wiring were defective, before admitting that the defect was with the feeder line to the house that they were responsible for.

The attitude of Verizon staff was rude almost to the point of hostility.  It was stunning to experience this as a customer for decades.

I pay for Verizon dsl broadband internet service through my landline, but after days spent trying to contact anyone, to log a repair request, I gave up:  there is no way anything can be done through any of their webpages, despite the statement you see everywhere:

'we have many solutions!' or 'we are here to help you'.

I am asking for observations of any landline customers in this area as to how many outages they have experienced in the last few years, time for resolution of the problem, whether the problems have increased in frequency.

After having this happen one too many times, and then to be on the receiving end of utterly unprofessional, totally apathetic behavior on the part of Verizon employees, is the last straw.

[KH-OrnEsh1]

I'm sorry you are having difficulty. An agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information or to help you resolve your issue.

[BJK8]

At 2:15 PM today, Sat Nov 26th, two large Verizon work trucks were at the intersection of Hillside Ave and 169th St. in Jamaica, Queens.

I thought:  'great, they finally have a work crew on the problem'.  One of the trucks was a cable feeder, the other was a cherry picker.

There were a total of TWO (2) Verizon employees attempting this job.  That is ONE (1) per truck.

I thought there would be approx 6 workers assigned to a job of this magnitude, some worker/job ratio similar to what you see at any Con Ed location.

I asked one of them the following questions:

Q:  Why have there been so many outages the last few years in this area, whenever there is rain/flooding?

A:   The basic answer is the system is too old.  They finally sent us down here to replace the whole cable...

Q:   Why is it that the only time the system is serviced is when there is a major outage, affecting hundreds, maybe thousands of customers?

A:    I can't aswer that.

Q:   Why isn't the system better maintained?

A:    I dunno.

Q:   After having no phone for almost five days, with no explanation, I'm going to file an FCC complaint concerning this.

A:   I think that would be a good idea.

It is to Verizon's benefit to allow the landline system to continue to disintegrate, while spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year for advertising and promoting high-end, high-cost, high-profit systems and plans.  Their own employees confirm this.

Here is the timeline again:  Tues Nov 22:  start of phone outage.  Fri Nov 25, 8 PM: estimated restoration of service.

Sat Nov 26:  first sighting of work crew (4th day into outage).  Mon Nov 28, 5 PM: new estimated restoration of service.  7 days total.

[BJK8]

I received the following notification via email:

"You have received a private message in the Verizon | Forums and Blogs - Verizon Community from: Frank_VZ with the subject line: FIFTH DAY OF TOTAL PHONE OUTAGE: TUES 11/22 - SAT 11/26 JAMAICA, QUEENS.

Private messages are located at the envelope icon on the upper right-hand side of the community."

Not knowing how to access a 'private message', I found this:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Community-Beat/Community-Tips-Private-Messages/ba-p/195096

which tells me to look for an envelope icon in the upper right had corner of 'any blog page'.  This thing doesn't exist. 

However, 'Beckyc, administrator' advices users:

"Private messages are great when you want to have a conversation that no one else will see. However, we highly encourage our members to “talk publicly” anytime the topic could benefit other Verizon Community members. We are here to help each other out!"

So, since Beckyc, administrator, highly encourages us to talk publicly, and 'help each other out', maybe Frank_VZ can post his message here, because I am done fooling around with this toy.

[ElizabethS]

This is what it looks like. And you should be able to view it from this page.  . It is a small gold envelope on the upper right of the screen.

[BJK8]

I know what a yellow envelope icon looks like:  it wasn't posted anywhere until AFTER my question re: this above.

Frank still can't tell me why I, and hundreds of customers here in SE Queens, have had no telephone since Tuesday night.

Frank's private message was to tell me:  'I'm sorry you are experiencing difficulty with your Verizon service.  Please fill out the following form, so that we might be better able to serve you.' 

The problem is a main feeder cable, servicing hundreds of customers in the Jamaica section of SE Queens, that was decades old, FAILED. 

It FAILED because it was OLD and had not been REPLACED as a matter of ROUTINE SYTEM MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADE. 

The Verizon technicians I spoke to (twice:  2:15 PM and 6:45 PM) on Sat Nov 26th, TOLD ME SO.

Everything that any Verizon employee:  manager, regional repair supervisor, service planner, customer relations manager, etc, etc. could possibly need to know to understand what this experience (and other identical prior outages) is like, has been stated clearly above.

As little as ~ 20 yrs ago, an outage of this length and magnitude was unknown by my family and anyone I knew.

Everyone had a landline, no one ever suffered the isolation and inability to even make one **bleep** phone call over the entire Thanksgiving Holiday week.

[BJK8]

Received from Verion Support on Sat Nov 26th:

"We understand the inconvenience you have been experiencing and we are working to resolve all repair requests as quickly as possible. Please be aware that this repair date is accurate, and it is the same whether you request repair status online or by calling Verizon.
We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience."

{edited for privacy}

My neighbor down the street was given a repair 'committment' date of 8 PM, Friday Nov 25th:  FAIL

I was given a repair 'committment' date above of 5 PM Monday Nov 28th:  FAIL

All Verizon needs to continue to send automated 'commitment' dates, along with repeated 'apologies for the inconvenience', without 

doing anything to ensure that these repeated outages stop occurring.
 

[BJK8]

As of late yesterday, the repair ticket for this phone outage gave a commitment date/time of Tues Nov 29th, 1:00 PM.

As of this morning, that commitment date/time was REMOVED, again marked: 'open', which I assume means 'unresolved'.

Moderator:  contact the appropriate party and ask them WHY this was done, why NO REPAIR COMPLETION DATE WAS GIVEN.

[BJK8]

FCC complaint filed today, ninth day of failure of Verizon to restore phone service after three 3 repair 'commitment dates'.

[BJK8]

Service was restored at 9 AM Friday Dec 2, 10 days after outage begin Tues PM Nov 22nd. 

During this time, my dsl broadband line was out for a total of 3 days.  This phone line outtage has been resolved.

Any Verizon managers responsible for maintenance/upgrade/repair of the telephone landline intrastructure in the southeast Queens area (of which Jamaica is part) should do everything within their planning abilities to ensure that such a mass phone failure does not occur again.

It must be recognized that there are many people who do not have cell phones, who depend on their Verizon landline as their only means of communication with anyone, especially the elderly, those with medical conditions and housebound.

To fail to provide phone service for the length of time experienced in this instance is not just an 'inconvenience' as has been described repeatedly by Verizon, but can in the worst instance represents a safety/health danger.