Verizon Still Will Not Fix Copper Lines

[mgico]

I have been a Verizon customer for many, many years and have had an ongoing problem with my home telephone service from Verizon for many, many years. I live in the heart of the biggest city in the most advanced country in the world, and yet I cannot obtain reliable land line telephone service in my apartment/home no matter how hard I try. I have one jack and one phone (wired). The problem is not inside my home. I have had dozens of repair calls in the last ten years, but the problem has steadily become worse and worse. At this point, my landline is often down--that is, completely out--for days and weeks at a time. And, when there is a dial tone, I frequently have so much static that I still cannot use my home phone. The technicians who respond when I put in for repair tell me that the problem is that when it rains the cables are coming out of the junction box. They also say that the S1 and S2 cables are crossing at the junction box. They blame the old copper cables and tell me that they need to be replaced, which of course Verizon will not do. They also tell me that I need to get FIOS--which is not available in my building--or I should get Voice Link (a temporary device that works as a cellular hot spot). I do not want Voice Link; I want the normal land line service that I am billed and pay for every month. The technicans tell me that they refer my ticket to maintenance, and that maintenance "will get to it a week from now"--but they also tell me that maintenance cannot or will not actually make a permanet repair (which would be to replace the cable). Meanwhile, I spend hours and hours trying to get someone helpful on the phone. Over and over I am promised credits but do not get them:  Sometimes I am told that Verizon knows my phone is down and will automatically credit my account for the days that I do not have service. (Not true!) Other times, in a wonderful catch-22, I am told that Verizon cannot issue a credit until the problem is fixed, but of course the problem is never fixed! And at other times I am very sincerely promised a specific credit but the credit does not come through. 

Everything points to this being a known problem that Verizon fails to correct on purpose but continues to bill me for. At what point can this accurately be characterized as stealing from a consumer/customer? Verizon is required by law to do better than this; it boggles my mind that they are able to get away with what they do here. I've seen previous Forum posts describing extremely similar experiences by others.

Finally, does anyone know if there is still an Executive Complaint Line that I can call or write a letter or e-mail to?

[LawrenceC]

Hi mgico,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Please check your Private Message Inbox for a message from Verizon_Support. You can find your Inbox by clicking on your username at the top right corner of this page. Please direct all correspondence concerning your issue to the agents who will be assisting you privately.

[mgico]

I have a question for the Verizon community about Verizon customer service for landlines. When a customer has a longstanding, ongoing problem with their home landline service that Verizon is either unwilling or unable to fix, what do you do? I live in the heart of the biggest city in the most advance country in the world and although I used to have a reliable home phone I can no longer get landline service that works. I either do not have dial tone altogether or, if I have a dial tone, there is so much static on the line to render the phone unusable. The problem is not with the wiring or equipment in my dwelling; the problem is at the junction box down the block. Every time it rains the cables come out of the junction box, or the F2 & F1 cables are crossed. This issue stems from Verizon's unwillingness to fix old copper cables. FIOS is not available in my building. I do not want VoiceLink--a cellular hot spot. The cellular in my building isn't great, and I already have a cell anyway; I simply want a reliable home landline.

Has anyone been able to get through to an executive hotline? Has anyone been able to get past tech repair to Maintenance (the department that is responsible for fixing the cable)? Has anyone filed a complaint with their Public Service Commission? Has anyone found success through this Forum?

Also, how do I learn more about the experiences of other Verizon customers? How many days, weeks or months have you gone in this situation? What other providers are there for local landline? If posts become locked with original posters told to direct all correspondence concerning our issue to the agents who will be assisting us privately, how do we as members of the community find out what actually happened and if there has been a satisfactory resolution? (FYI: in my case, nothing has happened--all I have been told is that there is ongoing open ticket, which of course I already knew.)

[lexi27]

mgico, thank you for your post. 

I live in the suburbs in MD.  Luckily we have choices (Verizon or Comcast among others).  I had Comcast for years and they always had problems at the pedestal (we are all underground) and with the cables to the house.  They never made permanent fixes to the hardware so I switched to Verizon as soon as they installed the fiber optics.  I have two lines: a landline (copper) and a FiOS package (fiber optic).  I choose to keep the copper because of my house alarm where a call out to the monitoring center is not dependent on my house power and with my corded phones (I have cordless also)  I have call service when the power is out.  (I know, the FiOS system has a backup battery that is supposed to last 12 hours but the copper line backup is at Verizon which is well supplied).  I recently had a service call for a loud hum on the line, it turned out not to be the copper but the service tech asked me if I had received notification from Verizon that they were not going to support the copper anymore.  I had not been notified but I guess they can do this.   It looks like I will have to make choices in the near future to forgo the copper, the price of progress.  And speaking of price, I do not use the copper line for long distance, have a simple plan with a base rate that mysteriously keeps going up.  I guess I should be happy that I have the option of FiOS but now I will be totally dependent on the power to the router.  I know, "everyone is using their cell phone now" (I have that too) but I'm old school and don't want to be dependent on only communicating through the internet  (at least on my end, I have no idea how Verizon is handling my landline call). 

Thanks again for your post, at least we can expose the corporate decisions that have a negative impact on their customers (what about all of those people not near major metropolitan areas that still depend on copper?) and in my case stockholders.

Good luck in your pursuit of the acceptable service for which you have been paying.

[mgico]

Thank you, lexi27. FIOS isn't available to me, so I'm stuck trying to get a copper landline to work. What baffles me more than anything else, even though by this point it shouldn't, is the manner in which Verizon conducts customer service. They know the copper line is down, and yet they continue to charge a healthy price for it each month and do not provide credits. Moreover, I am unable to check the status of my repair online, and no one will return my phone calls (or otherwise provide an update) no matter how many voice mails, e-mails or texts I send. Years ago, when I was one of the first in my neighborhood to get DSL, Verizon had an executive hotline. I am told now that there no longer is an executive hotline. Nevertheless, the customer service personnel manning this board stated over a week ago that they cannot provide me with an update on my repair because it is with Verizon Executive Relations! The upshot of all this is I have been trying for months (in this go round) to get my landline working but cannot even get Verizon to give me a status of the repair. It is very hard for me to believe that this is in compliance with Verizon's deal with the New York State Public Service Commission. Still, I keep hoping that someone at Verizon will take pity on me and communicate with me regarding the status of my repair, and/or provide better service.

[5bits]

The Public Service Commission needs to get  on the ball as far as Verizon goes.  I too have basic phone and am getting charged an exhorbitant amount each month for a land line.  Citizens, especially we seniors, need protection from these utilities who exercise a near monopoly in some areas.   Anyone else paying these high fees for basic services?

[jonjones1]

---

@5bits wrote:

The Public Service Commission needs to get  on the ball as far as Verizon goes.  I too have basic phone and am getting charged an exhorbitant amount each month for a land line.  Citizens, especially we seniors, need protection from these utilities who exercise a near monopoly in some areas.   Anyone else paying these high fees for basic services?

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Amazingly this situation just happened to my mother in law who is 80+ years old.

i was called because verizon wanted to get rid of her copper and switch over to fiber.

during this debacle she notified i would handle the situation. 

During my account access i noticed she was paying over $120 for basic home phone under something called Freedom Essentials. I immediately contacted verizon and after the what is the account number and PIN delays, the person from verizon was sympathetic but said nothing could be adjusted. I then contacted a voip service i use and they said no problem they would put in a port request for her number. This is $148 for two years service with 45+ free features with free long distance in the USA, Canada, Mexico and the US Territory. Plus 60 free international long distance minutes a month. So following the issue verizon refused the port and the other company alerted me to the bogus reason.

i contacted the FCC who had verizon contact me and my mother in law and said it was the other companies fault. After back and forth altercations verizon released the number for FOC.

Verizon as i pointed out to the FCC and the other company originally lied to me about the port. Other company had documented proof of the error from verizon and of course it was a bogus attempt to stop the other company from taking the service.

as i pointed out to the verizon executive escalations “verizon is no longer a monopoly and there are other companies out there with better pricing and services”  in subsequent dealings with this verizon employee he just played the avoid the customer game, lie to me, then back peddle when confronted with facts. I spent over 7 hours yesterday getting the port done.  I updated my FCC complaint file with recordings of my conversations with verizon, the screen shots from the ports Firm Order Commit and the complete error messages from verizons port department. I am sure the FCC liked seeing and hearing those proofs.

my suggestions are to contact the FCC and use the complaint form from online. And then find another company to get telephone service.

[mgico]

Months of gone by and I still have the same problem. I either have no dial tone at all or during the very short periods of time there is a dial tone there is so much static that the phone line as unusable. Incredibly, Verizon still does not communicate with me. Indeed, Verizon continues to ignore me. I have called and left messages about a dozen times for the Executive that supposedly is handling my case and he has not returned even one of my calls! I've also left voicemails and sent e-mails to several other Verizon representatives and technicians who also have not responded. BUT, of course, Verizon continues to bill me in full and pursue me for payment through automated calls. I tried calling Verizon's billing department today and was told by their automated system that wait time is between 45 minutes and 1 hour and 8 minutes!

[jonjones1]

Did you read my below response? Contact the FCC

http://www.fcc.gov they will handle your complaint quickly.

or contact your states Public Utilities Commission or Public Service Commission via google search.

[Henrysmooth]

They continue to annoy Me.

Claiming to repair lines and everytime they get it right, they go and mess it up again.

(and again and again and again) Ever since theyve decided to rid of the copper. I hope the Public Utility Commission and the FCC can access the records and give them as much trouble as they have given Me.