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 Hazardous Dangerous Conditions Verizon has caused us to be living in.
Posted Mon July 27, 2009 8:13 pm, by PhyllisAnne P. written to Verizon Corporate Headquarters
In regards to Complaint for .......
Sunday July 26th at 3pm I tried to go out only to find that the telephone pole was laying across the road and blocking it. No one could/can get in or out in a vehicle. I immediately went back to the house and called Verizon Repair. I was assured that the pole would be moved within the next 4 hours. At 7:15pm, I called back as no one had showed up. I spoke to a second person. They informed me that the first person had put it in the computer to be removed by 7pm on July 27th.
This is and was not acceptable. I asked to speak to a supervisor. A supervisor could only be reached through e-mail and a supervisor was needed to process the removal. A supervisor would call me withing the next 2 hours I demanded no more than 10 minutes. Around 8pm, I called again, getting a third person. She informed me that there was a 24 hour hold on my ticket. She did not know why and again I was told this is a hazardous condition that should have been addressed within 4 hours of my original call. The best she could do was put it back in the system and have it removed by noon on July 27th. There were no supervisors on duty.
Today July 27th at approximately 9:20 I called the Customer Resolutions line. She said she would call local. I then called the Office of the CEO and they got someone from Dispatch to call me. I was notified at that time that my ticket had been cancelled at 6:18 am. No one knows why. Back and forth with Customer Service and Dispatch they are sending someone out right away. At 11:50 the repair person calls to get directions and informs me he is only coming to "look at it" then he will let his supervisor know. I was not happy - I then called Customer Relations back and they told me "You have called 4 times this morning and there is nothing else we can do." and hung up. I called the Local Paper and notified them. They are also looking into it. Then I called Corporate Headquarters they in turn sent me to the Presidents Hotline who then switched me to Customer Advocacy. They in turn spoke with Dispatch and then transferred me to Dispatch. Dispatch again informed me the order had been cancelled at 6:18am and it was done from another office. They also explained that due to safety precautions someone had to look and assess before they sent anyone out to do the work and that "hopefully it will be moved by close of business today". At 12:25 they came out and assessed the pole. It is now 3:25pm over 24 hours after the initial call and the pole is still there. I was also told it could take longer.
Emergency Services cannot get to us if we need them - this is a highly dangerous situation. The only way in and out is on foot. We are a half mile up a hollow with no neighbors close by and have no vehicle access in or out. If we move the pole ourselves or have anyone else do it and damage is done Verizon will bill us for damaging their property.
No one has been able to tell me why we did not get service yesterday, why the ticket was put on a 24 hour hold, or why it was cancelled early this morning. Nor can they say exactly when they will have it removed from the road.
Yes, I lost my temper. Most definitely. I also told them that they need to do some retraining and the Corporate Office did ask if anyone had told me a supervisor would contact me this morning. My response was that I had not been told that. At the time I initially talked with Corporate they also said that I should have already received a call. l
also told them that I didnot appreciate being lied to by the two Customer Service Reps and then I changed it to being given misinformation.
I have not been able to lodge a formal complaint with Verizon itself. I have notified BBB yesterday and now need to add to my complaint.
I have been a long time customer of Verizon both land and cell phone. I also threatened a lawsuit.
Based on the above information and the fact that Verizon has not handled this matter in a timely fashion and as a result placed our lives in jeopardy should an emergency arrive I am requestiing free phone service both all landlines and cell phones.
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by Kelshir Posted Thu July 30, 2009 @ 10:39 AM
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Does Verizon actually own the poles or do they lease the right to use
them?
That might be the issue, if they do not actually own the poles all
they can do is pass on the information to the company that does own
it.
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My first call would have been 9-1-1. Emergency dispatchers should be
made aware of the situation.
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that I agree with Pepper on this one - your first call should have
been Police/Fire, not Verizon.
I am guessing that this downed pole was the result of a storm, so I'm
guessing they may have been overwhelmed with calls about poles to be
moved. Not that it excuses all the mistakes that were made, but chaos
tends to result in more mistakes than usual.
& its just my own personal opinion, but these were phone lines, not
power lines. With the exception of being inconvenient, they weren't
hazardous or dangerous to you or any of your neighbors. You obviously
were able to still USE the phone lines, so if your concern was that
you were unable to leave the area, emergency personnel are trained to
deal with situations like this and had something tragic actually
happened, things would have been handled just fine. Certainly not
worthy of free phone service, landline or cellular and definitely not
a lawsuit.
Inconvenient and inefficient? Sure. Catastrophic and hazardous? Not
even close!
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by jeishere Posted Tue July 28, 2009 @ 5:09 PM
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Were there also electrical lines on this pole or just the phone lines?
I never noticed a pole with just phone lines on it, but I guess it
happens.
I would have called the non-emergency police line and have them come
out to access the situation and the could have probably sped things
up, unless this was a private drive.
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Couldnt you just drive around it?
OR maybe grab a few buddies and pull it out of the street. Of course,
the side without the wiring?
Maybe get a chainsaw and cut it in two?
Good Day
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THank you.
I do know my request is over the top. It didn't stop me from
requesting it. There has to be some compromise. I do not know for
how long. Let's see if Irving will negotiate. Hah!
I found his email address last night and wrote him personally. I did
ask in that letter what he was going to do for me and also told him I
was advised to file a police report. I also let him know that I will
spread the word to both his landline and wireless customers and ask
them to tell 20 people to drop Verizon and that they will do this.
There will be a nationwide loss of Cellphone customers if not
landline. I'll redirect everyone to Verizons biggest competitor and
they will buy out your contract with Verizon.
I did report them to the Better Business Bureau. I wonder if that
Governemnt Agency is the FCC or the SEC. They would both be
responsible for investigating. I believe I will also contact the
Attorney General of NYS since that is where Verizons Coprorate
Headquarters are located so that is the Attorney General to contact.
Thank you again.
If anyone knows if there is another government agency to file a
complaint with please let me know.
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by Harleycat Posted Tue July 28, 2009 @ 10:24 AM
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is powerless and has no control over Verizon, neither does the AG of
NYS. You need to contact the agency in your state that controls
public utilities. Although it's called the Public Service Commission
in NYS, it's probably called something else in WV.
The SEC has no control over Verizon either, the FCC has some limited
power but all they will do is take a complaint. Basically, they file
complaints until they see a pattern.
I don't know what Irving you are talking about, do you mean Ivan as in
Ivan Seidenburg? If so, your e-mail will be farmed back to the
Executive Resolution Department.
I'm going to be honest with you, you're likely to get some small
credit and that's about it. Threatening then with loss of wireless
service is useless since Verizon and Verizon Wireless are two separate
companies, they only share a name.
Look online for the service commission. They usually have SLA's
(service level agreements) with the carriers that say how long they
have to fix something like this. If the time period is within the
SLA, there is not much you can do other than complain about the lack
of call backs. Since pole work cannot be done by just any tech and it
was the weekend, I think you are going to find that Verizon is within
their SLA's.
Another thought, if emergency services had to get to your house, they
would have, even if it meant attaching a chain to the ambulance (fire
truck etc) and yanking it out of the way.
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by PepperElf Posted Wed July 29, 2009 @ 1:38 AM
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i'll be honest...
except in extreme situations (like the civil rights movement) or when
a celebrity does it... I really haven't seen any situations where
someone asking/telling others to "stop using company XYZ" has actually
worked.
it's a threat most companies don't listen to... simply because (unless
you have say 100K+ devout twitter fans) it won't do much.
And... since you're talking about getting people to drop a service
where they have to pay an Early Termination Fee, it's even more
unlikely
The best thing to do is contact the local police, fire dept, or
perhaps the local utilities agency.
now since it's a safety issue, yes contacting the local media can do
some good - at least in getting them to fix the poles & wires.
but even then... it probably won't make anyone drop service.
and the BBB won't do much - they have no legal power. in fact... the
WORST they can do to any company is withdraw accreditation, which
doesn't do anything to hurt a company
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