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Poor outage responses from Verizon in Ulster County, NY

My phone service was okay through hurricane Irene and then when Verizon started to work on down lines, I have no more service on my land line (no dial tone). It is amazing as I still have Verizon internet. At one point yesterday Sep. 6th the dial tone came back and then I lost internet. Now I have internet back and no dial tone again. When you call Verizon they will not tell you whether or not they are working on the lines but that it must be your wiring and to check all phones. Then when you go on the Verizon repair website you get the same, "we are testing your line". Then you have to make an appointment for a technician to come and work on lines. My appt is Sep. 17th. That means almost 2 weeks without service. Would it not be more profitable for Verizon if they were to tell you if they are working on downed lines in your area?

Their approach to customer service is shameful. Thank God that I have access to a cell phone. Maybe the way Verizon handles land line service, everyone should go to cell service.

Comments

Shamika_VZ

Hello,

I apologize for the frustration and would like the opportunity to assist you. When you have a moment, please check your private messages.

Shamika_Vz
Verizon Support

Notice: Content posted by Verizon employees is meant to be informational and does not supersede or change the Verizon Forums User Guidelines or Terms or Service, or your Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions or Plan.

smith6612

I find it strange that DSL would be present when dial tone is not, and on the reverse side of things, dial tone present when DSL was not available. The way it sounds right now could easily indicate malfunctioning equipment, but the possibility stands for some damaged cabling along the line, that was either damaged before or during the hurricane, or perhaps during repair work (and that does happen). The thing that would indicate line damage would be if your phone line, while it was working on the 6th happened to have had any static or noise on it. That is usually a sign of a short or a bad splice. DSL has been known to often work over a single copper wire when a second wire in the copper pair is disconnected, however if both cables happened to be present but one is not in good shape, DSL service will not work nicely at all, even if voice seems to work fine.

I'd hate to say it, but around where I am, cell phone service can get spotty and overloaded easily during a power outage if it's a large area outage, since not all cell sites have diesel generators on them; most of them are rural sites with battery backup which may or may not be in working condition. Landlines are honestly the only way of communicating when something occurs since the network is on batteries large enough to typically last a day, with extended runtime provided by generators in the CO and hauled out by techs from the CO to recharge the batteries. Sure, the copper lines break but they are under a mandate for prompt repairs and to make every effort to keep the service up and running, if possible. Since we tend to get a lot of nasty storms in the winter and fall in my area, it's a good feeling to know you have one of the few working phone lines when most of your neighborhood uses the Cable Provider's telephone service or rely on cell phone or VoIP and the power is out for a day and a half.

But to close up on this issue, if Verizon does not make timely repairs on a line and yet there are less important things being done by the techs, you can get them for that. Repair tickets are technically supposed to be of highest priority for any telephone company.

katie12409

I have no phone & no cell service. I was told it would be off for 2 weeks which will be Tuesday. Now I'm being told it may be later. Last week I was in town to make a phone call on my cell and had to leave my daughter home alone. A man, a stranger came up to my house which is off in the woods and knocked on the door. She was afraid and hid in the closet. The man sat on the porch for 20 min. I caught him leaving as I came home but he didn't stop. She was crying & shaking when I got there. She had no way to call me or 911. Thank god he left! I have since bought a shotgun. We are completely vunerable up here. If the house caught on fire it would burn down. If I fell down the stairs I'd lay there for days.

I have called many times (& yes Shaniqua I received an email from you as well) explaining that I have no cell service and those of us in a vunerable state with no cell service should be Verizon's 1st priority but I am always told that they can't give me priority. Well I know they don't just fix 1 thing and we ALL get our service back. The 1st phones that come back on line should be those in the greatest need.

I called AT&T to try to switch but they said Verizon has NY. Verizon doesn't deserve NY!!!! If it was up to the residents of NY I guarantee Verizon would lose this whole state. I know that the workers are on strike but it should have been settled in the wake of a disaster. I understand that this is an FCC rule so that there should be no monopoly of telephone service but that's all going to change if my neighbors, myself and all those with out cell & phone service are heard at the FCC. I'm through being ignored. I'm done being told there's nothing that can be done. I'm tired of begging rude, disinterested, apathetic verizon reps to get those most vunerable back on 1st. I am obviously speaking to a company that doesn't care that they are putting peoples lives in danger.My husband has an FCC license and is currently filling out Distress Safety System forms against Verizon. I am copying Congressman Maurice Hinchy on this letter as well as posting it everywhere on the internet.

VERIZON IS THE WORST PHONE COMPANY OUT THERE AND I AM STARTING A CAMPAIGN SO THAT NO ONE HAS TO BE FORCED TO USE THEM. AND IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO MYSELF OR MY DAUGHTER BECAUSE WE CANT CALL 911 I WILL GET A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST VERIZON AND I WILL WIN!!!!!

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