Poor Customer Service for the Elderly

[lbtawn]

For two years now we have been dealing with issues with my elderly parents landlines.  Whenever it rains, they have problems with their phones - either the noise on the line is so severe you can't hear them or, as is the case now, the phone rings once and then the call drops.  For a period of about 6 months whenever it rained, their line (not through the phone but through the line) would actually dial 911 and the police would show up in the middle of the night banging on the door scaring my 89 year old mother (who had just had a couple of small strokes) out of her wits. That happened three times!   At least that hasn't happened since the last "fix".  This latest issue started on Monday, March 15 and when I reported it we were told a tech would fix it by 7:00 pm on March 26.  Are you kidding me????   For a problem that we have dealt with for two years and multiple service calls.   My sister tried to get the service expedited but was told that elderly, recently ill customers without phone service does not qualify to get expedited.  When she asked what constituted an emergency, the rep couldn't define it.   At one point we were told that the only real solution is to get FIOS and because we had so many issues that the installation would be free.  No surprise...that was about 5 months ago and has gone absolutely nowhere.  It is really frustrating that I am backed into upgrading service on our own dime with a company that cannot be troubled to service their own products.  I always thought Comcast had poor customer service and had at one point considered to change over my own three pack to Verizon.  How could I even consider doing that with this level of treatment?  We actually pay for this?  My folks are 87 and 89 - should they really be without a landline for this length of time.

[Bob_Robertson]

more than likely your elderly parents' elderly house, is no longer waterproof and allowing the inside wiring to get wet, when it rains....

If there have been recent sotrms and such in your area, that would explain why the turnaround time is so high... Verizon is busy fixing all the problems caused by the stroms

Being old or having young children, does not make something an emergency... I know you feel for your parents.

Obviously their issues are intermittent and not blatently apparent, or they would be 100% fixed already... Don't be fooled into upgrading, as FiOS will use the same old inside wires, and if they get wet, they will also NOT WORK with FiOS