FairPoint Customers Suffer Through Strike, Outages

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/fairpoint-customers-suffer-through-strike-outages/Content?oid=2488208

By KATHRYN FLAGG @K_FLAGG

"Enough is enough." That was Gov. Peter Shumlin's message in a December 12 letter to FairPoint Communications CEO Paul Sunu. The governor urged the telecommunications company — which provides telephone and internet service for roughly 200,000 customers in Vermont — to resolve its dispute with striking workers.

State officials and FairPoint customers are exasperated with the telecom, for good reason: Since the strike began October 17, residents have lodged almost 600 complaints against the company with the Vermont Public Service Department, the agency that regulates the telecommunications industry. Complaints over the same period last year totaled 93.


DAVID JUNKIN

Some customers have reported waits of three or four weeks to get downed phone service reinstated. In some cases, customers are waiting even longer for new telephone service to be installed, according to the PSD.

Just registering complaints with FairPoint has also been problematic, according to PSD records: Shortly after the strike began, some customers were spending half the day on hold waiting for customer service representatives to answer their questions. Call times have gotten significantly shorter in recent weeks.

FULL story at link.