As the Portland Phoenix went to press, FairPoint Communications was supposed to submit to state regulators its plan for fixing the problems that have plagued the company — and brought in legions of customer complaints about service interruptions, billing, and even about the process for resolving customer complaints — since it took control of the northern New England telephone lines it bought from Verizon for $2.3 billion last year.
Suggesting that regulators' demands — not customers' feelings — are the best means to force the company to provide proper service, customer dissatisfaction deteriorated to the point where, at the end of last week, the Maine Public Utilities Commission gave the company less than three business days to finish making its "stabilization plan." FairPoint spokesman Jeff Nevins has limited his public comments on the matter to promises that the company would respond by the commission's deadline.
The commission asked FairPoint to describe how it would deal with long-delayed service orders from residential and business telephone customers, as well as with backlogged service requests from phone- and Internet-service resellers such as Biddeford-based GWI.
On top of that, the company was asked to explain what it is doing to "improve its customer call-center performance" (a reference to the high numbers of complaints from FairPoint customers seeking help with their service), as well as "resolve billing errors and related customer confusion" (a reference to, well, billing errors and related customer confusion).
As of press time, the plan had not yet been filed with state regulators, but there is no penalty — apart from additional public embarrassment — if FairPoint meets the deadline.
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Incredible, but true: until this past Friday, America was on a fast track to outlaw grandmothers selling children's sweaters for charity.
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We thought the bailouts were over. They're not. FairPoint Communications, the nightmare that has become northern New England's landline provider, is seeking tax dollars that could help it fulfill the promises made to regulators in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont when the company spent $2.3 billion to buy Verizon's systems here.
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Is it possible that Congress has just inadvertently turned millions of children’s books into contraband?
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The New England Press Association (NEPA) annual newspaper contest has always been good to us.
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Two major safety valves in the financial house of cards that is New England's largest landline telecommunications service provider blew last week.
- Portland Phoenix honored
At the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies annual awards banquet in Tucson, Arizona, last Friday, Portland Phoenix staff and freelancers were recognized for their coverage of the 2008 elections, with a second-place award, tying the City Newspaper of Rochester, New York, for the honors.
- Ex-USM staffers claim age discrimination
In complaints filed with the University of Southern Maine's Office of Campus Diversity and Equity, a state legislator and five former colleagues allege they were discriminated against in a recent department restructuring because of their ages. The complainants' ages range between 56 and 63.
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The local incarnation of Buy Nothing Day has grown each year and it continues to get more rooted.
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When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
- Class warfare in Olneyville
The posters sprouted in mid-April, salvos in the rhetorical battle over the future of Providence’s West Side.
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A sense of taking it to the Man was in the air as some 200-plus supporters of Alexandra Svoboda rallied last Sunday afternoon.
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This Just In
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, U.S. Government, U.S. State Government, Business, Consumer Protection, Maine Public Utilities Commission, Portland Phoenix, FairPoint Communications, Jeff Nevins, Consumer Complaints, Less
