How can I make a call?
NO column to write because no information to impart because no phones that work.
Answer a ringtone. Nothing on it. Make a phone call. No dial tone. Five phone lines, for which we are billed, do not work. None work.
None. Not one. They might for a moment, then not again.
Dealings include conversations with our mayor, governor, cardinal, senators, congresspeople, White House. The complaint is I am unreachable.
Reporting this repeatedly, I rang Verizon chair- man Lowell C. McAdam. His phone’s OK, but he did not take the call. I emailed Lowell.McAdam@Verizon.com. No response. Probably too busy repairing my line — or chatting with United Airlines’ CEO.
Last year Attorney General Eric Schneiderman assisted. Workers came. Each time someone different. No continuity, no cohesion, no continuing service. No connect to a message machine, no recording announcing trouble on the line. Oddly, the lone transmission that snuck through? A Verizon robocall.
April 2016, one year ago, I reported communication, my lifeblood, requires unceasing passage of news and information. People think something’s wrong with me that I tolerate such abuse.
Each repairer gives assorted specious answers: “Can’t get there. A truck’s parked where lines connect.” Really? Months later same truck, same spot, same won’t move? Now: “Verizon’s working on the problem.” They named the exact spot. We checked. No Verizon truck there.
Repair people tell me: “They will not fix it. Forget it. They won’t fix old copper wires anymore. They’re forcing you into Fios.”
The company peppers areas with ads praising Fios, yet Fios grinds through a decorated home’s walls and halls. Your whole place requires rewiring. Damage — mess, redecorating, repainting, replastering, redoing — all at the owner’s expense. Despite company denials, I can supply many to testify this is so.
One jewelry store said Verizon’s hurting their business. One dermatologist claims it’s ruining him. One dressmaker complained it’s losing her clients. I possess a sheaf of complaints.
Listen, if our lines stay dead, maybe our checkbooks should also.