FairPoint Communications
Reviews and Complaints

Protracted string of terrible service: Mid April I called to have seasonal service resumed at my summer home. It was not. I called again and they had no record of my initial request. I was told it would be two weeks before they could switch on my service. Then one of my lines was dead. A service man finally came, checked the outside box and couldn't find the problem, checked inside and found no problem, so said he better check outside again. He then found a problem, said he fixed it, but didn't. I scheduled another service visit. That time the man fiddled around for a while and eventually said he'd have to schedule another visit to fix it. That was scheduled. I committed yet another day at my summer home, waited all day, but no one came. I called service once again and they claimed to have no record of the appointment we had made. I've now committed still another day to be here for a service call. Consistent with all of this awful service: When I telephone for service I get a message saying the estimated wait is two minutes - but the actual wait is 20-30 minutes. How do we deal with, and correct, this kind of terrible service from a monopoly?

We have been waiting for nearly two years now for Fairpoint to complete installation of lines for a unified messaging service - Verizon installed the hardware which is on-site and now that Fairpoint is in control, I can't even find anyone who knows what it is, let alone talk to me about it.

I've tried to get a telephone line moved from one building to another for over three months now. I placed the order, received confirmation, (heard nothing), wrote the contact (heard nothing), wrote the contact again and copied the orders office (heard nothing), re-sent the message (heard nothing) and have tried now to place the order again (heard nothing so far).

We have had continual billing errors that can't seem to be resolved - no one knows why we're being billed what we're being billed, the terms don't match the contract terms - it just blows my mind. I didn't think anything could be worse than the Verizon customer service. Ha!

I requested telephone and internet services for a bundled price of $79.00 per month. Service was to start on February 11, 2009.

The telephone service was started on February 11 as agreed, the internet was not till almost a month later.

I received my first bill sometime in the middle of April. They billed me for starting service for the month of January. The bill was for $245.oo through to March. I immediately called them and they insisted that my service started in January for the phone and did agree to give me a credit for the internet only for 1 month. I requested they disconnect service immediately and give me the final bill. I just wanted to pay the final bill and be done with them at this point. I paid them $245.oo over the phone on May 1st, it cleared my bank on May 4th. Yesterday, June 10th, I get a bill for $300.10 due immediately, past due, threatening to send it to a collection agency. They claim they never received payment. Of course I had to send them a bank statement and I was told it would take another 30 days to investigate. I wish I had never heard of Fairpoint, this has been an costly nightmare.

Maryanne Longfellow

Fairpoint Communications is truly a sick joke. Their 10K financial statement reveals how deep a financial hole they've dug and how they are stripping all available cash from their "legacy operations" outside of New England to pay for their acquisition of the Verizon business there. They actually admit they have little interest in furthuring their "rural" business. Here's a letter I sent today with copies to the relevant regulatory bodies. You may think this can't be real, but it is!

May 27, 2009
Mr. Jim Cooke
Vice President, Operation
627 Route 3
South China, ME 04358
Dear Mr. Cooke:
I have just spent seven (7) hours online and on the telephone attempting to make an online bill payment. I have spoken to four separate people, including a supervisor (Cindy in the Business Group) on a recorded line, which means that you can verify every word of what I’m writing in this letter.
I am away on a business trip, so decided to pay my telephone bill online so it would not incur a late payment and the nasty “disconnect” letter that is always mailed on the exact day the bill payment is due.
I realized I didn’t remember my online account password, so I called customer service. The first young man I spoke with told me he couldn’t tell me my online password unless I could tell him my online password or he could call me back at the telephone number listed on my account. No, that’s not a typo. That’s exactly what he said. When I discovered I must be talking to a ###, I asked to talk with a supervisor. Cindy came on the line to help. She asked me if I knew my Pin Number. I did and gave it to her. We realized that the first customer service person should have asked for that, but kept asking for a password instead. Problem #1 resolved. Note to Management #1: Train your customer service people better or don’t hire monkeys for the job.
Cindy informed me there is a separate group (which she couldn’t transfer me to) that handles password resetting. She informed me (at 9:45AM) I would be getting an email “shortly” to do the reset. I continue checking for that email until 2:PM when I called again and reached another customer service man. He told me that the request was being processed and still had to go to a “manager” for approval of the email before they could send it out. Note to Management #2: More than five hours and the involvement of a manager to send a customer support email, when most other vendors (American Express, Verizon, Chase, etc) allow for getting a password emailed at the customer’s online request, is a major system failure.
When no email had arrived by 2:45PM, I called again and got a woman who had no idea how to handle the situation and kept telling me she only knew the “basic things”, but there was no technical support person in the billing unit who could help me. Once again, I asked for a supervisor (more loudly this time) and, in a stroke of good fortune, got Cindy again. As we spoke, the reset email arrived and I tried it. No luck. She called the “reset” people and they sent another temporary password. Again, no luck. During this process, we realized she and I weren’t viewing the same screen. It turns out that because she’s in Maine and I am being redirected to the New York web site because my phone is in Chatham, we’re seeing completely different web screens. I gave her the URL I was looking at and she confirmed this wasn’t what she had been seeing, so she switched over. Note to Management #3: It would be helpful if the Customer Service people saw the same information on screen as the people they’re trying to help.
Unfortunately, although Cindy and I got ourselves on the same screen, the password didn’t work. She requested yet another temporary password and this time tried to log in herself using my information from My Account ( which I, of course, couldn’t see). This time, we were not only given an “error” message, but the system locked us both out because of “multiple login attempts”. At that point, both Cindy and I gave up.
I will not be able to pay my bill with a corporate check until I return from my current business trip next week and I will be damned if I will pay a late fee. Any attempt to impose additional fees will see us in court.
NOTE TO MANAGEMENT #4: YOUR ONLINE BILLING SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK AND, LIKE THE REST OF FAIRPOINT’S SERVICE IN THE OLD TACONIC TELEPHONE AREA, IT IS A DISASTER.
My experience with your billing system is similar to all my experiences with Fairpoint. As you may not be aware, we no longer have any human beings in the area who can handle problems, repairs or billing. All services are provided by out-of-area people, many of whom when I tell them I’m calling from Chatham ask, “Where’s that?” Your company is a disgrace and deserves to be in the financial hole it’s dug for itself.
Sincerely,
John Fiorillo

PS: As I finished this letter, I had a call (thankfully on my Verizon cell phone) asking if I would help your systems people solve this problem. My consulting fees are $300 per hour if you need such help.

Cc: Mr. Eugene Johnson, Chairman
Hon. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General
NYS Public Service Commission

On April 24, 2009 we discontinued our service with Fairpoint Communication and asked that a referral be left directing callers to our cell phone. Simple request, right? Not for FC. They have directed at least five other phone numbers to our cell phone making it nearly impossible to get any work done because we must answer the phone for fear that one caller will actually be correctly directed to us. FC has left referral numbers that are incorrect. This resulted in directing our callers to unknown numbers. The people at Fairpoint Communications can't get it right! After I requested that I be reimbursed for my time when making the dozen plus calls during the last month to correct the problem (and as of today, our callers are still being directed to an incorrect number) as well as the time it took to answer unwanted misdirected callers, I was told the best they could offer was a $20 credit by Amanda in Customer Service who said "I will not deny that mistakes have been made". I wouldn't recommend Fairpoint Communications to anyone. If there is no other land line option, just use your cell phone and save yourself a lot of time, grief, and a bundle of cash each month.

Since FairPoint Communications took over from Verizon, trying to get someone in Customer Service has been useless! And the little message they play for faster service go on line...and I have had no contact on that end either!It is my feeling that this company bought off more than it could chew and the NH Public Utilities Commission bears some of the blame also for approving the deal! The PUC now is afraid to put on any heavy fines on Fairpoint fearing they will go belly up! The billing process is unacceptable, having been double billed after having the proof it was paid!Perhaps it is time for the PUC to step in and put Fairpoints' feet to the fire or order them to sell to a company that can take on the challenge!

I called Fairpoint on 03-06-09 to have DSL hooked up, They said 1-2 days and I would receive my equip. well it was 1week and 3 days later...I hooked it up and called them of course after HOURS on hold trying to get through...They tell me that they can't get my line ready until 04-06-09 and I would have to wait until then. So I waited until 04-08-09 and called back only to find out they had to send a tech to my house...So tech shows up 04-17-09 and checks the computer and says it will be 1-2 days! (always 1-2 days). So I waited until 04-20-09 and call them again...Talked to a supervisor, WHAT DO I DO... I threatened to send their equip. back and cancel the whole thing, His statement to me was "DO WHAT YOU GOT TO DO". Not very professional. So I decided to wait it out a bit longer, So on 04-24-09 I called back again and was told there was a ticket out for my password guess what? Yeah 1-2days! So I wait again...So 05-07-09 I called the tech line and was told 1-2days, So I asked what he wanted me to do with their equip.? Answer? Whatever, Sorry we couldn't help you. CLICK...HUNG UP ON ME. And of course I am getting charged for the service and am disputing the charges...

I spoke with AFNI approx. 3/6/2009, about 2 phone bills from Mont. Vt, and they said I had one from Norwich Vt, PO box ?. from [protected]. I told them I disputed this because in those time frames I never had a post office box. Now I still received a bill from them but nothing about a dispute. I'd like to know where this is going and why after all these years of having phones this is just coming to light? Again I dispute this bill. I had a home address & only used that for my mail.
sincerly, J. Cass

My name is Pat Alaggio and I am the owner of Interactive On-Hold Services, which is located in Readsboro, Vermont at 6982 Main Street. We are getting ready to celebrate our 10-year anniversary this summer and now may be put out of business by the suspicious billing practices of Fair Point Communications who purchased our account from Verizon Communications early last year. My telephone bill for two business lines has been around $142 per month for the past year or so but has suddenly escalated to over $500 per month for the last two bills (dated February 28th and March 30th), which were sent late and only received (SIMULTANEOUSLY) this past Saturday, April 4th. My calling patterns DID NOT CHANGE AT ALL and we received no warning of this massive rate increase that, if allowed to stand, would put me out of business and do further harm to my credit. Note: January's bill was also sent late for some unknown reason.

Here is a brief summary of how this debacle unfolded:

January 20th, 2009: I called the Fair Point business office and spoke with Gilda to place an order for a high-speed internet connection. She told me that this service would allow me to download data at up to 3 MBs per second and upload at speeds approaching 768 KB per second, which would be a vast improvement over my present "dial-up" service with Sovernet Communications. I gave her a password that was to be used with this installation and was given an install date of approximately February 17th. Gilda advised that I would receive my equipment in the mail just prior to the install date but not to try and install the service until I received a call from a Fair Point rep telling me that they were ready.

February 27th. 2009: I received my equipment around a week before this date but never got a call from Fair Point so I called them to see what the delay was. I was told that there was no order in the system for me and that they didn't know what had happened to it. I was upset of course but not overly so since I had waited this long to bring a high-speed internet connection to my home business. I spoke with a supervisor in their Portland, Maine office by the name of Susan. Ultimately, a new order was placed without any reason given for why or how the other order could have been lost.

March 3rd, 2009: I reviewed my January 30th bill, which had arrived very late and noticed that my monthly charge had escalated to $200 for no reason! I had paid the previous balance in full and was surprised to see a $60 increase in my billing so I (once again) called the business office. This time I spoke with Barbara and as we looked over the bill together I felt that I had found the reason for the discrepancy. Under the service arrangement I had contracted for with Verizon they had capped the message unit charges for my second line since they could not offer a flat rate business service. This meant that I could use my second line to stay connected to the internet with my dial-up service without incurring any unreasonable charges. (All of my previous VERIZON and FairPoint bills showed this cap as limited to $20.36. i.e. And each of those bills read: "Local Usage Charge (NOT TO EXCEED $20.36)" It looked to me as if this cap had somehow been removed and I was now being billed for time on my constant connection to the ISP. Barbara said she would refer this to her billing department who would investigate this claims and I requested a call-back so we could get the problem corrected as soon as possible.

March 30th, 2009: I sent a payment of $136.59 in to Fair Point Communications, which reflected the amount that I felt was legitimate on my (then) current bill.

April 4th, 2009: While at the Post Office I picked up my mail, which contained two statements from Fair Point. I presumed one might be a billing adjustment and the other was probably a new bill. I had taken Saturday off so I did not open that mail until the end of the following day.

April 5th, 2009: (Evening) I opened the two statements from Fair Point to discover that not only had they not addressed the billing issue that I had called about a month earlier but that it had actually escalated to a point of being absurd. Instead of my monthly $142 in charges I was being billed $554.68 and $570.42 respectively for February and March. These two bills represents an overbilling of approximately $841, not including the $60 I had already reported to Barbara on March 3rd (for the January bill) and, since these bills have been going out late and haphazardly I can expect the same to be true of my current bill when it arrives

PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN A CALL BACK FROM FAIR POINT COMMUNICATIONS ON EITHER THE 1ST OR 2ND HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ORDER OR THE OVERBILLING CHARGE THAT I HAD IDENTIFIED WITH BARBARA ON MARCH 3RD AND THAT IS WHY I AM WRITING THIS LETTER SO I MAY ESCALATE THIS MATTER WITH ANY AND ALL AGENCIES NEEDED TO RESOLVE THIS MATTER PRIOR TO BEING PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!

Resolution Sought:

1. That a full credit be given for these over billings and that my credit not be harmed by the apparent failure to pay these exorbitant bills.

2. That my high-speed internet be installed ASAP without further delay.

3. It is my sincere hope that Fair Point Communications, who picked up billing (from Verizon) on my business with their March 31st, 2008 bill cycle, will act in a forthright manner in correcting this frustrating debacle as soon as possible and issue an apology for the poor service they have provided.

I may be reached either at [protected] or by responding to this e-mail. Thank you for your time and assistance.

PS: It might be interesting for some to note that I had nearly 15 years of outstanding service in both New Jersey Bell Telephone and AT&T and understand these matters better than most. I served both companies with the highest level of service and integrity and EXPECT better from Fair Point Communications moving forward.

PPS: Research found http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090404-NEWS-90404004 .

Best regards,

Pat Alaggio

I.O.S. "Making every minute count."
http://www.iosonhold.com

[protected] (North America)
[protected] (International)

AUDIO PRODUCTION SERVICES FOR BUSINESS

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."

Albert Einstein

I have Fairpoint Communications Residential Internet by default after they took over for Verizon. The customer service and tech support are terrible - worse than that - they are down right rude and arrogant. Neither department could locate my account despite my supplying them with the account number, user ID, name and address. I was given the "oh well" attitude with no results and no reassurance that this below standard service will be addressed. I was given a number to call and have been on hold (with phone on speaker phone) for over two hours currently. I think the FCC should be notified as this is inexcusable.

Hi my name is JohnLeney, and I have spent over 20hrs over the past 2 months dealing with Fairpoints various customer support and billing depts. My telephone is [protected]. Last 3 digits of account# are 584. I have been told that I would be issued credits on two separate occasions for 17.99 each. The last two bills arrived within a week of each other and the credits were not there. In the last phone call “Amanda” in your Burlington, Vt office refused to let me talk to her supervisor. The last bill was $65.26 and should have been reduced by 35.98 or a balance $29.28. I would like confirmation of this. Absent that confirmation I would like the name, address and phone #’s of both the Fairpoint and public utilities representative responsible for resolving customer billing disputes. These promised credits involve the switchover from verizon computers

I placed an order for high speed internet on January 16, 2009. I was told my order would include hardware for the connection, as well as software, in addition to the 'line switch' upgrade to DSL. I was told that I would have all necessary equipment and connection to DSL by February 12, 2009. By the end of the following week, i.e. Feb 19, I contacted Fairpoint to inquire about the status of my order. I was told that they lost my order. I thus re-ordered by subscription for high-speen internet and was told that I should receive my hardware/software upgrade in about one week. I contacted Fairpoint again on Feb 27 and to inquire about my order's status. When the service rep checked I was told there was an error on my order. Apparently I was not able to receive the higher band speed of 3.0Mbps because of my location. I was, however, still capable of the broadband connection but at the slower 768kbps. I was again told that my hardware would take one week to arrive. I called again on March 13 and was told 'sometime in the next week to 10 days' my order should arrive. Is this rediculous or what? (Within the same time frame I placed a separate order (not Fairpoint or telecom related) from an internet mailorder house located in Tennesee and received my order in less than a week.)

Absolutely THE worst company I've ever dealt with. I am now on hold for the 5th day in a row as they can't find my records. ANYTIME. ANY DAY. I pay them every month and they can't even find my info! Nobody returns calls, they don't follow through on anything. It's like nothing ever happened. This is about hour #5 in a week. And nothing has been resolved with my router issue. NOTHING.

I would switch in a heartbeat if this weren't a MONOPOLY.

Horrible. Just horrible.

I wish I had known when I switched to Verizon Fios that Fairpoint was taking over the relms. There is no way I would have ever switched.

This company knew they were taking over, why would they not have all these things such as billing etc in place.
Their website is a joke. Does not even work with Firefox.
Their new billing/payment system is yet another joke. Do I really want to enter my credit card into a website that does not show secure?
And what kind of company this size does not work 24/7...
Fed up and might have to look elsewhere.

After making several call to fix our Email conversion issues from Verizon, we were back in business, but within a day, I was receiving lots of trash Emails on my new Email address. Now how did that happen? Has Fairpoint sold my Email ID to someone, or was it compromised by someone at Fairpoint? I never got this trash mail while at Verizon. Where is their Email filtering ? I've had to set up special Email filters on my account to delete this unwanted trash.

Customer Service never answers the phone. The bills are never right. They take your money and don't credit your account, so the balance keeps rising and you get past due notices.

Are they idiots or frauds? You decide.

I used to have Verizon for my phone, DSL, & internet and email service provider. Due to some deal between Fairpoint Communications and the State of Maine, I and everyone else in Maine were forced to be switched over to Fairpoint Communications for all of the above services - whether we wanted it or not.

The transition from Verizon was promised to be seamless, but was anything but. I lost stored email messages during the switch and for about two weeks could not reliably send or receive email. Now I cannot send email messages to anyone with a yahoo.com email address.

Fairpoint Communications email service sucks. I am paying for something that does not work properly.

We recently had our service with Fairpoint canceled. We chose another provider whom we are very pleased with. Fairpoint will not release our telephone number to our new provider.
What this means is that I can call anyone anywhere and NO ONE WHO IS A FAIRPOINT CUSTOMER CAN CALL ME!

This is my entire family, friends, etc. Some of these are elderly family members with health issues. If you have a cell phone you can call me or if your a blasted telemarketer you can call me but you cannot call me if you are a Fairpoint customer. How many people in their 80s and 90s have cell phones?!

Fairpoint should rename itself the Phone Nazis.
I fought, begged, and pleaded with them this morning and they keep telling me it is the fault of my new provider. I was told that no one in management would talk to me and they also would not talk to the person I was speaking to at that time (a Supervisor for Fairpoint). The Supervisor said that my new provider had to "negotiate with them" something they did by notifying Fairpoint more than two weeks ago. I was told Fairpoint has SO MANY orders right now that they just simply cannot get to my problem. Well apparently they cannot get to ANYONE'S problem because I spoke to a friend who recently moved to Maine and she has been on the list for 6 weeks to have a phone hooked up for her by Fairpoint. I wished her Lots of Luck.

They still have an internet order pending for me that I cancelled that even SAYS that I cancelled it. We needed a repairman at one point due to noise on the line. I had to call several times before they would send anyone out because they wanted us to check the interface box on the pole first, use a land line and see if it made the same noise. (Then they knew it was their problem)For some reason there is no box here so we couldn't do the test so they finally said they would send someone. After that call the noise "magically" fixed itself so we cancelled the repairperson and guess who showed up the next day? Fairpoint Repair!

Fairpoint should never have been allowed to buy/merge with Verizon here. They have a huge mess and I don't think they can handle the purchase they have made. I know if I ever have to make a choice again pertaining to Telephone providers Fairpoint will lose hands down.

No matter what your going through with Fairpoint they will be happy to tell you that it is someone elses fault.

On December 23 I called and spoke to "Eric" in customer service to determine why my internet service had been inactivated. After much hunting, searching and asking for supervisor help, he finally explained that my "regulated" services had been disconnected and my account switched to basic services with a new account number back in February of 2008. I have called your company dozens of times over the last year, and not once has anyone explained this to me or informed me that I have two accounts to deal with. Eric transferred me to "Calvin" in DSL, who told me that there was no back due on the DSL service, and I could separate the DSL from my phone service and be billed separately if I paid the back due bill for the regulated services $181.85. He transferred me to the phone payment line, and I made the payment for $181.85 with my credit card, confirmation #180153. My internet service was restored within an hour of that phone call. Little did I know that he had just applied the payment to restore my old phone account, and made no effort to separate the phone and internet service as he had promised me he would do.

A short time later, my internet service was interrupted again. I called and first talked to Jack Newmeyer in customer service, who informed me that my service had been interrupted for non-payment. When I asked him how that was possible, since Calvin in DSL had told me less than 2 weeks ago that I owed nothing for the internet service, he became quite confused and transferred me to "Marilyn" in the credit department. Marilyn was not able to find any record of my payment (which had cleared my bank two weeks earlier) and told me the DSL and phone were never split as Calvin previously stated they would be. She quite rudely said she couldn't help me, then transferred me to VERIZON customer service to have the DSL separated from the phone bill. The VERIZON representative transferred me back to FAIRPOINT, and I spent some time on the phone with Cathy Calden, who could only find the old account under my former name (McDonald account number [protected] 1). She said it was showing as active and could not explain why I had no internet service. She transferred me to VERIZON technical support (not FAIRPOINT) and as soon as a representative came on the line, I was disconnected.

I called back and got "Lisa, " who started the cycle all over again by telling me the service had been interrupted for non-payment. I explained the whole story again, and she said I had to speak to billing. Billing said I have to speak to DSL, DSL says I have to speak to customer service. Finally I got "Greg" on the phone. He informed me that I had to set up a whole new account for a separate DSL account... another bit of news nobody had told me until today. He said it would take a week to set it up... so basically, I would have to go a week without being able to work from home (which is a vital necessity to my job), and to make matters worse I would have to open YET ANOTHER Fairpoint account.

Eventually the issue went to Christina Feller, who communicated with me first by email, and then by phone. She blamed the whole mess on the recent "merger" between FairPoint and Verizon, and I never heard from her again. Since then I have received FOUR bills with FOUR different account numbers, and the latest one claims that my credit card will be charged at the end of this month. I NEVER authorized any direct payment plan on my credit card.

I have emailed Christina five times over the last three weeks and gotten no response. I will be going to my bank tomorrow to stop payment on everything I have sent to them recently and I am quite sure they will retaliate by shutting me off again.

1st Verizon wired my area for FIOS and no longer sold DSL in the area. I was required to purchase FOIS at the higher cost if I wanted Verizon. Fios required rewiring your home for fiber optic. I did so and bundled phone and direct TV for 99.99 per month plus taxes. Fois includes either MSN premium or Yahoo Premium w/ free virus and spyware.

Fairpoint takes over. They do not honor the bundle. After multiple requests they fix for 1 year of my 2 contract. Great I get to call again in a year. Internet upload speeds very low (speed test.com). Service spotty and slow.

Fairpoint moves to thier own system. Msn emails and contact list do not transition. did get Verizion email transition. I did not use this due to low quality filters and now have box full of spam. After being told by fairpoint I would have free access to fairpoints virus and spyware programs but would lose MSN I find out they want to chg 4.99 per month additional for use of these services.

17.99 DSL rqst ends up costing 53.99 for FIOS. no email. Now want additional 4.99 to equal the items I originally had in my contract. Billing only fixed for 1 year. Took me 3 hours to get this done.

Fairpoint is in breech of contract with all FIOS customers. Stay away. Once your rewired your screwed.
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