Ah, Vermont. The Green Mountains, Lake Champlain, the rural countrysides ... all providing for a pretty relaxed atmosphere in the New England state.
But in turns out some people do get a fire in their bellies in Vermont. Case in point: Consumer advocates want the state government to come down hard on FairPoint Communications. The reason: low-quality customer service and billing, according to some. They’ve gone as far as to petition regulators who could decide if FairPoint is allowed to continue operating there.
Company officials are shrugging off the petition, saying they are making strides to improve their operations.
Despite that fact, the Vermont Public Service Department says it’s received a ton of complaints since FairPoint switched Verizon customers over to its systems in February. FairPoint bought Verizon’s landline and Internet business in northern New England in 2008. There have been billing errors and repair problems. Sometimes, reaching customer service reps has been next to impossible.
In March, FairPoint committed to fixing the problems by the end of June, and to the company’s credit, complaints filed to the state have dropped from nearly 600 in April to about 300 in June. But obviously, there’s still some work to be done.
The company is in a whole lot of financial trouble. It wants to push back a bond interest payment that’s due in October. It’s debt is more than $500 million. Bankruptcy might be an option for FairPoint.
The Vermont Public Service Board will make a decision soon as to whether it will investigate FairPoint.
