IBEW Union Slams Verizon Management > Comcast does this, why not Verizon?

reply to KA3SGM

Re: Comcast does this, why not Verizon?

said by KA3SGM:

said by HenryFarpolo:

The contract between the IBEW and Verizon expires in many locations in August as does the contract with the CWA. The closer they get to expiration the more "concerned", the union becomes about safety and customer service.

This is simple posturing. All part of the bargaining process!!

Since they are pushing install/repair quotas that can't be met on their techs and essentially have a GPS tracker tied to their Van, Laptop, and probably soon to be their Head, I can understand a Union complaint about Verizon now attempting to make their Techs into door to door salespeople.

It would be a good time for CWA to mobilize the troops now, because Verizon no doubt will be looking at further cutbacks of Employee Benefits and Outsourcing of FiOS Installs and Maintenance.

Verizon CEO Ivan Sidenberg would be best to watch out for those 'Red Shirt' employees that keep him in business, and provide for his lofty salary.

I hate to see anyone have to go on strike, but I would expect that Verizon will be asking for all kinds of loopholes, concessions, and cutbacks in the next contract negotiation, and the Union would be best to accept NONE OF IT.

Unfortunately, that probably means a Strike is going to happen, but if so, it would certainly be warranted.

CWA/IBEW really needs to put Verizon's feet to the fire, and to give back an inch in contract negotiations actually gives back more than a mile.

Verizon can't wait for the day that they can sub-out Fios, and completely pull the plug on their copper network.

As to Verizon neglecting their copper network customers, my elderly Mother has had constant troubles with her copper phone line that made it at times unusable.

Verizon's answer after more than 2 years of trouble calls was to try and force FiOS on her.

They also wanted her to accept 5/2 Internet, AND sign a 1 year contract along with it.

She doesn't even own a Computer, yet they wouldn't fix her phone unless she signed up for 1 year of Internet service.

If she refused, they stated that they were unable to repair her phone line due to the high cost of the repair that would require replacing a long length of buried copper cable.

The problem was clearly stated to be outside of her house, and she even was paying for inside wiring maintenance, but they could/would not fix it.

The local techs seemed to know where the repairs needed to be made, but managements resolve was to sell her FiOS.

Instead, She dropped Verizon's service completely, and ported the line to T-Mobile(T-Mobile practically has a tower in her back yard, so no worries), and Verizon has been mailing notices to her every week since to try to get her to come back(to Fios and still a 1 Year Contract).

If there is any suggestion by the Union of Verizon neglecting their Copper Telephone and DSL networks, I can't provide a better example than that one.

WOW, thanks for your consideration there Henry, I did talk with Verizon on her behalf many times and they tried to get me to consider the Fios option as well.

It was not the techs that were telling me that, it was management telling me to call the sales department and sign her up for Fios, and they refused to just convert the Telephone line by itself, they wanted it bundled with Internet, TV, or both, under as least a 1 year contract, and the phone Service bundle was the "Freedom Essentials Plan", which itself was 3 TIMES THE COST of what she was paying for a simple Local Phone service dial tone line, with no bells and whistles that she didn't want like Call Waiting or Voice Mail.

If they simply said that her copper line has gone bad, and we need to move her Telephone line over to Fiber to fix it, with no strings attached, that would have been perfectly fine, and I would not be arguing this point.

The neighborhood is wired for Fios already, and the TV service is available too, but they won't just sell Fios Phone by itself.

Their sales department's 'bundles' drove her away from Verizon completely.

And they do keep constantly sending advertising to her via the US mail to convince her to come back and sign up for Fios.

Not a week goes by that she doesn't receive some sort of mailing from Verizon.

She had 1 salesperson come to the door selling Fios, and she asked to be scratched from their list and not be bothered at home again, and fortunately in that case they actually listened and have since left her alone.

Comcast did that to me when I dumped them for Fios as well, it is standard practice for any TV or Phone company to send tons of junk mail out trying to win you back from the competition.

Several complaints have already been filed to get her off of their mailing list, but they have yet to cease the mailings.

I am not arguing this any further with you and your Hogwash accusation line of BS, please just drop it now....
--
"Lithium is no longer available on credit"

reply to HenryFarpolo
@ HenryFarpolo

With no respect given in the least bit...you have no F'ng clue as to what you are talking about. The issue has nothing to do with "the good people at Verizon". It has everything to do with Executives stripping every last cent possible from the Copper plant by refusing to allocate funds for preventitive maintainence, refusing to fix bad OSP, and reducing head count in the field/call centers. They seem to have no other way to keep stock price up/recieve multimillion dollar bonuses while having negative ROI on FIOS deployments expected until/thru 2010. Troubles like KA3SGM describe happen every day.

Here's a great example of how much the Executives care about their current customers with Copper service. Verizon just had to pay a $250,000 fine in Ohio over poor service quality levels --even though though they were given a year to raise service levels before it kicked in. You know what Verizon is doing to make its service even better in that state?-- it is reducing its field tech headcount by 60 people statewide. The company is probably saving $500,000+ yearly when you figure wages/benefits/OT these techs were recieving. Easy to see that some bean counter figured out it is cheaper to pay to fines instead of properly staffing and allocating funds to resolve the Copper Plant issues. Moreover, there is no FIOS being deployed in Ohio to replace the failing copper.

So HenryFarpolo, take your blinders off as to why Verizon Customers like KA3SGM's mother have chronic line trouble that is not being repaired.