YOUR COMMENTS

Somebody (are you listening Gov. Lynch?) should fire Kate Bailey at the PUC. If Ms Bailey spent half as much time doing true due diligence as she did ramrodding this hideous sale through, then NH would still have a world class telecomm provider versus Gene Johnson's "Podunk Tel". I don't blame Fairpoint for trying to swallow the elephant. I blame the the arrogant and incompetent Director of Telecomm at the NH PUC. Kate Bailey needs to go....now.
- norton, concord

I'm still sticking with the prediction I made when Fairpoint bought into this mess:
Fairpoint will go under, and Verizon will buy back in for pennies on the dollar, then roll in FIOS, to the delight of everyone - they will be the heros, at a much lower investment then if they stuck it out.

In the meantime, I'll stick with Comcast Broadband and Vonage voice service. During the ice storm, I had less downtime with this setup then almost any pure land line customer I spoke to.
- Dennis, Hooksett

"Fairpoint"? Nothing 'fair' or on 'point' about this company. The mismanagement and poor service (and apparent inability to collect data to assure they could identify "lies" from Verizon that Sher in Concord alludes to if indeed there were 'lies) all points to stupidity and greed. Fairpoint deserves to lose money and they will lose more as more and more of us ditch them, using comcast and other services.

The legislators who approved the sale-while many many of use urged them NOT to do so, deserve to be voted out and to be held repsonsible for all our Fairpoint bills.
- Anne, Hancock

John A. in Manchester - FairPoint does have fiber optic available. It's marketed under the acronym FAST. They cannot use the term "FIOS" as that is propriatary to Verizon.
- Brian, Farmington

Steve from Manchester

What do you mean "customer expectations"? Customers in Southern NH expect a good 21st century network for what they pay for. Comcast is setting a bar here in Southern NH that Fairpoint can't reach. Why should the customer have to suffer for Fairpoint's bad business decisions. Fairpoint's Board of Directors could have told Gene Johnson no way on the sale and protected their shareholders. Now their stock "broke the buck" and is trading at 56 cents per share. Before the sale they were trading at $21.00 per share. Now the markets have lost about 52 % of their value in the last year and a half. If Fairpoint didn't go through with the sale they would be trading at about $7.00 to $8.00 per share. ALL that debt is killing them. Sadly a lot of good people are going to end up losing their jobs out of this.
- Chris, Merrimack

What many don't realize is that Verizon lied to Fairpoint during the acquisition process to basically get rid of their sinking ship. Once poor Fairpoint acquired Verizon they came upon outdated equipment, old phone lines, and many other obstacles that Verizon did not tell them about. Now Fairpoint is trying to bring the equipment up to date which is a long and grueling process. Each and every day Fairpoint employees are finding new problems that need immediate attention and updating. People need to exercise patience and understanding in this process. Mr. Johnson is a wonderful man and he is trying to do everything he possibly can to resolve the hiddeen issues that Verizon left behind.
- Sher, Concord, NH

Dennis is correct--Fairpoint has taken a reliable internet service and made it a joke. My wife and I have been researching other alternatives for price and benefits. Anyone have first hand experience with the other options?
- Tom, Dover-Foxcroft, Me.

"We know that business customers, in particular, are clamoring for the new services that we provide," Johnson said in a conference call yesterday.


That is so true. They are offering services that were not available before.
- Jeremy Hitchcock, Manchester, NH

No wonder FairPoints service and business accumen sucks. It's pretty telling when a company that has had close to a year to figure out how to do the conversion can't even figure out how to have a system set up online to pay them the money you owe them for your bill. That's not going to happen until after April assuming that promise means anything.

How can FairPoint think people are going to want their "new improved services" when after close to a year they still haven't figured out how to provide the old ones?

What ever happened to all those ads that said how great it was going to be for having FairPoint come to New England.
False advertising, anyone?
- Dave B, Manchester

Steve of Manchester
"Fairpoint's infrastructure was named 'Verizon' last year, nothing has changed except the name. Still, Fairpoint reaps the scorn."

I hate to disagree with you Steve but since Fairpoint took over, my internet broadband service has gone to hell in a handbasket. At least I had good broadband service with Verizon. I don't know what Fairpoint did to their internet servers but broadband performance is circling the drain. PUC should be looking into this mess.
- Dennis, Merrimack, NH

Fairpoint's infrastructure was named 'Verizon' last year, nothing has changed except the name. Still, Fairpoint reaps the scorn.

The state was frozen all winter and suffered an extended power outage. Yet PSNH escapes customer wrath. Power is arguably more important and cellphones are available. What needs to be managed is customer expectations. The good news is there is still great demand for their products, implying growth. The new management has a positive attitude about the business unlike its previous owners. They deserve a fair chance to win people over.
- Steve, Manch

The question is will Fairpoint file for bankruptcy before the"core network" goes online or after.
When Fairpoint files for bankruptcy the NH PUC(egg all over their faces) should petition the bankruptcy trustee to break up the company and sell NH's landlines to a company with a better balance sheet and better customer service.
- Chris, Merrimack

Why a company like FairPoint would even consider buying a declining business model and a sinking ship is beyond me....... Or was there some sort of huge bonuses being paid out to the FairPoint execs from Verizon that made the decision easy to unload it.

People are cutting landlines in droves and the cable companies are taking business from the telcos daily, would you have bought this business....... NO
- Pudge, Windham NH

My FairPoint telephone lines at home AND work have been intermittent the past few days. People I work with continue to have email and phone line problems. I had nothing against FairPoint when the sale was announced, but I sure do now. Service is definitely not as good as when Verizon was our company.

I hate that I can’t get fiber broadband. I waited and waited for Verizon to bring it to my neighborhood. Who would think that the Queen City would not have been on their list? FairPoint won’t do fiber, so now I am stuck with Comcast forever. I guess it may be time to switch to Comcast for phone service, get Vonage or just switch to cell phones only.

FairPoint’s trucks are dirty, worn out and old looking. The drivers give funny, ashamed looks if you look at them. In fact, it almost appears that the drivers aren’t from a utility company because they look just as dirty as the trucks! No pride, I suppose.

Can the PUC reverse their decision? Can we get a different company if Verizon does not want the state? Can the PUC hold FairPoint to the same standard as Verizon? Maybe the PUC can require a partial refund for the times the service isn’t up and running correctly.

Unlike most posters here, I had nothing against FairPoint and wasn’t biased against them. I did not know anything about them to base an opinion on. Now I do. I am now part of the crowd of FairPoint haters. I am sure I am not the only one. They did it to themselves.
- John A., Manchester, NH

"We know that business customers, in particular, are clamoring for the new services that we provide," Johnson said...

Mr. Johnson, with all due respect this transition has been a debacle and you act like you folks at FP offer something Comcast doesn't. This is simply not true and Comcast has Commercial Services available through their VOIP (phone)offering that are quite sophisticated and far more reasonably priced. Citizens of NH should wake up and abandon their love affair with Verizon. They sold us a pig in a poke. AT&T cellular and Comcast landlines are the best way for us to move to the next generation.
- Jerry LaCorte, Derry

FairPoint is undercapitalized and unable to provide the services they advertise, they are so overwhelmed they can't even get their own payroll processed correctly. The PUC backed down and sold New Hampshire out to a leveraged, incompetent, company that will never catch up with its responsibilities.
- brad, brentwood

Since the takeover, my internet service has dropped through the floor. I realize that takeover conversions can be difficult but one would expect that the new company would at least maintain the same internet service, connectivity speeds and line dedications as before. This no longer exists.

Verizon logon was quick and dependable. Now it takes an average of 1/2 hour to an hour just to get connectivity and then service on the line dies a dozen times per day and the link has to be re-established. This is very frustrating and a disaster but appologies keep coming from their management. The real problem is when we try to call myfairpoint, they won't answer the customer support phone. Tells you something, doesn't it? Keep it up, Myfairpoint, and you'll lose my business as well.
- Dennis Williams, Merrimack, NH

Oh and having a company running things that didn't want to service New England is a better alternative.

The suspended Dividend is nothing different than what most companies are doing today. What is happening here is happening everywhere. Go look at the companies on the DOW & S&P. Not much different.

Customer Service and bad conversion, I'll give you that. If it was not Fairpoint it would have been someone else. You had a company that wanted out and there are limited companies interested in the New England market.

Maybe you should dump your land line and go for a Cell only. Or jump to Comcast. But there a large percent of the New England that does not have that option we are fortunate in the larger metro areas to actually have options.

But companies are trapped as the best service is through Fair Point and most third party providers package there systems with Fair Point.

Hopefully they will get these problems resolved. Funny how we all seem to forget what dealing with the old companies before Verizon was like (Nymex, New England Tel,..).
- LJ, Manchester

It's pretty sad when one of the largest internet provider's for three entire states can't even figure out how to make a website for their internet service work in an entire year they have had to do it. Not only that but their sales people sign you up for a plan without telling you, or getting you to agree to it. Then when it is impossible to pay your bill, since they have no agreements with any bill paying sites like supermarkets and do not accept credit cards without a fee, they don't even bother telling you they are going to disconnect you or give you a cutoff date to pay it by. They simp[ly cut you off with no notice and try to charge you an early disconnect fee. This is the poorest customer service I have ever encountered in 17 years of ISP usage.
- Tom, Manchester

"We know that business customers, in particular, are clamoring for the new services that we provide," Johnson said...

Earth calling .. come in .. pick up the phone .. its for you .. time to wrap it up, call it a day. Your stock closed at .80 cents per share and you suspended the dividend. How about you go out and get a big sign:: For Sale , one local phone exchange, cheap.
- tom, manchester, nh

What do they expect, the conversion was and still is terrible. When you finally talk to a humun you get too bad so sad. The bills that are finally out are overcharged. Who ever approved this should be charged with negligence! How could they just dump us this a company about to go bankrupt by their own we want to be big greed. The customer service is terrible, the internet will let every enhancement commercial through but not your brokerage confirmations.
- Tammy, Lancaster

Is it a matter of "if" or "when"? **Quick buyout or Bankruptcy?**
- Rick, Manchester