YOUR COMMENTS

I really liked the Verizon customer Service. However, I have to be honest, Fairpoint was not popular here at first. I have had nothing but good experiences when talking to their representatives or techs. My DSL works great and only problem has been e-mail once in awhile, but the weather usually causes those issues. I am a very satisfied customer!
- D Spoon, Keene,NH

What is it with unions rather see a place get in deep financial trouble or close down before come some sort of reasonable agreement? I much rather take a pay cut then see this mess. What do unions really do? What is there agenda? Look at the mess Detroit is in?
Paying assembly workers $75 an hour that is stupid we all pay for that. You just about need a mortgage payment to buy anew car or truck. More great Union work!
- Paul Lundwall, Milford

No one ever said something wouldn't have to be cut, but really - why is it people feel the need to attack the workers? If it WEREN'T for the workers, a lot of people wouldn't have phone service! We've been the ones responsible for keeping the communications going while we are plauged with problems from a faulty system that Fairpoint was enticed by Verizon to buy into! If you want to place blame, try Cap Gemini - who SWORE the systems would fully intergrate. YOU try installing services blind, that's pretty much what ALL the workers have had to do when we cut over systems.! Geeze people, get your heads out of your u know what. Yes, we make good money, we maintain and service a huge network. We have experience, degrees - so are plumbers paid too much? Electricians? IT workers? It's a specialized industry!! Why is that a lot of you can't see that?
- Liz, Raymond

Yes, well the union should finally give a little to save their job. The local management have been doing it for years. Do the union people really believe they actually deserve all that they get while the managers keep loosing? It use to be a goal to be a manager in the CO, now its a joke. I hope that Fairpoint can finally level the playing field and make it worth being a manager again.
- R. King, Milton, VT

I suppose I have as large an axe to grind as
anyone for Fairpoint given the punishable
customer abuse I received from them earlier
in the year.

But in the end they did the impossible task
of bringing DSL into this otherwise
technologically derelict town. I never
imagined I'd live to see this feat
accomplished given the decade plus failed
battle we've had trying to interest every
other broadband vendor (veriZZZon, cable,
commercial wireless) in doing the same.

When we were hit by the freak ice storm
last year our power was knocked out for
nearly two weeks. Three days after the
storm my phone service was restored due
to Fairpoint dropping a portable generator
at the equipment powering my rural
neighborhood and sending out someone
twice a day to refuel it.

During that same outage while waiting for
PSNH to "finish up with the more important
towns" I returned home to find two utility
trucks in my driveway working on the pole
which serves my residence alone. I
figured they were a PSNH crew as that
service remained dead. When they
identified themselves as a Fairpoint
repair crew I pointed out my phone service
was already restored. They were aware of
this but "were in the area and just wanted
to assure the service line was otherwise
undamaged". Incredible!

Ok, these guys have had problems
transitioning their business from VeriZZZon
but I'd instinctively place a healthy
share of that blame on VeriZZZon. At
least from my vantage point they really
are trying to correct problems and have
in some areas vastly surpassed their
predecessor in customer service.

Recalling life with VeriZZZon, I don't think
they could have ever been accused of
setting the customer service bar too far from
the ground. Those looking to condemn
Fairpoint might just want to take a step back
and have a hard look at the relative
comparison.
- John, Mason

Come on. A few Fairpoint execs made a killing getting the sale passed and the only group you criticize is the union. Everyone should be ignorant and poor, I guess that is the opinion and status of a few here. Gene and Ivan are laughing at you while they spend their millions.
Fool.
- comrade, Augusta, ME

The first to be laid off (fired) are the PUC Commisioners who voted to let Fairpoint take over from Verizon.
- Richard, Manchester

Joe, Merrimack:
Amen - but do you really think they will listen? What part of: do you want a full time job at lower pay or do you want unemployment don't these people understand?
Or are they just waiting for Obama Messiah to come to their rescue? Hell will probably freeze over faster.
- Sandy, Thornton

'"Nickel and diming the unions is not a way to get the company back on track," said Don Trementozzi'

Wow! Now that's a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black!!! Isn't that exactly what the union does to their union members???

Obviously lesson not learned from the whole S.E.A mess with the government!

Fairpoint goes into bankruptcy and a judge gets compete control of rewriting contracts, and let me say the union bosses will not be happy with what the judge comes up with!
- mike, epping

Unions will eventually ruin any business they are involved with by demanding more then they deserve. Look at the auto industry, telephony industry, airline industry, amtrack/public transportation, state govt. All these industries are basically running on govt welfare due to unions sucking every bit of revenue and competitive chance out of the business. You have employees making 5x what they are worth doing 1/2 the job they should be doing isn't exactly a receipe for success.

Unions need to disappear...there are enough worker laws in the books now.
- joe peterson, manchester

tom, manchester...you need some new material. the "man hole" routine is getting old. also, if you really want to place blame, place it on the politicians and the puc, who against a majority opinion not to grant the sale, did so anyway! sort of like your man obama wanting to pass "healt reform" even though the majority doesn't want it!
- fpc, bedford

Whenever there is a Fairpoint story in the UL, the two sides, labor/management, both deny any responsibility for Fairpoint's inability to run the local wireline phone company. Let's face it, if there was real competition, not just the cable tv outfit trying to sell its overpriced tv packages, FP would have gone the way of JM Fields, Bradleys, Jordan Marsh, Leechmere, so many others, by now. With "real" unemployment at approximately 20%, watching an FP employee laughing it up, as he drinks coffee, while standing around a manhole, within walking distance of the NH Jobs office on Hanover street in Manchester, one starts to see why this company is a failure. If its not the union employee's fault, or the management's fault, is Fairpoint blaming us, the customer, for it abysmal operations?
- tom, manchester,nh

250 jobless state employees would tell FairPoint employees to make concessions to save their company and their jobs.
- Joe, Merrimack