FairPoint Communications’ senior management was questioned for two hours Wednesday by the Maine Public Utilities Commission about thousands of persistent customer service and billing complaints.
The session was held to address FairPoint’s plan to handle the problems, which have plagued customers since the company switched to its own computer systems in February, following last year’s $2.3 billion takeover of Verizon Communications’ landline telephone and Internet network in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the Kennebec Journal reported. FairPoint, based in North Carolina, submitted a plan to the PUC last month that indicates operations will be up to speed by the end of June, but commissioners Wednesday asked the company to provide routine progress updates.
Liberty Consulting Group of Quentin, Pa., which is monitoring the company, is skeptical, however, saying in a new report that FairPoint’s early summer deadline is optimistic, the Sun Journal reported.
In related news, the Vermont Public Service Department said if operations there don’t improve by early summer, FairPoint should replace its New England executives and hire an independent software company to assume control of its computer system, according to WCAX-TV in Vermont.
