Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Union Complains to F.C.C. That Verizon Is Pressuring Phone Customers

Striking Verizon workers picketed at 230 West 36th Street in Manhattan on April 13.Credit...Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

A union representing thousands of striking Verizon workers and several consumer groups plan to complain to federal regulators on Tuesday about the tactics Verizon uses to persuade customers to switch their home phone service to fiber-optic lines.

In an informal complaint to be filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the union and consumer groups contend that Verizon is engaged in “institutional deception” because it sends out workers with no intention of repairing old-fashioned copper telephone wires. Verizon has made it clear that it would prefer to invest in expanding its fiber network instead of maintaining the copper lines.

When customers have trouble with their traditional home phone service, the complaint says, the company advises its workers to tell customers that “fiber is the only fix.” Customers who refuse to switch to fiber are often told that their service could be disconnected within 20 days, the complaint says.

The complaint comes three weeks after about 40,000 unionized employees of Verizon went on strike after contract negotiations failed. Many of the workers belong to the union that joined in the complaint, the Communications Workers of America. The liberal advocacy groups that joined in the complaint included Common Cause and Citizen Action of New York.

Verizon executives said the complaint was a bargaining tactic and denied that the company had any intention of deceiving customers, including those who resist entreaties to switch to fiber.

“Not everybody welcomes this with open arms,” said Tom Maguire, senior vice president for national operations support. But, he added, “We’re not trying to deceive folks.”

Mr. Maguire admitted that the company writes up a “ghost” service order to switch a customer’s service before it sends a technician to investigate a problem. The company even uses a ghost icon that resembles a character in the Pac-Man video games to indicate that the company hopes to make the switch.

The complaint cites the creation of the ghost orders as evidence of the company’s true intentions. “Customers are purposefully being put in a situation where they have to make a quick decision — under duress — to either switch service to fiber or lose service altogether,” the complaint says.

Mr. Maguire countered that “to have a technician go out and have that conversation with the customer I think is much better.” He said most customers are persuaded that the fiber network is superior to copper wires, which he said were more prone to being damaged by water and wind. “Once they get on fiber, there’s no issue,” Mr. Maguire said.

The complaint asks the F.C.C., which is overseeing the nationwide transition from traditional phone service to fiber optics, to order Verizon to stop the practices it cites. But the evolution away from copper is well underway.

Verizon and other phone companies are retiring their copper networks piece by piece. Verizon has given public notice that it plans to retire sections of its network in Manhattan, on Staten Island and in New Jersey.

Regulators require at least 90 days’ notice before copper lines are retired. But some consumer advocates worry that Verizon could accelerate that change by coercing customers into switching over to avoid a quick disconnection.

Christopher M. Shelton, the president of the Communications Workers of America, said the union “fully supports the conversion from copper to fiber, but we believe that consumers should be able to make this choice without pressure, threats and deception from Verizon.”

Todd O’Boyle, program director for Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative, said, “We don’t want any provider to kind of take an end run around this really important public policy process.”

Common Cause has no stake in the contract negotiations between Verizon and its unions, Mr. O’Boyle said. The organization’s goal is to help create “universal, affordable access” to telecommunications and the Internet, he said.

“We want customers to have a choice,” Mr. O’Boyle said. But, he added, “Customers should go into this with eyes wide open.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Complaint Says Verizon Pressures Phone Customers. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT