FairPoint Still Sucks

I've blogged before about how much FairPoint sucks. That was back in April and they haven't been doing any better since then. I just read this story in the Bangor Daily that after a loss of $77 million last quarter and filing for bankruptcy in October, the "communications" company has hired a couple of Portland-based firms to beef up their marketing.

FairPoint needs to win the public’s confidence after bungling the technical aspects of the network handover from Verizon, leaving many customers frustrated with dropped calls, billing errors and slow action on service orders.

Trementozzi said he hoped advertising would be geared “to reassure the public that they’re a viable company here to do business and capable of handling products and services to the consumer.” - David Graham for the BDN.

Will it work? I don't think so. People up here in New England aren't quick to forget when they've been wronged. And this company has wronged a vast amount of people.

Michelle Kainen, a White River Junction, Vt., lawyer specializing in bankruptcy, said she, too, was not surprised at FairPoint’s efforts to step up marketing and advertising. But Kainen, who suffered a long delay in getting voicemail from the company and then lost messages in a voicemail box, laughed as she suggested one other area where the company could spend the money.

“They ought to hire more customer service people,” Kainen said.

I hear ya, Michelle...