Fair Point at the melting point (Eastport: house, move, bill)

[maine4.us]

There are companies that can get rural subsidies for extending DSL even further out that the theoretical maximum of about 7 1/2 miles. They can always bury fiber and go anywhere. There are a couple of companies (Chinese with very sounding American names) that advertise unlimited daisy-chaining of their brand of DSLAM's. I think it boils down to economics. Where there is a dollar, there is a way.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

We had our town meeting last night. We approved a wind power TIF that could bring more fiber optic digital communications to our corner of rural Maine.

[maine4.us]

That would be great. With fiber you will get much competition for internet, phone, and cable. Nova Scotia finished their digital province wide network about 4 years ago. No matter where you go you have service.

I called Fairpoint, and they couldn't explain the $8 difference in last month's and this month's phone bill. After I asked a couple of pointed questions, the rep said, "I don't know." I asked who does, and they said my inquiry will be "elevated." I wonder if a guy climbs ladder before he calls me back.

[kamorra2]

The night of the switch over from Verizon to Fair Point, my internet went completely down. It took 2 days to get it back up. I called their tech support at 9am in the morning and received a voicemail that said 'due to high call volume we are not accepting calls at this time'. I got the same voicemail the entire day. I finally got through by calling at 6am 2 days later and waiting on hold for 45 minutes.

I have lived all over the country and I have had many bad experiences with customer service but the experience with Fair Point during their switch over was the worst I have ever experienced. That's saying quite a bit.

[mollysmiles]

FairPoint Goes Before Regulators - WABI TV5

found this to be interesting.....

wonder how Daimler Chrysler would respond if I called them and asked for a payment deferment? you know, "just because..."

[mollysmiles]

so..... we have been having problems with the internet here since BEFORE we left on Wednesday night. It went on the whole time we were gone. Came back, and have had trouble getting online and staying online. So finally, tonight, DH calls. He's on the phone for 2.5 hours.... 1.5 hours into the conversation the person from Fairpoint decides to tell DH that a few days ago THEY had problems with THEIR server, so they're using someone else!!!!!! I have had it with this company. Before they took over we had problems with Verizon ONCE. We have been on the phone FOUR times now with Fairpoint... and each time it's lasted at least 2 hours. Even now everything is at a snail's pace, and the pages are timing out before they're fully loaded. Oh, and did I mention that our bill continues to go up every single month even though we aren't doing one thing different? Unreal.... and the worse part? They have the ENTIRE state! And there are many, many people who have NO choice but to use them. I however, am NOT one of them. I can't get TWC here fast enough. I'll be making my call to the PUC tomorrow.

[Elcarim]

Yep, you and I will be dualing cell phones with the PUC! We are definitely going to call again to file a second complaint now that we've been BILLED for the service we still don't have 7+ weeks later.....

[msina]

I'm having intermitent phone and internet issues here also.

[mollysmiles]

We just put in our order for TWC. Their first opening is the morning of the 10th. They said they have an exceptional number of new orders for our area.

[Casper1212]

Things with Fairpoint are screwing up my cell service and I'm not even one of their customers! When we were looking at making the move to Maine, we consulted our cell provider, Alltel, to see if we would need to change providers. They weren't sure--they've always been honest about things like that--and told us that when we were visiting, to note if our roaming icon was flashing. If it was, we were on roaming, but not roaming we would be charged for. We came up, and the icon flashed. So, no having to buy out our contracts and get new phones.
Now, less than two months later, Verizon sold out to Fairpoint, and bought Alltel. I called yesterday to asked them about hitting the Canadian towers and was told that I couldn't get service here at all. The customer rep was nice, but she insisted that we couldn't possibly make calls that weren't roaming. I told her we should be let out of our contract, but she couldn't do that. So, I asked for a supervisor. She told me, that yes, we could still use our phones, but that to be honest, we would be hit and miss on getting Canadian towers at times, and Fairpoint towers at others, that we just have to watch the roaming icon to see if it's flashing. But she advised me that a phone may switch towers in the middle of a call, and the roaming charges start piling up.
We got TWC to begin with, after talking to all the providers around here. Their dowload speed is the fastest and most reliable and their prices are competitive. I just wish I had signed up earlier when they were running the special offer.