Umm they already told him phone service would be activated the same day the other number was disconnected, once again Fairpointless Miscommunications, serving customers with the best attention possible...NONE!

Fairpoint gets an order stuck due to a miscommunication? So there was an order then apparently but instead Fairpoint whom is under enough fire would perfer to place blame on someone else.

I'd be calling the PUC...but then again that would be pointless too considering they are the idiots who approved this mess to happen. Kinda makes you want to hold the state accountable for all of Fairpoints problems too.

I called fairpoint a month ago about service problems and they have still to come out to my home. This is not a surprise....

I do not have the same problems with Fairpoint as Mr Bracy does but they, Fairpoint, has twice made a mistake on my monthly bill. Needless to say, I am now a Time-Warner customer for cable and Internet. The government agency who allowed Fairpoint's purchase of the landlines owe us a big explanation and then they need to get rid of Fairpoint.

It is not now up to the, "government" to get rid of Fairpoint. Get rid of Fairpoint yourself. They are probably going to declare bankruptcy anyway. Be proactive and take care of your own situation.

As long as I had Verizon I had no problems at all but when Fairpoint came in I had nothing but trouble, lost my internet service, my phone service sucked

people would call my house and get a recording or a fast busy. Dial tone was few and far between. I called and called and called customer service and

got the most rude and incompetant people I had ever talked to. I never had a problem with my bill until Fairpoint, it was such a joke. It has to be bar none the worst experience I have ever had with any utility. Every person I came in contact with was as aggrevated as I was. I called the cable company and

now I get my service from them, phone, internet,tv. Good riddance Fairpoint.

This is why I have a cell phone as my primary phone. It goes everywhere with me and I NEVER miss a call. I know very few people that have a land line because it's just not practical in the 21st century. It's all about communication.

I live in Vermont now and Fairpoint stinks up the State her also. I never had one problem or heard of anyone having a problem with Verizon.

leave it to the State of Maine and the Government to screw up every thing, this is a shame why does the government talk care of this problem?

If the company gets this many complains get someone else to do the job and do it right, nobody cares about people in this mans life

http://www.consumerist.com ....valuable tool for corporate @$$hattery

I am fixing the problem myself the 7th of July. Switching to cable !! Time Warner. Don't expect the government to fix every thing for you , fix it yourself

I think if she would just pay her bill the problem would be solved.

simple as that.

There are still may of us who live in an area where cable is not available. We are then stuck with Fairpoint for telephone and internet service. It's not that simple, as "Taxpayer" has suggested, for us to do anything about it and not count on the Government (state of Maine). The Maine PUC was duly warned about this company. They were told that they (fairpoint) didn't have the financial resources to support a takeover of such gargantuan proportion. And yes, Taxpayer is right, this is what happens when Government makes these choices for the citizenry, you get communication problems that are akin to some third world countries. Keep this Fairpoint scenario in mind when you consider what Mr. Obama is doing. He has taken over our Automobile manufactures and now has his sights set on taking over our health care system. You can believe that in the end, those projects will all have the same result as this Fairpoint mess. Good luck to us all.

If I lived in an area with no cable, I would be looking into satellite internet and VOIP for phone as well as cell phone.

Good to know all the issues with Fairpoint. We are moving soon and I will be sure to have digital phone through Time Warner. They will have all of our business as far as cable, internet and phone. I haven't heard one good thing about Fairpoint and have many friends/relatives with issues with them as well. I hope this issue gets fixed for Mr. Bracy so he can have peace of mind.

Let's see, they owe Fairpoint $300 and they are demanding service. Telephony service is not a chairity, pay your bill and maybe you'll get service. Oh wait you can't pay because you don't work. And the wife is too 'stressed' to work. I wonder who is picking up the tab for all of this, hmmm I wonder? Try a cell phone and quit complaining free loading filth.

Too bad the PUC wasn't more consumer oriented. Verizon sold off its copper in several other states recently; those states went to Frontier (previously known as Rochester Tel), a company with plenty of experience operating and servicing local telephone service.

The situation in Maine is sad. It recently took us a month to resolve a "slamming" of our aunt who has been in a nursing home for six years.

Born in Main; living in exile and not sure I want to return!

I also have problems with Fairpoint, my phone has always had static on it since Verizon switched to Fairpoint. I also had internet with them, but it was off more than it was on. I finally gave up even trying to get any answers from them, I would just keep unpluggin the modem and router for my laptop, over and over again until it would finally work. I can't even keep track of how many times I had no internet on weekends, holidays etc. I finally switched to Time Warner and now my phone has no more static, and my internet connection is much better. I think verizon should rethink this move and buy back the phone line and internet from Fairpoint, or perhaps Time Warner should buy them out, people would get better service.

Fairpoint is a joke. They are misleading and do nothing to help anyone in rural areas. My friend lives less than a mile from where she can get high speed internet from them. They told her they can't do anything, so she has to pay for that crappy satellite junk, that cost ALOT and is not like DSL at all. This is why I have a cell phone as my primary phone, no house phone here, just US Cellular, and it's really a good deal.

Peace.

It took Fairpoint 10 weeks to hook up my phone. 10 weeks of lame excuses and lies. They were horrible to work with, Each passing week brought a new story, another delay.It is so common to here such stories, one can't help but wonder why they are still in business.Even if they gave their service away for free I wouldn't want it now!!!

I switched my phone to Time Warner about the time Verizon left... Saved money and only a RARE problem ( Hey, nothing is perfect)

Refused to deal with Fair "pointless"

Also,(forgot to write this on my other post) why would it matter that she owed the company money on a bill? The phone would not be in her name, it would be in his. They could continue to try to collect from her just by sending her bills or notices or whatever. Just because she owed does not mean he shouldn't have gotten the line up. When someone moves out of an apartment/house and they owe money on the phone bill, do you think that the new owners/renters have to wait until they pay to get a new phone line? Umm, no. I would have been furious and seriously demanded to talk to someone higher up or threatened to switch to another company. Time Warner does MUCH better.

I've had Fairpoint DSL and phone at a couple of locations and have had no problem with them. Once they said I'd get service the next week and they were at my house the next day.

Thank you, PUC.

I'm a business customer with Fairpoint - with 3 phone lines, a fax line, and DSL. Recently, the DSL service went out. I called to report the issue and was told 24-48 hours and it should be fixed. 12 DAYS LATER, and numerous phone calls, escalations to "managers", etc. and my service was finally reconnected. There was no billing issue - they had a technical difficulty when migrating my line from a Verizon device to their own - and allowed my outage to last 12 ^$*&#@&*^ days!!!! They are not capable of supporting this network technically - and financially, if they keep this up, they won;t have money because they won't have customers. My home phone is my cell phone - no need for anything else!

Shane sue the crap out of Fairpoint.

Wow - it's garbage like this that make me so glad we don't have any sort of land line telephone service. This is completely inexcusable.

I moved and got cable (time warner) internet. I was to get 8 mbps with turbo boaster. I got 3 mbps but one time at 2 am on a Sunday I got 20 mbps. For all cable people you need to check your speed (speedtest.net). Your not getting what they tell you and what your paying for. What the catch is they say up to 8 mbps so their off the hook. I made the change to Fairpoint. I could get a phone line with DSL at 3 mbps at half the price as cable. I was only getting 3 anyway so why not switch for half price. First bill they billed me for one of their freedom plans at 69.99 +++, called to correct. To make this 6 month ordeal as short as possible I'll make it brief. Every bill, I had to call because it was wrong. 6 bills and I have not received a correct one yet. As for the 3 mbps I only got 1.5, after 6 months of many phone calls with all kinds of excuses they kept closing the repair ticket telling me it was fixed. It was finally fixed 2 weeks ago. They just needed to change my speed in the computer from 1.5 to 3 and it was done. 6 months for this simple correction. Have you seen their ads? They are right on the ball with everything they promised, Ya right, Just the one person that was in the ad and they probably paid her to make the ad.

i'm glad i got vonage, low monthly bills and good service. it is awful that a man and probably alot of others depend on these lifelines and don't have it cause of miscommunications. not a very good way to run such a business. i gope the mrs. did not leave her husband on account of his illnesses, that

seems to happen quite a bit, happened to me after i was diagnosed with a crippling illness, just like fairpoint, empty promises. i hope he gets it resolved soon, or check into vonage..

Someone give them a cell phone. Just the phone, not an account. Any cell phone can call 911, whether it is connected to an account or not. (You can't call anywhere else, so it isn't a perfect solution in this case. It won't call Lifeline - though I understand some phones will make 800 numver calls.) The trick is to make sure there is cellular coverage, which can be a problem in some places.

You can get old inactive cell phones from a lot of social service agencies. Or ask for one from one of the places that offers to collect old cell phones for recycling.

So many people have already given up their landlines for cell phones - this sort of thing just helps the process. Someone also mentioned phone service via the cable company and VoIP service like vonage (though make sure you get internet through cable and not through the phone (DSL) or it won't work when the phone is shut off).

I completely understand the frustration here, but once again the Bangor Daily News goes above and beyond in a story, giving details about his health condition, his children's health condition, his marital problems due to his health condition, the reason why his wife is leaving him and the fact that either she or he owes the phone company $300.00. etc etc etc etc. Get my POINT!!!

I have Time Warner. You think they're the answer? Think again. A few Sundays ago almost the entire state was without phone service with them! I thought it was my phone until my neighbor called on her cell to see if I was out. Yet there was absolutely nothing on the news on TV or in the newspapers about this massive outage! Also, with Time Warner and Vonage, you lose electricity.. you lose your phones! That's terrible! If this guy gets Time Warner and gets his electricity turned off or if he just loses power in a storm he will be without any phone connection. His wife just should have transferred her service and this guy could have had his own account. BTW, I'm glad she's not my wife. Id like to think if things got bad she'd be there for me and the kids.

ONE day without TW cable internet/phone, etc., is still better service than Fairpoint is giving at this point. Let's see...what are the choices, service about 99% of the time versus no service? Oh wait...I forgot...*slapping hand to forehead*...I'll wait for the government to provide my communication for me. Silly me.

I feel bad for the guy due to his health, but at the same time, Pay your Bill! Why would they switch from the woman's name to the HUSBAND's (same last)name without having the bill paid up? That's just as much his bill as hers as far as Fairpoint is concerned. Get divorced, change the billing and your last name back to your maiden name, and then they would probably give him a new account in his name. Companies get burned on unpaid bills so often they have to be careful. My favorite one is where the unwed parents run up a bill in their one of their names, and because one of them has unpaid bills from another address in their name, they put one of the kids' names and social security numbers on a new account, run up that bill, and give them a bad credit rating before the age of ten!

Most people always want to report the bad and not the good... I have had very good luck with fairpoint, no problems at all!

I'LL TESTIFY TO THE SHODDY GOINGS ON AT FAIRPOINT..... TELEPHONE OPERATORS TOO LAZY TO LOOK UP A NUMBER EVEN THO WE NOW 'PAY' FOR THE TRIVIAL SERVICE. WRONG BILLINGS, THAT THEY DEEM CORRECT..... ALWAYS ARGUEING WITH THE BILLING PEOPLE .....IF YOU CAN BREAK THROUGH THEIR REPUGNANT ANSWERING SERVICE....... REALLY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE.... LOT'S OF WISE 'KIDS' RUNNING THE SHOW, ABSOLUTELY NO PROFESSIONALISM IN THEIR APPROACHES. HAD TO HAVE THEM INVESTIGATED AT ONE POINT!!!!!

I have Aroostook Internet's wireless broadband service and I have never been happier! I have lived in two different towns where Fairpoint was the primary service provider and always ended up disappointed. Aroostook Internet's tech support always answers or calls me back, and their connection is incredibly reliable. Not that I can say the same for Fairpoint... the times when I can actually get through to them they usually dismissed my concern/problem saying that it was nothing to do with their service, but that it had to be SOMETHING else that was out of their control!

i keep telling you people-MID MAINE COMMUNICATIONS-a local company with EXCELLENT customer service!!!

Sadly, the PUC ignored warning from Fairpoint customers. If you want to be POed be POed at the PUC.

That Fairpoint would be unable to make this work was a slam dunk.

Frankly, the worst company I've ever dealt with.

As a telephone provider, Fairpoint is a total joke !

I have had more telephone service problems with Fairpoint over the last two months than I had with their predecessors, Verizon, Bell Atlantic, New England Telephone, etc. over forty years.

SADLY, THERE WAS MUCH WARNING ABOUT FAIRPONT, BUT VERIZON HAS WANTED OUT OF THE STATE FOR YEARS, I KNOW FOR A FACT AS I AM A RETIRED VERIZON EMPLOYEE AND BACK IN THE EARLY 90'S THEY WANTED OUT OF MAINE, NH, AND VT. I THINK THIS CUSTOMER SHOULD PAY THE BILL, EVIIDENTLY SHE HAS RUN UP THE BILL AND IS NOW SAYING SHE IS MOVING TO BANGOR AND WANTS NEW SERVICE IN THE SAME LOCATION AND IS STILL LIVING THERE. THEY HAVE FREE EMERGENCY SERVICE. JUST PLUG IN A PHONE AND THEY CAN CALL 911 IF THEY NEED. EVERYONE HAS THAT SERVICE FOR NO CHARGE...SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM....OH YEAH, THEY WANT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, AND WE WONDER WHY ARE RATES ARE THE HIGHEST AROUND, TOO MANY DEADBEATS ON THE DOLE....

I love it when you people just think they should have paid the bill. The bill is in her name, and if anyone has a clue about laws in the telecom industry if the bill was under her name, not his, he has the right to request service in his name and get it. as a previous poster indicated, buy a house or rent a place, if the previous tennant did not pay the bill do you wait for service? no you get it.

Right or wrong about the bill, Fairpoint has no excuse why a service request won't go through properly. A miscommunication got it stuck in the system? What kind of excuse is that? You think they got that many problems someone should babysit their systems more often. Taking 600 computers and putting it down to 60 so quickly was a HUGE mistake

Whatever did we do before the advent of phone service? Geesh! Seriously, this article is unfair and unbalanced, to say the least. Everyone can sympathize with the poor man's health and family life, but their finances and marital problems are of no concern to me. Cut and dry, this is a man in poor health who needed a service that wasn't provided by FairPoint. Both are responsible (poor planning and financial management on the part of the Bracy's and poor provisioning of the phone on behalf of FP) for this.

I amazed how the majority of the people crabbing here show no compassion for Mr. Bracy, but have taken advantage to use his condition as an opportunity to slam FairPoint.

I would like to know the rest of the story: Does Mr. Bracy have a cell phone? Did he attempt to find another provider other than cable? Did he try plugging in a phone to make sure he had no dial tone (one would be surprised how many people think the telephone tech still brings a phone set to them and hooks it up!)? Do any of his older children live at home that could help? Why would Mrs. Bracy allow her bill to get so high, knowing her husband's health depended on it?

Lastly, I have never heard of one person being turned down for phone service because there was no revenue in it. Turned down because they owe money, yes, but not because they wanted plain old telephone service, no options. What he is stating is very malicious and untrue, and bordering on libel, and I'm very disappointed that the BDN would even print such statements given that it would be so easily proven they are not based on facts.

The BDN has found yet another way to put Fairpoint on the front page with negative news. The article uses this man's health as a way to shed more bad news on Fairpoint. Most people stop to think that the employees that were force to go from Verizon to Fairpoint warned the PUC and the Governor that these were exactly the problems that would occur. Yes Verizon wanted out, but should the first company that came along be allowed to "buy" the company with a deplorable track record? No the employees and the customers were sold out by the government that was supposed to work for us. Now the customers are unhappy and the employees that are now with a company that does not have the ability to function on a large scale are extremely frustrated and concerned. Do people realize the number of people in there communities that were for Fairpoint? Would it be ok that thousands of men and woman that care about the customers they serve would be out of a job? No! These are the ones that have the experience to get the job done but are so frustrated by the poor choices that Fairpoint has made, i.e. switching over 600 computer networks at once. Most logical people would know this is a call for disaster.

Maybe the BDN would better serve the readers by doing a little research into the PUC and what Gov. Baldacci got out of this decision. That would be an article worth reading.

OK people, none of you obviously understand how large the Verizon/FairPoint cutover was! They've installed all NEW equipment to run the system as well as all new computer systems and software. The cutover involved well over a million customers, no where near the small amount of customers with issues. Now, I want you to think about this...how many of you work in an office or for a company that switched to new computers or new software without a single glitch or issue? Same thing for FairPoint only on a much larger scale. Your office, 50 people, FairPoint customers, 1.5 million people. Yes, things have taken longer than they anticipated but they are working hard at fixing every issue as fast as possible. Remember, new computer systems, new equipment in the central offices, new software = some new problems but in the future all this will benefit YOU with much better, state of the art service. Now, quit your b i t c h i n g and find something better to complain about!

Like always someone looking for something for free. If you have a $300 dollar phone bill that you can't pay guess what you can't afford the phone. There are many people in the same boat, that have illnesses and don't have phone or power.

i'll be getting rid of my landline and my internet on the first of the month. I'm switching to sattelite (sp?) so they will handle internet and i'm getting magicjack. (20 a year) DOWN WITH FAIRPOINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suzieq- Mid Maine Communication isn't a local company. They are owned by a big phone company down south, and their customer service isn't even out of Bangor anymore. Plus, they rent there lines from Fairpoint. So there ya go

This is one of the saddest siories I've ever read - not to mention the phone service.

Fairpoint acted quickly for my great aunt... her phone went down on a sunday, we called and advised them of her life-alert, and they sent a tech out in about an hour... Must be different in the more Southern areas of the State... Very surprised and appauled to hear how this individual was treated. (Aroostook County)

So sorry she is stressed out. Remember that little vow about in sickness and in health....

specialed...i agree with you she may be stressed out but she is leaving her husband she thinks a lot of him to do that to him.....my sister is taking care of her husband he is dying with cancer and i have to give her a lot of credit she is stressed out to but she is taking care of him she will not leave him ...and she will take care of him to the end .....i go out and sit with her and if she needs to do an errand i sit with him until she gets back and she isnt gone very long....she has taken time off from work to take care of him so that goes to show how mucs she cares ....

misprint in spelling on last comment...goes to show how much she cares ....he is lucky if he will be here in 2 weeks he has failed terribly in the last week .... he has hardly no strenght left ...we are not looking foreward to it but we know it is going to happen .... so we are preparing ourselves for the worst ....

Wedding vows today are pretty much a formality anyways. **** happens. At least she's not abandoning him without the lifeline. I fail to see why judgement is required.