ah, isn't a monopoly wonderful?

They sucked when they were New York Telephone.

Have you tried calling the state agency in charge of telecom? (I can't think now who that is)

I'm in a smaller apt. blgd in Queens, and haven't heard of anyone having trouble (not even at work, w/ Manhattanites).

Good luck.

We have had horrible problems at the bld where my office is for 15 yrs. They refuse to upgrade obsolete equipment despite recommendations by their own staff. It seems to be a policy of theirs.

I too am thinking of going all cellular at work. I have already dropped one of 2 lines. Sadly, Verizon has the best cellular coverage -- they have competition there.

If you wait, sometime next yr you may be able to get phone thru yr cable company.

It is possible that the problem is with your building and not Verizon. Verizon is responsible only to the "demarc", which may or may not be in your apartment. If the demarcation point is in the basement of your building, Verizon has no responsibility to maintain and upgrade the cables from the demarc to your phone. Ask your super to show you where your demarc is.

Nope.

It's Verizon's responsibility to maintain the lines. They just know that they can get away with it, because, even if you drop your landline and go completely cellular, they have the best cell coverage. It's a nasty little monopoly.

I hate to argue, but I work for a phone company in Manhattan (and it ISN'T Verizon). If the problem is with Verizon you have one of two choices--your building management can call and demand that a manager (not just a tech) come out and take care of the problem, or you and you neighbors can spend all day clogging their phone lines.

Do you know specifically the problem? One of our customers has had problems because their building owner refuses to lock the room in which the building-wide demarc is housed and it is repeatedly vandalized. So every couple of weeks, no dial tone, parts must be ordered, and it takes 2-3 days to fix.

BTW, AT&T's service has improved dramatically in the past couple of years. Verizon's is better, but not by that much. As long as you avoid Sprint, your cell service should be fine.

You can try VoIP--and get your phone service over your cable lines. Have a look at Vonage.

A verizon repair man with a real New York personality told me what used to be done when certain neighborhoods were written off for additional investments.

The aggrieved citizens used to set fires insided the phone company boxes. They lost service for a little while. But the result was that the phone company was forced to upgrade obsolete equipment.

Once again, this was not Calcutta, but Manhattan island.

Are you sure that it is Verizon's responsibility to maintain the internal wiring of your building? (If the problem is indeed the internal wiring).

It varies from state to state. In Virginia, for example, the internal wiring of the building is the landlord's or the tenant's responsibility, even if it was installed by the telephone company. The telephone company's responsibility ends at the telephone room in the basement or the first floor.

In some other states, the telephone company is responsible for the wiring until it gets into the apartment itself.

Surprise- Verizon Cell phones have the same problem here in Southern CA. No service in the house or the whole block, but okay in the car on the way to work, etc. Having no customer service whatsoever, we are now dealing with the Public Utilities Commission.

P.S. There's a well-deserved class action suit against Verizon.

Can you direct me to the class action suit (any website)?

I think that downtowner's solution is probably the only one that would work. My service was restored after 3 weeks, and, went out again last month for a week. I can't begin to describe what morons they are at Verizon. I'm not talking about my inside line, I'm talking about the boxes out back and in the basement. Ugh!!