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Do we have rights ?

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C

CoSergeant

Guest
I am a Law Enforcement Officer in the D.O.C. of Florida. My question is, I was in the local G.T.E. telephone directry under my first initial and surname only. I had asked G.T.E. back in 1989-90 not to put my street address in as it would make it too easy for current inmates and released inmates to visit me at my house and harm my family or myself. As you can amagine, we are not the most liked workers in the world. I have been threatened many times in the last 12+ years. Most of the threats are not real. My life was threatened only about 6 weeks ago for a Tunnel that was found inside the Prison. Getting to the point, G.T.E. did not publish my address as I asked, but last year when VERIZON took over they never asked or contacted me to see if I wanted to change the listing. I am now in the VERIZON book with my full street address! I realise that it's not hard to find someones address, but why make it easy for them. Drive by shootings happen all the time.
I first e-mailed VERIZON back in December of 2000 after the Telephone book came out, advising them of my displeasure. I received a tracking number and was told that I would be contacted soon by the Executive Customer Relations unit.
On January 8, 2001 after waiting 2-3 weeks for a reply I wrote a letter of complaint to the President
(name withheld) of Verizon Select Services in Tampa, Florida. (I have a copy of all letters that I have sent)
I received no reply, nor did my letter come back.
On February 20, 2001 nearly 6 weeks later I sent a second letter, with a copy of the first letter to the same gentleman using the USPO Certified Mail this time which cost me $3.74. I received the return green card back a few days later with a readable signture. At last !!!
On March 29, 2001 after I was ready to hunt someone down, I received a Telephone call from (name withheld) the Senor Administrator of Verizon in Dallas, Texas. He said that he worked for The President that I had sent the letter to, and he would be speaking to him personally after our telephone conversation. The President would than send me a letter. I thanked him for replying to me, but did explain how upset I was about the mistake his company had made. He said it was their fault, and it would be changed for the next directory coming out in late 2001. I also told him how upset I was about the time period of receiving a reply to my complaint and I did not expect this 3+ month wait from a large compay like VERIZON. He could only apologize for this. He did say that he would be leaving Verizon in 4 weeks for another job.
On April 25, 2001 I called this Gentleman again and told him that I had not received anything from the President as of this date, he said that he did speak to the President after our conversition on March 29th and would e-mail him telling him to send out another letter to me.
On May 04, 2001 I called this gentleman again and was informed that he no longer worked for Verizon. "The only thing he did not lie about" I was put through to another Gentleman's voice mail (name withheld) He took over from the gentleman that had left. I left a message and phone number, I was also given a Pager number of this new Gentleman.
On May 10, 2001 Today. I called this new gentleman's pager number and left my number.
I am totally disgusted with VERIZON. I can't belive that a large company like this, who is supposed to be a customer friendly Company has treated me like this. It has now been nearly 5 months since my first e-mail to them.
My question! Am I waisting my time, or do I have any comeback from them. Can they treat the Public like this?
I look forward to any replies on my very long question...
 


I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
My response:

How do you unring a bell ?

Now that you know what the problems is, and apologies are apparently not working for you, just what would you like done ?

IAAL
 

realgal

Junior Member
Verizon strikes again....

Hi
I am not a lawyer or legal advisor, just a quick comment about your case. I was having a huge amount of trouble with Verizon. They provided my long distance service for several years as GTE, and I never had a problem with them. When Verizon took over (I am in Texas), they decided to stop providing service to my little town. So they sent us all letters several times saying that we had to pick a new carrier immediately. That was in Oct. I chose AT&T, and they started billing me right away. Verizon continued to bill me, I refused to pay the bill. I was being double billed. I wrote letter after letter to them. They apparently ignored them all. Finally they wrote me a letter saying they were taking me to collections if I didn't pay them immediately. I decided I had enough and wrote a detailed letter, including bills, to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. They are the office of consumer protection. I also forwarded a copy of the info. to Verizon. Well, lo and behold, within 3 weeks, I received several apology calls from them, and 2 different letters stating that they wiped my slate clean, and I no longer owed them any money.
You'll get nowhere with them. Write to the Public Utility Commission for your state. Their address and phone number are listed on the back of your Verizon bill. They are very helpful. Hope this info. may be helpful in some way.
Take care and good luck.
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
My response:

That's all very fine and well, but again, how do you unring the bell ?

You see, they are not going to recall the books and, even if they did, they'll never get all of them. So, the information will always be out there.

So, what would our writer like to do, beyond complaining - - which hasn't worked out anyway ?

IAAL
 
C

CoSergeant

Guest
Thank you for the infomation RealGal, I will try that unless anyone come's up with something else better.

I am always Liable.
Thank You for your information. I really don't know what to do next besides follow RealGal's information. I would like to make them pay for their mistake! If, and I know this is a one in a thousand chance, an ex-inmate were to kill me and my family. Than in court he admitted that he found my address in the local phone book, would Verizon not be responsible and my surviving family have a Law suit?
 

realgal

Junior Member
I would think so....

It's true that you "can't unring a bell", however when these huge companies keep growing and growing they totally forget about the little guy (us) that make them into these huge conglomerates. I could have just paid the bill in my situation, but I knew it was wrong and wondered how many other people they were doing this to, and getting away with it. This is a serious situation. You are in a position where you or your family run the risk of being put in harm's way due to their mistake. I can tell that your family is extremely important to you and you are very worried about their safety. I would atleast want an apology from Verizon and some type of safeguard assurance that it is not going to happen again. As to the validity of a lawsuit, should something happen to you or a family member, let's hope and pray that never becomes an issue. I hope everything works out for you.
 
B

Banner

Guest
I agree that you can't unring a bell, but you can raise enough noise that they will not ring it again. I had a problem with another company (different state). They left our company out of the yellow pages one year. Totally their mistake. All we got out of it was a free year. However our main concern was that they would not screw up again the next year.

Good luck
 

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