My parents' phone went dead yesterday and I have a lot of complaints about the phone company that provides the service in their area: Verizon.
About mid-morning my mother picked up the phone to call the doctor and noticed no dial tone on any of their phones. She checked with a few neighbors and their phone service was fine. She called verizon on her cell phone, and after being on hold for ten minutes finally reached someone who said to check the box that connects the house lines to the public lines. She couldn't find the box - had no idea what to look for - and so my husband went over and said it seemed the wires in the box were fine.
She called again and was on hold forever, so she tried to find a different number. Since my father is disabled and my mother has a serious illness, and they are both dependent on a working phone, she called a number that was for disabled persons. Then her cell phone went dead and she had to plug it in to charge it.
She called me and I tried to call verizon to get someone out immediately to find the problem and repair it. I couldn't get a breathing human being, but was able to "communicate" with an automated system that scheduled a repairman to come out in two days for a minimum charge of $85 just to show up and $85 for the first hour (which was the minimum amount of time that would be charged).
My mother wasn't happy with that, and neither was I, so she found a private company to come out and check things out. They were out within an hour and said the problem was not in the house but with verizon, and got verizon to agree to send someone out the next day. (They haven't arrived yet.)
Here's the problem with having to wait so long for repairs: my father is incapable of using a telephone because of vision and cognitive problems. As long as my mom is capable of using the cell phone, the cell phone is adequate should an emergency occur. But if my mom should have a medical crisis (she has leukemia) and my dad would have to call for help, he cannot do it. He would even have difficulty reaching a neighbor as he has balance problems and can only walk slowly with a walker, and even then he falls. So we have installed a "medic alert" system where all he has to do is push a large button and help will come. With the phone down, the medic alert system does not work. So this is serious business - life and death business - and having a cell phone is not good enough.
Verizon does not care, or if anyone in the company does care, there is no way to reach them. As with so many companies that are only concerned with the bottom line and not with being "good citizens," there are no provisions for people who have special needs.
There was a time in this country when you could get a human being to help you when you called a company with a problem, but no more. There was a time when we as a society cared about people as they got older and had medical problems, but no more.
We care about money, profit, and ourselves, but with a few exceptions, we don't give a hoot about those less fortunate than ourselves. I don't know if this de-emphasis on good service, human contact, and empathy is the result of the great conservative revolution in this country, the great "self-reliance" cry of the Republicans, and the "gospel of prosperity" preached by evangelical and corporate America, but the blame falls mostly on them. They have made this country much less civilized, and much less caring.
