New York State Public Service Commission

The New York State Public Service Commission saved my livelihood and my ability to support my family. How do you put into words the kind of gratitude you feel when someone does something like that for you? I can’t, but I want to at least get the story out there.

I operate a business that relies on the use of a telephone system. We have a switchboard and calls get routed all over the firm. Well, one day Verizon’s equipment in my building broke. It is illegal for anybody but Verizon to repair or replace that equipment. It even had a padlock on it with a warning about it being a criminal offense to cut the lock.

So to make a long story short we were out of business for a week, with Verizon every day promising to send someone out and every day failing to deliver on their promise. I begged and pleaded with the repair man, who said I needed to speak with the foreman. Finally I got the foreman’s cell phone number and he said he couldn’t do the replacement until Engineering did something or another. Engineering was busy in some other part of the city and would not commit to fixing the problem at any particular time.

Now, I’m in a very competitive industry where people will call my competitors in a heartbeat.  Because I invest 80% of my revenues in advertising, every sale sure counts. A week with no phone service was a week from hell and there was no end in sight.

So anyway, I called the Public Service Commission. They called Verizon the same day and again, that same day, Verizon’s engineering department called to arrange a time to do their job.

We’re not done - The next day I get a call from a Verizon exec on an emergency line I had for my personal use. He says to me: “You f_cked me by calling the Public Service Commission. You think you’re so smart? Well now I’m going to f_uck you! I’m going to make you wait for months for phone service. You want to call the Public Service Commission again? Go right ahead - I’ll make sure you never see phone service.” He was screaming so loud everyone in Verizon must have heard him.

So I panicked and called the Public Service Commission again. The kind woman who answered the telephone was shocked to hear that a telephone company executive would conduct himself in such a manner and promised me that she would take the strongest action. Again, the same day, I got a call from a very high executive at Verizon’s headquarters who expressed complete shock that such a high-level executive acted like that. She promised to order engineering and the foreman to directly and immediately fix my phones. I was now well into the second week of being out of business.

Finally, engineering came on Friday and the foreman came on Monday and fixed the problem. If it wasn’t for the Public Service Commission, I might be selling ice cream on the beach.

And this is not the first time that the Public Service Commission has helped me out. God bless the New York State Public Service Commission, God bless the public officials who started it and maintain it, and God bless every person who has aided the work of the Public Service Commission.