Verizon needs to learn to communicate

Years ago a Verizon Wireless marketing campaign used the phrase “Can you hear me now?” On Saturday and Sunday the answer for Verizon customers in the Big Horn Basin was a resounding “No.”

There was an outage of service that appeared to begin shortly after 7 a.m., according to accounts from customers (myself included). We at first thought it was just my husband’s phone. I had WiFi calling enabled on my phone so did not realize I did not have any cell service. Attempts to call Verizon proved fruitless as they do not have 24-hour support.

Turning to the online chat proved frustrating for us and many customers as we continued to get the “there is no outage in your area response.” On social media, we quickly learned it was not even just a Worland issue. A quick trip into the Verizon Wireless store provided a little information. Yes, there was an outage. A service ticket had been issued and hopefully we would have service within the hour or sometime Saturday.

Attempts to find more information proved futile. There was no information on any Verizon social media or their website and again online chat agents continued their mantra “there is no reported outage in your area,” despite multitudes of customers reporting the outage.

Finally Saturday night I reached an online chat agent named Jessica, reported to her what we learned at our local store and she was able to provide the best helpful information we had received. She informed me that 19 LTE cell sites were down due to a fiber optic line being cut. It affected 8,000 customers in the Basin and the Billings area. Midnight was the preliminary estimate for repairs to be completed.

Service was restored midday Sunday.

I thought on Monday I would get more information from Verizon’s media department but in truth I received less information than Jessica provided Saturday. They referred me to Zayo, the fiber provider. Seriously! I do appreciate Jessica’s diligent work and for not having me, turn off my phone and turn it back on or suggest I take the SIM card out and wait three to five minutes. (It’s an outage, that’s not going to work.)

I learned some important things from this outage, which was finally fixed about midday Sunday.

Verizon does a horrible job notifying customers about outages. One utility company I know that does an excellent job is Big Horn Rural Electric. You will see a post on their social media platforms notifying people of the outage, where the outage is occurring, why it occurred (if that is known) and any estimates on restoration.

Years ago a cell phone outage would have not been a big issue but with so many people having cell phones as their only line of communication with no landline, it is an issue. With the flooding and tornadoes and severe thunderstorms that we have had, people need to have communication or need to know how long they will be without communication.

I am not one for getting government involved in everything but when businesses can’t police themselves or provide basic, necessary, communication to their customers then maybe someone needs to force them.

Utility companies, including cellular and telephone companies, should be required to have several ways of notifying customers in real time about outages. (No, don’t have cellular companies text their customers because if there is an outage they will not receive it.)

It was also frustrating as an editor of the local newspaper that I was unable to provide more information to the public during the weekend. Utility companies should be able to use media to help disseminate emergency information and most media are happy to share the information to the public as a service to their community.

Whether Verizon, or any other cellular company wants to admit it or not, their service is not just a luxury for people, but rather a necessity, and for some the only way of communicating. People need to know about outages, when they occur, where they occur and if there is an estimate on how long service will be down.

People then can make arrangements for ensuring they have ways to communicate in case of an emergency, whether it be a health emergency, weather emergency or some other type of emergency.

The more information people have, the better they can prepare and plan.

While the cell service outage was frustrating, the biggest frustration for most customers, heard loudly on social media, was the lack of communication.

Do better Verizon. And other utility companies, take heed and learn from their mistakes, we are depending on you.