FW: [leadership] Fw: Verizon: Need Help Possibly

Hi:

Please forward all correspondence  to [email protected].

Thanks, Peter 



-----Original Message-----
From: thedogmom [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 8:12 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [leadership] Fw: Verizon: Need Help Possibly



Hi.  Well, I have debated for the past two weeks about bringing this to 
public attention but it is settled now and so to finish my part, I need your

assistance.  My attempts to be a lot more discrete have not been responded 
to by this organization and time is running by.

I filed a complaint against Verizon for several things: Lack of braille 
bills and their inaccessible website.  This has resulted in a lot of money 
for me and time over the past several years because of all the time spent 
waiting for customer service to read the bill, etc.  I also had a lot of 
problems with DSL and then was unable to get connected half the time until 
"later" because it used to be that the screenreader wouldn't work with their

shared computer help so I was having to find far more sighted assistance 
than I liked both here and abroad.  Well, within two weeks of the time I 
filed my complaint, we went to mediation here in West Virginia.  I filed it 
with Public Service Commission by the way.
Anyway, the terms of the settlement were very favorable:
Verizon immediately began work on their website and if you have it, you have

no doubt noticed some real changes in their website over the past couple 
weeks.
They are more aware than ever of our braille bill request on demand which 
still applies.  And, I got my money all back.  <smiles>  But the deal is, 
Verizon wants our help now.
And my thing is that I had Verizon at both my home and office.  I found 
around this time Fibernet and learned that I could save approximately $100 a

month at the office, $50.00 at home so I switched.  Now, I cannot follow 
through with Verizon to help them.
What they need, specifically, is for blind screenreader users to use the 
website: all aspects of it, to manage their accounts, to see if the DSL 
stuff works without disabling the screenreaders or having problems with 
that, and without being computer-savvy to figure it out.  It is their 
contention that a person should simply be able to use it and they not only 
want to accommodate blind people now but all people (meaning those with 
cognitive delays).  So, if you have Verizon, will you please in the next 
month check out the website and send me your suggestions of what they need 
to do to improve it to make it work well for us?
I have 90 days to reopen this case if need be: in other words, if they do 
nothing more on the website or do not send braille bills to me or others as 
requested.  Obviously, all I need is my final bill.  I have asked my MSCB 
members to do likewise.  I guess now, it is up to us.  Verizon has incicated

their willingness to work with us and they are asking for assistance.
I regret swiching to Fibernet right now only because of my inability to 
follow this through myself, however I'm not overly tech-savvy either so even

if I encountered a problem with website, I could only maybe tell them where,

not how.
But I'm absolutely loving the one-to-one service I get, and was shocked to 
learn that their website was already very much accessible and I was able to 
get DSL connected just fine over the phone.  <smiles>

Thanks for reading this and for your help.

Jessie
Email: [email protected]

Eagles soar because they lift their wings.


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