If he's paying for the service, even if it's through is HOA, there is a contract of some sort in place. He should start by encouraging his HOA to take action, as they are probably the ones that pay the bill. If they are paying for service that isn't working, Verizon is in breach. Small claims court might be tough for him, since he's likely not a party to the actual contract. He is a 3rd Party beneficiary, but suing can get more complicated at that point, and he'll likely have to get at least some cooperation from the HOA to accomplish it. In my opinion, if this has been drug out for over 30 days, he's not doing something right. Either he's not articulate or persuasive when he speaks to them, or he's too quick to just accept their answers. I guess I just have a hard time seeing myself getting screwed over for 30 days with no resolution in sight.

File a claim with Small Claims Court with your local Verizon office for "Breach of Contract" and for the largest amount you can sue for in small claims.

See if that gets their attention....

HOA = EVIL. When shopping for a house, RUN, don't walk, from any house that is part of an HOA.

@homerjay: It depends. An HOA can be incredibly strict such as dictating what color the stain on your back deck might be but they also stop your neighbors from having 8 broken down cars in their front yard. So I wouldn't say that they are totally evil as they are sometimes needed.

Public Utility Commission Time. The Hammer must fall on Verizon's head for this cockup. Get the State involved on this matter and the teleco will start jumping through the hoops.

@Meggers: thats true but the pro's definitely don't outweigh the con's. At least to me.

Sue the HOA in small claims court for the amount. The HOA is who you have your service through so it is their responsibility.

Nighthawke is right. Time to contact your state's PUC and file a complaint. Actually this could have been done even before the EECB was sent, but anyways.

@Meggers: I'd rather live next to a house with cars on cement blocks in the yard then be told what color I can paint my front door.

And whether he pays through HOA fees or directly, I'd say it's time for that payment to be withheld.

Homerjay, you hit the nail on the head. Why woudl anyone move into a place where there is an HOA. HOA never goes down, it goes up. Hmm, guess people like giving their money away.

Small Claims Court against the HOA - he already paid THEM for the services that they have FAILED to provide. "Of course, the case can be withdrawn", he says calmly, "after I see the papers for your suit against Verizon"

@homerjay: Agreed. I'm a ham radio operator. HOA neighborhoods don't like radio towers in people's backyards.

=no HOA for me.

@Pylon83:

"if this has been drug out for over 30 days, he's not doing something right"

That's an absurd statement. Once a telco/cableco issue extends behind about 5 days, it's absolutely and entirely an issue with the corporation. The REASON these things get out of hand is because of the mis-managed communication systems in these corporations. The fact that these companies have 12 different departments to handle different user issues is enough to explain why we get such lousy service from our communications service providers.

I can't see anything this user is doing wrong. He has had corporate employees ON SITE at which point, it's really out of his hands. What else could he do (aside from suing, as you state, but that's not what a customer should have to do to get internet hooked up)

@DaynaRT: True and this is something my husband and I struggled over this summer. we had been house hunting and had a contract on one place with an HOA. Once we got the HOA rulebook and saw how crazy they were, we had to back out. No one is going to tell me that my deck stain does not have the right shade of red in it. The next place we were going to put a contract on had no HOA but the neighbors had several rats that were living in a backyard trash pile. IMHO a non crazy strict HOA is the way to go.

Granted I may change my opinion if I decid to paint my entire house teal one day.

I've always been fascinated by demographic of people that sign up for HOAs. I'm not picking on anyone in this thread, but, in general, HOAs seem to be big in the burbs where you tend to have a really large 'anti government' republican stronghold. They hate government telling them what to do, but are fine telling their neighbors what to do. ;o)

@Pylon83: "In my opinion, if this has been drug out for over 30 days, he's not doing something right."

Are you serious? Or maybe he's got a job, and a life, and other things to do besides spend all his time trying to fix his utilities? What do you mean "he's too quick to just accept their answers"? When the CSR tells you "look, a tech's coming out, it'll be fixed later today" do you say "No, you're lying, it won't be fixed and I demand you do something else?" When someone says "I'll call you back" do you say "No -- I insist that you deal with me immediately!" That's a great way to get your problem fixed.

Why is this so hard to believe?

In any event, I agree that he should be pressuring the HOA (although good luck with that, depending on how friendly they are) -- it is the customer in this situation, and either it should be leaning on Verizon or he should get some sort of fee reduction from the HOA until it's fixed.

I know he's already paying for Verizon, but he should see if he can get out of it and got with satellite. HOAs try to say no dishes, but as long as they're one meter long or less federal law says that they can't stop it.
[www.fcc.gov]

I went through a similar ordeal with Verizon. I spent MONTHS trying to get FIOS installed going through every possible problem you could imagine. Eventually they old me that they simply could not install FIOS, at which point I filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. About a week after that, I had FIOS installed.

A Verizon technician told me one time that whenever you have ANY kind of problem or delay with Verizon, threaten to call the public utility commission. And he was right - it really works.

@Joeyjojo: to a point, yes. although, in some areas, you simply don't have a choice if that's the area you want to live in. In the 'burbs I grew up in, there was not a single neighborhood that DIDN'T have a HOA. Some were pretty standard (no trash in the yard, have to keep your house looking decent, etc.) while others appeared to be written by the most anal retentive OCD person alive, including square footage minimums, door colors (not house, but the front door), fence color and type, and amount of cars.

suffice to say, I moved to the city where there are just regular laws.

Sometimes an HOA is not overbearing, and sometimes the fees are reasonable and cover things like sewer, waste pick up, in this case the cable bill... they CAN be okay, but it seems as though they usually are not.

I think the Shawshank reference should become an official term.

"When one EECB doesn't work, just go Shawshank on them."

@homerjay: I am, as AD8BC, a ham radio operator. HOAs are death.

I have a list of items that are instant, absolute and irrevocable deal-killers when looking for a home. The top three are electric heat, an HOA, and a restrictive deed/covenant.

@Joeyjojo: That could explain why my Obama magnetic bumper sticker was stolen off of my car one night.

@QuanikaJulisa: Once you file a complaint with the PSC, they assign it to someone who handles PSC complaints. Or at least that's what happened with me a few years ago. The person who handled my problem was intelligent and pleasant and would actually call me back and pursued my problem. In the end she got the problem fixed but she got frustrated herself trying to get other departments at Verizon to do what they were supposed to do. She even said at one point that she understood why I filed a complaint because of all the problems she was having with her own company.

Unfortunately a few months ago I threatened to report something to the PSC and they obviously didn't care. You might actually have to report it to get something done. When I filed a complaint with the PSC, the PSC handled it themselves--I was just trying to find out if a rate increase was actually authorized and legal.

This is a little off-topic but Verizon is installing FiOS in my building so I called Time Warner and got them to lower my cable internet from $42 to $30 for six months. I didn't even threaten to switch, I just told them Verizon FiOS was coming to my building with a negotiated rate and that I honestly didn't know exactly what the rate would be and asked if they had FiOS or anything other than dial-up cheaper than my present service.

Thats $72 saved with a five minute phone call, it's worth a try.

Thanks, Consumerist, for giving me the idea.

Pretty sure being locked in to a telecommunications provider has recently been ruled illegal.

@Nighthawke: Agreed. I suffered through 13 days earlier this year where Verizon lost my dialtone while activating my DSL, and it was amazing how fast they fell over each other fixing my problem once they got 'the call' from my state's Dept. of Public Utilities (MA). It was fixed early the next morning following my 4 PM phone call to the DPU.

@headhot: You can sign away all sorts of rights in a contract. If the HOA was set up as an all-Verizon group in the beginning, and all of the buyers agree to it (which they have to in order to buy the house) then it's an uphill battle to undo it.

I'm with the "No HOA" folks... I've survived one, and it'll be a HUGE strike against any house next time I'm house-hunting. I'm happy to live in a non-generic, non-restrictive neighborhood of houses that don't all look alike now.

@pgh9fan: I am the guy that is having the issue. The HOA doesn't prevent us from having satellite or any provider, but we are binded to Verizon Fios service. Which means if I went with DirectTV, my $200/month HOA fee does not go down because I'm not using Fios. I will make sure they reduce the fee for this 1.5 months+ that I haven't been getting any service though.

To all those saying stay away from HOA. Try doing that in the Northern Virginia area. I wanted newer housing, everything around here is all planned communities, and they ALL have HOA's.

@homerjay: All the more reason to hate HOAs

[www.wbir.com]

A flagpole has stirred controversy in the Westbrooke Subdivision in West Knox County.

Sheldon Barker had the pole installed when he moved into the neighborhood this past July to show patriotism. Barker served in the Korean and Vietnam War eras.

Barker said his homeowners association is taking away his freedom by asking him to remove the metal that allows his stars and stripes to fly high.

I tried to get DSL a few years ago when i lived in fort lee, nj (other side of the GW Bridge - major metro area) they were happy to sell it to us, and after 3 months of it not working, regularly missing work /school to be there for "All day" appointments at least 4 times, we were eventually told that the DSL line structure in our area didnt support the services. They cancelled US, and still made us pay. I WILL NEVER EVER USE VERIZON FOR ANYTHING, EVER. thats how i avoid hassles.

"but he's locked into Verizon by his homeowner's association."

IANAL, but isn't that illegal?

@bobloblawsblog: If they sold you services that they cannot actually provide, that's fraud. You should have complained to the public utilities commission and/or sued them for the money they charged you for services they physically could not provide. There's a difference between real helplessness and learned helplessness...

probably not. homes that have homeowner's associations have you sign a contract going over their rules before you move in, and if you decide to move in you sign their contract stating that you will obey their policies...i think. so if he signed the contract, which he must have since he moved in, he no longer has the right to change unless he breaks from the contract at which point he can be sued by the homeowner association, or worst case kicked out of his home. bad situation

It seems to me that the plan of action is the contact the PR department of Verizon and tell them you'll be contacting the PR department of their local competitor or news outlet if the problem isn't fixed within two days--and then doing it if they don't fix things.