A Story Ripped From Today's Headlines
I called Verizon yesterday to get the phone hooked up at my new place in Brooklyn. But Verizon said they couldn't connect my phone because the previous tenants haven't yet disconnected their service. So I call the landlord, who thinks this is odd because the prior tenants had told him they already took care of it.

So I called Verizon again today and she said the same thing. But she starts this game of 20 Questions with me in which I finally figure out that the recently departed tenants had a different phone company (ah, the joys of competition) but she isn't allowed to tell me which one. She said as soon as that other phone company requests a disconnection, Verizon will take care of it. As part of the deregulation process, Verizon keeps control of the phone lines but rents them to competitors who want to provide local service.

So I call my new landlord again and he says, "Oh, I hope they didn't have MCI. Just this morning someone told me MCI said it will take several weeks to get anything done because no one is really working there anymore."

You know where this is going, don't you?

Landlord calls me back. He's just talked to the former tenant. The former tenant had service through WorldCom's MCI. A week ago, he called to have the phone shut off and his number moved to his new place. They had no idea if he could transfer his number given the circumstances.

Coincidentally, I happened to catch part of the WorldCom news conference this afternoon. I saw the CEO proudly state that they haven't lost any more major accounts, including government departments responsible for national security.

So I can guess how they are holding onto all those consumer accounts - they're just not getting around to disconnecting the service.
- posted by Amy @ 7/02/2002 10:33:00 PM