Dear Verizon
Attention: Group Vice President, or whatever, in Charge of Logic and Common Sense
There is an inability to understand why your company continues to mail letters to this address, making an offer of service that you cannot provide. It’s not that you do not know where the letters are being sent. You get the address correct every time, even including all digits in the zip code.
So one is left with the presumption that your problem is one that seems to be the norm of the day. Verizon has moved far away from the day when there existed a local office with a staff that was knowledgeable about the area in which service was provided. This concept seems to have been tossed into the dustbin of history. Therefore, maybe an explanation from the local level might help explain why the constant flow of letters are wasting time, material, and postage.
Phone service was once provided by your company to this address, long before your name became Verizon. But that ended when it became impossible to obtain reliable service via your system, which was installed back in the mid 1960s. The telephone cable that services the neighborhood, only thirty some houses along a couple of dead-end streets, was installed underground.
There then came a period of time, after several years, when it was a rare day that a Verizon repair truck was not parked in the neighborhood. After repeatedly losing phone service at this address, the repairman was asked what the problem might be. The answer was an interesting one.
This part of the country was once the bottom of the ocean before God did some major landscaping. The soil in the area, once a seabed, is so acidic, or whatever, that it eats away at stuff like the multi-paired cable buried back in the 1960s. As a result, many of the individual sets of wires in that insulated cable have been eaten away to the point that they no longer work.
The last Verizon repairman to restore service to this address said he had used the last workable set of wires on the leg of the system that provided service along the street. He was asked a logical question. Why not replace it, if the cable is that bad?
The answer: Replacement cable was sitting in Verizon’s local service yard, but the decision had been made not to install it. Why? The company was going to install a different type cable that would handle all the services offered in your letter. That response led to an honest exchange of dialogue.
"So what happens if the phone service at this address goes out again?"
"Don't call us. Call them." The repairman point to the overhead lines of a competing company.
Well, here is what has happened. The competing company was called immediately. The old cable installed in the 1960s has not been replaced, and a Verizon repair truck has become a very rare sight in our neighborhood these days. If Verizon does not have the cable system to supply the service, those who need it must turn to another provider.
Why has the replacement cable not been installed? The answer being given locally is this. Now that there is competition for the services Verizon offers, there is no longer a mandatory requirement to provide total coverage within the city. Each company is allowed to pick and choose the areas, down to specific neighborhoods, in which it will provide service.
And the local rumor is that Verizon has deemed the potential return on investment would not justify the cost of replacing its underground cable in a small neighborhood where one of its major competitors already provides service via a state-of-the art system.
Okay, so this is about maybe a few dozen letters if all of the ones received over the years were added up. But there is a feeling that in the aggregate, these type letters across the country would represent a rather large pile, probably a few truckloads of trees.
In an age when everyone is running around, going bonkers about global warming, melting ice caps, save the trees, reduce the solid waste flow into our landfills, and all the other environmental stuff,one is left to wonder what kind of positive impact, what kind of positive public statement Verizon could make if it stopped sending letters that offer services to neighborhoods where it has no intention of providing them.
Hey, it’s just a thought, coming from one who might be considered old fashioned since part of the educational process back then was that logic and common sense were important traits⎯for both individuals and organizations⎯to have and to exhibit to the public.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Old Age Requires Attention to the Details if One is to Avoid Embarrassment
It’s a sure sign that one is getting along in years when a young whippersnapper, a person you know is only in his early fifties, asked you the following question at a meeting of a men’s club. “What advice you can pass on those of us approaching our senior years?”
My first reaction was to deny that I had reached such an advanced stage of life as to be a sage, dispensing advice. But the truth is that I have reached a point where experience has taught me a thing or two that can be critical if one wants to avoid embarrassing situations. I decided to share my thoughts.
The first thing I told them was that as age advances, a person needs to pay more attention to their daily routines, the specific task at hand, those things they have done their entire adult lives while their mind was on other matters. One specific item of importance I told the group was to pay attention when getting dressed in the morning.
From the wave of furrowed brows that sprang up throughout the audience, it was obvious this comment had not registered as an important thought within a single brain in the room. “It’s a matter of unintended consequences,” I told the group, creating more furrows on more foreheads.
I went on to explain that as one ages, the body’s systems do not signal a need for attention with as much advanced warning as they once did. I told them I was speaking specifically about signals received from the bladder.
“As you all know,” I told the group, “this signal arrives without a great deal of urgency, reminding you in a somewhat gentle manner that when you get a chance, you might consider a stop in the head."
But as age advances, this message changes, in tone and the amount of lead time it gives. At some future date, the signal would become, “Go. Now.”
This leads to a rush for the nearest bathroom and can lead to an encounter with one of those “unintended consequences.” That is, if one arrives at the urinal with seemingly only seconds to spare, unzips his pants, and discovers his failure to pay attention to the task at hand. "That morning, you put your boxer shorts on backwards."
My first reaction was to deny that I had reached such an advanced stage of life as to be a sage, dispensing advice. But the truth is that I have reached a point where experience has taught me a thing or two that can be critical if one wants to avoid embarrassing situations. I decided to share my thoughts.
The first thing I told them was that as age advances, a person needs to pay more attention to their daily routines, the specific task at hand, those things they have done their entire adult lives while their mind was on other matters. One specific item of importance I told the group was to pay attention when getting dressed in the morning.
From the wave of furrowed brows that sprang up throughout the audience, it was obvious this comment had not registered as an important thought within a single brain in the room. “It’s a matter of unintended consequences,” I told the group, creating more furrows on more foreheads.
I went on to explain that as one ages, the body’s systems do not signal a need for attention with as much advanced warning as they once did. I told them I was speaking specifically about signals received from the bladder.
“As you all know,” I told the group, “this signal arrives without a great deal of urgency, reminding you in a somewhat gentle manner that when you get a chance, you might consider a stop in the head."
But as age advances, this message changes, in tone and the amount of lead time it gives. At some future date, the signal would become, “Go. Now.”
This leads to a rush for the nearest bathroom and can lead to an encounter with one of those “unintended consequences.” That is, if one arrives at the urinal with seemingly only seconds to spare, unzips his pants, and discovers his failure to pay attention to the task at hand. "That morning, you put your boxer shorts on backwards."
Friday, October 2, 2009
A Couple of Good Reads
OH, JOHNNY (2009) by Jim Lehrer.
I have watched this man on PBS for more than a quarter century, but never realized he had written nineteen (19) novels. His first novel was published in 1988, five years after the debut of “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.
This is a small book (8.4 x 5.7, 240 pages), but made enjoyable by Lehrer's ability to present a story that spans nearly half a century with the same riveting clarity of voice he uses to deliver the nightly news. Some have called the voice “Kansas-flat.” It is straightforward, enjoyable, and without any frills to get in the way of the story.
It's a story that follows small town baseball player Johnny Wrigley, an 18-year old with tons of talent, from the time he goes off to war in 1944, until his death in old age. The tone and pace of the book reminded me very much of the Stephen W Meader books I read while growing up.
WRONGFUL DEATH (2009) by Robert Dugoni.
This legal thriller series is written around David Sloane, a civil attorney, and the character featured in Dugoni's first book,THE JURY MASTER (2006). In his second book, the main character is Dana Hill, also an attorney. Dugoni spent seventeen years as a civil attorney in San Francisco and Seattle before he turned to writing. After only three books, critics have already compared him to John Grisham in the courtroom and David Baldacci in the world of politics.
The courtroom issue in WRONGFUL DEATH is the “Feres Doctrine,” the legal concept that a soldier gives up on behalf of himself and members of his family, the right to sue for any injury or death incurring as an “incident of service.”
Adding to the depth of this novel, beyond the mental mind games required to win in the courtroom, are the well-developed characters in Sloane’s life. Their relationships and backgrounds, combined with action in the courtroom, present a story that is complex but easy to follow and plausible through the simplicity of the story telling.
I have watched this man on PBS for more than a quarter century, but never realized he had written nineteen (19) novels. His first novel was published in 1988, five years after the debut of “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.This is a small book (8.4 x 5.7, 240 pages), but made enjoyable by Lehrer's ability to present a story that spans nearly half a century with the same riveting clarity of voice he uses to deliver the nightly news. Some have called the voice “Kansas-flat.” It is straightforward, enjoyable, and without any frills to get in the way of the story.
It's a story that follows small town baseball player Johnny Wrigley, an 18-year old with tons of talent, from the time he goes off to war in 1944, until his death in old age. The tone and pace of the book reminded me very much of the Stephen W Meader books I read while growing up.
WRONGFUL DEATH (2009) by Robert Dugoni.
This legal thriller series is written around David Sloane, a civil attorney, and the character featured in Dugoni's first book,THE JURY MASTER (2006). In his second book, the main character is Dana Hill, also an attorney. Dugoni spent seventeen years as a civil attorney in San Francisco and Seattle before he turned to writing. After only three books, critics have already compared him to John Grisham in the courtroom and David Baldacci in the world of politics.The courtroom issue in WRONGFUL DEATH is the “Feres Doctrine,” the legal concept that a soldier gives up on behalf of himself and members of his family, the right to sue for any injury or death incurring as an “incident of service.”
Adding to the depth of this novel, beyond the mental mind games required to win in the courtroom, are the well-developed characters in Sloane’s life. Their relationships and backgrounds, combined with action in the courtroom, present a story that is complex but easy to follow and plausible through the simplicity of the story telling.
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