UPDATE 4/3/09: Less than a week after I wrote this post, Fairpoint updated their website to reflect the changes that I wrote about in the post below.  You can see my response to the changes here.

I write this post to express my complete dissatisfaction with Fairpoint Communications and its complete lack of customer service and support.  The way they treat their customers is completely disgraceful.  I wish I had another option and I would disconnect my service permanently.

Comcast, I beg you, please come to Jaffrey.

With that out of the way, let me share with you my short story:

For the last couple of weeks I have called Fairpoint Communications on a number of occasions in an attempt to upgrade my service with them.  The advertised rates for high speed internet on the Fairpoint website are listed below:

	Standard	Premium
Speed Up to	3 Mbps	7 Mbps
Monthly Pricing One-Year Commitment	$33.99	$39.99
Monthly Pricing Month-to-Month	$39.99	$47.99

Right now I am paying over $40/month for standard dry loop (data only) DSL service with a one year commitment.  After checking out the Fairpoint website a few weeks back, I realized that we were paying more than their advertised rates for standard service.  Basically, we were paying the Premium pricing for the Standard service.  This is what prompted my phone call to Fairpoint in the first place.

Over the course of two weeks, three phone calls to Fairpoint were dropped after waiting on hold for around 20 minutes.  After finally getting through on the fourth phone call, I was connected to a customer service rep.  I explained to her the pricing discrepency and told her that I wanted to simply upgrade my service from the Standard to the Premium and keep my one year commitment for service.  This was met with much confusion and prompted a “Can you please hold on the line for a moment while I check with my supervisor?”.

Fast forward five minutes…

Kathy the “Supervisor” comes on the line and I explain to her the situation.  Kathy then explains to me that the reason why we are paying more for our service is because we do not currently have voice service with Fairpoint.  I completely understand the reasoning but explain to Kathy that it does say anything on the Fairpoint internet pricing page (Cached Version) about having to have purchase phone service to take advantage of their advertised rates.  This went back and forth for at least 10 minutes.  I voiced several times during the conversation that I would be satisfied if she could simply send me something in writing that stated the difference in price and the reasoning.  She couldnt do it.

I wish I would have recorded the phone call that I had with Kathy the Supervisor in Maine.  Our conversation ended with her telling me that she “didnt have anything else to say to me” and then hanging up the phone.

I’m not quite sure who is fully to blame in this situation.  I am equally displeased with Kathy as I am with Fairpoint.   Fairpoint should have all service pricing clearly listed on their website so that there is no questions for their customers.  Kathy should have acted more professional on the phone and done the necessary research to provide me with a proper answer to my question.

If there was any competition in our area, I would have canceled my service in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, my only option right now for high speed internet is with Fairpoint.

Comcast, I beg you, please come to Jaffrey.