March ended with yet another public hearing on the seemingly endless series of problems customers in New Hampshire were experiencing from FairPoint.  The Public Utilities Commission sent FairPoint a letter in April laying out benchmarks it expected the company to comply with to address the problems once and for all.

Meanwhile, a FairPoint spokesperson pushed the goal post even further away, now claiming the company’s “plan all along” was to resolve problems by June 30, 2009.  WMUR summed up the problems, and what New Hampshire regulators hoped would finally be the solution.

[flv width=”320″ height=”240″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WMUR Manchester FairPoint Says It’s Working To Improve Performance 04-10-09.flv[/flv]

By May of this year, FairPoint finally started putting a dent in the number of customer complaints filed with Public Utilities regulators in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.  Billing problems were now the biggest challenge for the company.  Customers receiving incorrect bills (or not receiving them at all) started refusing to pay until an accurate bill could be sent.  Many others found they were still being billed for lines disconnected weeks or even months earlier.

Wall Street, and credit rating agencies were following the chaos in New England, and didn’t like what they saw.  Customers were fleeing to the competition in high numbers.  The company cannot pay its debt without paying  customers.  The stock price had been declining as well.  Considering all of those factors, along with FairPoint’s quarterly earnings report, a range of rating services downgraded FairPoint’s credit rating, with one openly speculating FairPoint could face bankruptcy.

WCSH in Portland, Maine picks up the story on May 8th:

[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCSH Portland FairPoint Credit Rating Reduced 05-08-09.flv[/flv]

It was only a matter of time before business customers would bring in attorneys and find a way to make FairPoint pay for the lost business and other problems associated with messing up their phone service.  One business in Casco, Maine threatened to do just that, and it led the news on May 15th on WCSH Portland:

[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCSH Portland Customer Threatens to Sue FairPoint 05-15-09.flv[/flv]