CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – FairPoint Communications has set weekly targets it hopes to meet in response to customer complaints, but it won’t reveal what those targets are or how close it comes to meeting them.

FairPoint bought Verizon Communications’ landline telephone and Internet business in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont a year ago and switched to its own computer systems in January.

Since then, it’s been plagued with complaints from customers who can’t get phone service, have received confusing billing statements and have spent hours on hold.

In a filing with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission last week, FairPoint described the targets it hopes to meet in the next 10 weeks in numerous areas, including incomplete orders, late orders with service pending, orders still pending from before Feb. 9, billing errors and call center wait time.

But the details remain confidential because the company considers them trade secrets or information related to competitive services.

“We consider it to be competitive information, market information, that we don’t want our competitors to know about,” spokeswoman Jill Wurm told the New Hampshire Sunday News.

The company did provide some information in one category: incomplete orders.

In early March, it had 7,906 orders that had entered the system but had not been completed, but said in its filing that “the majority of the improvement in this area is behind us.”

It hopes to reach a normal level of 1,750 incomplete orders by June 30.

After New Hampshire’s Office of Consumer Affairs received 1,400 complaints about FairPoint in March, the company’s president told regulators earlier this month that “service is unacceptably low.” But Peter Nixon said the company was making progress.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.