13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |AMERITECH
About the series
Prompted by mounting customer complaints against Ameritech, the Eyewitness News Investigators took a look into the company's performance. How did things get to this point, and who's answering - or not answering - for the problems? Those are the questions addressed in this series. Part One looks at the company's strictly-held silence on the issues. Part Two looks at the role Ameritech's extensive lobbying has played in maintaining a favorable regulatory atmosphere.
The series was reported by Jeremy Rogalski, photographed and edited by Bill Ditton, and produced by Kathleen Johnston and Gerry Lanosga. It aired in August, 2000.
Part One
Phone service used to be as simple as dialing the operator. Not anymore, say angry customers of Ameritech.
"It's just frustrating, very frustrating," said Jenny Kouns.
"I've never experienced being without phone service for this long," said Francine Weigand.
"It's just here for a decoration," said Carmelita Hampton, laughing about the phone that's been unusable for weeks. "That's all it's here for now."
"To me, they're just a bunch of liars, because they don't keep commitments," said Bob Spargur.
Those are just a few of the frustrated phone customers who have no choice but to put up with Ameritech's problems. Holding for 30 or more minutes on a service call or waiting for 30 days or longer to get phone service restored isn't uncommon.
As many as 5,000 Ameritech customers have been without phone service at any given moment this year. Government figures show Ameritech had the worst customer service of any phone company in the nation last year.
And no one seems to be able to get any answers from Ameritech. The most anyone has heard in recent months was a 90-second videotaped statement from company president George Fleetwood on his plan to improve things.
How carefully does Ameritech control the flow of information? Two news releases - one from Ameritech Indiana and the other from Ameritech Illinois - tell the story. In both releases, the same quote praising the company is attributed to two different union officials. And two different Ameritech presidents also are quoted - saying the exact same thing.
When we tried to talk to Fleetwood in person last week, we couldn't get past the front desk. Instead, we were told repeatedly only a spokesman would be available.
So we went higher up the corporate ladder and called executives at Ameritech's parent company, SBC communications in San Antonio, Texas. All the executives, we were told, were in a meeting, and nobody ever called us back.
We thought surely someone in charge would give us a few minutes when we flew down to company headquarters. But again, all we got was another public relations pro - spokesman Selim Bingol.
"Well, like I said, there's a lot of information that's out there," he said. "We're doing a lot to communicate with customers."
Numerous customers, however, say otherwise.
Jan Oates tried to talk to a senior manager when her phone service went out.
"I also offered my work number to see if he would call me at work, since my home phone was still out, and he said no, he does not return any phone calls," she said.
How did it get to this point?
"Well, there are a number of reasons that I think folks at Ameritech have explained in terms of weather, in terms of labor shortages, in terms of extreme demand," Bingle said.
For weeks, Ameritech spokespersons have repeated that litany. But former employees tell Eyewitness News the company's own actions caused those problems.
"There were massive, massive people leaving," said Dan Hammer, a former customer service representative for Ameritech.
Hammer and some former company managers say the worker shortage was of Ameritech's own making, because it bought out numerous veteran employees to trim expenses before the sale to SBC.
"So what do you have to do? You have to do massive hiring, so now you're bringing in rookies to take over for 15- and 20- year veterans of the company," Hammer said. "Obviously you're going to lose a lot of experience when you do that.
And what about the increased demand for services? Ameritech helped to create that problem, too, former employees say, by aggressively marketing new services while it was struggling to provide basic ones.
Hammer says service reps were instructed to push products like cordless phones, internet service, and extra lines - even on those who called to complain about poor service.
"Every single call," he said. "And if you didn't, well, there was definitely disciplinary action coming up."
Because Ameritech faces little competition for local service in Indiana, consumers say they are at the company's mercy. What's more, the state has little real regulatory authority, because the Indiana Utility Regulatory Agency isn't able to impose fines on companies like Ameritech.
"It's very frustrating," said IURC director Mike Leppert. "It makes it very difficult to do your job given the circumstances that we're under right now."
The IURC's lack of authority is maddening to already enraged phone customers.
For people like Weigand, who's pregnant with her second child, being without phone service is more than an inconvenience. It's a safety issue.
"We only have one phone," she said. "If something goes wrong, what am I going to do? It's just ridiculous."
Weigand was one of the lucky ones - her phone service was restored in 12 days. Many others are still waiting, weeks after first calling Ameritech.
How can it keep happening?
"The law allows it," Leppert said. "Or the absence of law."
For weeks, Carmelita Hampton's ailing 91-year-old father couldn't call 911 in the event of an emergency. For weeks, the Hamptons' line was dead.
"He knows how to pick it up and dial it, but if anything should happen now, this is all you're gonna get - nothing," she said.
Hampton is just one of thousands of phone customers who've struggled to get through to Ameritech recently. But Ameritech has little trouble getting through to policymakers when it comes to pushing its agenda at the Statehouse.
Critics say the company knows exactly how to make the right connections.
"You're dealing with a lot of politics here, that's the reality of it," said Chris Williams, executive director of the consumer advocate group Citizens Action Coalition.
CAC has fought Ameritech's lobbying juggernaut for years.
Public records detail the politics and power of the company, which is consistently among the top spenders at the Statehouse. Over the past four years, Ameritech paid out more than a million dollars on lobbying and on campaign gifts to Indiana Democrats and Republicans alike.
At least $944,000 paid for parties and gifts for lawmakers and for salaries of lobbyists. And at least $120,000 was donated to more than 90 different state candidates, as well as various party committees.
Both Gov. Frank O'Bannon, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, have accepted thousands of dollars from Ameritech in past years. McIntosh received his money on the federal level, where Ameritech and its parent company spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But money is only part of the story. Ameritech also employs influential names - people such as Gov. Frank O'Bannon's son, Jon, Republican City-County Council member Bill Soards, and Democratic State Sen. Cleo Washington. The company also signed up former Democratic State Sen. Louis Mahern to run a group called Connect Indiana, which lobbies for Ameritech's interests.
Just last week, Mahern, Soards, and Washington were among the officials who attended a fundraiser for Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan. The location: the home of Ameritech Indiana President George Fleetwood.
Fleetwood himself, in fact, lobbied for Ameritech before he was named president. He's still a registered lobbyist.
We wanted to talk to him about these issues, but he repeatedly refuses interview requests.
Ameritech's opponents are talking. They say the company's clout has paid off by helping create a favorable business climate that's virtually free of government control.
"I have been down at the Statehouse and have felt like the people at the Alamo in terms of the human wave of lobbyists that the phone company has employed to get its way in the past," said the CAC's Williams.
The CAC also spends money lobbying the legislature, but it's $317,000 over the last four years is only about a third what Ameritech spent - and the coalition lobbies on numerous regulatory issues outside the ones involving the phone company.
Top officials from Ameritech and its parent company, SBC Communications in San Antonio, Texas, refuse to answer questions about these matters.
At SBC headquarters, no one who actually makes decisions about phone service would talk to us. Only a spokesman, Selim Bingol, would meet us.
"We're talking to a lot of people throughout the region at the regulatory arenas, we're talking to people directly," Bingol said. "There's no shortage of conversation going on between Ameritech and our customers."
Not according to customers such as Francine Weigand, who says she never got an explanation for her service problems.
"I want to know who regulates them," she said. "I want to know what they're allowed to do, what they're not allowed to do, are they accountable to anybody."
Technically, Ameritech is accountable to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. But IURC Executive Director Mike Leppert says his agency has little real control.
"Virtually there is very little that we can do in the way of fining or other remedial action at this level," he said, "and that's something that situations like these, in our opinion, calls for."
But that hasn't happened. Critics say it's because of Ameritech's formidable Statehouse presence, and they say that presence is a key advantage for Ameritech as it pushes a new plan for even less regulation.
For the company's frustrated customers, the politicking is a misplaced priority when they're facing weeks without phone service.
"Fulfill your end of the contract," Weigand said. "It's a contract. I pay my bill, you provide me service. Provide the service."
