Frequent electric power outages in the 1990s made Commonwealth Edison the poster child for unpopular utilities and earned the wrath of consumers and regulators, but more suburban residents have turned their ire toward Ameritech, according to a recent Tribune/WGN poll.
Ameritech’s service and reliability had decreased in the last few years, 43 percent of the respondents said. That’s compared with 22 percent who felt that ComEd’s service had deteriorated in the same time period.
In addition, 51 percent said they would be “very likely” to switch their local phone service if rates were competitive.
“It’s astonishing that Ameritech has squandered its goodwill with the customers,” said Martin Cohen, executive director of the Chicago-based Citizens Utility Board, a watchdog group.
“People fondly remember good old Ma Bell,” Cohen said. “And Ameritech has managed to wreck their credibility with their customers in just a few short years.”
Last summer, the local telephone company had its worst year ever for service, admitting that too few technicians could not complete all the service requests.
“We all know 2000 was a time we had problems,” said Blair Klein, spokeswoman for Ameritech. “But those had been fixed. And this year we have been providing excellent service.”
The company started a two-year, $2 billion infrastructure rebuilding project in 2000.
Still, the anger from citizens and lawmakers led to hearings on Ameritech, and the state legislature passed new regulations as part of the telecommunications law designed to mandate better service from Ameritech as well as allow for easier competition.
Already, 80 companies are providing phone service in Ameritech’s service area in Illinois, said Michael King, a company spokesman. But industry observers say it will be several years before the new companies make a significant dent in the phone company’s market share, which approaches 99 percent of all residences in Ameritech’s Illinois region. Ameritech’s market share for businesses is lower.
In areas where competitors are setting up shop, some of Ameritech’s most vocal critics are trading companies, such as Craig Caldwell of Glenview, who runs a landscaping business out of his home.
His problems with phone service began a few years ago when he wanted a third phone line. Ameritech installers, he said, did not know how to add the line and, instead, disconnected the other lines.
So in July, when AT&T came into the North Shore and offered digital service for local phones, Caldwell signed up immediately. Now, though, he said he is experiencing some technical problems with AT&T, leading him to the conclusion that businesses shouldn’t rely on one company.He now subscribes to different carriers for local phone service, cellular phone and Internet.
“I sort of feel like you have to diversify with phones if you want to stay connected,” he said. “Relying on any one system to a greater degree is silly; you’ll find yourself unconnected.”
In the poll, 22 percent believed service for local gas utilities had changed for the worse, while 65 percent said the service stayed the same.
In addition, the survey found that 62 percent of ComEd customers believed the company’s service had stayed the same in the last few years. The survey was taken July 18-26 by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect and involved 1,196 heads of households in suburban Cook County and the collar counties.
Forty-four percent of Ameritech customers said the utility’s reliability and service had stayed the same.
Ameritech officials said the poll discussed problems that are in the past, emphasizing that much improvement has been made. The company reported this month to the Illinois Commerce Commission that out-of-service reports had been restored within 24 hours 95.8 percent of the time this year through July. Last September the monthly rate was 63 percent.
They also point out that complaints about service quality through July of this year totaled 435, down from 677 from the same time period last year.
The company said it spent $1 billion on infrastructure in Illinois last year and plans to do the same this year.
Cohen said the investment is a good start, but cautions that real competition in phone service is likely years away because Ameritech controls so much of the market. The road to competition, he said, will likely be bumpy.
For instance, some competitors have to negotiate with Ameritech to offer phone service, leaving customers unsure who is responsible when problems arise.
When Thomas Moore of Lisle recently switched to MCI from Ameritech, he couldn’t make a long-distance phone call for more than a week.
“I don’t know if it was MCI or Ameritech because you don’t know what’s going on,” Moore said.
Confusing bills and expensive rates explain why Yvette Allen-Lomara of Algonquin would be very likely to change her phone service.
“We moved here from another state, and I just believe that their charges are ridiculous,” she said. “I tried to call Ameritech [about them], but I had trouble getting through.”
Bad customer relations will cost Ameritech dearly for years to come, analysts say. Like ComEd, Ameritech must now show consecutive years of reliable service to win back trust, Cohen said.
More problematic for Ameritech are customers like Anna Riedler of Morton Grove, who said she was satisfied with the company’s service and reliability. But when AT&T came by with digital phone service that charged only $5 a month for a second line, she quickly changed allegiances.
“I personally didn’t have any problems with Ameritech,” Riedler said. “But I went with whoever was better for me.”
