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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. Phone lines at Umami Café had been out for four days. Owner Craig Purdy said he was solicited by Verizon, had the phone service installed, then lost service. But the problem was fixed after The Croton Daily Voice inquired about the wait with Verizon.
Purdy said he spent hours on the phone with the company over the course of the four-day outage, and said the problem eventually was diagnosed as coming from Verizon's outside lines.
"I spend all day long, bending in like a pretzel to keep my customers happy, accommodating them in any timely, prompt manner required, to make sure they have no reason not to be my customer. Imagine if someone had a lukewarm dinner, and it took me a week to even acknowledge it," Purdy said.
On Tuesday, with the restaurant's main line, 914-271-5555, still out of service, Purdy hung a 3-by-4-foot sign on the front of his restaurant which read, "HEY VERIZON! MY PHONES STILL DON'T WORK!"
When called by The Croton Daily Voice, a Verizon press representative said he would look into the situation. A half-hour later, Purdy received a phone call from Verizon informing him a technician would be on the premises Wednesday evening; 2½ hours after that, the problem was fixed, Purdy said.
Purdy said Verizon offered him credit for four days of phone service.
"Credit? What? For four days worth of phone service? I can't even start to calculate what kind of damage this has done to my business," Purdy said.
As of Wednesday evening, Purdy said, his phone service was working and he had removed the banner from his storefront.
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