

                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
                     *       US West News        *
                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                             By Demon Phreaker


 US WEST MEMO RAISES SERVICE QUESTIONS
 Oregonian (PO) - SATURDAY, December 16, 1995
 By: ALAN K. OTA - of the Oregonian Staff
 Edition: SUNRISE  Section: BUSINESS  Page: A01
 Word Count: 724
 
 MEMO:
 TYPE: Profile   Local   Oregon   National
 
 TEXT:
 Summary:  The company's record of poor and late work has many wondering why
 it customer service regulations
 
 For US West, it's been a long fall from grace.
 Once  highly  rated  for  customer  relations,  the  company's  internal
 documents  suggest  some of its executives have adopted adversarial tactics
 for  dealing with regulators on customer problems. Now the company's delays
 and  poor  service  record  are  alienating regulators and coveted business
 customers.

    ``They're  not  US West. They're worst,'' said Steve Wicke, president of
 Spire Technologies Inc., a fledgling Internet service provider in Portland.
 He's lost customers because of breakdowns and delays in telephone service.
 The  tough  assessment echoes among regulators in 14 states served by US
 West.  For  two  months  they've  been  circulating  copies of accidentally
 released  company documents that appear to indicate an opposition among its
 executives  to  regulation  of  customer  service. The documents were found
 after  a  meeting  of  regulators  Oct.  23  in the Red Lion Hotel at Lloyd
 Center.

 In a two-page memorandum to 25 company executives in 14 states four days
 before  the  meeting,  US  West Vice President Laura Ford warned them to be
 ``cordial but firm'' with the state regulators.
 
 ``We  do  not  want  to  give  them  the  impression that they should be
 measuring our service quality,'' the memorandum said. It said the company's
 position   should   be   that   executives  would  ``do  our  own  internal
 measurement.''
 The  memorandum  continued,  ``In  tune  with the tenor of the political
 times, they should not be micro-managing our business.''
 On Friday, Oregon consumer groups and representatives of US West's union
 sharply  criticized  the  document's  opposition  to regulation of service.
 Company  officials  said  the  memorandum  did not reflect official company
 policy,  but  they  did  not  did  not  deny that its top officials contend
 competition  --  not  regulators  --  should determine how well the company
 treats its customers.
 
 ``We  believe customers ought to be the final determinant of what is and
 what is not good service  said David Banks, a company spokesman.
 Ford,  the  Denver-based  vice  president of public policy who wrote the
 memo, declined comment.
 Joan  Smith,  an  Oregon Public Utility Commission member who chairedthe
 October  meeting of the Regional Oversight Committee, said regulators found
 papers  marked  confidential  on a table after the the meeting with company
 representatives.  ``We  waited  for  them  to come back,'' she said. ``They
 didn't. So we sent them back to them without comment.''
 Regulators kept and circulated copies.
 
 ``They're  a  hoot,'' said Smith, who said the confidential position was
 much different for US West's public stance in Oregon.
 The memorandum was accompanied by an eight-page document citing point by
 point  US  West's opposition to a number of the regulatory guidelines later
 adopted by the regional committee.
 ``It's  an  outrageous statement,'' said Diane Rosenbaum, who represents
 the  Communications Workers of America, the company's union, and works as a
 customer  service  representative  for  US West in Oregon. ``The company is
 providing  slipshod  service.  It  will  only  get  worse  if  they're  not
 regulated.''

 Bob Jenks, the executive director of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board,
 a consumer advocacy group, said the memorandum revealed the strategy behind
 the  company's  ``stonewalling''  at  the  October meeting. ``We left it to
 them, and they failed,'' he said.
 
 The  guidelines  set in Portland called for the company to meet goals of
 repairingtelephones  within  24 hours and installing install new telephones
 within two days. The company has not formally agreed to the standards.
 When a US West official asked the state regulators in Portland to name a
 top telephone company, one replied bluntly, ``US West in 1992.''
 
 Bob  Rowe,  a Montana Public Service Commission member who now chairsthe
 regional  committee, said US West and New York-based NYNEX now have the two
 worst records for customer service. ``US West's problems are stretched over
 a wide area. NYNEX's problems are in New York,'' he said.
 Banks  said,  ``It's  not his job to be critical of NYNEX.'' He said the
 company ranked high in some Baby Bell comparisons and low in others.
 
 Service  complaints  have multiplied since US West began a restructuring
 that  has  seen  a  decline  in  total employees from about 55,000 to about
 48,000.  As many as 2,000 to 5,000 more may be cut by 1997. US West employs
 3,500  people  in  Oregon, down from 4,200 in 1990 because of transfers and
 reorganization.
 
              Copyright (c) 1995, The Oregonian Publishing Company

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