Some customers report outages, waits for service
Some Verizon customers are being caught in the crossfire between the telecom giant and its striking unions, reporting slow response to complaints or lost service as the walkout of 45,000 employees completed its third day.
In Boston’s Kenmore Square, the Hotel Commonwealth, Eastern Standard Restaurant, and Island Creek Oyster Bar went without phone service from Sunday morning until Monday night. The restaurants used social media tools Twitter and Facebook to warn customers of the outage. The three businesses declined to comment.
Meanwhile, some customers of Verizon’s residential service peppered the discussion forums on the company’s website with complaints of slow response to service requests.
Among the outages that Verizon said were the result of sabotage were cut wires on Norfolk Avenue in the Easton Industrial Park, near where strikers had set up a picket line. Among the affected companies were Boston’s Best Coffee Roasters, which relied on its answering service yesterday to respond to calls.
A Verizon spokesman said the outage affected hundreds of customers, many of whom called to complain. He said the wires appeared to be cut with a hack saw.
Spokesman Phil Santoro said that prior to the strike Verizon had “no instances of cable cuts as far as anyone can remember . . . then we have all these cable cuts. You draw your own conclusions.’’
Union officials did not return a call for comment last night but previously said they had no knowledge of sabotage and do not support such acts.
Another allegedly cut cable left Eric Heinze of Tewksbury without any service for more than day.
Heinze, 43, came home Sunday to find his home without cable, Internet, and phone service. Heinze said Verizon’s fill-in workers had his service restored Monday afternoon, hours after he had notified the company.
Verizon has warned customers to expect an increase in wait times for service and repairs.
Kaivan Mangouri can be reached at kmangouri@globe.com. 
