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The Verizon logo is seen at the headquarters for Northern Virginia in Ashburn, Va.
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A 69-year-old Mt. Lebanon homeowner never missed her bills. So why did Verizon cut off her service?

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A 69-year-old Mt. Lebanon homeowner never missed her bills. So why did Verizon cut off her service?

Mt. Lebanon resident Darl McMahon says she’s never been late paying her Verizon phone or internet bill.

Nevertheless, the company cut off her service last month, abruptly leaving the 69-year-old without internet access or a telephone.

“It was horrible,” Mrs. McMahon, who doesn’t have a cell phone, said of the weekend suspension. “I was always taught that if you paid your bills, you would have your utilities.”

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Verizon took the action after Mrs. McMahon refused repeated attempts to set up an appointment for a technician to visit her home as part of the company’s plan to switch her neighborhood from copper wires to a fiber optic network.

Mrs. McMahon says she wanted to know exactly what Verizon needed to do inside her house before letting anyone in. “They wouldn’t tell me,” she said, other than to say that the technician wouldn’t know until going inside to look around.

“I don’t want someone going room to room destroying my house,” she said. “I don’t want them wrecking my walls. I have a finished basement.”

After her phone was shut off, she relented and scheduled an appointment for early February. Her service was immediately restored.

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But Mrs. McMahon wasn’t happy.

“The thing that really angers me the most is, if I pay my bill, they still can shut my phone off,” she said. “It’s scary and it’s sad.”

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Verizon did not break any rules.

“Utilities have the right to access their facilities,” Nils Hagen-Frederiksen said. “If there is a meter or connection that is inside the structure and they need access, refusing to give them access is grounds for terminating service.”

Verizon acknowledged that it may “suspend” service for up to two weeks during fiber optic conversions when attempts to set up an appointment fail.

“The idea being that if the line is of use to someone, the customer will call in and make an appointment,” said spokesman Mike Murphy, noting that during a suspension customers are still able to make 911 calls or to contact the company. “After two weeks, if no one has reached out, the expectation is that line would be disconnected.”

He said Verizon is investing in a fiber optic network because it is more reliable than copper wire networks. Technicians who make the switch in homes won’t be ripping out any old wires, he said. But they may have to enter to replace the Verizon junction box, which often is located in the basement or utility closet.

“The appointment allows us to evaluate what needs to be done. In the overwhelming majority of cases, it’s a quick changeover of one piece of equipment,” he said, adding that technicians wear uniforms and carry identification.

Mrs. McMahon thinks Verizon should let her stay on the old copper wire network.

Late in 2015, an elderly couple in suburban Philadelphia filed a complaint with the state Public Utility Commission seeking to have their copper wire phone service with Verizon restored, contending it was more dependable and, unlike the fiber optic system, allowed corded phones to continue to work during electrical power outages.

But an administrative law judge ruled there were no laws that could force Verizon to deliver service in a particular way.

Another portion of the couple’s complaint involving service disruptions was upheld, resulting in Verizon paying a $4,750 fine.

Mr. Murphy said customers’ bills won’t rise because of the conversion to fiber optics. As part of the switchover, Verizon is providing households with a power unit and the first set of batteries that keeps phones working during outages. When in use, the batteries will last for about 24 hours, he said.

He also noted that even on copper wire systems, cordless phones don’t work when the electricity is out.

Mrs. McMahon balked at the cost of replacing the 12 D-cell batteries in the power pack, and said she wasn’t satisfied with Mr. Murphy’s explanation about the need for a technician to enter her house.

“I’m even more upset now than I was before,” she said.

“I don’t want some man with dirty clothes and dirty shoes walking around my home. Until they tell me what they are going to do, they are not coming into my home.”

Patricia Sabatini: PSabatini@post-gazette.com; 412-263-3066.

First Published: January 10, 2017, 5:00 a.m.

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The Verizon logo is seen at the headquarters for Northern Virginia in Ashburn, Va.  (AFP/Getty Images)
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