Posted: 02/1998
By Charlene O'Hanlon
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has announced it is stepping up inspections and quality assurance within the state's payphone industry, following a failed spot inspection of about 200 Miami-area payphones. Payphone owners, however, are confused and angered by the PSC's announcement, citing low consumer complaint rates.
The Florida PSC held a press conference in early December announcing its new "get tough" policy on payphones, due to poor service quality and, in some cases, non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"Payphones are a bottom-line communication tool for many people," said Commissioner Joe Garcia during the press conference. "Let this be a strong message to payphone companies that we are cracking down on poor service quality, and that we intend to assure Florida's consumers are getting their money's worth when they use a payphone."
Payphone owners, though, believe the PSC has taken the failed inspection out of context, putting a scarlet letter on the payphone industry for the entire state.
"You can't take a snapshot of one situation and think that's indicative of the whole industry," says Lance Norris, president of the Florida Public Telecommunications Association. "The area inspected was not one of the more affluent neighborhoods of Miami--there are some real problems with vandalism on those payphones--and that's not looking at the industry as a whole."
Fueling the Fire
It was an isolated incident that sparked the controversy: Garcia was visiting the Little Havana area of Miami on business, and when he needed to use a payphone, he couldn't find one that worked. Of the payphones he tried to use, one did not have dial tone and another took his money. In addition, Garcia said during the press conference, the overall appearance of the phones was not acceptable. He finally found a working phone a few miles from where he started.
Based on his experience, Garcia ordered a spot check of about 200 phones in the Miami area. Of those checked, only six met all the requirements set forth by the Florida PSC. In all, the PSC found:
- 97 percent did not meet all the PSC's quality standards
- 15 percent did not operate at all
- 75 percent did not have a telephone directory
- 28 percent did not have the correct address posted
- 7 percent were not handicapped accessible
The PSC uses a 29-point checklist as its guideline for measuring payphone service quality, which includes requirements such as current directory available, instrument reasonably clean and correct address of payphone location displayed, among others. If even one of the requirements is not met, the owner of that payphone is notified and the problem has to be remedied--or the PSC notified of the owner's intent to remedy--within 15 days. If the problem is not resolved, the payphone owner could be fined or, if this a recurring problem, have his certificate to operate revoked.
Rick Moses, communications engineer supervisor, State of Florida, says it's not unusual for payphones to fail an inspection.
"Generally we will find some violations, such as a phone directory missing or out of date, or some technical problem with the phone. But there are also phones that we find are completely satisfactory," he says.
About 3,000 inspections are done throughout the year, Moses notes, and most of the violations are minor. "The offenses depend on the population around the payphone. If you go into a real bad neighborhood, your chances of finding a telephone directory there are slim to none," he says. "Vandalism is rampant, and people will stuff things into the coin chute so, naturally, the phone won't work. Then they unstuff them and the payphone returns all the money to them. Also, with drug trafficking, people continually hang around payphones waiting for incoming calls. We've issued waivers so payphone owners can block incoming calls, but the vandalism still occurs.
"In all fairness to the industry," he adds, "that thing is out there and it does take a lot of abuse by the elements and people taking out their aggressions on the phone. It's essentially a computer sitting out there; it's no longer just a regular phone."
Hey, That's Unfair
The FPTA's Norris agrees that service quality should be a top priority with payphone owners.
"We do not condone pay telephone operators not abiding by the rules of the Public Service Commission," he says. "There is always room for improvement and we hope (payphone owners) take their business seriously and provide the quality of service that the consumers demand."
However, Norris says the violations that regularly occur are so minor that, by chastising the quality of payphones in the Miami area, the PSC is unfairly tarnishing the image of an entire industry.
"The PSC was making a big deal out of the number of consumer complaints, but when you go back and look at the complaints they had, they were all minor. Consumer complaints are down drastically, nominal at best. There are still some out there, but a lot are rate complaints on charges from an operator services provider or something like that--not something that is in the jurisdiction of the PSC anyway," he says.
Norris cites figures from the PSC: "In 1996 there were 102 complaints," he says. From January through October 1997, he adds, the PSC recorded 70 complaints. "We're going to be at about 100 complaints again this year, but that's out of 117,000 phones. That's not a bad record."
Death by Phone Book
What seems to be at the heart of the matter--and the reason the PSC is taking such a sudden interest in payphone quality--is the deregulation of the local exchange carrier (LEC) payphone industry. Price increases for local phone calls have prompted a surge in the need for quality, according to the PSC.
"We can't stop the price increase, but we still have the power to force the payphone companies to keep them in good working order," says Thelma Crump, spokesperson for the Division of Consumer Affairs, Florida Bureau of Consumer Information and Conservation Education.
And no one group--LECs or private payphone owners--is being targeted as the worst offenders, Florida's Moses notes.
"Now that the payphones of LECs have been deregulated the same as the private payphone industry, we're now seeing pretty much the same trends across the board. In 1995, we fined several LECs for handicapped violations. BellSouth alone got fined $60,000 for various violations," Moses says. "LECs have had their share of problems, although they've not had quite the problems that the private folks do, mainly because they understand the rules a little better."
As the Florida PSC steps up its inspection efforts, the deregulation that payphone owners originally may have viewed as a windfall in the form of increased calling and service charges to consumers instead may turn out to be the albatross around many owners' necks. And many of those owners may come to an untimely end at the hands of missing or out-of-date phone directories.
"The directory problem is rampant," Moses says. "You get a salesperson coming into town, grabbing a directory and running with it, and it's becoming more difficult for providers to maintain. But we're taking a harder look at those, because now operator service providers are able to charge for directory assistance. It really puts the consumer at a disadvantage because if the directory is not available, the consumer has no option but to call directory assistance and get charged for the call."
Norris, however, believes it would be impossible for payphone owners to keep directories at all phones at all times.
"(Payphone owners) can't keep going out there and replacing books and binders at each payphone. Now the PSC is looking at requiring both the white and yellow pages. In South Florida that would require three binders at each phone. That's expensive," Norris says.
Moving Forward
Despite what might be viewed as an adversarial relationship between the PSC and the FPTA, Norris insists both sides are working together to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Meanwhile, payphone owners are on alert.
"Commissioner Garcia made it clear that this is only the beginning and that he is taking a personal interest in following these issues," Norris said in a memo sent from the FPTA to its members following the PSC's announcement. "This means that now, more than ever, you must ensure that all of your pay telephones are in compliance with PSC rules and regulations."
Public Service Commission
Evaluation Checklist
The Florida Public Service Commission has a 29-point checklist which it uses during payphone inspections. As part of its inspection process, the PSC checks for the following:
- Telephone is in service (could originate and receive calls)
- Telephone is accessible to the physically handicapped
- Legible and correct telephone number is displayed
- Address of responsible party for refunds/repairs is displayed
- Coin-free number for repairs/refunds works properly
- Current directory is available
- Extended area service and local calls
- Wiring properly terminated and in good condition
- Correct address of payphone location is displayed
- Instrument reasonably clean
- Enclosure is adequate and free of trash
- Glass is not chipped or broken
- Sufficient light to read instructions at night
- Certificate name of provider is displayed
- Local telephone company responsibility is displayed
- Clear and accurate dialing instructions are displayed
- Statement of services not available is displayed
- Automatic coin return functions properly
- Incoming calls can be received (and bell rings can be heard)
- There is direct free service to the local operator
- There is access to local directory assistance
- There is access to all available interexchange carriers
- There is coin-free service to 911
- 911 center could verify the street address of the payphone
- Transmission is adequately strong and free of noise or static
- Dial 0 = (904) 413-6612 + card number -- time call for 90 seconds
- Combination of nickels and dimes operates properly
- Dial pad functions after call is answered
- Dial 0 + local area code + local number to verify call goes to the LEC operator
Source: Florida Public Service Commission
