III. Responses from Customers

Although no other party besides the applicant filed a formal appearance in the proceeding, a large volume of letters and electronic mail have been received by the Commission's Public Advisor's Office from customers of VSSI, objecting to granting the application. Public participation hearings were also held on March 22, 2001 in Los Angeles and San Bernardino where VSSI customers appeared to speak in opposition to granting the application.

A recurring theme in customers' comments is that Verizon should not be permitted to cancel the OneSource service arrangements unilaterally but should be required to honor the company's contractual obligation to offer the existing package of bundled service. Customers believe that consumers should not be forced to move from carrier to carrier just because serving existing customers no longer fits into VSSI's current business plans.

Customers also object to the manner in which they were notified of the withdrawal of service. Many customers found the notices to be misleading because they left the impression that customers were required to switch to another carrier on or before March 19, 2001. To the extent there was any reference to the requirement for advance approval from the Commission, such reference was buried toward the end of the letter. Certain customers report that they were told in error by company representatives that the approval had already been obtained, and they would have their service cut off if they did not switch to another carrier by March 19, 2001. At least one customer characterized VSSI's actions as "a kind of slamming process designed to push customers into higher-priced services months prior to any need to do so, or never, if the Commission rejects the Application." (RT 9.) Another customer indicated that he had requested to have his VSSI local service continued at least up until March 19, the deadline announced by the company to cut off service. Instead, this customer reports that he was switched prematurely and was denied the opportunity to be reinstated into the OneSource service after the switch had occurred.