Qwest misses a connection
By Al Lewis
Denver Post
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Qwest customer Joe Halpern has a problem.

"I have a Ph.D. with an emphasis in applied statistics and I can't understand my bill," he told me.

Halpern, 67, worked in information technology at Qwest for nine years. He's now president of the Colorado and Wyoming chapter of the phone company's retiree association.  And he just wants a little help understanding his bill.

He took the microphone at Qwest's annual shareholders' meeting Thursday, taking his problem to Qwest CEO Ed Mueller.

"I am one of your best customers," Halpern told Mueller.  "I have a real interest in seeing Qwest succeed.  I take . . . all of the services in your bundle."

Halpern said his monthly bill recently increased by $20, and he called Qwest to ask why.

"The customer service representatives who respond to billing questions are very cordial," Halpern told Mueller, "but they aren't very knowledgeable.  I called and spoke to three different people . . . to ask about the cost increase.  I was on the phone for 45 minutes each time.  Each of the representatives gave me different answers."

Mueller, standing on stage in a dark, pinstriped suit, hands clasped at his waist, kept eye contact as Halpern continued with a story about his doctor.

"He (his doctor) knew that I had some affiliation with Qwest," Halpern said.  "He asked me what it would take to get out of this contract with Qwest. . . . He said, 'I just can't understand those damn bills.' "

This was Mueller's first annual shareholders' meeting since taking the CEO job in August.  He did a masterful job of managing the perennially disgruntled masses, particularly considering Qwest stock has lost half its value since he took over.

At $4.59 a share, Qwest stock is pennies away from where it was in 2002 when Joe Nacchio was fired as CEO.  Worse, nearly 100 million shares of Qwest are now held by short-sellers who are betting the stock will fall even lower.

Naturally, investor advocates and retirees pelted Mueller with comments and questions about his pay and his perks.

They also demanded answers of Qwest's entrenched board members who've led the company to one disaster after the next.

Mueller affably indicated he was concerned about Qwest's billing problem, too.  Before the crowd, he then asked Halpern if he would come to the front of the auditorium at the end of the meeting and discuss his problem with Paula Kruger, executive vice president of the mass markets group.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, but I think you are going to find a willing and able executive who will help you get to the root of the problem," Mueller promised.  "And by the way, if you give us your doctor, we'll follow up on that and make sure we can keep him in our family."

Roughly 20 minutes after the meeting adjourned, Halpern found me talking to some Qwest retirees in the auditorium and introduced himself.

"You know the woman they told me to talk to about the billing issues?" he said.  "She's gone. She's not here."

Halpern told me that once the meeting ended he was immediately approached by a Qwest sales and service consultant who asked all about his problems.

"He just went on and on and on, and I couldn't get away from him," Halpern said.  "Finally, when I did get away from him, Paula was gone. . . . He kept telling me, 'This is something Paula should hear.  This is something Paula should hear.'  And I kept saying, 'Let me go tell her.' "

Halpern said he isn't all that concerned about the $20 hiccup in his monthly bill.  He said he's more concerned about how much more Qwest shareholders will lose if the company can't even get its act together on billing.

Qwest spokesman Nick Sweers told me Kruger waited for Halpern and Halpern didn't show.

"Apparently Joe did not get close to her, or did not find her, but she actually stuck around and waited for him. . . . She was there.  She was waiting for him, and she was one of the last people to leave the room."

When I told Sweers I wanted to speak with Kruger, he said she wasn't available.

So I'm not sure what happened since Halpern and I were among the last people to leave the room.

All I know is that if my boss publicly suggested that I talk to someone immediately, I wouldn't stand around a stage.  I would hunt that person down.  But that's me.

I guess I am unusually dedicated to what Qwest likes to call "the spirit of service."

Another Qwest spokesman, Jon Lentz, explained it all this way:  "It was a misconnection."

Al Lewis' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to him at blogs.denverpost.com/lewis, 303-954-1967 or alewis@ denverpost.com.

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