NYNEX

NYNEX Corporation
Industry Telecommunication
Fate Merged with Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) in 1997
Predecessor American Telephone and Telegraph Company
Founded 1984
Defunct 1997
Headquarters New York, New York, United States
Products Local Telephone Service, Cellular Telephone Service
Subsidiaries Verizon New England
Verizon New York
Corporate HQ, 1095 Avenue of the Americas

NYNEX Corporation /ˈnaɪnɛks/ was a telephone company that served five New England states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as most of New York state, except the Rochester area, from 1984 through 1997.

Formed January 1, 1984, as a result of the Bell System Divestiture, NYNEX was a regional Bell operating company made up of former AT&T subsidiaries New York Telephone and New England Telephone. Hence, the name NYNEX stood for New York/New England, with the X representing the unknown future (or "the uneXpected"),[1] but the X is also widely believed to mean eXchange. NYNEX merged with Bell Atlantic on August 14, 1997, in what was, at the time, the second largest merger in American corporate history.[2][3] Although Bell Atlantic was the surviving company, the merged company moved from Bell Atlantic's headquarters in Philadelphia to NYNEX headquarters in New York City. On June 30, 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE to form Verizon Communications.

NYNEX also operated cable television and telephone services in the United Kingdom, with offices in Waterlooville (Hampshire), Baguley (Manchester), Shoreham-by-Sea (West Sussex), Leatherhead (Surrey) and Antrim (Northern Ireland). In 1997, the UK assets of NYNEX were merged with the Cable & Wireless subsidiary Mercury Communications and cable operators Vidéotron and Bell Cablemedia, and renamed as Cable & Wireless Communications. Cable & Wireless's cable assets were sold to NTL in 2000. In 2006, NTL merged with Telewest and later re-branded on Feb. 8, 2007 as Virgin Media.

Criticism

A major complaint of NYNEX was its reputation of poor customer service and low reliability. During its era, long-term issues regarding corrupt and faulty business practices, phones frequently breaking down, and missed repair appointments were reported. The company also had a very poor habit of failing to fully meet the goals it promised for its customers. This eventually led NYNEX to a $4.1 million fine for lack of service in 1996.[4][5] A bigger complication, however, was the difficulty of contacting customer support whenever help was needed. Many NYNEX customers have witnessed filing countless complaints to the company, only to find out that none of them were being responded to. To numerous NYNEX customers, this was not an issue that happened only a few times, but rather, on a regular basis. In 1995, the state of New York first proposed a turnaround plan that was meant to help NYNEX improve its customer service, but it was suddenly believed that it would not help NYNEX improve its poor service record, and that the rate reductions proposed by the plan would be too inconsistent.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Investor Relations - Verizon".
  2. ↑ "Bell Atlantic and Nynex Accept $27 Billion Merger; New Telco Rivals AT&T".
  3. ↑ DIAL "M" FOR MERGER
  4. ↑ Hernandez, Raymond (August 23, 1996). "Nynex Fined $4.1 Million For a Year of Poor Service". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 1996. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ↑ Feiden, Douglas (April 29, 1996). "Nynex Flunks Out Service Gets An F". NY Daily News. Retrieved April 29, 1996. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  6. ↑ "A Poor Plan for Nynex". The New York Times. June 1, 1995. Retrieved June 1, 1995. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
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