The prolonged strike of the unionized FairPoint Communications workforce did much more damage to the reputation of the company than indicated by company spokeswoman Angelynne Amores Beaudry.

In a statement quoted in the Portland Press Herald (“Proud of solidarity, workers back on the job at FairPoint,” Feb. 25), Beaudry said: “The FairPoint network performed exceptionally during the work stoppage and our well-trained and qualified contract workforce provided superb support of that network.”

In fact, the situation that our household experienced because of the strike and the abysmal backup plan to provide customer service help to restore land lines and Internet connections was as bad as it could get.

Our landline was out of service close to three weeks and the Internet for over three weeks. The downtime on both of those essential services caused an unknown number of unanswered incoming calls and a serious disruption in the review of our banking and other financial accounts.

Spokeswoman Beaudry apparently had a much better feeling about the company’s performance while sitting in North Carolina.

If she had heard the many angry voices of people who I have talked to in the Cornish-Parsonsfield area of Maine, maybe she would want to revise her rosy picture of the level of service during the shutdown.

The good news is that we have left FairPoint behind as customers. Our new wireless system for telephone and Internet services has been remarkably fine and reliable. Our only regret is that we should have done it sooner.

John Oser

Parsonsfield