Pakula’s Pizza Still Serving Despite Phone Problems

Rob Priske of Pakula’s Pizza said for the past two weeks customers have had difficulty calling in their orders. Priske said he has not had any luck getting Cablevision, the owner of Optimum, to fix the problem despite 30 phone calls and a trip to the service provider’s local office in West Nyack. 

He was unaware of the problem with the sporadically working phone service until customers came into the South Little Tor Road pizzeria and told him they had tried calling, the phone rang twice and then switched to a busy signal.

“We have a very loyal customer base so some of the people would show up to tell us our phones aren’t working,” he said and that has him concerned. “The problem is for every one person who comes in to tell us now many didn’t?”

On Monday, Priske said he had not made any inroads with getting the problem fixed and has been told he will not get credit for the phone problem because his service is “working.” Priske, who co-owns the pizzeria with Matthew Weiss of Valley Cottage, said the problem only affects customers calling from a landline phone with Verizon service not those using a cell phone or Optimum landline service. What makes matters worse is the same problem occurred in January and was fixed after five days. 

“We have been bounced around from tech to supervisor and were told that we need to get phone numbers of the people who can’t get through,” he said. “After 10 numbers they don’t seem to do anything with them.” 

A call to the West Nyack office’s Field Service Department supervisor on Monday afternoon for an explanation was not returned. 

Priske of Nanuet is worried about the impact on the six-year-old New City business. 

“It is seriously detrimental to our business at this point,” said Priske. “We have lost (an) immeasurable amount of money already – not to mention maybe losing regular customers to other places because of our unavailability.” 

On Saturday night, five customers came into the pizzeria and told him they could not get through on the phone. Priske said he is frustrated because he does not have the immediate option of switching to another landline provider since the strip mall is not wire for Verizon service. Priske spoke to the landlord about getting the building wired for Verizon service and was to have Verizon call the landlord. Priske did as requested, but he has not heard anything further.

At least one other nearby business owner said she had been having phone problems. Rita Mena of Simple Beauty said customers complained about difficulties calling her salon.