Owner of Phone Repair Firm Calls It Quits, Blames Pacific Bell Ploy

Dennis Love, an entrepreneur who claimed that Pacific Bell sabotaged his competing telephone equipment repair business by mishandling his ads, has thrown in the towel.

“We will finish the appointments we have made but will not be accepting any new ones,” Love said from his office in the Marin County town of Novato.

Love’s firm, Extension Connection, encountered advertising problems with Pacific Bell’s Yellow Pages publishing subsidiary in two of the last three years. Two years ago, his company’s ad in the San Francisco and Marin County directories appeared with a wrong telephone number. That was corrected the next year, but he claims that new ads that he ordered for this year’s Marin County directory were left out.

Love and Pacific Bell eventually agreed to a settlement valued at about $225,000 in connection with the misprint two years ago, but Love maintained that the proceeds fell far short of compensating his business losses due to the error.

Lissa Zanville, a spokeswoman for Pacific Bell, said Friday that the company “is not aware of any action it has taken that could have caused Mr. Love to go out of business.”

Love said he will pursue his grievances against Pacific Bell, including a case pending before the California Public Utilities Commission. In that case, he accuses the company of unfair competitive practices by installing telephone connection devices that make it harder for Pacific Bell competitors to service phone wiring.

Looking back on his experiences with Pacific Bell, Love said Friday that competing with big utilities remains “a struggle--even when (competitors) do all the things right. And when they don’t, it’s impossible.”

Before the first Yellow Pages ad for Extension Connection ran two years ago, Love said, his business was expanding rapidly, grossing about $25,000 a month after just six months of operation. He had visions then of franchising his service concept nationwide. But as a result of the misprint, he claimed, monthly revenue plunged to $2,500, though business was again growing when the 1989 directory appeared without his ads.