I’m in southern West Virginia and have to deal with Frontier Communications for landline service. I started out with General Telephone service in May 1975, which was bought out by Frontier, who provides service statewide. I do have a cell phone, and have given my phone number to about 20 people total; only family and friends.
I started the month of August without internet service. A severe thunderstorm on the 29th dumped 5” of rain here causing many water related issues; several local businesses had to close for a day to get water and mud out of their stores and offices. Nothing like that had ever happened before.
With a storm of that magnitude, I wasn’t surprised at no internet connection the following day. However, when it wasn’t restored by Tuesday, I called Frontier to report it. I talked with 2 very nice people. I didn’t like the 40 minutes it took to jump thru their “tech support” help in order to get a repair ticket entered. However, I did learn there were no phone or internet outages in my area, and that my line was showing 90 “drops” in service during the month of July? The nice lady told me a repairman would be here on the 2nd. By 5:30 on the 2nd, no one had shown up, called, or fixed my internet. So I called Frontier again, and a very nice man told me my repair was scheduled for the 6th; his system was clearly showing the 6th, not the 2nd. That poor man got to hear my full opinion about Frontier service, and seemed quite entertained by my expression, assuring me that my rant was being recorded as I’d hoped.
At 9:20 on the 6th, the phone rings and it’s a tech from Frontier, wanting to know if our internet is restored. Indeed, the light was on, and in less than 5 minutes the tech was here at the house. The problem was in the switch, and he’d done something there restoring our service. Nothing else needed to be done, but he replaced our outdated modem while he was here. He told me his repair ticket said I had no dial tone! I had made it very clear to the customer service rep that my problem was no internet service, and I was talking to her on my functioning landline. I also mentioned my feelings about the lengthy “tech support”, and learned his feelings matched my feelings. Outside of having access to information to problems reported in my local area, they can tell nothing about my actual problems which were in the neighborhood switch connection.
2 days later I’m back on the phone with Frontier because I again have no internet. I was very firm in stating that my problem was most likely in the neighborhood switch again, and I absolutely refused to give him the model number of my new modem in order to participate with his version of “tech support”. My straight forward request was simply for him to put in an order for repair. Funny how I did not receive an email survey from Frontier after that phone call.
The repair tech was here again the next morning, and as expected, the problem was in that neighborhood switch; actually our neighborhood switch, as we were the only line affected by that problem! He changed out the entire switch, and updated the box at the back of the house, restoring our service. Storms continue to take out our internet service for brief periods, but I did ask for credit for the 4 days of no internet.
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