I’ve heard from many Frontier Communications customers in the past few months since the company took over servicing Verizon’s FiOS service and more in Southern California. There are reports of inaccurate bills, video on demand services not working, DVR recordings disappearing and overall discontentedness.
On Wednesday, the company went before a hearing for the California State Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce to talk about the issues and according to the LA Times, Frontier has pledged to resolve a backlog of problems within the next 10 days.
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Frontier emailed me their new action plan for California residents. Here it is, in its entirety.
1. Frontier has completed training for over 4,000 customer service representatives and field technicians (formerly Verizon employees who have been supporting California customers for years) – which training could only begin after they became Frontier employees on April 1. Completion of training means Frontier is now handling repair and installation activities at a faster rate.
2. During the training period, we relied on a mix of U.S.-based and offshore customer service contractors. We, like many of our customers, are deeply disappointed in the quality of customer service these vendors provided. Therefore, we will eliminate any reliance on overseas customer service agents by no later than July 30, 2016.
3. We have expedited handling of any out-of-service customers who have informed us of special needs (elderly, medical necessity, disabled, etc.).
4. Bill credits will be issued to every customer who reported a service outage. This credit will be reflected on these customers’ bills by the end of June. There is no need for the customers to contact us again to receive this credit.
5. To further empower California customers, we have introduced another way for our customers to provide Frontier with direct feedback: via email at LetMelindaKnow@ftr.com.
6. We are resolving the temporary, limited availability of movie and television content in the Video on Demand (VOD) library. The VOD system is functioning today, we are working to load more than 100,000 titles into the VOD library, and we have placed a priority on loading the most popular content first. We expect to complete this process within the next several weeks. We will also ensure that all content that customers have previously purchased is available to them.
Again, we apologize to any customer whose service was impacted during this transition. Every customer matters to us, and we are working hard to earn our customers’ confidence. Thank you for your patience and for allowing us to serve you.
If our customers need assistance, please call us (residential customers should dial 1-800-921-8101; business customers should dial 1-800-921-8102) or email us at letmelindaknow@ftr.com. We will respond to you quickly and address your request as rapidly as possible.
Taking over the service lines of millions of customers across various states is not necessarily an easy technical feat, but I understand that doesn’t really matter when you’re the person affected. We rely on our broadband, TV and phone lines to keep us connected, entertained and informed.
It’s also worth noting that Frontier has hired a new public relations director named Javier Mendoza. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mendoza was previously Senior Communications Director for Southern California Gas.
