HMG-CN Staff Report
For the third week in a row, Los Cerritos Community News switchboard has been jammed with Cerritos and Artesia residents calling and complaining about Frontier Communications takeover of Verizon Fios, Internet, and TV services.
What was once thought to be minor glitches has turned out to be major problems for many residents, some of whom have been without service since April 28.
“Rene” and his wife from Artesia called to tell their nightmare. They came back from Las Vegas on April 28, nothing was working; TV, Internet, and phone. “We have made several appointments and they have not showed up. I have called back several times, and now they are coming on May 16. It has been over three weeks since everything went wrong. I am very disgusted with their service. I have a friend in Duarte who is having the same problems. I am 78 years old and sick, this is horrible.”
Frontier is not only having problems in the Cerritos area, but also in Long Beach and in Duarte where Rene’s family lives.
Several residents also emailed LCCN writing of their nightmares with the TV Internet and Fios service, while also complaining about customer service and technician service.
Jay H. from Cerritos said, “When you call you can tell it is either India or the Philippines. It is very annoying, they are hard to understand and are not trained to handle what is going on here.”
One resident emailed that after two weeks the technician finally came to the house but “seemed not experienced” and had to call the office to get instructions on how to fix the problem.
“It was kind of sad,” said the resident, “I had to watch him stay on the phone with other Frontier people for 30 minutes, the technician even got frustrated. I watched as the technician was transferred from department to department and finally had to call another number to reach yet another department.”
“It is a very difficult time for these residents,” said LCCN publisher Brian Hews, “these people when they call are completely exasperated with their service they’re asking for LCCN’s help, they’re asking for the City’s help. We are using the newspaper to put pressure on them, we are in touch with Frontier Corporate almost everyday, they want to know about the complaints.”
“The Cerritos City Council sent out a press release to local media saying ‘call the PUC and complain,’ that was their way of handling the problem,” said Hews.
“Why don’t they (the Cerritos City Council) call Frontier and get a rep. out here to address residents? Oh that’s right, they are too busy attending conventions and raising our sales tax,” said one Cerritos resident.
Media outlets reported that a representative from Frontier attended a Long Beach City Council meeting this past Tuesday talking about the problems.
No word form Cerritos City Council on whether a Frontier representative will speak at their City Council meetings.
Given the hundreds of calls and emails into LCCN, it is safe to say the meeting would be packed with angry residents.
Meanwhile area residents remain without service and some are older adults who are “sick and can’t go out.”
“Mr. Hews, I would like to be able to report that my phone service is back up, but unfortunately I cannot. {The} Tech was at my home on Friday May 5th for over 5 hours and was unable to get connection. It is my understanding that my phone was not “Provisioned”. Not sure what that means but it sounds like I was no longer in the system and they need to re-build my connection. I witnessed him calling Frontier addressing himself as a tech and then being put on HOLD for up to 30 minutes sometimes. Very frustrating for both the technician and myself. Finally after being directed to 4 different departments, it was decided that my case needed to be sent to another department and it would be another 3-4 days before I would get service.”
Another resident emailed her phone was working but now she is receiving robocalls. “Does anyone know how to stop these robocalls calling all day long requesting for construction work? Every phone call sounds the same; stating they know us from a year ago, and want to do some construction estimates. How can we stop this? Is Verizon and Frontier guilty of selling our phone numbers to contractors; even though I have non listed phone number ?”
Realizing that you might not have a phone or internet, but if you do, please call us at 562.407.3873 so we can log your complaint or email us at [email protected].
Billing is nightmare with Frontiers. March 31, 2016; did not forward to Frontiers till Ap 1, 2016, along with inheriting billing problems, accounting issues and non correct accounting numbers.
Where is our Senator and Congresswoman, this is national issues?
Next Issue: What is the age requirement for Frontiers out of Philippine, as getting alot of students on the phone complaint banks. No issue with students, except they do not have technology skills and are they bonded to work with our billing and wares?
Supervisor Don Knabe always endorsing A-Z, how about doing some grunt work and make some call to Frontiers. Hey ya, Sanchez Twins Mams, how about some lip service to Frontiers, you are always on CN News, how about LCCN news network?
This era with Frontiers is straight out of Saturday Nite Live, year Jan 2000.
Frontiers has had our account for approximately five to six weeks, and we’re still showing Verizon on the TV screen and our computer screens. Some are saying verizon.com email accounts now are being transferred to AOL, because when I send things to verizon, they’re coming back as too large of a transaction, exceeded storage limits.
Has Verizon email accounts been sold off?
This is my first week, my Frontier wifi is coming in under 562 area code, been wobbling between 909 and 818.
I truly feel bad for those that are having issues with the switch over. I’ve posted before, but I’m fortunate to not have been affected by the issues others are having. I’m in Cerritos myself.
If these issues were happening to me personally (or if the quality of my TV or internet goes down), I’d call up Charter. Prices are much better from the mail they keep sending me, but I’m unsure about the quality of their HD TV…however, not having service at all would be the last straw for me and would switch immediately. Good luck people.
At Long Beach council meeting, Frontier promises to credit customers after service problems
Frontier Communications will provide credits to customers who experienced service disruptions following the firm’s acquisition of cable television, broadband and telephone assets from Verizon, an executive said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Melinda White, the company’s regional president in charge of the company’s operations in California and other western states, said employees will proactively apply the credits to customers’ bills. She also said that although the company has relied upon an offshore call center since taking over former Verizon assets on April 1, Frontier is putting California-based customer service representatives on duty as they complete training programs.
White addressed the council after three council members — Al Austin, Suzie Price and Daryl Supernaw — asked for city staffers to report on City Hall’s interactions with the California Public Utilities Commission and Frontier Communications in light of numerous reports of Verizon-turned-Frontier customers experiencing disruptions to their telephone and cable television service.
Although White relayed to the Long Beach council that fewer than 1 percent of new Frontier customers in California experienced service disruptions after the switch, council members said they and their staffers have been flooded with complaints from constituents.
“I have heard a steady chorus of complaints from residents,” Councilman Al Austin said.
Councilman Roberto Uranga said the California Public Utilities Commission should conduct an investigation to determine who, if anyone, deserves to be blamed for service disruptions.
Assistant City Manager Tom Modica said commission staffers have provided assurance that they are looking into the matter, but he did not know the status of the CPUC’s review as of Tuesday’s meeting.
Only three people showed up to speak on the subject during public comment. One man said it was “beyond belief” that Frontier is charging him $288 a month for services Verizon provided for $176 a month.
Another man said he has been left unsure whether Frontier will honor Verizon’s promises of promotional pricing and feels like a fool for having signed up for paperless billing while a Verizon customer, since he now has no records of his prior interactions with Verizon.
Frontier has previously advised customers dealing with service disruptions to send an email to [email protected].
The third speaker, Allison Gallagher, is a field representative for Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach. She said Frontier Communications representatives are expected to attend a Saturday town hall meeting for Frontier customers who are experiencing problems.
The town hall is scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Expo Arts Center, 4321 Atlantic Ave.