KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper says certain Frontier customers were ‘ignored and disrespected’ by the company after being without service for several weeks.
Following the Kanawha County Commission requesting a general investigation from the state Public Service Commission (PSC) on the outage that impacted about 20 homes along Laurel Fork Road, Frontier services for internet and phone were back on in that community this week. The state PSC was on-site following the request by the commission, first reported by WCHS-TV.
Carper told 580-WCHS that if the commission did not step in, nothing would have been done. But he said he is glad something finally happened.
“Thirty days or more, without phone, without internet, is not acceptable,” Carper said.
The commission has also requested that the investigation include Bens Fork Rd. just outside of Big Chimney as residents there have also been without Frontier service for a month.
Carper said he understands the areas are rural and have received severe weather damage in recent weeks but his response is ‘so what.’
He added that many residents depend on the internet and phone daily for life necessities. He said on top of no hardline phone service, cell service is ‘zero’ in the impacted portions of the county.
“A lot of these folks do telemedicine, that’s how they communicate with family, doctors and do their shopping. That’s how they have vital mental health opportunities with the internet. Without that, they were left out in the cold,” Carper said.
Customers impacted by these outages are still receiving bills from Frontier, per the commission. Carper said that should never happen and hopes the PSC, which has regulatory authority over phone and internet companies, takes action and makes them rescind the bills.
“They are claiming their billing cycle is automatic. I would hope they would have enough sense to forgive those bills immediately, retroactively and not charge people for something they didn’t provide,” Carper said.
These issues with Frontier come months after the PSC fined Suddenlink more than $2.2 million for ‘failing to provide safe, adequate and reliable service to its West Virginia subscribers of its cable, internet and phone service.’
“The idea of having monopolies with utilities just comes with the territory,” Carper said. “At the same time, they (Frontier) have a responsibility to treat people decently. Here, they simply did not treat their customers with respect.”
580-WCHS reached out to Frontier for comment Thursday morning but has yet to hear back.