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Frontier - Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Old 02-09-2019, 11:50 PM   #1
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Frontier - Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Been a GTE> Verizon > Frontier customer over 3 decades. Still on DSL and copper on one house, called about a new FIOS offer. 10 minute wait , then the CSR says, Oh, you are a current customer, here is another # for you to call. Me: Can you transfer me ? CSR: No.

Called the second number, gave up after 20 minute hold.

Geez, what a dumb-ass operation.
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Old 02-10-2019, 04:54 AM   #2
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You are not the Lone Ranger...
I rented a car recently at 10:30 PM. Since I could not do the "damage check" walk around in a dark parking lot, CSR at the desk told me to check it out in the morning and call the 800 number if I found damage. I found a badly scratched door mirror, so called the number. Robot said "excessive number of calls currently-push #3 for a call back". I was called back and quickly dropped. I Called again: "excessive calls, etc." No luck the third time either-so I gave up.

When returning the car, the lot man said he would have to report the deeply scratched mirror. I told him about finding it the day after renting and explained my phone-in process. He laughed, said "well, NOW I believe you. Yours is about the fourth time I have heard about the phone problems today!". I got my deposit back.
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Old 02-10-2019, 05:20 AM   #3
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We got stuck with Frontier ever since they bought out Verizon a couple of years ago. If I were to rate their customer service on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would be very generous if I would give them a zero.

In fact, the only reason I would give them a zero is because that would be the bottom of the scale.
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Old 02-10-2019, 06:32 AM   #4
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Have them for wireless. Called them to go with television as my Dish contract was up. Very nice gentleman says "you get x price for the full boat". I say "wonderful, let's make an installation appt". Two weeks later, a no show. So I call them and they had canceled the install themselves. Why, did you do that I asked? They said you are a current customer and he gave you the new customer price. I explain that the man knew that when we spoke. Sorry, I was told. Well then how much would I have to pay for the same program? Oh, about $70 more per month. Well then, perhaps you should go screw yourselves I said. Called Dish back and explained to the nice man and he gave me a great two year deal even as an existing customer. End of story. Truth be told all of them are really tough to deal with.
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Old 02-10-2019, 07:37 AM   #5
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We live in an old GTE area of North Texas. Got my first GTE landline phone in 1981 when I was 20. Verizon bought GTE around 2000. They laid fiber on my street in 2006. As soon as it was lit, I subscribed to FiOS internet and phone. TV service came a few years later IIRC.

By the time Frontier took over FiOS a few years ago, we were down to internet only. Landline is Google Voice VoIP and TV is all streaming. The internet service is still rock solid. We pay $55/mo for 50/50. In 13 years, I can only recall one outage, which was a hardware failure at our house (ONT died). They rolled a truck the next day to replace it. Bandwidth is extremely stable. Speedtests are consistently 58/58 with pings around 3-5ms.

Yes, Frontier's phone service is the worst. Our local nextdoor.com has no shortage of threads with people complaining about billing issues, price increases, and poor responsiveness from phone reps. No one really complains about the services themselves. Just changes that don't get made correctly, resulting in billing issues that never seem to get resolved.

Fortunately, we rarely make many changes, so no reason to call. I've called Frontier maybe twice. It's always a circus, but with patience, I've always been able to get my issue resolved in a timely manner. We're also fortunate to have a good alternative here in Charter/Spectrum. We now have access to 200/20 for about $45/mo (new customer rate). I would have no issue switching if anything changed with our FiOS service.
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Old 02-10-2019, 07:45 AM   #6
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It's hard to say anything nice about Frontier having been a long time GTE employee and then a Verizon retiree and an end customer. Verizon has dumped its wireline business and will continue to do so as it plans for a world where wireless takes over everything. 5G wireless networks are being rolled out in larger metro areas, and the speeds and reliability show significant progress. Hopefully costs will not be unreasonable, but it may take a few years to make it out to suburbia.
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Old 02-10-2019, 09:59 AM   #7
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I have Frontier FIOS service and I find it very good, very reliable and rarely does it fail.

But, when it fails it can take days to be fixed. Neighbors report waits of a week to get a tech out if one is needed. OTOH, friends who have the cable company are constantly complaining of new and increased charges and fees for everything imaginable. So, I stay with Frontier FIOS, the lesser of two evils by far.

When I read about the problems others have had it make me think we need a thread on companies whose behavior is at odds with their attempts to lure new customers. We show up at their doorstep with a fist full of money to buy their products and services, and they end up driving us to the business across the street.
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Frontier - Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Old 02-10-2019, 10:01 AM   #8
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Frontier - Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

I cancelled my Frontier TV/Phone/Internet service in mid December. I received a confirmation # for the transaction and was told it would be effective at the end of the billing cycle on Dec 28th. They sent me two boxes to send my equipment back in. I read several complaints about Frontier continuing to bill you after you cancel your service so I removed autopay and my credit card from my account. Sure enough I received a letter from them saying my January bill is past due... My experience with them has been nothing but poor. I was with Verizon before my service got switched to Frontier. I wish the switch had never happened.
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Old 02-10-2019, 11:36 AM   #9
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I have read on the Internet ,that retention of an existing customer is far less costly than adding a new customer . Is this age old theory no longer valid?

When Frontier officially took over the local cooper and FIOS systems in California a few years back, It was on April 1st. My DSL went down the same day, took over 4 days to restore. I was lucky on this Frontier April Fools Surprise, some with FIOS had service interruptions more than a week. Just dandy for those with a home business.

It is my understanding a lot of veteran Verizon people retired at the time , rather then work for Frontier.

The competing cable carrier at that time was Time Warner, Now Spectrum.

In the following years, The cable Co raised prices a lot , reduced use of brain dead contract installers , and service levels improved with the $ increase. That is how it is supposed to work.
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Old 02-10-2019, 04:38 PM   #10
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We got stuck with Frontier ever since they bought out Verizon a couple of years ago.
Same thing happened here. The only reason I don't switch to another provider is that the alternatives are Crapcast and Dish network. They are all seemingly in competition, but only to see who can provide the worst service.
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Old 02-11-2019, 07:40 AM   #11
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It is my understanding a lot of veteran Verizon people retired at the time , rather then work for Frontier.
While the loss in technical expertise had impacts, Frontier also took the cheap route and failed to acquire all the network management tools that Verizon used. This has greatly diminished their ability to run the network.
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Old 02-11-2019, 07:45 AM   #12
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75-year-old woman smashes up local Comcast office with hammer ...


Oct 18, 2007 - Meet Mona Shaw, 75, of Bristow, Virginia. ... A retired Air Force nurse and secretary of a square-dancing club, Shaw went Com-smash-tic in her local Comcast office one day last month. As Neely Tucker of the Washington Post tells it, Shaw arranged with Comcast to have them install their ...
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Old 02-11-2019, 07:59 AM   #13
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I have read on the Internet ,that retention of an existing customer is far less costly than adding a new customer . Is this age old theory no longer valid?
Maybe the top level managers read the first sentence of this article from Harvard Business Review and didn't read further?

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers

The title of the article sounds like a dream come true for cost conscious managers. The truth is more complex if the whole article is read. (It goes on to say make customers happy during interactions, but you don't have to go over the top and delight them.)

I can't remember the management-speak word for "customer inertia." This concept is pretty significant for cable and phone providers. Customers don't like changing. So, the corporations balance that against putting more money into customer service for existing customers. Clearly, "delight" is no longer an option.
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Old 02-11-2019, 08:03 AM   #14
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I cancelled my Frontier TV/Phone/Internet service in mid December. I received a confirmation # for the transaction and was told it would be effective at the end of the billing cycle on Dec 28th. They sent me two boxes to send my equipment back in. I read several complaints about Frontier continuing to bill you after you cancel your service so I removed autopay and my credit card from my account. Sure enough I received a letter from them saying my January bill is past due... My experience with them has been nothing but poor. I was with Verizon before my service got switched to Frontier. I wish the switch had never happened.
I had so many customer service issues with Frontier that I wrote a letter to the office of the president in 2017. A rep from that office did fix the issues, but the problems began re-occurring some months later. I cancelled in October and Frontier billed me for November. Then they sent it to collections. Frontier is the WORST
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Old 02-11-2019, 08:15 AM   #15
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I think these complaints are a testament to the endurance of management culture. Cable companies were built as monopolies and many still operate the same way, even though the business and competitive environment has changed.
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Old 02-11-2019, 12:25 PM   #16
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Frontier bought assets that were crumbly and sure to cause business failure. I often wondered about miles of fragile copper below ground in our development. Perfect acquisition for FTR.
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Old 02-11-2019, 01:38 PM   #17
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I think these complaints are a testament to the endurance of management culture. Cable companies were built as monopolies and many still operate the same way, even though the business and competitive environment has changed.
Changed, yes, but it's still mostly a monopoly because there are often no competitors in a specific geography. Even if there are competitors, there are few, and I don't see that they honestly compete.
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Old 02-19-2019, 12:19 PM   #18
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Frontier phone and DSL customer, no dial tone since Feb. 6 and DSL works about 3 hours per day, you just don’t know when and never for more than 30 minutes at a time. Current repair trip is set for Feb 25 after missing the repair trip scheduled last week. They called the day before to verify the appointment and asked me to verify my birthday, told me my answer was wrong. Asked for last four of my social, my answer was wrong. Told me they would have to cancel the appointment since I couldn’t verify my details and I should call customer service. Customer service assured me all my information was correct in their system and they would make the appointment as originally scheduled. Haha, they didn’t and still a week out from their new date. They also told me they have a better service they could install that uses a separate line for voice and data, 4 times faster than what I have now. They scheduled an appointment for sometime in March, I probably won’t be home. I have satellite internet being installed next week for a 60 day trial. No other alternatives here, cell works for voice and text but won’t support data. On a 1-10 scale, Frontier doesn’t rate.
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Old 02-19-2019, 01:33 PM   #19
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I think these complaints are a testament to the endurance of management culture. Cable companies were built as monopolies and many still operate the same way, even though the business and competitive environment has changed.
Back when Lilly Tomlin did those " Operator Earnestine from Ma Bell " comedy skits , sometimes her line was " We Don't have to Care, We're the Phone Company "
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Old 02-19-2019, 01:39 PM   #20
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I may be wrong but I heard FTR is struggling to integrate customers they got from AT&T and Verizon into the FTR model. They seem to be working on it but it will take time.

FWIW. I own plenty of their stock so if you bail.....
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