Review by jwhitaker148  - Location: Lucasville,Scioto,OH
- Cost: $30 per month
Good "The modem arrived. Twice."
Bad "Never calls back when they promise they will, still no service, no answers to my questions, placed incorrect satellite TV order"
Overall "This is without a doubt the worst customer service experience I have ever had."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Back in July of 2013 I made the decision to move from the big city back to rural Ohio to be closer to family; I had to give up my fantastic cable service, but family is more important. Frontier is the phone and internet provider for the area which isn't serviced by a cable company because they say there are too few customers on the road to justify running cable there. I didn't really foresee it being a problem because my mother and a cousin that live on the same road have DSL from Frontier and don't have any issues.
Apparently I'm not that lucky.
So with some optimism I called Frontier to establish service. The lady I spoke to seemed nice and took all of my information. I decided to go ahead and get Dish Network since that's what they bundle with and get their DSL; I have enough bars on my cell phone to make calls so I really didn't want to get their home phone. After a few moments of small talk, because the rep was actually IN my area (which led me to feel even more optimistic), she informs me that my address isn't eligible for DSL service because it's too far away from the office. I asked her where the office was and she told me it was in Portsmouth. After a few minutes of explaining I get her to understand that there are two homes further away from the office than mine that have DSL from Frontier. She then explains that maybe her system just isn't up to date and she goes ahead and processes the order, setting me up with my satellite install and a self-install for my DSL.
A few days later I get a call from a Frontier rep that went to voicemail. She explained that they had to change my service date and asked me to give them a call. I promptly called back and the lady I spoke to confirmed my order, except she had me down for basic phone service and satellite TV. We went through the whole thing again, complete with her verifying the DSL service at a residence further from the office than mine, and she set me back up and made sure my modem was going to ship.
Curious, I called Dish to confirm my installation and it turns out it was all screwed up too. No DVR had been ordered, I had the wrong package, everything. So I fixed that order and crossed my fingers.
The 23rd rolls around and I call to find out when I should plug in the modem and test the connection. The rep told me to wait until 6:00 pm which is how late the techs are usually out. So at 6:30 I hook up the modem and.. nothing. No solid DSL light, just a blinking one. I call them back and they tell me the tech came and said I lived too far away. I asked them how it was possible that two other homes could have service and were further away from the office but mine can't. The rep told me they couldn't answer that and referred me to a supervisor, Michelle, from "Escalations." She said she'd contact engineering and call me back the next day.
I never got a call back from her. I waited a couple of days and called Frontier again. This time I was told they were going to groom the lines and I would get a call from the local manager on when I should expect service. I never got that call either. I waited several more days, called back on a Friday, and this time I got a guy who contacted their dispatch for me and told me they estimated it would be about a week. Ten days later I still don't have service so I call back and get told that they're going to groom the lines the next day, add an extender, that a tech would be out and I should be good to go.
Ha.
I never saw a tech before I had to leave for work. I called Frontier again to see if everything was still going to go as planned. I was told the tech was out in the field but they left a message with my phone number and asked the tech to call me when they were hooking the line up and tell me how things went. I never got that call either.
I'm so tired of dealing with Frontier at this point that I don't even know if I really care anymore. Despite that feeling I called back again today and was given to a supervisor who told me she was going to get me a technical supervisor and get me some kind of answer. Really at this point that's all I want. I'm on the verge of getting satellite internet because this is just ridiculous. Even with a cap and the horrible customer service satellite supposedly has it can't be worse than what I've put up with from Frontier. At this point even if they put their foot down and tell me I can't have service and I have to send the modem back I just want an answer on why.
Maybe I'm being unreasonable but it just doesn't seem logical to me that two homes further away from the office than I am have DSL but I'm not eligible. It makes ZERO SENSE.
I want to have hope that this supervisor will get me a resolution but I'm running pretty low on hope at the moment. Right now I would tell anyone thinking of getting service from Frontier to stay away from it unless they had no other option.
UPDATE 08/28/13: The supervisor, Nicky, from Washington has still never called me back. I've left multiple messages asking for an update and still nothing. However, as I was leaving for work today lo and behold there was a Frontier van sitting in my yard and a gentleman working on the line. He told me that he couldn't sync from the line itself and he suspected an old coil somewhere was interfering with the signal. He said he had spoken to the guy who did the DSL upgrade for my road and that there was no reason every house on it couldn't have DSL.
Which.. is what I've been saying all along. But it's nice to know that their technicians aren't just a myth fabricated by the worst customer service center I have ever dealt with. Only one CSR has given me real answers and the rest never call back when they say they're going to; including their supervisors. So I guess I'll wait a little bit longer before calling the local satellite company to have Exede installed so I can see how this will play out.
UPDATE 08/30/13: I received a voicemail from Frontier yesterday saying engineering had my service ready to go and that they would send me a modem. I found this interesting because I already have a modem. Out of curiosity I checked it and sure enough, still not synced. I called tech support to see if it was because they said they were sending a new modem or because of some other problem but they said the work order was still open. Needless to say I got transferred to customer service again who to,d me I lived too far out. I told her what the tech told me about the coils and she said "Oh yeah, old coils will block a DSL signal." And then she gave me a service date of October 2nd to get the work done.
Original service date? July 23rd.
Satellite is seriously looking more attractive by the day.
Update 9/10: I spoke with Frontier again today, got a pretty nice guy who didn't read from a script and give me a response based on the first note for my order like most of the people I talk to do. He put me on hold for quite a while and kept apologizing for it but I told him it was no big deal. Honestly it isn't, not if you're genuinely trying to help me, which he was. When he came back to the line he told me that a tech had noted on 8/24 that I lived 25,500 feet away from the node, but that the local engineer went out to check and said they were wrong and that I only lived 13,000 feet away from the node. He also was supposed to have taken care of all the technical issues blocking service, but because our area is backed up it will be 10/2 before they can hook everything up.
So unless something changes my next update will be in October.. and hopefully I'll be able to give them a higher score.
Update 10/04: Nope. Still no DSL. Now I'm dealing with the social media team after complaining on Facebook and Twitter. My new service date is 10/8 and supposedly all they have to do is hook up the outside wiring. We'll see. Next stop is the state attorney general. This review is turning into a blog with all the updates. I also revised the monthly price to show only the price do the DSL and not the combo with Dish. Also lowered the install coordination rating to reflect yet another missed install date and the fact it took me half a day of phone calls and social media complaints to get an answer on a new service date. RR on the social media team was polite and helpful at least.
member for 50 days, 7 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated a few hours ago
Comments:
 DeLiverPremium
join:2004-09-01
Cincinnatus, NY | A quick question... If your Frontier experience had exceeded your expectations, would you have contributed a similarly long and helpful review?
I doubt it. | |
|  | Reviews:
 ·Frontier Communi..
 ·WOW Internet and..
1 edit
1 recommendation | Re: A quick question... Actually as soon as I receive my refund check from Wide Open West after they log my equipment returned I was going to post a review on them, because I loved their service and wish they offered service where I am now.
My turn.
Did you have a point to make or do you just like to hear yourself talk?
I doubt it. I'm betting you like to hear yourself talk. Perhaps, given your own "review", you just don't like seeing people give a negative recount of their experience with your friends? Just because you have "connections" at Frontier and like their service doesn't make my negative review any less valid, or take away my right to post it if I wish. | |
| |  spewakR.I.P DadkinsPremium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
kudos:1
·SureWest Internet
1 recommendation | said by DeLiver:If your Frontier experience had exceeded your expectations, would you have contributed a similarly long and helpful review?
I doubt it.
I doubt it also. Not for the same snarky reason as you posted though. Reason I doubt it is that there is rarely any good experience regarding Frontier. | |
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| | Frontier I don't have any issues with Frontier. techs are nice and do what they can. I know that they are working on some congestion issues. I know that things seem to get worse but I have seen some speed bumps here in MN in some of their exchanges. They are more reliable than the cable copmany in my area which is Mediacom. | |
| | | | Re: Frontier That's great for MN, but not so much here in Ohio. | |
| | | iowaboyPremium
join:2004-02-28
Fairfield, IA Reviews:
·Windstream
 ·WildBlue
| Re: Frontier I don't know what the problem is with the review. It is just an honest post of what has happened so far. It reminds me of another national company who has lots of issues also and not providing what it should be. I do hope they finally get your DSL installed and working. I haven't updated my review on my phone company DSL experiences yet but will soon as I am having issues of a bad line that they seem to not want to fix. | |
| | | | | | Re: Frontier There is no problem with the review. However, the review really comes down to the OP insisting on having the service installed after the OP was told the service would not work. Now, months later, guess what? The service doesn't work. IMHO its BS to post a bad review when there was obviously a reason way back at the first phone call the OP was told he/she was not eligible for service. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Frontier Communi..
·WOW Internet and..
| Re: Frontier IMHO it's BS to reply to a review without fully reading it. If you had you would see that two houses further away than mine have DSL and that they essentially are the end of the line. You would also see the section where the field tech discussed that the entire road had been upgraded for DSL. You would also see that the engineer measured and said I wasn't too far out and did qualify for service, hence why they did the upgrade two years ago. Hence the first person you think I should have listened to was WRONG. | |
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