Disparaged customers in Northcentral PA face Frontier Communications

By Anthony Hennen | The Center Square

WELLSBORO, PA – The pent-up anger and frustration of residents filled a room in Wellsboro as officials discussed the deluge of complaints about Frontier Communication’s failure to provide functional phone and internet service.

Months of outages, poor service quality and missed repair appointments led to a formal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate and Office of Small Business Advocate in January.

The Thursday evening meeting – one of two hosted by Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Wellsboro, and Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Towanda – with the OCA and OSBA explained the complaint process to the public and gave the dissatisfied a chance to speak to Frontier directly.

“Our office is not the customer service for Frontier … and it felt like that at times,” Owlett said. “Rural areas matter … we do love living in rural areas, but we expect to get what we pay for.”

The problems summarized in the formal complaint, as The Center Square previously reported, are familiar to many areas of rural Pennsylvania: dropped phone calls, spotty connections that make businesses lose customers, and “a broad failure to meet the company’s legal obligations,” the report noted.

That broad failure could be life-threatening.

Jerry and Denise Gee of Wellsboro spoke of how Jerry suffered two heart attacks in 2022. During his first heart attack, they couldn’t call an ambulance — their phone was out of service. When he had his second, they didn’t bother to try the phone. Instead, they drove themselves to the hospital.

Since November, they’ve tried to schedule a maintenance appointment with Frontier, which has been delayed multiple times. On Thursday, they received a message from Frontier announcing a service visit that day, but no one showed up. Without reliable phone service, getting a hold of a doctor without a face-to-face meeting has been difficult.

Another audience member said phone outages meant that her Life Alert system was disconnected for 364 days of the year.

Others said teachers couldn’t educate their students during remote learning, and a mental health counselor said calls get dropped as a patient relates their trauma over the phone.

“This is a systemic problem — this is not a problem that is resulting only from a small area or small circuit or neglect in a particular place,” Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero said. “What we’re trying to do is prevent the unacceptable from becoming acceptable or tolerable.”

The formal complaint filed to the Public Utility Commission is awaiting a response from Frontier; then, the Office of Consumer Advocate expects the PUC to hold a public hearing to gather evidence before it issues a decision.

That process could take months.

“My promise to you is to ensure that we’re taking your frustration and angst, and channeling it at the decision makers who can hopefully resolve this systemically,” Cicero said.

Public frustration with Frontier was tempered by an appreciation for the company’s workers. Audience members praised the work of technicians in fixing the problems at hand.

“They’ve been dealt a very rough hand and they are working their tails off, they’re working long hours. They’re doing the best they can,” Owlett said as he stood in front of photos submitted by the public of lines pulled down by the weight of felled trees, frayed cables and other damage.

The crowd’s mood swung between appreciation and frustration throughout the evening. When Owlett thanked everyone “for not bringing your pitchforks and torches,” one woman responded: “they’re in the car!”

Frontier officials then faced long lines of audience members relating the problems they’ve had with service quality.

“I appreciate Reps. Owlett and Pickett giving us the opportunity to participate in these meetings,” said Kevin Saville, general counsel for Frontier. “We’re interested and committed to understanding the customers’ concerns, and responding to those concerns.”

While relief is most likely a long way off, the public complaints have spurred action.

“I hope people feel like there’s some small measure of light at the end of the tunnel,” Cicero said. “For me, it’s important to show up and listen…the basis of our complaint is the stories of the people in this room.”