Frontier Communications, W.Va. Public Service Commission wrangle over service

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — Landline telephone service provided by Frontier Communications continues to be a sore subject for many West Virginians.

The Public Service Commission has been wrestling with Frontier for 17 months after ordering the company to undergo an audit to see if it is being operated efficiently.

Eyewitness News has an update on the audit and what could happen next.

You don't have to go very far to find people who are unhappy with Frontier Communications' telephone service.

Over the past couple of years, the West Virginia Public Service Commission has been inundated with about 4,000 complaints about Frontier service outages, repair delays and billing mistakes.

Trojan Landing Marine is a Frontier customer. The company's general manager is not very pleased with his Frontier service.

"They were coming in and prepping for the fiber service and they cut the DSL line and just left it,"Shawn Hardman, general manager of Trojan Landing Marine, said. "We were shut down six days.

How much did the situation cost the company?

"It was really tough to make payroll that week, so yeah, I mean it cost us a lot of money," Hardman said.

Problems are so widespread government entities are weighing in. In July 2016, both the Kanawha and Hampshire county commissions sent letters to the PSC about chronic outages.

Outages are a huge problem for Cheryl Chapman. Her home in Cass is in the National Radio Quiet Zone surrounding the Green Bank Observatory. Frontier is her only option for contact with the outside world.

"The problem is reaching Frontier," Chapman said. "When I call Frontier, I get somebody in California or somebody in Texas who have no idea what a quiet zone is. And they say, 'Go to your neighbors.' I'm sorry, I don't have any neighbors. 'Well, they have to have service, you're not showing as out.' I am out. I don't have any internet. The phone cracks and pops and carries on."

Frontier's service problems aren't limited to rural West Virginia. One of its Charleston customers shared what he called a nightmare while trying to get his phone service working properly so he could work from his home.

"When it works, it works," Alex Bannerman said. "But it doesn't work entirely too much. Going from having a telephone service that works and an internet that doesn't work suddenly, and then getting the internet repaired. And then the phone doesn't work right. Or a feature gets dropped and then getting that repaired and the internet going out again. And bouncing back and forth time and time again, you reach a point where you just say enough is enough."

With Frontier's much-chronicled troubles, the Public Service Commission in August 2018 ordered a focused management audit to determine if the company was operating efficiently. The report will look at the status of the copper network, its staffing and funding levels, quality of service and Frontier's relationship with the Communications Workers of America.

"We have to do something about it," Charlotte Lane, chair of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, said. "Lots of people in West Virginia don't have any other alternative except for Frontier. They do not have cell service, so Frontier is their lifeline."

The investigation got off to a rocky start, with the PSC rejecting Frontier's first choice of an auditing firm, saying Frontier had put too much emphasis on cost and too little weight on the bidding firms' resources, experience, audit planning, methodology and standards.

So, the commission picked an auditor for Frontier. Schumaker and Company is digging into Frontier's records looking for answers, despite the company missing several commission-imposed deadlines for documents.

"We picked the company that we felt was going to give us the report and all of the information that we needed in an expedited manner," Lane said.

Eyewitness News asked Javier Mendoza, Frontier's vice president for corporate communications and external affairs, for an on-camera interview. He declined and asked us to email him what we wanted to know.

We did. Here is Mendoza's emailed response to our 12 questions.

“Frontier offers service across West Virginia and in many of the most rural areas of the state - places that our competitors largely choose not to serve because these areas often have challenging terrain, are more sparsely populated, and are the most expensive to serve. We work to promptly address all customer service requests. Though Frontier provides only about 10-15 percent of the over 2 million voice connections in the state, Frontier has 100 percent of the responsibility to serve the most rural and expensive areas. This puts pressures on Frontier that our competitors have so far avoided. Frontier’s business and operations remain solid. As we have said publicly, Frontier is evaluating its capital structure with an eye to reducing debt and interest expense. Serving our customers remains our priority."

Meanwhile, Lane said the PSC wants to make sure that West Virginia citizens "have good quality telephone service and for many of them Frontier is their only option."

Bogged down by more than $16 billion in debt and dealing with a shrinking client base, Frontier's landline telephone business may be running out of options.

But for 300,000 West Virginia customers, the time for excuses is over. They just want the phones they are paying for to work when they need them.

"I think West Virginians get really shortchanged because of it," Bannerman said. "And I think they just don't realize that you don't have to put up with it."

Chapman said Frontier is not supplying the correct information.

"They're saying yes, we've got decent service. No, we don't. In these outlying areas, there is no service," Chapman said.

Hardman just wants the company "to be better."

"I mean, I don't want to see any business go out of business, they employ thousands of people. I just wish that they stood by what they say they are. Just be better. Be like your competition instead of just exactly being the minimum. They set the bar for what minimum is and I think that's just sad," Hardman said.

Although the preliminary draft of the Frontier audit was due a couple of weeks ago, Schumaker and Company asked for an extension to finish interviews and field work.

The company also wants to submit its first draft to Frontier and the PSC on the same day.

The Public Service Commission granted Schumaker and Company's request. The first draft report of the Frontier audit is now due Feb. 18.

After comments from the company and the commission, the final report is scheduled to be finished March 19.