Waiting for the Frontier technician? Here's what to do

We can’t remember the last time we wrote about one subject three days in a row, but the problems involving the Verizon-Frontier switchover keep pouring in. We’re like the opposite of the Maytag Man around here.

Former Long Beach police chief Carl Calkins checked in, setting the tone with, “Frontier just keeps getting worse.”

We called the chief. “My land line phone service is out,” he said on the phone (his cell phone, because he wasn’t lying about the land line). “Yesterday a tech guy showed up two days late and spend an hour trying to locate my phone circuit and he said he couldn’t find it,” said Calkins, who was chief in the late 1970s.

“It’s still not resolved. Today when I tried to check my messages via my cell phone, Frontier said my account had been suspended. That’s one way to address the problem: Just drop the customer completely.”

He had to laugh: “I’m too old for this crap.”

We’ve received dozens of emails from people and their Frontier-related horror stories: People without inteet or TV for days on end, technicians who don’t show up or who show up but can’t fix the problem, customers given 8- to 12-hour windows for repair visits.

Brian Zackary wrote that his service went out Saturday and he was told a technician would arrive Monday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The tech didn’t show up until Tuesday at 10 a.m. and the service went out immediately after he left.

Zackary called again and was told a tech would be at the house on Wednesday. On Thursday, he wrote, “We’re still waiting.”

Zackary noted that subscribers with day jobs who are waiting an unreasonable lengthy time have legal recourse.

If you will open your books to Califoia Civil Code Section 1722 you’ll find that cable television companies need to offer a four-hour window for a service coection or repair and if the work is not commenced within that four-hour period the subscriber “may bring an action in small claims court against the company for lost wages, expenses actually incurred or other actual damages not exceeding a total of $600.”

That won’t do you any good if you’re a retired police chief who’s not losing money by hanging around the pad all day, but if you have to miss work, it could help.

The companies do have an out if the delay is caused by “unforeseen or unavoidable occurrences beyond the control of the company.”

We’re guessing the people at Frontier didn’t foresee this mess.

Friday Playlist

Some nice hold music for Frontier subscribers.

1. “Computer Age,” Neil Young

2. “Paranoid Android,” Radiohead

3. “I Hate My Frickin’ ISP,” Todd Rundgren

4. “Digital Witness,” St. Vincent

5. “Waiting for the Man,” Lou Reed

6. “Telephone Line,” Electric Light Orchestra

7. “Redneck School of Technology,” Flaming Lips

8. “Online,” Brad Paisley