Poor service from Frontier Communications

I'd like to tell you a story about a work at home professional who lost a contract because of: 1) Poor billing practices, 2) Ineffective customer service reps, and 3) Incapable programmers/technicians.

Three months ago, I chose Frontier because I work at home and needed a reliable land line. After weeks of rescheduling appointments, their technical group was finally able to port my existing number and activate my phone line. At the time, customer service reps blamed my existing provider for the issues, and I believed them.

After using the phone for about two months, I noticed that I hadn't received a bill. Once again, I contacted customer service. The rep told me that my account was past due because their records showed an incorrect address. I contacted my bank immediately and authorized payment.

The same day I authorized payment, my phone stopped allowing long distance calls. At first, I thought it was a temporary outage. Then, a day or two later, I noticed that my long distance service was still not working and that my caller ID didn't work. I was outraged: I contacted the company and fixed its mistake and the company cut my service? I couldn't believe that I'd been treated in such an unprofessional and shoddy manner.

Before this fiasco started, I accepted a job to prospect for an IT firm. But, days after authorizing payment, I still had no long distance service. So, I pushed back the job's start date, relying on Frontier to fulfill its promise to restore service.

After staving off the start date as long as possible, I contacted customer service once again. Without being prompted, I provided a check number and verified that the funds had been removed from my account. During this conversation, the rep assured me that my phone would have full service the next day. I contacted my new employer and agreed to start the next day.

The next morning, I sat down at my desk to start work, and (no suprise!) my phone didn't allow long distance calls. So, ONCE AGAIN, I contacted customer service. And, ONCE AGAIN, the rep assured me that I will have full service - within the next thirty minutes.

I wait thirty minutes and then some, but my long distance still did not work. Then I called customer service again to no avail. I tell my story to another wonderful, polite customer service rep who is completely unable to solve my problem.

My issue is still not resolved. Because I have no long distance service, I will probably lose my job. And how could I blame my employers? They have every right to expect a productive, capable, reliable business relationship.

Evidently, this rule doesn't apply to phone service.