Some Bratt Residents Without Phone Service For Almost A Week

January 27, 2010

About three dozen residents in the Bratt area are expected to have their telephone service restored by Wednesday,  a week after flooding short circuited their phone lines.

The 35 Frontier Communications customers lost service due to flooding January 20-21 that left a telephone pedestal underwater for two and half days. (Telephone pedestals are those boxes beside the road where wires from a neighborhood connect.)

Technicians were first able to begin work on the pedestal at Oakshade Road and North Highway 99 Saturday afternoon when the flood waters began to recede, according to Cereal Daniel, Frontier’s general manager for the area. Work continued on repairing the cables, and was expected to be completed by the end of the day on Tuesday.

“This is the first time that anyone can remember that this particular pedestal has been underwater,” Daniel said. “We are working on a capital project to replace one section of cable here and will work to raise the existing cable so this will not happen again.”

Comments

17 Responses to “Some Bratt Residents Without Phone Service For Almost A Week”

  1. stephanie on January 28th, 2010 2:04 pm

    I am so glad I don’t have to deal with frontier anymore. when i lived in walnut hill, we had the slowest dsl imaginable, phone was cut off several times when the bill had already been paid and the bill was seldom right. i was told our dsl was so slow because we were too far from the office. after several calls to frontier without the problems being resolved, i called the fcc. my dsl was fixed within one hour after getting off of the phone with the fcc. my bills were right from then on and my phone never got cut off again. didn’t even have to do the paperwork for the fcc before frontier had fixed the problem. you can find the number to the fcc in the blue pages.

  2. frontier client on January 28th, 2010 11:18 am

    I have not had a phone for a week. I was told it was a outage at Bratt. If you go to the end of Oak Shade Road and look you will see the reason The main box is under water. It has dried out some. Inow have phones but no internet. This makes 9 days . I have got great responce from some of the people that we have to call in New York to report I have got very very rude ones also. The last one said I would have to sit home and wait and they would not give me a call when they were coming out. It is not the men that are in Atmore fault. I have been told on several repairs that the people on New York never tell the linemen when you will be home. Also, Kay I have inside wire maintence with frontier have had since it was Southland. This is only acpouple of dollars a month. It will pay for your wires to be replaced. I wonder if they are going to pay for every one that does on line banking and have late feesnow. I hope that one day I will get my Frontier internet back. Escambia River Electric has internet service also direct tv. I never knew of this service to be out weks at a time. I had this at one time.

  3. none of your business on January 28th, 2010 9:09 am

    By the way if your phone has a lot of crackel and it goes in and out
    all the time, ask them to switch you to A NEW PAIR sometimes it
    works, sometimes it doesn’t.

    If your cell doesn’t have good service, call your cell company
    and tell them to put in a request to up your tower power in
    your zip code. This takes about 3 months to happen.

    Hope this helps ALL OF YOU!

  4. none of your business on January 28th, 2010 8:58 am

    oops guess that was A.Nicole that wanted to wipe the floor with them. lol

    I use to think it wasn’t the employees fault. Actually it is, there are employees
    who do good work and go the extra mile, and there are employees who make
    a mess out of a telephone pedistal and leave it that way.

    Also sometimes vandals, or rats.
    In cold weather rats love to look for a warm place to get into and they
    love to sharpen their teeth on the wires. Squirrels do the same
    and build nest in there.

    It’s a problem, but regardless, cells phones barely work out here, and
    we need phone service. What if it is your loved one that one day needs
    an ambliance.

  5. none of your business on January 28th, 2010 8:50 am

    Kay Wooten
    Your wish is my command. lol
    I got fed up too, and I thought it was only I that had this problem.

    I made phone calls that go OVER Frontiers Head!

    If you all want to get new lines pulled in you must do the same,
    or it will never happen. It costs more money than you ever dreamed
    for them to do what is needed, and their not going to do it until you
    force them.

    Call :
    As a group you can win.

    Florida public service commission
    Division of Consumer Affairs

    1-800-342-3552

  6. Kay Wooten on January 28th, 2010 7:52 am

    Also Bill and Allen, thanks for the info on the cell phone. Went on the website and got my Mother approved for the service. Had no idea this type of service was out there. Thanks once again!!!

  7. Kay Wooten on January 28th, 2010 7:49 am

    Well we had no idea that others had the same problems as we have had with our phone and internet service. Don’t get me wrong, Frontier does have a lot of good employees, (such as Cereal Daniel and Sue Dortch) who worked beyond what was expected to help us get DSL service after trying for more than two years. But my problem is with whoever at Frontier that makes decisions about whether to serve the people or cut expenses. We have been told for years that the phone lines are old and cracked, so that not only rain but also heat and cold affect our service. But every single one that we talk to tells us that Frontier will not go to the expense of putting down new lines. Wonder if they consider how much we all pay their company every month for phone service with all the features as well DSL?????? I SURE DO!

  8. BAJ on January 28th, 2010 7:00 am

    We have had nothing but issues with Frontier. Telephone has been out for a week at a time or it crackles so bad you can not hear the other party. I have had to use neigbors phone cell phone only is good in one area in the front yard. When you call Frontier you have to go through all the questions before you get a human and then try to descibe the sound on the phone to them. The ones I have talked to are in Tennesse that set up the ticket with the repair man here. What a range and usually it is 2 to 4 days. Oh it usually does this on wet or rainy days and then try to use your cell phone outside holding an umbrella.

  9. Kevin Bethea on January 27th, 2010 8:09 pm

    It is good to know that we are not alone in our frustrations with frontier. Our DSL also goes out every time that it rains. I did find out last nite, after a 45 minute phone call to customer service, that they will give a discount for the time that your service was down but you have to call them and ask for it. I bet if there was a meter on it like the power company has, they would get it back on in hours, instead of days!!!

  10. A.Nicole on January 27th, 2010 3:53 pm

    I am going to try not to go into a large rant, but I did want to say that Frontier is KNOWN in our area for horrible service!! I have had problems since I have lived here with static on the line, the phone going out completely, billing issues ($2.00 for a paper bill charge is insane, epecially when I signed up for the e-mail bill and my internet was out for almost 2 weeks!), etc. If I do get a technician they expect me to wait around my house all day. Even when told it would be morning it ends up being afternoon or visa versa; even had them completely forget about me on two occasions without a phone call or apology. It has not only been my phone but also my DSL. I have to reset it at least 10 times a day, but I guess I won’t complain, because there are people on my road who still have to have dial up because it is not available. If you ride around and look at these boxes they are in terrible condition, with wires hanging out, some completely laying down or almost down, covered in brush, or with no cover at all. It is a disgrace that we are forced to put up with this type of service, because they have the monopoly and they are not required to care. I think it should be illegal for people to be without phone service for a week, since the phone is such a vital tool to an emergency and I wish someone with enough power would wipe the floor with this company. If I could switch I would in a heartbeat!

  11. bill on January 27th, 2010 12:04 pm

    Check http://www.ehow.com/how_5577609_cell-phone-government.html

    I did find some info that may help.

  12. allen on January 27th, 2010 11:55 am

    the website that you go to to sign up for the free cell phone including 60mins per mnth free is http://www.safelink.com

  13. bill on January 27th, 2010 11:48 am

    Kay, just as soon as I find out from the person that told me, I will let you know. Unless William post it first. He’s at work right now and I can’t get a hold of him. Sorry.

  14. William on January 27th, 2010 8:48 am

    Kay — I’ll try to put a little article together in the next few days with the details.

  15. Kay Wooten on January 27th, 2010 8:23 am

    Hey Bill…..curious about the government phones. Have a Mother that I would love to check on this for her. Any info????

  16. Kay Wooten on January 27th, 2010 8:22 am

    We are one of the Bratt area residents without phone service for a week now. Yes we do have cell phones but just try to make a call and see how long before either it drops the call or in most cases the other party cuts you off trying to transfer you to someone else ( as in trying to get an answer from Frontier as to when you might see a repairman). We have somone in our home with severe medical problems and we pray everyday that we won’t need a phone for an emergency. Funny though the DSL is working, so we can read North Escambia everyday to at least see what is going on with the problem, as we have had no contact from Frontier. We see the vans go by but have had no idea other than our close neighbors, that anyone else was having problems. We have lived here 11 years and have had problems with the lines the entire time, just let it rain and usually the internet and phone is out. Seems to me that Frontier could replace some lines rather than paying repairmen for so many years to continue to fix the same problems.

  17. bill on January 27th, 2010 6:28 am

    Most people have cell phones, but if you know someone that don’t. They may qualify for the free goverment phone. A free phone with 60 min a month. This will help some of the old folks that can’t afford one.
    Before you all get upset about free phones, I know that lots of people will jump on this that don’t need them or take advantage of the system. They will. Just worry about those that really need this.