Frontier issues mea culpa to Dallas-Fort Worth customers, outlines improvement plan

Frontier Communications has hatched a strategy to alleviate service issues in Dallas-Fort Worth under which customers have been suffering since the telco took over Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) wireline facilities in Texas in April.

The carrier has been inundated with complaints of outages and customer service problems in its newly acquired Texas, Florida and California markets. Customers say they lost internet connectivity and suffer long call center wait times. Frontier uses an offshore contractor for customer service.

"We know how critical our services are to the lives of our customers, and our customers rank highest on our priority list," said Rhonda Lutzke, Frontier area president of the south region, in a statement. "That's why we take any and all issues they may be experiencing very seriously."

Similar to the plan it set last week for Florida, Frontier has set up a three-part plan that includes training 450 former Verizon technicians on Frontier's technology; U.S. based call centers that have call answer times of 30 seconds to two minutes; and sending a so-called "SWAT Team" to areas that have significant issues.

To bolster its repair and installation process, Frontier shifted 11 extra technicians from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and added 45 contractors, with plans to bring on 20 more.

In addition, the service provider will offer bill credits to customers whose service has been down. Frontier said customers will see a credit by the end of June on their bills, adding that each customer complaint will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Besides Texas, Frontier has come under fire for its service performance in California and Florida where state lawmakers and regulators have asked the telco to detail how it will remedy its issues.

Dan McCarthy and other high level executives met with Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi last week and laid out a six-part action plan for the state to remedy issues.

Over in California, Frontier will have to address concerns raised by the state's Utilities and Commerce Committee, which is holding a hearing on May 18

For more:
- Dallas Business Journal has this article

Related articles:
Frontier lays out action plan to alleviate Florida customer pains
Frontier defends Florida performance to AG, says it is resolving remaining issues
Florida attorney general confronts Frontier over service issues
Frontier's McCarthy: Verizon asset integration could have impact on Q2 subscriber adds