News10NBC Investigates: Penfield woman waits six weeks for Frontier to repair phone line

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It’s not just RG&E customers furious about customer service issues, another utility in Rochester is feeling the heat too.

News10NBC has taken an increased number of complaints about Frontier recently, including one from a homeowner in Penfield who has been waiting more than six weeks to have her phone line repaired.

Lynn Harris has been a customer of Frontier for more than 50 years. She still has a landline and uses it often or at least she did.

“I noticed a lot of static on the phone on the 26th of September and I called it in and I was told I would have an appointment I think it was the 29th which was a Thursday,” she recalls.

Harris stayed home all day waiting for the technician who ended up coming around 7 p.m.

“It was the copper wires in the box,” she tells News10NBC. “He said he’d be back and that he would be able to take care of it.”

Problem is, “nobody ever came back after that,” Harris says. She was hopeful it would be fixed a few weeks ago when Frontier again promised to send a tech.

“I came back from my trip and there was still a lot of static on the line and I called Frontier again and I got the same story,” she says.

She thought maybe the third time would be a charm after scheduling yet another appointment for Wednesday of this week.

“I was home all day and then I got a text about 7 o’clock in the evening that said, ‘we’re sorry for the inconvenience but we’re unable to fix your phone right now,'” Harris says. “‘You have an appointment on Nov. 8.”

Harris has now spent hours on her cell phone, which she likes to use sparingly, calling the phone company to get her landline fixed.

“I would say that for a communications company, their communication is very poor.”

The New York State Public Service Commission regulates phone companies. Last month, the PSC took double the number of complaints about Frontier compared to the month before. In fact, there were more complaints last month than in any other month of 2022.

“I could just go with a different provider,” Harris tells News10NBC. “I absolutely could. I just feel sort of a loyalty. I’ve been with them for 50 years and they did put fiber optics in for my Internet and they did a good job on that but I just may change over after this.”

Just a few hours after News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke called Frontier to inquire about Harris’ situation, the utility sent a technician to the home who worked for less than an hour to fix Harris’ phone line. Service was restored by 5 p.m. Thursday and the company promised to credit her bill for two months.

News10NBC has yet to hear back from Frontier with an official response.