August 2023 by David Kight
Their foreign call center is the worst.I work for a government entity, and we still have some landlines that we use Frontier for. I represent this government entity to Frontier, so whenever we have an issue, I'm the one who makes that call.At least once a month, sometimes twice, we have a line become unusable, whether it be static, or just not working at all. Because of this, I spend way too much time on the phone with their tech support.Once in a blue-moon, I actually manage to get ahold of their American call center, and it only takes me 5 minutes to get a repair ticket in, and that is awesome, but it's so rare, I can't even count it.99% of the time, I have to deal with the foreign call-center, and each time it takes around an hour, often-times, with no ticket put in, and I have to call back and get someone else who's a little more adept.Would you like some examples?First let me tell you, I have all the necessary authorizations, and I give those authorizations to whoever tech I end up with, because they do ask for them.First Example: I called one time because they had left about a 300ft line laying across the grass from a month earlier. The workers were afraid the landscaper may mow over it.I call, I give all account number, the PIN, etc. I explain the situation, and the guy legit tells me that the "owner" would have to call.I explain, there is no owner (as being a government entity, the people of this area are the owner). I further explain our process, and how tickets get submitted to me, and I inspect the issue, and then deal with Frontier. I further explain all our entities' dealings with them are through me, and the guy insisted I had to have the owner called. Seeing I wouldn't relent, he gave me a fake ticket number . . . .the day's date backward, just to get me off the line. My return call, I got the American call center and ticket was issued in 5 minutes.Second Example:Phone line at one of the convenience centers is staticky, can't understand anyone.I give the authorization pin, and all the requested info. Guy keeps asking me the same questions, but every 10 minutes a part.40 minutes in, he tells me he can't seem to make a ticket, but that he would escalate it to his supervisor, who would then call me to get the ticket made.About an hour later, with no call, I get a text saying a ticket has been made and that they would come by on a day when that center was CLOSED. Of course, he didn't know it'd be closed that day, but I never had a chance to tell him because he was supposed to call me.Dude scheduled it for the day the place was closed, from 1am to 1am, with no contact number for the Technician to call me from.So I call back, I get someone who seems a little more capable, explain the issue, we reschedule the call.Perfect.The day it was scheduled, all of a sudden, "ticket complete!"I call the convenience center, the line is still full of static.I actually had another ticket I was going to call in but it's just a painful process that I spoke with the department heads about moving those lines over to our in-house VOIP system, and cancelling those lines with Frontier so that would be two less lines we'd have to waste time with Frontier for. I wish I could do that for all of our lines, but some locations are too remote that we're forced to deal with EXTREMELY sub-par tech support.
