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County, cable still
pointing fingers
By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com
Words continue to fly between AT&T Broadband cable company and the
Fayette County government.
An official for the company, which has an exclusive franchise agreement
to provide cable service to Fayette residents, expressed surprise after
reading critical comments from acting County Administrator Chris Cofty
in The Citizen last week.
The official, senior vice president Steve White, blamed problems between
the company and the county on poor communication. Cofty and White planned
to meet face-to-face Tuesday, after press time, to discuss their differences.
"I apologize if you were surprised," wrote Cofty in answer to
White's letter. "I am somewhat surprised that you are surprised.
Fayette County's position remains the same."
Fayette's position is that the company is providing poor customer service
and is improperly installing new cable lines on county right of way, causing
damage to county roads and other infrastructure.
One resident, Randolph Mills, is threatening to sue the company over lack
of response to complaints, and is gathering information from other customers.
He said he received numerous calls and e-mails this week in response to
a story in The Citizen last week.
On customer service, White said in his letter to Cofty that the company
has taken steps to improve that service. "Our experience shows that
the most efficient method to let AT&T Broadband personnel know about
a customer's concern is to send the information about the customer name,
address, telephone number and a description of the problem by e-mail to
a customer care professional whose sole responsibility is to resolve that
problem," wrote White.
"Without question, this practice has streamlined the customer complaint
resolution process," he added.
But the problem is that when customer complaints are passed on to the
company via e-mail, the customers are never contacted and the problems
are never resolved, said Cofty. "I feel it is imperative that you
understand that the e-mail solution you mentioned is not working due to
the lack of follow-up on AT&T's part," Cofty wrote in an answering
letter to White.
In his letter, White also said that the company has resolved Cofty's complaints
about construction work being conducted on county right of way without
proper permits. "I can assure you that these issues have been fully
addressed by the company," he said, adding that he believes the problems
were "more the result of miscommunication between the county and
AT&T Broadband... than any malfeasance on AT&T Broadband's part."
"I respectfully disagree," Cofty wrote in reply. "I personally
informed AT&T's representatives about unauthorized work being performed
in Fayette County only to find AT&T crews working in these same areas
several days later without permits. Failure to adhere to this policy has
surely caused damage to Fayette County's infrastructure."
Differences between Fayette and AT&T are a continuation of similar
differences that existed between the county and MediaOne cable company
before AT&T purchased that company, along with Wometco, another cable
company that previously served part of the county.
Company officials are hoping that installation of all new cable and other
facilities will reduce the number of outages and other service complaints,
but county officials say until the new facilities are finished, the company
needs to respond to those complaints promptly.
According to its franchise agreement with the county, the company is required
to complete the system upgrade by November.
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