By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayetteville residents will get a chance to air their complaints about MediaOne cable television company in a public forum if company officials follow through on the City Council's suggestion.

“A town hall type meeting where people can talk to company representatives and express their concerns might be beneficial to you and the community,” City Councilman Larry Dell told MediaOne vice president Deborah James during a council work session last week.

It was James's second trip “to the woodshed” in recent months. As the company's government liaison, she has twice visited City Council meetings to hear council members' concerns about customer service.

The company holds a franchise as Fayetteville and Fayette County's cable company, so the city is in a position of speaking for its residents when service isn't up to snuff. And according to council members, it hasn't been up to snuff for years.

James said the firm is taking steps to improve service in the near term, including moving more of its work in-house instead of hiring independent contractors. “Our labor is 80 percent contract and about 20 percent employees. We are trying to get that switched around over time to 80 percent employees and 20 percent contract labor,” said James.

Customers also recently received an apology letter for poor service in the past, James said, and a newsletter detailing steps the company is taking to improve service, including reorganizing customer service work shifts so there are more people working at times when there are typically more complaint calls.

James also introduced Steve Rhodes, who recently took over the maintenance and engineering of MediaOne's facilities in the area, and Rhodes promised that things are going to be different.

“We're going to do a better job of maintenance,” said Rhodes.

He said as early as Monday of this week he would begin replacing faulty power supplies so that when electric power outages occur, only customers whose power is out will experience cable outages. The power supplies have batteries to provide backup power to the cable lines during electrical outages, but the equipment often is not maintained, according to local experts.

The frequency and long duration of outages in Fayette County have overloaded customer service phone lines, resulting in long waits on hold and frustration for customers trying to get credit for outages.

“We have not done as good a job as we should have in extending our powering,” Rhodes told the City Council. “I apologize on behalf of myself and MediaOne,” he added. ”I am making a commitment to do the best job that I can to try to eliminate some of these outages and get all of the standbys on so only the area where the power is out will be affected,” he added.

In the long run, James and Rhodes said, Fayette's troubles with cable service won't be over until its 30-year-old lines and facilities are replaced with new, state-of-the-art wide band technology. That work is scheduled to begin in January with completion by next November.

In the meantime, they warn, problems will get worse before they get better.

Council members urged the company representatives to make sure customers are warned when their cable is going to be down because of construction, and to find a way to automatically credit customers for lost service, even if the customers don't call to ask for the credit.

City manager Mike Bryant promised to help the firm build a database so that when an area is going to lose its cable service, those residents can be notified and their bills reduced if necessary.

Rhodes and James did promise to get information on which areas of Fayette County have had the most frequent outages and bring the new technology to those areas first.

Residents also complained that when they do get through to customer service, they are promised credit for outages, but the credit never shows up on their bills.

James said she doesn't personally deal directly with customer service, but those who are having difficulty can phone City Hall or the county government, and she will personally look into their problems.

“They can call me and I will personally see to it that they get credit,” she said.