Would You Order Broadband From A Company That Can't Even Figure Out How To Let You Sign Up Online?

from the figuring-out-the-basics... dept

Frontier Communications has been growing rapidly as other large broadband providers offload their unwanted DSL customers on the company that seems happy to gobble them up. The company doesn't have a particularly good reputation wherever it goes -- especially on the customer service front -- but it's quite astounding to see that it has now, apparently, stopped offering a way to sign up for service online, forcing anyone who wants service to call or do live chat: Frontier is so out there on the... frontier of the internet, that apparently it can't even figure out how to use the web for ordering service, as noted by a source who shared this info with StopTheCap:

“This company can’t manage to figure out how to build a website that supports ordering of products, so they are just going to kill that function,” the source added. “Customers will be able to see what products they can get within a specific zip code, but that’s it. If they want to order, they are going to be forced into the already overloaded call center.”

And, of course, the end result is that already over-burdened customer service is even more over-burdened:

“I’m sure our former Verizon and AT&T customers as well as our future Verizon customers will enjoy going back to the Stone Age when they couldn’t do what they needed to do online and would have to pick up the phone to call into a Contact Center,” the source said. “We might as well just have a Frontier Wikipedia page for crying out loud.”

That same article notes that Frontier's disclaimer about how you won't see the speeds you're being promised takes such ridiculous disclaimers to new heights of ridiculousness. Traditionally, it was the slimey "up to" notation for speeds that you'd never see. But many broadband companies have gotten much better about actually living up to promised speeds. But Frontier flat out tells you there's no way in hell you're getting the speeds they promote:

“Actual speeds may vary and are not guaranteed. Performance metrics based on Frontier lab validation under ideal network environment simulating “best case scenario” without network congestion, other factors cause by consumer behavior, or factors caused by third-party providers’ behaviors. Consumers may not be able to replicate the performance shown in the performance metrics.”

Isn't it great that as AT&T and Verizon are looking to shed their DSL customers, they're handing them off to such a tech-savvy and customer-focused company?

Filed Under: broadband, customer service, e-commerce, online signups
Companies: frontier communications