Frontier increased their internet rate in a very indirect way starting in January 2018. They added a line item called "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" buried on the last page of the bill in the section call "Detail of State and Other Charges."
There are three problems with this.
1) I believe this is deceptive billing by Frontier. It is a backdoor way to increase my internet service price by 8%.
2) Frontier customer service tells customers that this is a government charge. It is not. During calls on two consecutive months, I had to read Frontier's own statement that this "is not a tax or governmental charge" to Frontier customer service agents who initially claimed it was. Those same agents then informed me they could remove the charge if they enrolled me in a service plan.
3) Frontier does not follow through with its agreements to remove the charges when customers enroll in a plan. After Frontier customer service agents on four separate billing cycles told me the surcharge would not appear on my next bills since I enrolled in a plan, the surcharge was yet added.
I believe Frontier is preying on the majority of its customers who do not pay extremely close attention to their bills. Those who pay attention are then deceived by Frontier's false statements. Those who pay attention and are not deceived must then be persistent enough to waste time on hold month after month disputing the charge with Frontier customer service.
Thanks for pointing this out Mark, I will have to look in the same spots on my billings. It's been has been a very deep frustration having my billing start out at $34.99 Jan-March 2018 to $36.98 in April, 41.98 May through Sept and now Oct/Nov its 43.98.
* I don't know why the rate is going up,
* I cant find anything in my contract yet alone a contract on line for my service,
* I don't know when it will stop going up.
* Calling in is a waste of time due to Customer service wont tell me anything.
I am glad this is issue is being looked at so I can get back to understanding my rate and having a choice.
I am generally happy with the service in my area of Orono MN and the rate is still ok but the not having control and having to pay the surprise amount each month is the problem.
I am experiencing the same issue Mark. I just got off the phone with Frontier and was also told this is a state fee added to my bill. The increases started in April of this year, 2018, and I questioned it then and did not get a good explanation. I only have internet and my charge this month was $4.00 more than initially quoted. I now am asked to pay over $58.00 dollars per month for internet alone. I was told by their CSR that she could do nothing about the charge and that the only way to lower my bill would be to sign me up for a bundle with phone and internet at $50 per month before fees and taxes. You are correct in that they are not up front with their billing practices and downright dishonest in saying this is a state authorized increase. Something needs to be done about it.
On 15-May-2018, while working with Frontier customer service for the fourth month in a row about removing its Internet Infrastructure Surcharge from my bill (see my July 20, 2018 post in this discussion), I was told they had now "rebundled" me and going forward the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge would not appear on my bill and the monthly charge for our phone service would be $30.47/month. Instead, the Surcharge remains, and we are being charge $42.99/month instead of the quoted $30.47—a 40% difference. Frontier customer service now states they don't know why we were quoted $30.47/month, and they will not honor that price.
I surely wish I could go to the hearing in Wyoming on Sept 12, but I will be out of town. I have told MANY people that Frontier is the worst company I've ever dealt with (in any market segment) when one considers service, cost and reliability. Specifically to the topic requested here -- my wife has called many times (12+) over the years to straighten out billing problems. Mistakes can happen, but after several one has to wonder the motives and if they are either deceptive in their practices or just incompetent. I cannot wait for the day when competition provides me options -- and the day will come. My choices now are either satellite or Frontier and due to trees I really only have Frontier as an option. Resetting our router is nearly a daily ritual and when I check speeds delivered, they are very often not up to the level of service we pay for each month. I am a VERY unhappy customer and have been for about 10 years...
NO, they advertise and charge for 6MB service in our area (Montgomery) yet their equipment is only capable of 2 MB. Add in oversold capacity and you are lucky if you are faster that a 28.8 KB modem. I have had DSL since it was offered in this area and it is only getting worse. Please let qwest, qualcomm, anyone into this area for market choices/competition for the consumers sake. Quit giving them a captive market.
Frontier's invoices are convoluted and extremely hard to tie any of the detail line items/charges to any summary line charge on the face of the bill. The detail charge sections headings to not match one to one to a line name on the summary billing page. It would be extremely easy for Frontier to overbill, double bill, or exclude discounts promised when signing a business service agreement. In fact, after spending hours regrouping the detail charges to match the summary billing section, I found we were not receiving all the discounts promised when we renewed our service with Frontier. Frontier should be forced to simplify their billing statements and clearly show how the detail charges equal a line on the summary billing page. This is the only to force honesty and allow their customers to clearly see they are only paying what was promised or agreed to.
I have internet only with Frontier and for the most part haven't had the nightmare others are describing with their billing; however, since we started with them in the 1990's, they have charged us every single month for a level of service they have never provided.
We had the same issue in our area. When we built our house in 2015, they were selling and I was paying for 6MB internet service, but when I complained to my electrician, he checked it with a meter and stated that I was only getting a half (.5) MB of service. They was never corrected until the upgraded the service last year and now I have 45 MB service, but I also have to pay the upgraded fees to have that service now that they have installed it in our area. I feel bad for any Frontier customers that have not gotten new service lines provided. .5 MB is turtle speed internet, when you are actually paying for 6MB, which is not lightening speed either.
I am a Frontier customer and have been for over 25 years. I have DSL, phone and technical service, all of which I pay handsomely for.
Sometime in 2015 I noticed I was being billed for extra storage each month. I inquired by phone as to why I needed this as I still had plenty of storage left. I asked the representative to take it off. In April of 2018, I know that is a long time but I am on auto pay and did not pay attention, I notice the $6.99 for this storage was still being charged. I called at that time and presented the issue to a representative. After a lengthy and a transfer to another department, they informed me that they owed me $202 and I would see this as a credit on my bill.
It has been several months and I did not see a credit so I called again. I first talked to a lady named Alara, I asked to speak to a supervisor but Alara insisted she could probable help. After relaying my story Alara said they could not go back farther than three months. In frustration I asked again to speak to a supervisor. I then spoke with a supervisor named Leslie. I explained the story again and she informed me that the refund credit was denied because no one notified them to remove the extra storage. I informed Ms. Leslie that that was incorrect as I had told them way back in 2015 or 2016 to remove the extra storage. She basically said there is nothing else I can so as they do not/did not have any record of that call. I thanked her and informed her I would try to resolve this in another method....hence this email.
I just feel so mis-treated I had to write this information.
Frontier has a basic monopoly here in Northern Minnesota as we do not have any other choices for our internet service. As often the case with a monopoly comes a degraded service in many areas. We have struggled with our internet service for many years. When I have made inquiries what I am told is "you live in a busy area". In my estimation that is all the more reason is to do what you can to make our service better.
No, when we moved to the City Garrison, MN in September of 2016 we found the ONLY internet service provider was Frontier. We signed on and found out, on our first service call, that we were paying for a higher speed than what we were getting for over a year. The tech had to spend a lot of time getting our "settings" corrected and said we will be able to get a refund for the time we were over charged. When we went to customer service we were told they could only go back 3 months and there was nothing they could do. Shortly there after, we were notified of yet another speed increase opportunity and they raised my charges for the increased bandwidth. Feeling trapped and overcharged.
We run a business from home in Chisago Lakes area. We have two phone lines through Frontier. One for a land line (personal phone) and one for a fax line (business). We also have internet service through Frontier. We have been battling customer service for years regarding our fax line. Each month Frontier charges us for EACH individual fax that we send. It adds almost $100 a month to our regular bill. Each month, we call and tell them that this was billed in error, that we should not be charged for each fax we send and are passed along to 2-3 customer service agents before we finally get someone who will "make sure it doesn't happen again". Until the next month, when I get my bill showing it has happened again.
I and many others living in Alborn, MN are sick of the poor service from Frontier Communications. The internet speeds are slow, the reliability is spotty, and customer service is a far cry from helpful. We consistently deal with line speed issues or the internet going down all together. When you call for support they try to blame it on customer equipment verses doing any real work. After a couple calls they finally will come out to look into the issue and possible fix it as well.
They overcharge for the speed they advertise, which is not even what we get anyways. I once had Frontier customer support tell me they are surprised I even get internet from them because I am just out of there service distance. So what they did (according to them) is put boosters in so they could bring me slow internet but charge me the same rate as everyone else. They also are the only game in the area for broadband; which explains a lot about how they treat us. Their billing department once told me not to use auto pay because if they mess up you may as well just get it as a credit to your account because you will not see that money again.
Another thing to make note of is their practice of rented equipment. I used to buy and maintain my own equipment in the house (router/modem). Every time I would call support for connection or speed issues, and once they found out it was my equipment, they would say it is my problem due to faulty equipment. After having this occur too many times I broke down and rented their equipment. Well time went by and when I would call in they would say it has to be the equipment and I need to purchase a new one. I would point out I rent the equipment so they should replace their faulty hardware, their excuse would be that the equipment was over a year old or make something else up. In one case they refused to troubleshoot the issue due to their equipment.
I will be happy to provide speed tests so you can visually see how slow it is. Also I would like to add the techs that are on site are great. This is not their fault and blame should not be placed upon their shoulders. They share some of what Frontier does wrong. Like in the case of when they pulled pairs of copper down past my place and the techs explained it is not enough for the current customers let alone growth and Frontier did not care. Frontier premeditates having poor service at high prices.
Below are notes I took, when experiencing major issues and remember too, of communications with Frontier support. The last major issue was in the beginning of 2017, you will notice how it took almost 3 months to sort of resolve.
08/03/2015:
Called at 4:15PM on until 5PM
They are sending a tech. I have received a one month refund. I was informed by Tech Support and billing that I was supposed to be receiving 6mb.
08/04/2015:
Internet was slow and I noticed the advertisied speed in the web admin went from 1.8mb to 1.3mb.
08/05/2015:
Internet speed was horrible. Could not watch netflix as it buffered about every 1-3 minutes regardless of device used.
08/06/2015:
Called at 9:00AM I was told I should be receiving 2.6mb.Then after discussion I am told I should receive at least 1.3mb.I was also told that you need a 3mb connection to stream video, this is not correct.Tech will be coming out today between 8AM-5Pm.Call was with a Bryan.
11/23/2015:
Called 4:45PM no internet ticket# 1117140 Tech coming Tuesday between 8AM-5PM to check line.
02/13/2016:
Called lost internet again. Blinking DSL not internet light. Call a couple weeks ago and I was supposed to recieve a replacement router which I never did. This is the third or forth time this happened this year. Tech support claims to be sending me a replacement router. I have not heard back from them however as they said after they run tests and attempt repair they will call me back.
02/14/2017:
Called back, never heard from tech support again from the following night. The network speed according to the web admin has gotten slower and slower as the night passed (over a two and half hour period). I restarted the router and waited about 10 minutes but the speed did not approve. I than called support and the speed went back up to 5464 Kbps down and 767 Kbps up. I have inquired about the router that is supposed to be sent. Tech support put me on hold for somewhere around 15 minutes with no update. They refused to send a replacment without troubleshooting. I will call again another time.
04/14/2017:
Called somewhere around 8:30AM; speaking with Lucy; Billing me $60 for the upgrade to 12mb in which I am only getting 10mb. She transfered me out to an unkown extension in which I waited 5 minutes hung up and called back. Time 8:47AM. Got back on with Jennifer; she is claiming to be able to help. Jennifer corrected the current bill back to $34.99. Time 9:11AM. Trying to tell me the 12mb plan costs $59.99; originally the discussion was $45.99. Jennifer is transfering me to a Escalation manager; Laura.They are pulling the call history and will get back to me. They will email me the mail address to the president to file a complaint.
04/24/2017:
Called in the AM but was too busy to complete the call.
04/25/2017:
Agent transfered me to a escalation manager, Fernado. Repeating everything with Fernado to get him up to speed. They are going to pull the recording from April 14th and the recording from early March. Fernado said it will take 48-72 hours to complete this request. Call 1-203-614-5600 to file a complaint; this is a number to corporate.
04/28/2017:
8:10AM
Frontier charged me the full $92.68. Now I have to wait until the billing shows up on their end so I can get it refunded. Escalation Manager Dorrian is pulling the recordings from March and April 14th. He will contact me once completed; approximate time an hour. Current time 8:33AM.
I called again later that afternoon after work. End of call she said she was giving me a credit of $15 to bring the following month bill down to $44.99 until they can get everything sorted out.
04/29/2017:
12:45AMish
The escalation manager called me back to tell me they fixed the billing issue. My bank account still said otherwise but I will check sometime the following week.
05/08/2017:
Called corporate offices (office of the president) @8:20AM. Checked bill this morning and it is supposed to be at $44.99 but it is at $59.99. Brenda EMAIL: brenda.johnson@ftr.com; Reference my name and account number in the subject line. Brenda's office number 1-844-320-4445 Ext. 1124207. Brenda is crediting $16.11 to my account to correct the current billing from $59.99 to $44.99 for the month of May. Brenda is attempting to fix the promo credit for the 12mb connection. Brenda added the $15 promo credit to correct the billing; Order Confirmation: 57083506.
In 2015, I built a brand new home in Clear Lake (7916 105th Ave SE) MN. Due to the fact that I live out in the country, I only had one (1) service provider to choose from for cable, internet and phone, which was Frontier. At the time, I purchased a bundle package from Frontier for cable, internet and DISH. The package was a set price that was "guaranteed" for two (2) years.
After only a few months, I noticed that our monthly bill went up by $25. I called Frontier and complained about the sudden increase and that they were not honoring the two (2) year "guaranteed" price. I am not kidding when I say this, I was on the phone multiple times getting switched from one person to another and then suddenly the line would go dead and I would have to start the process ALL over because you never got to speak to the same person twice. I must have explained the problem over a dozen times to various people at Frontier.
Finally they directed me to DISH and stated that it was DISH who made the increase, not Frontier. The representative at DISH sent me an itemized list of what they were billing Frontier, who in turn was collecting the money from me to pay DISH. DISH did not increase the bill and they directed me back to Frontier to resolve the $25 increase. Again, I was on the phone multiple times with negative results. I attempted to speak with a supervisor and got hung up on several times during the transfer (imagine that). They ask for your number every time you call in the event the call gets disconnected, but they NEVER called back.
I am not kidding when I say this, I was on the phone multiple times over several days for upwards of 8 hours. At least half of that time was being put on hold by everyone you talked to.
I finally got so frustrated with their incompetent customer service representatives, I told them to separate my Frontier bill from my DISH bill and to cancel my auto pay because they were just taking the additional $25 out without me authorizing it. I was then advised that since I elected to cancel the bundle package, the reduced incentive for locking in for the two (2) year "guaranteed" price would go away and that my bill would go up dramatically.
No matter how many times I tried explaining that Frontier created the billing issues, it fell on deaf ears. If I had a choice of another provider, Frontier would have been cancelled in a heartbeat.
I have the same frustration with the rising rates and added fees as most have already mentioned. In addition, Frontier has never sent monthly invoices to me, they are sporadic, and I have called customer service on several occasions telling them that I did not receive a bill, and to "please remove the late fee charged, due to that fact", and they did. I also asked them to "Please send me bills on a monthly basis, and I will not fail to pay them on-time". It's never been resolved, and I just pay the late fees, because I am sick of waiting on hold every other month, when the practice never changes.
I have had no choice for land line or internet service other than Frontier for most of my adult life, Dawson, MN, Litchfield MN, New Richmond, WI, and now Lakeville MN. My mother was a customer for more than 35 years in Dawson MN. When a competitor came to Dawson and improved all the service for internet and telephone, many people decided to switch to the new company. My mother decided to change companies, and Frontier charged my mother and many others an "early termination fee" of ~$200.00.....Did I mention that she was a customer for more than 35 years?
Frontier signed us up for internet, tv and phone. This was supposed to be firm price for 2 years. The rate has increased 2 times if not 3. We are paying $25 more a month now and we just got notice it was going up again. Some firm price!
My Frontier internet bill increased $5.00. I am on auto pay, so I tried to go on line to look at my statement to see why my bill had increased. It was in the evening about 5pm, so internet was very slow, I could not even get on line. So I called them, was on hold for about 15 minutes.
Finally was able to take to someone. She proceeded to tell me that my promo pricing was up hence the extra $5.00 charge. I asked what was the price increase back in February then? She said that was for "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge". I said what infrastructure.?, There hasn't been any improvements in my area for years. My internet is so slow, I had to call because I couldn't get on line. She proceeded to tell me that Frontier no longer provides internet service in my area. So I asked does that mean they will not upgrade,or make any improvements to improve the quality of service?.
I was told , I can not upgrade. I could not get an answer about the quality of the internet in my area. Prices keep rising, but the quality keeps going down. I've been looking for other options, but not having any luck.
I called customer service earlier this spring because my bill went up yet again. I pay my bill online, but still prefer to get a paper bill in the mail. Half the time I don't have internet. She told me I needed to go to paperless billing as they were charging customers for paper billing since Jan 2018. Is this what the internet infrastructure charge is? I told her I have never heard of a company where you pay monthly charges to get a paper bill. There isn't a paper billing fee on my electric bill or any of my credit card bills. Now I woke up this morning still no phone line and internet keeps throwing me off.
I am relieved that Frontier is being investigated. Their billing practices are unethical, and their customer service is extremely poor. We've been incorrectly billed on multiple occasions, and have spent numerous hours attempting to have our bill corrected, only to be told the bill was fixed when it wasn't. Our most recent encounter was when our bill increased by about $5.00/month - from $29.99 to $34.99. When I called to ask why and try to get it reduced back to $29.99/month, I was told that it would be fixed on our next bill. During that call, the representative also offered to upgrade our speed for free. However, our next month’s bill was more than triple our previous rate of $29.99 - it was over $100.00. When I called to demand that it be fixed, I was told that the charge was appropriate because of the upgrade. I said that I was told it was a free upgrade, so the representative agreed to credit our account and change our billing rate to reflect the previous rate of $29.99. I recorded the confirmation number in anticipation of having to argue my case if the bill wasn't fixed the next month. The next month, our bill was not fixed, and we had not received any credits. Our rate was still over $100. When I called customer service I told them that it was supposed to have been fixed and provided them with the confirmation number from my previous call. I was told that the confirmation number did not exist. I continued to call Frontier and ended up speaking to numerous representatives but was unable to resolve my case. I finally spent hours chatting with a representative online who told me that Frontier would credit my bill to cover part of the surcharge but that we could not receive our original rate of $29.99 because we had opted out of that promotional rate when we upgraded our account. We had to agree to a three-year contract in order to get a monthly rate of $36.98, which is where we are today. After spending so much time on this and feeling completely powerless in the situation, I agreed to pay a slightly higher monthly amount just to be done. I think that Frontier should correct the billing rate for all of their customers who have been lied to and improperly billed and that the company should reimburse us for what we have paid in excess of the rate we were originally promised.
We had Frontier for about 1 year. Our bill was constantly having additional charges added for things like a security bundle that I never approved. They would take it off and then the next month it would reappear. Our service stopped working and after trying to get someone out to fix it for over a month I finally cancelled. I told them I would not pay for service we did not receive and was assured that my bill would be adjusted. Next thing I know I get another bill, charging me for the month after I had cancelled our service. And on top of that billing for the previous month we had no service. I called again and was told they would take 20 dollars off and transfer me to someone who could cancel the account. Instead of transferring me I was hung up on. This happened 4 times before I got a hold of someone. They have sent me to collections for this.
I've been with Frontier for several years in Comfrey, MN - I've never had good service or customer service. The billing has been one of the most annoying. I first signed on for $29.99 per month. That expired, but no one informed me of this. When I called and asked, they told it was just for a year, I was bumped up to $30 something a month - I complained because - if my service in my house isn't improving- I definitely shouldn't be paying more per month. I just checked my past bills - in Sept 2017 my bill was $34.99, Nov 2017 my bill went up to $39.99 with a claimed "$5 guaranteed price discount statement until 8/25/18" & in small print an added $1.99 for surcharge. March 2018 my bill went up again to $41.98 b/c of that $1.99 surcharge - on this one there was a note that they look at bills for consistency and that my bill may be going up - my current bill for Sept 2018 is now $46.98 (I suppose b/c that special $5 discount fell off!) plus the $1.99 surcharge - the note on this one - the surcharge is going up to $3.99!!!!!! So in one year my bill went up $11.99 per month - NOTHING has changed with my service, I still have to call in every couple months for them to fix things and my speed is still the same. but I'm paying more just because of fees.
As the others have commented, Frontier has a virtual monopoly here in Herman and has little incentive to improve their service or even provide the services they are billing their customers for. I have found Frontier to be dysfunctional from top to bottom, ranging from promising internet speeds it can't or refuses to deliver, to having a local manager (our "local" office is 150 miles away in McGregor) come to our community and literally get laughed at when promising that things will get better, to having techs who can't figure out the cause of what turn out to be minor problems, to customer service reps who often seem confused and answer questions that I am not asking or are unable to answer the questions I do ask. However, since this discussion is about billing practices, I'll confine my response to that. For years I had been getting home phone service and internet service for around $75 per month. Then over the course of a few months, each bill went up incrementally until it got to over $90 three or four months ago. I called a service rep (who actually tried to be as helpful as she could), asking why my bill had increased by 20 percent in less than a year. She dug around and discovered that apparently I had been getting some kind of "discount" rate for years, but the discount no longer applied. She said I should have gotten a notice in my bills, but I can't verify that one way or the other. When I made the general comment, as I usually do, that Frontier has not invested anything in Herman to increase our internet speed, she said she could appreciate that because she, too, had slow speed at home. When I asked her who her provider was, she hesitated, then said "Frontier." I told her that the Minnesota PUC was looking into Frontier, and that I was going to add my complaints in its information gathering process. At the end of the conversation, she told me that I would be getting an email from Frontier shortly to get feedback on my customer service "experience" with her. I never got that email. My conclusion is that one ploy Frontier uses to increase rates without justification is to tell customers they had been getting a "discount" all along, and that the higher rate is merely an adjustment up to the "real" rate. And if Frontier claims that it doesn't get many complaints, it's probably because someone screens customer calls and simply doesn't seek feedback from callers they think will give the company a bad review. This seems to be the case because I have gotten emails seeking feedback when a conversation has gone fairly well or a tech actually did fix a problem. When things don't go so well, no email. When a customer service rep says "Thank you for choosing Frontier" as they are programmed to do, all I can do is laugh at the irony.
Frontier has proven to be unreliable, inconsistent, deceptive and untrustworthy. This summer (June-September 2017), I just wanted basic internet access for the summer so I could get some work done while spending time with family. However, Frontier proved again and again that they are incapable of doing simple tasks, repeatedly charged for things I never asked for and never disclosed any applicable fees. Attached is what I documented with all the billing issues I came across with Frontier.
In September of 2011 I signed up for an offer they had of $19.99 price for life for what they called High Speed Internet Lite. They billed me 18.49 for internet, 6.99 for the modem and they I got a 10% discount on my internet and land line bill to reduce the price to $19.99. After having this service for 7 years apparently Frontier has decided my life is over. They increased my internet fee, internet surcharges and took away the 10% discount my bill is now 20% higher than it was last month. I called and asked why they increased my price for life and they denied ever offering that price. They said I was just lucky they didn't back bill me for all of the years I shouldn't have had that price. This was a real offer, I was not the only one who signed up for it. My parents also signed up and have been receiving this supposedly guaranteed price for life for the last 7 years. We just want it to remain our price for life.
Found a house we liked but high speed internet was a requirement. Called Frontier and was told "that address can get 50 meg internet!!" great! we make an offer and close on the house. We get moved in and I call Frontier again "oh we are sorry, no, you can't have 50 meg internet, but you can have 25!" ok. fine.. hook me up.. Tech shows up and says "not sure why they told you that, you'll be lucky to have 10 meg internet"...
we ended up with 9.. on a good day, with speeds normally around 3-4 meg.. The bill, printed and every thing said our price was locked until 2020 (its only 2018) Our bill has gone up 3 times since then, "oh that promo no longer qualifies" we even confirmed the locked price in a chat (I have the transcripts) when the bill didn't change we called and was told "oh they where wrong".
thankfully a new provider has come to town with ethics and LOCAL people that I can call and get right through to.
I expect frontier to try and continue to bill me after I cancel because that is just what they do.
Phone bill had charges on it that were not authorized.
Charge amount 14.95 for 8 billing cycles.
Contacted frontier
Agent=caleb
Agentid=cej43
Call/case no=055839389
Phone number=763-479-2558
Account number =763-479-2558-052899-2
Agent acknowledge 8 charges of 14.95 for a total of 119.60. Agreed to reverse charges. Charges were never reversed, Frontier continued to try and collect charges. We refused to bay the next bill and when they pursued, we cancelled phone number and account with them. Reported to FCC.
We no longer have this phone number. Instead of their charge off of $59, they owe us 60.60.
Frontier submitted the issue of non-payment to the 3 major credit bureaus. Contacted frontier, they would not reverse. Contacted credit bureau they did not fix on our credit report. This is still on our credit report.
There have been other customer service issues and billing issues with them as well. Only provider of true hard line phone service in the area. Not much choice.
Same story as others here: Frontier has a monopoly here in Spring Lake Township, just south of Prior Lake. I've paid for 6 Mb internet service for 12+ years, never got any better than 1 or 2 Mb, currently averaging less the 1 Mb. Countless calls, never any resolution. Now they've randomly changed the due date on my bill. Used to be due on the 2nd, sometimes is now due on the 29th or 30th without any notice at all, leading to late charges. Absolutely the worst company and service all around. I have no other option, so please get other options for us!
No, they don't. Over 22 years of having the displeasure of being their "customer", I made it a practice to regularly call to "review" my bill with them. I don't believe I ever had an instance that didn't uncover some unapproved charge. I had to have the "interior line insurance" removed from my bill several times. It always felt scammy and dishonest.
We've had Frontier internet the last 4 years. We started out paying $29.99 a month and now we are paying $48.98 for the same type of speed. When we ask customer service why it kept increasing every 6 months, their excuse was our "promotion" has ended. Our service can barely handle 3 devices at one. They give us the option to increase our speed for a higher price. We tell them no we want to pay what we pay for better service. They try to get us on another package which includes a landline which we don't need.
I upload a lot of photos to the internet - mostly during the summer when my granddaughter plays ball. I had not uploaded for some time after she graduated from HS. When I did upload I realized that my upload speed was slow. So I ran an internet spewed test and found it was 0.4 Mb/s. I called Frontier and they told me I was paying for 1.0 Mb/s but was "provisioned" at 0.4 Mb/s. I asked how long this had been going on and they could not tell me. I then asked if I could get a refund for my overpayments, and the operator said I could not. So, they knew I was overpaying (and no doubt for how long I was overpaying) but refused to return the overpayments or even to credit my account with the difference. Pretty low for any company!
I have noticed my Internet bill through Frontier has been steadily creeping upwards over the past year or so. I remember a few years ago when in was 29.99. Now it is nearly double that. Textbook case of boiling the frog where the changes have been very subtle with little to no warning.
At the same time, the quality of the service has declined with choppy and inconsistent internet service. Recently, I was out of service for almost a week. I use this service for my business and the lack of service was not helpful at all.
Follow-up to my earlier post regarding Frontier's Internet Infrastructure Surcharge. Starting on October 2018, Frontier doubled this charge. Again, this is a backdoor price increase in direct conflict with its statement that after having been "rebundled," I would not see an increase in my internet charge during the term period (6/9/18 - 6/8/21). I believe this is deceptive billing by Frontier.
I don't even know where to start with this company.
I first dealt with them while living in town, a rural town of 300, but still "in town." I was quoted $19.99 per month and was sent a router to plug into a phone line that I originally told them I did not have (no phone jacks inside the house due to recent remodel). I called tech support and was told to plug it into the box mounted on the outside of my house and string the line though my kitchen window. While this was laughable, I did so and happily paid the $19.99 as they refused to come install an indoor jack without a fee like they previously said they would for no charge. When my bill rose to $35.99 a few months later I ended up having to call every month to get a $15.00 credit and every month they said they were unsure why it was happening but neglected to ever fix it.
I eventually moved out of town to live with my boyfriend who has been with Frontier since building his home in 2008 and was appalled at the price he was paying for such shoddy internet service. The trouble I had with them previously was nothing compared to what we were about to encounter.
Firstly, I must mention that the initial nightmare of trying to get his ex's name off the bill was beyond ridiculous. It took around two months of phone calls and emails to get it sorted out, along with them eventually demanding that she be present to remove her name. We ended up having to bother her multiple times while she was at work with 3-way calls (between her, Frontier and ourselves) as distance and work schedules made it hard for her to just pop over here to talk on the phone.
In an effort to shorten up what is becoming a rather long story, the situation in this very rural area (poor to no cell service and reliant on landline for emergencies) is identical to what so many commentators here are dealing with: slow speeds, call drops when communicating with customer service, a lack in communication between reps and repair men (I was once given the personal cell phone number of a repair man, oddly the rep told me to just call him myself, only to call and find out that it was a man I knew personally who retired from working with Frontier months ago!), constant need to reset routers, and, my biggest concern, the unwillingness of Frontier to charge everyone in the area the same amount for their slower than slow internet speeds (ours being touted as "High Speed Internet Max" yet only receiving .73 Mbps upload speed and .43 Mbps download speed). The last time I called about poor speeds with a high price tag I was politely told that I should keep in mind that we are basically grandfathered in out here and that they no longer service this area for new customers ... I was offered an insulting one-time $5 credit which I've yet to see.
Prior to learning about this investigation, I'd personally been doing speed tests and collecting price information from the neighbors in an effort to have something to fight with when I call back and try AGAIN to get our monthly rate lowered due to the incredibly slow speed. One neighbor, about a mile away, pays the same as we do, $50.99, with an even slower speed test than us, and another neighbor, also a mile away, pays $24.99 with slightly faster download speeds (1.75 Mbps).
I understand that we are "in the middle of nowhere" and should almost expect to have poor-quality internet, but scaring customers to continue paying an arm and a leg for it is just awful. Basically they can charge what they want as they know we have no other option. Frontier has been nothing but a hassle with no positive outcome to date. I, as well as many others, would love to see something done about this horribly unethical scam they have going on.
Frontiers billing practices are suspect and their customer service is non-responsive and very poor. We have had to call multiple times regarding billing issues and charges. From month to month your bill may be drastically different without any change in service or long distance charges. You have to watch very carefully to make sure additional surcharges and fees are not simply added.
As mentioned in previous posts, when we finally gave up and simply cancelled our frontier internet service they raised our regular phone bill by about $20.00 per month. When I called to question this increase they told me that they had mistakenly continued promotional pricing on our account, but could not explain for how long or what promotion etc.
After multiple phone calls and arguments, they finally agreed to temporarily credit the extra charge for a one-year time period. After that, no guarantees.
During every phone call, they tried multiple times to sell me more services and products and get me to "bundle" services to get a cheaper price etc. All we need is a simple landline, and we were being charged almost $80.00 per month.
If we had any choice at all, we would have cancelled Frontier years ago,. We absolutely hate being forced to do business with a company that is dishonest and has no concern for the quality of their product or customer service to the customers because they don't need to. No matter how they treat you, what they charge and or how poor the product is, there is NO OTHER CHOICE but to pay and put up with it or go without basic things like phone and internet. It is the most ridiculous and frustrating situation and needs to be changed.
In early 2017, I contacted Frontier Communications because I was unhappy with my Internet provider for raising my monthly service charges and saw a Frontier broadband Internet advertisement that promised a rate lock of at least two years. When I contacted Frontier Communications I was informed that I could receive their Simply Broadband Ultimate service with a three-year rate locked at $39.99 per month. Based on this information, I terminated my Internet provider and began service with Frontier Communications on 3/30/17. My initial bill from
Frontier Communications reflected a Simply Broadband Ultimate Term of 3/30/17 - 3/29/20 as expected; however, it also included "State Taxes and Other Charges" in the amount of $11.37. Since I knew Internet-only service pricing to be exempt from additional sales tax I immediately contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and requested a refund; the Frontier representative agreed and issued a credit in the amount of $11.37 on my subsequent monthly bill. My billing situation was uneventful until my automatic payment was collected for the period of 3/04/18 - 4/03/18 in the amount of $42.49. Then for the period of 4/04/18 - 5/04/18 I was charged $54.99. Alarmed by this unexpected change, I contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and was informed that my rate lock term had actually expired as of 3/29/18. Upon my persistent request, the Frontier representative privately consulted with their so-called "offline promotions" department and then informed me that there was no way to honor the original rate lock of 3/30/17 - 3/29/20. I then asked to escalate my case and the Frontier representative dutifully entered an "ELL" escalation form but was unable to provide me a case reference number. Subsequently, a Frontier ELL representative who identified himself only as "Mike" called and left a voice message on my phone to call the number 855-891-4468 and leave a message for him in order for him to call me back and inform me of Frontier's determination regarding my escalated case. When I attempted to execute Mike's instructions I found I could not leave a voice message at the number 855-891-4468 unless I had Mike's phone extension that he had failed to provide in his voice message. Accordingly, I again contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and informed the representative that I could not leave a voice message as instructed due to the automated menu prompts. The Frontier representative informed me that she also did not have a phone extension listed for Mike but read me notes from my account that were presumably entered by Mike from ELL and that stated Frontier's decision was to offer me a one-year rate lock for a $44.99 monthly charge. Upon my request the Frontier
representative issued a credit in the amount of $10.00 on my subsequent monthly bill to mitigate the bill in the amount of $54.99 for the period 4/04/18 - 5/04/18. While I expected my next bill to reflect $44.99 I instead was charged $46.98; the additional $1.99 was described as an "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge." Yet again I called Frontier Communications' Customer Service to remove that add-on charge. This time, I was informed by the representative that Frontier Communications' legal counsel had opined they were well within their right to charge Internet-only customers for their self-described "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" in the amount of $1.99 and would not remove that surcharge from my bill. Then in October, 2018 I observed that Frontier Communications doubled the amount of that surcharge to $3.99. When I called to inquire why Frontier Communications doubled the surcharge rate I was informed that I had been notified on my previous month's bill that they would do that. Once again I challenged Frontier's interpretation of the law for billing Internet-only customers and asked that the surcharge be removed from my bill but the customer service representative refused. I am completely dissatisfied with Frontier Communications' actions in my case. I consider this whole experience to reflect false advertising and duplicitous billing practices on the part of Frontier Communications. Furthermore, I now believe Frontier intentionally billed me that sales tax for my Internet service on my first bill. I am very concerned that Frontier is intentionally engaging in abusive billing practices towards many customers and profiting from these abusive practices.
it has been a rollercoaster ride with the billing from Frontier. I have a promo effective until 2020 for $29.99 internet only service. my bill has been as high as $53.00, but now averages $48.00 for INTERNET ONLY. There are many other issues with frontier as well, but the one that sticks out the most is the billing. I have to typically call customer service on a monthly basis to try to resolve the issue with no luck. I ended up chatting with a customer service representative through their "chat" line via their app. the representative continuously tried to tell me that the promo ended, but it shows on the bill that it is effective until 2020. she then hurried up and tried to end the chat saying that everything will be good by my next billing cycle, and that she will be contacting the promo department to get the changes made. jump forward 1 month to my next billing cycle, and nothing has changed, BUT I screenshotted the whole conversation with the representative and myself. this needs to change asap.
I have had issues with internet speed as well as internet dropping for days at a time. when I call to schedule a service technician to come out, the schedule me almost 2 weeks out and tell me that I will have to pay for the parts if anything needs to be repaired. I ended up going to the store and buying a CAT-4 cable and switched them out myself.
My neighbor has the option for a higher speed internet than I have, and he has no complaints. when I called to inquiry about this option, they told me it doesn't exist, but he showed me his bill. I thought that was rather frustrating. - Joe Hansen, Scandia, MN - Docket # P407,405/CI-18-122
My husband and I live in a rural area and Frontier is our only option. We have had many issues with them. Back in April our service went down on 4/18. I called in to report and was given a repair date of 4/21 by 12pm. I was told that it would be escalated and would receive a call within 24 hours. (My husband works from home and has to have internet service to work). I never received a call. 4/21 12:15pm, still no internet. spoke through chat and was told that a tech performed a repair at the box around 10:15am and the problem was fixed. Tech never came to the home. I was told there should have been a door tag left. There was not. No tech came and we were still down. Was given a repair date of 4/25. Husband went to local Lakeville office, the rep called and we were told to go home and wait for a tech. No one came.. 4/24 Spoke to a supervisor and was told a tech would be out on 4/25 between 8 and 5. 4/25 A tech finally arrives and replaces modem. He mentions a module on the outside box. Internet works for 10 minutes and is down again. Called again, given a ticket number and repair date of 4/28 and is told it is being worked on remotely. Repair finally made on 4/28.
Another time I called in to check on service. Was told we qualified for faster service. Setup an appointment. Tech came out, put in equipment. Internet goes down. I call in, we cannot get that speed here and need to replace the modem and go back to old speeds. We are down a couple days and have to fight billing issues of being charged for the service we cannot get.
Over the last several weeks our internet drops not less than 6 times a day, If we had an option other than Frontier. We would happily use it. The customer service is awful. We have had many other instances of service dropping but I do not have the specific dates.
Frontier did not send the information to their electronic billing clients to comment on this. It was supposed to be in our July bills and arrived in November with a statement that it was not included.
MPUC Docket Number P407,405/CI-18-122
Rebecca Soh
Lakeville, MN
First, is Frontier any worse than its competitors? I don't know. They all seem to have shady pricing structures, hidden fees, etc. We recently came back to Frontier because we found a store front where we could actually see the people offering us prices. We could see that they were referencing something and not just pulling numbers out of the air. It helped restore a bit of confidence in them...temporarily.
So when we first signed up with Frontier, it was December 2016. A man came by in the freezing cold, telling us about a new cable offering by Frontier. Wow! An alternative to Spectrum?! This cannot be. So we listened, and it sounded good - a price under $100 for three services, locked in for two years. And it was pretty good...for the first year. We had a good price on Internet, cable, and phone (though we didn't use the phone ever). After taxes and fees, it was over $100, but it was still worth it to us. Well, when that bill came in for the thirteenth month, it was higher. What? I thought we had a locked-in price for two years. So I compared bills, and suddenly we were being charged for the DVR. I called and explained that it was to be the same price for two years. The rep alluded to the date range on the bill next to the DVR term, and I saw that yes, it did appear to "expire" a year before the rest of the deal, but perhaps that was a mistake to begin with. She just kept referring to the date and said she couldn't do anything. I told her that they could fix the date to align with the rest of the items to be two years long, as we'd been told a certain price for TWO WHOLE YEARS…that when we signed up, there had been no mention that we'd start being charged for DVR service after one year. Nothing. I asked to speak with a manager, and nothing. I gave up. We moved a few months later and went to a competitor at our new house.
Well, of course the competition is shady too, so after a month of that, my husband stopped by the Frontier office nearby, and wouldn't you know, they are actual humans that actually refer to a pricing sheet when quoting services. They did seem to have way more options than you ever get on the phone, so I do recommend going in and talking to them in person.
Anyway, we chose Internet only for $32 with $10 more for the router. $42 for Internet...not bad, right? After taxes, charges, and fees, it's $64.88/month...54% greater than the $42 we were thinking was so cheap. Are those taxes, charges, and fees necessary and correct? I don't know. I don't know how to figure out if they're doing what's right or just screwing me over. And I get it. I've explained payroll taxes to employees on numerous occasions. There are certain things you cannot control but have to charge people. When I've questioned fees, Frontier has just referred me to some document online.
So…There are my two cents. Thank you for your time.
I have paid for the 6 Mbps service for several years. $64.52 per month seems pricey for the low quality DSL link. Our average download speed is 1.5 to 2.2 Mbps. Our average upload speed is 0.5 Mbps. What these numbers don't express is the fluctuation in the availability of the connection speeds during a typical day. The connection becomes slow enough to be practically unusable for hours every day.
I locked into a 3 year plan for simply ultra broadband with frontier. My rate was supposed to be $29.99 a month for around 12mbps of service. Right off the bat I got additional charges for some device protection that I neve signed up for. From there is was every month calling in because my bill was incorrect and having to have stuff taken off that I never signed up for. Then our service started getting slow. After talking to a bunch of people and being transferred all over the place I finally find out the capped my speed to like 6mbps. WITHOUT my knowledge or ever talking to me they were constantly making changes to my service and bills. so finally I get them to bring my speed up to find out the next month that my speed was brought up to where is was supposed to be but they upgraded my service charging me more. I told them I was not going to pay more for what I was already signed up for $29.99 so they kept adjusting my bill every month. I have become so sick of this joke of a company. About 5 or 6 months ago I talked to someone that finally resolved some problems. My bill for the past 5 to 6 months has stayed at $34.99. Even though it is supposed to be $29.99 this company is so bad that I have just dealt with paying $5 dollars more a month because my service seems to be at least working and I do not have to sit on the phone for and hour plus onces a month to pay my bill. At one point I recall telling them I just want to cancel service because THEY were not providing me the service that I was signed up for they then threatened me I would be charged some outrageous cancelation fee. As soon as my contract is up I will be leaving this company. I literally laughed when I got the letter in the mail that frontier is being investigated. I truly hope they get shut down.
P407,405/CI-18-122
Frontier charged us for high speed internet that was not even offered in our area. We live in a rural area and Frontier is our only option really. The internet service is horrible!! But we happened to call and get someone that couldn't figure out why our internet was out yet again and he finally slipped up and said that we were set up for a speed that wasn't even an option in our area due to it not being in our area. So once he took our speed down it did improve but barely.
We have used Frontier for serveral years and have consistently had spotty coverage. Many calls made to Customer service with no results. They consistnetly told us that our Wi-FI and internet were fine even though service was slow and often dropped. Pulling like 5mbps. Now getting 150 with new service. We finally deceided to cancel service. We were charged a fee to cancel (not sure if this was disclosed when we signed up as we had no contract). We had just paid our bill and they said they could not offer a refund for a prorated month. We canceled service and received confirmation of cancellation on October 26, 2018 and just today recieved a bill for service (late fees also inlcuded on this as well as a broadband processing fee that I am assuming is the cancellation fee. I am trying to manage payment option to delete our payment informationa nd it will not let me get in.No have to call to make sure we are not charged as we canceled over a month ago and they have sent this bill for service into December.
Several months ago I noticed on my bill that I was being charged $6.99 for additional storage. I thought this was strange as I had not used up all my existing storage. I got in touch with them and after much discussion the representative admitted that they owed me money. I was told to call back. I called back in a month because the charge was still on my bill. Again it took a inordinate long time for the representative to identify again that I had been overpaying. We figured as close as we could an amount. I believe it was around $195. The rep said it should show up on my bill in a couple of months. Well it did not! I called again and after long explanations of my previous calls the rep said the claim was denied because they had not been notified. I swallowed hard and explained that I had if fact notified them and to please check our taped phone calls. She assured me that she would have a supervisor review them and get back to me. Well it has been over 9 months since I began having these discussions and nothing has changed. I penned a letter to Daniel McCarthy the CEO, sent it registered mail and it was returned as not deliverable to address and unable to forward.
I cannot believe that they are able to deal with customers in this fashion.
I can relate to the way Frontier operates as far as overcharging and then having to call, or "chat" with them for being overcharged. This happened for the first 4 months of my service. I was told one rate and then charged a rate which was $25 higher for every one of those months. I was also being charged for a premium home phone line which I had never asked for. I believe I was reimbursed for that, but it took a month for them to investigate it and go through the recorded phone conversations between us. Reading through these comments I see the pattern in them so-called making mistakes with billing but yet it happens again and again and it is the same problem.
Also, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this complaint but for the last 3 months virtually every weekend our internet would go out on Friday and be out until Monday. Trying to get a hold of customer service was next to impossible as I'm sure my whole neighborhood probably had the same issues. The internet light would be on but we would get no service and they would tell me I would have to have a technician come out and probably be charged a fee for it. They would go through the same process with reseting the modem every time and me knowing full well that it was nothing with my equipment because like clockwork this would happen. I have to do work and time sheets on Sundays and this would make me have to go to a friend's house to be able to do my paperwork for my job. Huge inconvenience!
MPUC DOCKET NUMBER P407,450/CI-18-122
DEAN JOHNSON, KANDIYOHI, MN
I'm an 11 year customer of Frontier Communications. During this time they have billed me for 6 Mbps service while only providing 2 to 3 Mbps at best. I have contacted them about this and have asked for credit or refund with no success.
Currently I am being billed for a land telephone line that I no longer have. On 09/13/18 I requested to have the land telephone line disconnected. Since then I have to call each month to request a refund. At first I was told that I could not receive internet if I did not keep the landline. I know is not true since I have had internet with no landline from them before. Now they refund the expense of my landline if I call and request the refund. Otherwise they will continue to charge me for the land telephone line that is no longer hooked up.
I have had numerous other problems with Frontier Communications but don't believe they are fraudulent like their billing practices are.
We have had Frontier for 10 years for internet and phone. Our phone services are fine. Our internet services never go above 1mpbs and I have speed tests to prove it. They just come out and give us a new router every year but it doesn't make a difference. We pay for 6mpbs and never even come close. I'm fed up with it.
My internet speed has always been well below the advertised speeds. I would pay for 6MB and run a speed test at less than 1MB. The service is not consistent either. There have been dozens of days where it slows way down, too slow to stream any video, so we have to just turn the TV off or watch a DVD. There have been items billed that I was unaware of. I increased my internet speed and receive a $49.99 charge for the switch. I don't know why I have to pay that extra when I am already agreeing to pay more...? I recently cancelled service with them because I am tired of paying them and they charged me another fee, and I wasn't under a contract.
Well, I typed a lot in this comment block and it didn't upload. I don't feel like spending another 20 minutes, so I'm just gonna shorten it this time.
My bill went up from $30 in May, to $33 in June, to $38 in July to $46 in August to $49 in September where it is, for right now, as it stands. I have no idea why they keep raising it on us. We pay for supposedly 6 mpbs speed. We only get about 2 on average for download and 0.3 for upload. It's the worst service I've ever had. It's a monopoly where we’re at and therefore no other provider service will come into the area and so we're stuck with frontier and they know that. They never fix any of our problems or our neighbors. They send out a tech all the time and they say they have fixed the problem and they don't.
I recently called on 11/26/2018 to get our bill lowered because we have absolutely horrible service that we can barely have one computer on at a time, let alone trying to watch a movie streaming... a "Wendy" said she'd give us a $10 discount to $38.98 for the next foreseeable future because of my Military service and having these troubles. She also said a tech person would be calling to come out and to be next to the phone. Well, you guessed it. No tech ever called or came out and surprise, surprise.... my bill was still $48.98 again.
I called back on 12/04/2018 at approximately 4:30 p.m. and spoke to a "ricky" at frontier customer service. Spoke to him for a 1 1/2 hours. He said he couldn't do anything for me even though someone said they could lower my bill to $38.98. He said I was already receiving the discount since I signed up 1 1/2 years earlier.... I told him that's impossible because I only spoke to their customer service rep, "wendy", just a week prior and that when she instituted it. He first said he had no idea what I was talking about and that it wasn’t in their records…. Miraculously he found it after I pressed him. Weird.
"Ricky" kept stepping over himself as I corrected him on my bill many times as he blatantly lied to me countless times thinking I was an idiot and would just go away. I literally asked to speak to his supervisor over 20 times and he wouldn't let me. He kept saying that they're too busy and that we'd be waiting all night. I told him I would wait. We waited some and he got impatient and said, "well, sir, we'll be here at least 30-60 minutes waiting for a supervisor." I told him again I would wait, but he came up with another excuse when he got impatient.... a little later he said he spoke to a supervisor who said that my problem might be fixed with getting transferred to promotions. I told him I didn't want a promotional offer, I wanted what was guaranteed to me. And I also told him that in the amount of time he had to explain my entire situation to his supervisor, he could have just handed me off to him/her. It seemed like he was really trying to avoid letting me talk to a supervisor. I tried for 30 min to get a supervisor and in the end he said he was transferring me to a supervisor and hung up on me. Completely the worst experience with Frontier and the most incompetent person of all the people I've spoken with at Frontier.
I'm fed up. We need a new service and I'm tired of being ripped off.
I'm tried uploading this 6 times now and the internet keeps failing.....
I am laughing a bit as I write. Frontier’s technician was supposed to be here between 8 am and 12pm today. It is now after noon and we haven’t heard a word. Another half-day of work taken off for Frontier’s LOUSY service. Same story, different day. This will be visit number six or so. Each time they come out they “fix” our intermittent internet service. Next day? The internet signal stops working . My wife and I have spent countless hours online with Frontier’s support folks trying to get our service to work and also trying to get our money back. We pay $107 a month for service that drops daily. We have asked repeatedly for refunds and each call we get a different answer. We have yet to see our money back! We have documented our conversations with the support folk who freely admit they can see our service drop multiple times a day. That said, we don’t always meet their “required” numbers of drops to send techs. The support folks always tell us we live in a “high use” area. We live in the City of Independence’s low development area. This company is taking our money and falsely advertising quality and service. We feel completely helpless as we sit on hold and receive the same excuses each time we try and look for solutions to our nonstop problems with Frontier. PLEASE HELP US!
We started internet service with Frontier in 2015. Since 2015 our rates have increased by 25% and each increase was without prior warning. More importantly, each increase was not also accompanied by improved internet service. With the last increase we were told the $3.99 "Other Charges" were actually a surcharge specifically for Frontier to maintain and improve their service in our area.
Due to the poor internet service Frontier provides, this latest increase/surcharge is wrong in so many ways.
1. We are currently paying for service of 6MB (as stated by Frontier Customer Service.
2. Our phone line, installed prior to 1972, is only capable of 1.3MB (as stated by Frontier Technical Support).
3. We would have to pay MORE for 3MB service than we do for 6MB service yet our phone lines aren't capable of either (as stated by Frontier customer service and technical support.
Since 2015 we have experienced frequent outages - sometimes a day or multiple days but mostly our outages are intermittent throughout a day, hour or minute. We have spent too many hours on the phone with Frontier over the past 4 years - each call made was for billing increases, outages or both. For outages, at times we've had to wait days for someone to arrive from out of state to arrive. Other times, a local service person would switch our line to a "less used" port within the sub station (as stated by the frontier service person). During the first year that tactic seemed to work for a week or two but that doesn't help anymore.
During the fall of 2017 Technical Support decided to replace the buried telephone line from our road to our house - the new line did not help and actually decreased our already poor internet service. At that time we were told by the service person that that was all they could do because they COULD NOT replace the line from our road to the substation which is what they said was needed.
Frontier is the only wired internet option in our area. Our cell service is not 100% reliable so we must rely on a wired internet to utilize wifi calling on our cell phones when emergency situations arise.
To summarize:
- we are paying for 6MB service that we are not receiving and would have to pay more for 3MB service that our buried lines are not capable of supporting
- we are getting extremely unreliable intermittent 1.5 MB service
- our billing now includes a surcharge by Frontier to maintain and improve our service
Our internet service provided by Frontier is simply not functioning as though it is maintained or improved. If it were we would get the level of service we currently are billed and pay for each month.
It sounds like your having the same problems we are dealing with. Our internet has had 197 drops from December 1- December 22. We had Frontier out on December 28 and the service guy said that they put in new internet lines in and we are going to have 100MG in a few weeks, we will see if that amount of MG will help get better service. We will believe it when we see the faster service and no drops in service.
I cancelled my service due to moving on 11-5-2018. Was told I had to pay $9.99 disconnect charge and that I had to pay my internet for rest of month anyway. I asked about my refund for the period I was billed. which was thru 11-21 but I still have seen no credit of any kind. Just a bill for the $9.99 I paid the bill thru 11-21-2018 so I feel I have a refund rather than a extra bill. Now I will be moving back to the same address but have not called about a new hookup.
I've subscribed to Frontier on two different occasions. Both orders were completed over the phone, which is clearly what they want so they is no record of what they promise. FIrst time I was contacted by a rep to add internet to my existing phone service. He never mentioned a word about bundling, just that I could get internet for 19.99/mo. A year later when I wished to cancel phone, I was told that internet would increase to 54.99/mo. That was actually more than I paid for both services at the time. I had them cancel both services and they tried to hit me with $400 of ET fees. I filed a complaint with the Attorney Generals office and after a couple of responses they seemed to drop the matter.
Flash forward two years later and I was contacted by a frontier rep selling internet service. I explained my past dealings and she assured me she could correct everything. Very nice, courteous gal, and I had service up and running the next week at a rate of 29.99/mo. Two years later the promotional price ran out and they upped me to 34.99/mo. for the 3Mbs speed. Then a couple months later they raised the price again to 39.99. I called into to inquire about the price increase and was told it was a normal increase, but he could upgrade me to 12Mbs for the same price. I was skeptical on the speed after working with a couple techs in my area on another problem (who were exceptional employees who have since retired). I was assured by the rep that it was possible. Came time for the upgrade install and my new tech explained on the phone that the speed was not possible at this time. I thought that was the end of it, but my bill came with additional chargers of about 7.00/mo. eventhough I was told it would be the same price. I called in waiting through the ridiculous hold times, and was told that i was getting the upgraded speed but they would look into. 8 months, 4 or 5 calls, and 15 hrs of my wasted time, and they still had not corrected the billing which not had a late fee total of over 100.00. MY last call they had guaranteed they would fix the billing issue AGAIN, but had to submit the total over 100.00 to another department that they can't call. I month later I received an email from collections letting me know the credit request was refused, and I needed to pay my bill. I responded not so nicely and told them to review my account. Their response was to disconnect my service and add another 9.99 to my bill with more late fees and continue to bill me for the service they turned off.
I gave up and filed a complaint with the FCC, and low and behold someone from Frontier actually responded by email. A month later they had addressed the problem by sending out a local tech to check my available speed, who confirmed what i thought all along that it wasn't possible to get what they offered. I had them cancel the service, and received my credit about a month later. At some point it just isn't worth my time. I now use my cell as a hotspot and it is actually cheaper.
If nothing else the state should force them to remove "Communications" from there name, because that doesn't exist in their company.
Some competition in our area sure would be a nice thing!
We have been frontier customers for over 25 years. We just found out in January of this year that the plan we have with Frontier (which is internet only) included a double billing for internet that goes back to 2011. The difference in billing was $10 per month which equates to $840 (estimate) over a 7 year period. This plan was offered to us through Frontier and we were not aware of the double billing. Frontier would not offer us any refund or credit regarding this issue.
We also discovered on a recent billing that our current rate jumped from $42 per month to $60 per month without any previous notice or contact from Frontier. We had no other options to choose from regarding billing.
We also tried to apply for “lifetime discount” which is funded through Minnesota for people on limited income. We were told that we weren’t eligible for this through Frontier because we are at a lower monthly billing even though we are paying $60 per month.
All the above is of great concern to us because we are living on Social Security only and a SNAP PROGRAM through the State of Minnesota for food.
Please consider these comments from us when the above document is filed.
Gary & Kathy Mutchler
4125 Chippewa Circle
Loretto, MN 55357
763-843-2722
Munch2315@usfamily.net
Unfortunately we pay $75/month for 24mbps and only receive at best 6mbps. It is unfortunate that we can't pay them what we feel we are receiving on our end. The reason I pay the high premium is because I was promised that service to be able to stream more than one device in my house at once and that has not been the case and I am tired of wasting air and time calling to complain when nothing changes anyways. Funny how they can give terrible service but if I refuse to pay the amount they charge and only pay what I feel I received I will be disconnected. Doesn't seem fair....DOES IT??
We have given up on Frontier. After countless hours on the phone and more than half a dozen visits from Frontier's technicians we have decided to take action. We can no longer pay over $100 a month for internet and phone service that does not consistently work. Last tech out said advertised speeds are not guaranteed. We also notice various surcharges and fee changes on monthly bills. We can not conduct work from home as internet drops repeatedly during the day. Frontier says it tracks the drops and can see our weak connection. The techs come out and "fix" the problem, drive away, and our internet drops. We have asked for our money back for years without success. We believe the last tech was actually being honest when he told us our home sits near the end of "Frontier's line" and we will always receive a weak signal. For those who have called Frontier's support line, it is an endless maze that never seems to lead to someone who can help. We want our money back. It's that simple. We paid (for years) for a service that has never worked.
Mark Chatterton about 6 years ago
Frontier increased their internet rate in a very indirect way starting in January 2018. They added a line item called "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" buried on the last page of the bill in the section call "Detail of State and Other Charges."
There are three problems with this.
1) I believe this is deceptive billing by Frontier. It is a backdoor way to increase my internet service price by 8%.
2) Frontier customer service tells customers that this is a government charge. It is not. During calls on two consecutive months, I had to read Frontier's own statement that this "is not a tax or governmental charge" to Frontier customer service agents who initially claimed it was. Those same agents then informed me they could remove the charge if they enrolled me in a service plan.
3) Frontier does not follow through with its agreements to remove the charges when customers enroll in a plan. After Frontier customer service agents on four separate billing cycles told me the surcharge would not appear on my next bills since I enrolled in a plan, the surcharge was yet added.
I believe Frontier is preying on the majority of its customers who do not pay extremely close attention to their bills. Those who pay attention are then deceived by Frontier's false statements. Those who pay attention and are not deceived must then be persistent enough to waste time on hold month after month disputing the charge with Frontier customer service.
Douglas Deakins almost 6 years ago
Thanks for pointing this out Mark, I will have to look in the same spots on my billings. It's been has been a very deep frustration having my billing start out at $34.99 Jan-March 2018 to $36.98 in April, 41.98 May through Sept and now Oct/Nov its 43.98.
* I don't know why the rate is going up, * I cant find anything in my contract yet alone a contract on line for my service, * I don't know when it will stop going up. * Calling in is a waste of time due to Customer service wont tell me anything. I am glad this is issue is being looked at so I can get back to understanding my rate and having a choice.
I am generally happy with the service in my area of Orono MN and the rate is still ok but the not having control and having to pay the surprise amount each month is the problem.
Kathryn Roman almost 6 years ago
I am experiencing the same issue Mark. I just got off the phone with Frontier and was also told this is a state fee added to my bill. The increases started in April of this year, 2018, and I questioned it then and did not get a good explanation. I only have internet and my charge this month was $4.00 more than initially quoted. I now am asked to pay over $58.00 dollars per month for internet alone. I was told by their CSR that she could do nothing about the charge and that the only way to lower my bill would be to sign me up for a bundle with phone and internet at $50 per month before fees and taxes. You are correct in that they are not up front with their billing practices and downright dishonest in saying this is a state authorized increase. Something needs to be done about it.
Mark Chatterton about 6 years ago
On 15-May-2018, while working with Frontier customer service for the fourth month in a row about removing its Internet Infrastructure Surcharge from my bill (see my July 20, 2018 post in this discussion), I was told they had now "rebundled" me and going forward the Internet Infrastructure Surcharge would not appear on my bill and the monthly charge for our phone service would be $30.47/month. Instead, the Surcharge remains, and we are being charge $42.99/month instead of the quoted $30.47—a 40% difference. Frontier customer service now states they don't know why we were quoted $30.47/month, and they will not honor that price.
Kyle Smith about 6 years ago
I surely wish I could go to the hearing in Wyoming on Sept 12, but I will be out of town. I have told MANY people that Frontier is the worst company I've ever dealt with (in any market segment) when one considers service, cost and reliability. Specifically to the topic requested here -- my wife has called many times (12+) over the years to straighten out billing problems. Mistakes can happen, but after several one has to wonder the motives and if they are either deceptive in their practices or just incompetent. I cannot wait for the day when competition provides me options -- and the day will come. My choices now are either satellite or Frontier and due to trees I really only have Frontier as an option. Resetting our router is nearly a daily ritual and when I check speeds delivered, they are very often not up to the level of service we pay for each month. I am a VERY unhappy customer and have been for about 10 years...
Wally Rosier about 6 years ago
NO, they advertise and charge for 6MB service in our area (Montgomery) yet their equipment is only capable of 2 MB. Add in oversold capacity and you are lucky if you are faster that a 28.8 KB modem. I have had DSL since it was offered in this area and it is only getting worse. Please let qwest, qualcomm, anyone into this area for market choices/competition for the consumers sake. Quit giving them a captive market.
David Davis about 6 years ago
Frontier's invoices are convoluted and extremely hard to tie any of the detail line items/charges to any summary line charge on the face of the bill. The detail charge sections headings to not match one to one to a line name on the summary billing page. It would be extremely easy for Frontier to overbill, double bill, or exclude discounts promised when signing a business service agreement. In fact, after spending hours regrouping the detail charges to match the summary billing section, I found we were not receiving all the discounts promised when we renewed our service with Frontier. Frontier should be forced to simplify their billing statements and clearly show how the detail charges equal a line on the summary billing page. This is the only to force honesty and allow their customers to clearly see they are only paying what was promised or agreed to.
Gloriann McDonald almost 6 years ago
I have internet only with Frontier and for the most part haven't had the nightmare others are describing with their billing; however, since we started with them in the 1990's, they have charged us every single month for a level of service they have never provided.
James Mortenson almost 6 years ago
We had the same issue in our area. When we built our house in 2015, they were selling and I was paying for 6MB internet service, but when I complained to my electrician, he checked it with a meter and stated that I was only getting a half (.5) MB of service. They was never corrected until the upgraded the service last year and now I have 45 MB service, but I also have to pay the upgraded fees to have that service now that they have installed it in our area. I feel bad for any Frontier customers that have not gotten new service lines provided. .5 MB is turtle speed internet, when you are actually paying for 6MB, which is not lightening speed either.
Phillip Bakken almost 6 years ago
I am a Frontier customer and have been for over 25 years. I have DSL, phone and technical service, all of which I pay handsomely for.
Sometime in 2015 I noticed I was being billed for extra storage each month. I inquired by phone as to why I needed this as I still had plenty of storage left. I asked the representative to take it off. In April of 2018, I know that is a long time but I am on auto pay and did not pay attention, I notice the $6.99 for this storage was still being charged. I called at that time and presented the issue to a representative. After a lengthy and a transfer to another department, they informed me that they owed me $202 and I would see this as a credit on my bill.
It has been several months and I did not see a credit so I called again. I first talked to a lady named Alara, I asked to speak to a supervisor but Alara insisted she could probable help. After relaying my story Alara said they could not go back farther than three months. In frustration I asked again to speak to a supervisor. I then spoke with a supervisor named Leslie. I explained the story again and she informed me that the refund credit was denied because no one notified them to remove the extra storage. I informed Ms. Leslie that that was incorrect as I had told them way back in 2015 or 2016 to remove the extra storage. She basically said there is nothing else I can so as they do not/did not have any record of that call. I thanked her and informed her I would try to resolve this in another method....hence this email.
I just feel so mis-treated I had to write this information.
Frontier has a basic monopoly here in Northern Minnesota as we do not have any other choices for our internet service. As often the case with a monopoly comes a degraded service in many areas. We have struggled with our internet service for many years. When I have made inquiries what I am told is "you live in a busy area". In my estimation that is all the more reason is to do what you can to make our service better.
Jeremiah Mathews almost 6 years ago
No, when we moved to the City Garrison, MN in September of 2016 we found the ONLY internet service provider was Frontier. We signed on and found out, on our first service call, that we were paying for a higher speed than what we were getting for over a year. The tech had to spend a lot of time getting our "settings" corrected and said we will be able to get a refund for the time we were over charged. When we went to customer service we were told they could only go back 3 months and there was nothing they could do. Shortly there after, we were notified of yet another speed increase opportunity and they raised my charges for the increased bandwidth. Feeling trapped and overcharged.
Robert Moffatt almost 6 years ago
When i signed up for frontier they said 20 dollars a month then without warning it went up to 46 dollars a month 4 months later what a joke
sarah king almost 6 years ago
We run a business from home in Chisago Lakes area. We have two phone lines through Frontier. One for a land line (personal phone) and one for a fax line (business). We also have internet service through Frontier. We have been battling customer service for years regarding our fax line. Each month Frontier charges us for EACH individual fax that we send. It adds almost $100 a month to our regular bill. Each month, we call and tell them that this was billed in error, that we should not be charged for each fax we send and are passed along to 2-3 customer service agents before we finally get someone who will "make sure it doesn't happen again". Until the next month, when I get my bill showing it has happened again.
Bryce Beckstrom almost 6 years ago
MPUC Docket No. P407, 405/CI-18-122
OAH Docket No. 19-2500-35222
Frontier Communications Customer
Bryce Beckstrom
Alborn, MN
I and many others living in Alborn, MN are sick of the poor service from Frontier Communications. The internet speeds are slow, the reliability is spotty, and customer service is a far cry from helpful. We consistently deal with line speed issues or the internet going down all together. When you call for support they try to blame it on customer equipment verses doing any real work. After a couple calls they finally will come out to look into the issue and possible fix it as well.
They overcharge for the speed they advertise, which is not even what we get anyways. I once had Frontier customer support tell me they are surprised I even get internet from them because I am just out of there service distance. So what they did (according to them) is put boosters in so they could bring me slow internet but charge me the same rate as everyone else. They also are the only game in the area for broadband; which explains a lot about how they treat us. Their billing department once told me not to use auto pay because if they mess up you may as well just get it as a credit to your account because you will not see that money again.
Another thing to make note of is their practice of rented equipment. I used to buy and maintain my own equipment in the house (router/modem). Every time I would call support for connection or speed issues, and once they found out it was my equipment, they would say it is my problem due to faulty equipment. After having this occur too many times I broke down and rented their equipment. Well time went by and when I would call in they would say it has to be the equipment and I need to purchase a new one. I would point out I rent the equipment so they should replace their faulty hardware, their excuse would be that the equipment was over a year old or make something else up. In one case they refused to troubleshoot the issue due to their equipment.
I will be happy to provide speed tests so you can visually see how slow it is. Also I would like to add the techs that are on site are great. This is not their fault and blame should not be placed upon their shoulders. They share some of what Frontier does wrong. Like in the case of when they pulled pairs of copper down past my place and the techs explained it is not enough for the current customers let alone growth and Frontier did not care. Frontier premeditates having poor service at high prices.
Below are notes I took, when experiencing major issues and remember too, of communications with Frontier support. The last major issue was in the beginning of 2017, you will notice how it took almost 3 months to sort of resolve.
08/03/2015:
Called at 4:15PM on until 5PM
They are sending a tech. I have received a one month refund. I was informed by Tech Support and billing that I was supposed to be receiving 6mb.
08/04/2015:
Internet was slow and I noticed the advertisied speed in the web admin went from 1.8mb to 1.3mb.
08/05/2015:
Internet speed was horrible. Could not watch netflix as it buffered about every 1-3 minutes regardless of device used.
08/06/2015:
Called at 9:00AM I was told I should be receiving 2.6mb.Then after discussion I am told I should receive at least 1.3mb.I was also told that you need a 3mb connection to stream video, this is not correct.Tech will be coming out today between 8AM-5Pm.Call was with a Bryan.
11/23/2015:
Called 4:45PM no internet ticket# 1117140 Tech coming Tuesday between 8AM-5PM to check line.
02/13/2016:
Called lost internet again. Blinking DSL not internet light. Call a couple weeks ago and I was supposed to recieve a replacement router which I never did. This is the third or forth time this happened this year. Tech support claims to be sending me a replacement router. I have not heard back from them however as they said after they run tests and attempt repair they will call me back.
02/14/2017:
Called back, never heard from tech support again from the following night. The network speed according to the web admin has gotten slower and slower as the night passed (over a two and half hour period). I restarted the router and waited about 10 minutes but the speed did not approve. I than called support and the speed went back up to 5464 Kbps down and 767 Kbps up. I have inquired about the router that is supposed to be sent. Tech support put me on hold for somewhere around 15 minutes with no update. They refused to send a replacment without troubleshooting. I will call again another time.
04/14/2017:
Called somewhere around 8:30AM; speaking with Lucy; Billing me $60 for the upgrade to 12mb in which I am only getting 10mb. She transfered me out to an unkown extension in which I waited 5 minutes hung up and called back. Time 8:47AM. Got back on with Jennifer; she is claiming to be able to help. Jennifer corrected the current bill back to $34.99. Time 9:11AM. Trying to tell me the 12mb plan costs $59.99; originally the discussion was $45.99. Jennifer is transfering me to a Escalation manager; Laura.They are pulling the call history and will get back to me. They will email me the mail address to the president to file a complaint.
04/24/2017:
Called in the AM but was too busy to complete the call.
04/25/2017:
Agent transfered me to a escalation manager, Fernado. Repeating everything with Fernado to get him up to speed. They are going to pull the recording from April 14th and the recording from early March. Fernado said it will take 48-72 hours to complete this request. Call 1-203-614-5600 to file a complaint; this is a number to corporate.
04/28/2017:
8:10AM
Frontier charged me the full $92.68. Now I have to wait until the billing shows up on their end so I can get it refunded. Escalation Manager Dorrian is pulling the recordings from March and April 14th. He will contact me once completed; approximate time an hour. Current time 8:33AM.
I called again later that afternoon after work. End of call she said she was giving me a credit of $15 to bring the following month bill down to $44.99 until they can get everything sorted out.
04/29/2017:
12:45AMish
The escalation manager called me back to tell me they fixed the billing issue. My bank account still said otherwise but I will check sometime the following week.
05/08/2017:
Called corporate offices (office of the president) @8:20AM. Checked bill this morning and it is supposed to be at $44.99 but it is at $59.99. Brenda EMAIL: brenda.johnson@ftr.com; Reference my name and account number in the subject line. Brenda's office number 1-844-320-4445 Ext. 1124207. Brenda is crediting $16.11 to my account to correct the current billing from $59.99 to $44.99 for the month of May. Brenda is attempting to fix the promo credit for the 12mb connection. Brenda added the $15 promo credit to correct the billing; Order Confirmation: 57083506.
James Mortenson almost 6 years ago
In 2015, I built a brand new home in Clear Lake (7916 105th Ave SE) MN. Due to the fact that I live out in the country, I only had one (1) service provider to choose from for cable, internet and phone, which was Frontier. At the time, I purchased a bundle package from Frontier for cable, internet and DISH. The package was a set price that was "guaranteed" for two (2) years.
After only a few months, I noticed that our monthly bill went up by $25. I called Frontier and complained about the sudden increase and that they were not honoring the two (2) year "guaranteed" price. I am not kidding when I say this, I was on the phone multiple times getting switched from one person to another and then suddenly the line would go dead and I would have to start the process ALL over because you never got to speak to the same person twice. I must have explained the problem over a dozen times to various people at Frontier.
Finally they directed me to DISH and stated that it was DISH who made the increase, not Frontier. The representative at DISH sent me an itemized list of what they were billing Frontier, who in turn was collecting the money from me to pay DISH. DISH did not increase the bill and they directed me back to Frontier to resolve the $25 increase. Again, I was on the phone multiple times with negative results. I attempted to speak with a supervisor and got hung up on several times during the transfer (imagine that). They ask for your number every time you call in the event the call gets disconnected, but they NEVER called back.
I am not kidding when I say this, I was on the phone multiple times over several days for upwards of 8 hours. At least half of that time was being put on hold by everyone you talked to.
I finally got so frustrated with their incompetent customer service representatives, I told them to separate my Frontier bill from my DISH bill and to cancel my auto pay because they were just taking the additional $25 out without me authorizing it. I was then advised that since I elected to cancel the bundle package, the reduced incentive for locking in for the two (2) year "guaranteed" price would go away and that my bill would go up dramatically.
No matter how many times I tried explaining that Frontier created the billing issues, it fell on deaf ears. If I had a choice of another provider, Frontier would have been cancelled in a heartbeat.
Michael Hein almost 6 years ago
I have the same frustration with the rising rates and added fees as most have already mentioned. In addition, Frontier has never sent monthly invoices to me, they are sporadic, and I have called customer service on several occasions telling them that I did not receive a bill, and to "please remove the late fee charged, due to that fact", and they did. I also asked them to "Please send me bills on a monthly basis, and I will not fail to pay them on-time". It's never been resolved, and I just pay the late fees, because I am sick of waiting on hold every other month, when the practice never changes.
Marty Wold almost 6 years ago
I have had no choice for land line or internet service other than Frontier for most of my adult life, Dawson, MN, Litchfield MN, New Richmond, WI, and now Lakeville MN. My mother was a customer for more than 35 years in Dawson MN. When a competitor came to Dawson and improved all the service for internet and telephone, many people decided to switch to the new company. My mother decided to change companies, and Frontier charged my mother and many others an "early termination fee" of ~$200.00.....Did I mention that she was a customer for more than 35 years?
GARY KALSTAD almost 6 years ago
Frontier signed us up for internet, tv and phone. This was supposed to be firm price for 2 years. The rate has increased 2 times if not 3. We are paying $25 more a month now and we just got notice it was going up again. Some firm price!
Kyle Greene almost 6 years ago
The cost for our telephone service increased by $13 from 2017 to 2018. No new services were added. Bills are attached for comparison.
Alicia Holicky almost 6 years ago
My Frontier internet bill increased $5.00. I am on auto pay, so I tried to go on line to look at my statement to see why my bill had increased. It was in the evening about 5pm, so internet was very slow, I could not even get on line. So I called them, was on hold for about 15 minutes. Finally was able to take to someone. She proceeded to tell me that my promo pricing was up hence the extra $5.00 charge. I asked what was the price increase back in February then? She said that was for "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge". I said what infrastructure.?, There hasn't been any improvements in my area for years. My internet is so slow, I had to call because I couldn't get on line. She proceeded to tell me that Frontier no longer provides internet service in my area. So I asked does that mean they will not upgrade,or make any improvements to improve the quality of service?. I was told , I can not upgrade. I could not get an answer about the quality of the internet in my area. Prices keep rising, but the quality keeps going down. I've been looking for other options, but not having any luck.
Stephanie Josephson almost 6 years ago
I called customer service earlier this spring because my bill went up yet again. I pay my bill online, but still prefer to get a paper bill in the mail. Half the time I don't have internet. She told me I needed to go to paperless billing as they were charging customers for paper billing since Jan 2018. Is this what the internet infrastructure charge is? I told her I have never heard of a company where you pay monthly charges to get a paper bill. There isn't a paper billing fee on my electric bill or any of my credit card bills. Now I woke up this morning still no phone line and internet keeps throwing me off.
Tara Anderson almost 6 years ago
I am relieved that Frontier is being investigated. Their billing practices are unethical, and their customer service is extremely poor. We've been incorrectly billed on multiple occasions, and have spent numerous hours attempting to have our bill corrected, only to be told the bill was fixed when it wasn't. Our most recent encounter was when our bill increased by about $5.00/month - from $29.99 to $34.99. When I called to ask why and try to get it reduced back to $29.99/month, I was told that it would be fixed on our next bill. During that call, the representative also offered to upgrade our speed for free. However, our next month’s bill was more than triple our previous rate of $29.99 - it was over $100.00. When I called to demand that it be fixed, I was told that the charge was appropriate because of the upgrade. I said that I was told it was a free upgrade, so the representative agreed to credit our account and change our billing rate to reflect the previous rate of $29.99. I recorded the confirmation number in anticipation of having to argue my case if the bill wasn't fixed the next month. The next month, our bill was not fixed, and we had not received any credits. Our rate was still over $100. When I called customer service I told them that it was supposed to have been fixed and provided them with the confirmation number from my previous call. I was told that the confirmation number did not exist. I continued to call Frontier and ended up speaking to numerous representatives but was unable to resolve my case. I finally spent hours chatting with a representative online who told me that Frontier would credit my bill to cover part of the surcharge but that we could not receive our original rate of $29.99 because we had opted out of that promotional rate when we upgraded our account. We had to agree to a three-year contract in order to get a monthly rate of $36.98, which is where we are today. After spending so much time on this and feeling completely powerless in the situation, I agreed to pay a slightly higher monthly amount just to be done. I think that Frontier should correct the billing rate for all of their customers who have been lied to and improperly billed and that the company should reimburse us for what we have paid in excess of the rate we were originally promised.
Emily Green almost 6 years ago
We had Frontier for about 1 year. Our bill was constantly having additional charges added for things like a security bundle that I never approved. They would take it off and then the next month it would reappear. Our service stopped working and after trying to get someone out to fix it for over a month I finally cancelled. I told them I would not pay for service we did not receive and was assured that my bill would be adjusted. Next thing I know I get another bill, charging me for the month after I had cancelled our service. And on top of that billing for the previous month we had no service. I called again and was told they would take 20 dollars off and transfer me to someone who could cancel the account. Instead of transferring me I was hung up on. This happened 4 times before I got a hold of someone. They have sent me to collections for this.
Whitney Windschitl almost 6 years ago
I've been with Frontier for several years in Comfrey, MN - I've never had good service or customer service. The billing has been one of the most annoying. I first signed on for $29.99 per month. That expired, but no one informed me of this. When I called and asked, they told it was just for a year, I was bumped up to $30 something a month - I complained because - if my service in my house isn't improving- I definitely shouldn't be paying more per month. I just checked my past bills - in Sept 2017 my bill was $34.99, Nov 2017 my bill went up to $39.99 with a claimed "$5 guaranteed price discount statement until 8/25/18" & in small print an added $1.99 for surcharge. March 2018 my bill went up again to $41.98 b/c of that $1.99 surcharge - on this one there was a note that they look at bills for consistency and that my bill may be going up - my current bill for Sept 2018 is now $46.98 (I suppose b/c that special $5 discount fell off!) plus the $1.99 surcharge - the note on this one - the surcharge is going up to $3.99!!!!!! So in one year my bill went up $11.99 per month - NOTHING has changed with my service, I still have to call in every couple months for them to fix things and my speed is still the same. but I'm paying more just because of fees.
Nick Ripperger almost 6 years ago
As the others have commented, Frontier has a virtual monopoly here in Herman and has little incentive to improve their service or even provide the services they are billing their customers for. I have found Frontier to be dysfunctional from top to bottom, ranging from promising internet speeds it can't or refuses to deliver, to having a local manager (our "local" office is 150 miles away in McGregor) come to our community and literally get laughed at when promising that things will get better, to having techs who can't figure out the cause of what turn out to be minor problems, to customer service reps who often seem confused and answer questions that I am not asking or are unable to answer the questions I do ask. However, since this discussion is about billing practices, I'll confine my response to that. For years I had been getting home phone service and internet service for around $75 per month. Then over the course of a few months, each bill went up incrementally until it got to over $90 three or four months ago. I called a service rep (who actually tried to be as helpful as she could), asking why my bill had increased by 20 percent in less than a year. She dug around and discovered that apparently I had been getting some kind of "discount" rate for years, but the discount no longer applied. She said I should have gotten a notice in my bills, but I can't verify that one way or the other. When I made the general comment, as I usually do, that Frontier has not invested anything in Herman to increase our internet speed, she said she could appreciate that because she, too, had slow speed at home. When I asked her who her provider was, she hesitated, then said "Frontier." I told her that the Minnesota PUC was looking into Frontier, and that I was going to add my complaints in its information gathering process. At the end of the conversation, she told me that I would be getting an email from Frontier shortly to get feedback on my customer service "experience" with her. I never got that email. My conclusion is that one ploy Frontier uses to increase rates without justification is to tell customers they had been getting a "discount" all along, and that the higher rate is merely an adjustment up to the "real" rate. And if Frontier claims that it doesn't get many complaints, it's probably because someone screens customer calls and simply doesn't seek feedback from callers they think will give the company a bad review. This seems to be the case because I have gotten emails seeking feedback when a conversation has gone fairly well or a tech actually did fix a problem. When things don't go so well, no email. When a customer service rep says "Thank you for choosing Frontier" as they are programmed to do, all I can do is laugh at the irony.
Cory Bukkila almost 6 years ago
Frontier has proven to be unreliable, inconsistent, deceptive and untrustworthy. This summer (June-September 2017), I just wanted basic internet access for the summer so I could get some work done while spending time with family. However, Frontier proved again and again that they are incapable of doing simple tasks, repeatedly charged for things I never asked for and never disclosed any applicable fees. Attached is what I documented with all the billing issues I came across with Frontier.
Rebecca Mix almost 6 years ago
In September of 2011 I signed up for an offer they had of $19.99 price for life for what they called High Speed Internet Lite. They billed me 18.49 for internet, 6.99 for the modem and they I got a 10% discount on my internet and land line bill to reduce the price to $19.99. After having this service for 7 years apparently Frontier has decided my life is over. They increased my internet fee, internet surcharges and took away the 10% discount my bill is now 20% higher than it was last month. I called and asked why they increased my price for life and they denied ever offering that price. They said I was just lucky they didn't back bill me for all of the years I shouldn't have had that price. This was a real offer, I was not the only one who signed up for it. My parents also signed up and have been receiving this supposedly guaranteed price for life for the last 7 years. We just want it to remain our price for life.
Clinton Anderson almost 6 years ago
Found a house we liked but high speed internet was a requirement. Called Frontier and was told "that address can get 50 meg internet!!" great! we make an offer and close on the house. We get moved in and I call Frontier again "oh we are sorry, no, you can't have 50 meg internet, but you can have 25!" ok. fine.. hook me up.. Tech shows up and says "not sure why they told you that, you'll be lucky to have 10 meg internet"...
we ended up with 9.. on a good day, with speeds normally around 3-4 meg.. The bill, printed and every thing said our price was locked until 2020 (its only 2018) Our bill has gone up 3 times since then, "oh that promo no longer qualifies" we even confirmed the locked price in a chat (I have the transcripts) when the bill didn't change we called and was told "oh they where wrong".
thankfully a new provider has come to town with ethics and LOCAL people that I can call and get right through to.
I expect frontier to try and continue to bill me after I cancel because that is just what they do.
I am located in Pease MN 56353
Steven Moe almost 6 years ago
Frontier Communications phone bill.
Phone bill had charges on it that were not authorized. Charge amount 14.95 for 8 billing cycles. Contacted frontier Agent=caleb Agentid=cej43 Call/case no=055839389 Phone number=763-479-2558 Account number =763-479-2558-052899-2
Agent acknowledge 8 charges of 14.95 for a total of 119.60. Agreed to reverse charges. Charges were never reversed, Frontier continued to try and collect charges. We refused to bay the next bill and when they pursued, we cancelled phone number and account with them. Reported to FCC.
We no longer have this phone number. Instead of their charge off of $59, they owe us 60.60.
Frontier submitted the issue of non-payment to the 3 major credit bureaus. Contacted frontier, they would not reverse. Contacted credit bureau they did not fix on our credit report. This is still on our credit report.
There have been other customer service issues and billing issues with them as well. Only provider of true hard line phone service in the area. Not much choice.
Michael Sly almost 6 years ago
Same story as others here: Frontier has a monopoly here in Spring Lake Township, just south of Prior Lake. I've paid for 6 Mb internet service for 12+ years, never got any better than 1 or 2 Mb, currently averaging less the 1 Mb. Countless calls, never any resolution. Now they've randomly changed the due date on my bill. Used to be due on the 2nd, sometimes is now due on the 29th or 30th without any notice at all, leading to late charges. Absolutely the worst company and service all around. I have no other option, so please get other options for us!
Jennifer Menke almost 6 years ago
No, they don't. Over 22 years of having the displeasure of being their "customer", I made it a practice to regularly call to "review" my bill with them. I don't believe I ever had an instance that didn't uncover some unapproved charge. I had to have the "interior line insurance" removed from my bill several times. It always felt scammy and dishonest.
Nathan Bastyr almost 6 years ago
We've had Frontier internet the last 4 years. We started out paying $29.99 a month and now we are paying $48.98 for the same type of speed. When we ask customer service why it kept increasing every 6 months, their excuse was our "promotion" has ended. Our service can barely handle 3 devices at one. They give us the option to increase our speed for a higher price. We tell them no we want to pay what we pay for better service. They try to get us on another package which includes a landline which we don't need.
Robert Pelton almost 6 years ago
I upload a lot of photos to the internet - mostly during the summer when my granddaughter plays ball. I had not uploaded for some time after she graduated from HS. When I did upload I realized that my upload speed was slow. So I ran an internet spewed test and found it was 0.4 Mb/s. I called Frontier and they told me I was paying for 1.0 Mb/s but was "provisioned" at 0.4 Mb/s. I asked how long this had been going on and they could not tell me. I then asked if I could get a refund for my overpayments, and the operator said I could not. So, they knew I was overpaying (and no doubt for how long I was overpaying) but refused to return the overpayments or even to credit my account with the difference. Pretty low for any company!
Vincent Dodge almost 6 years ago
I have noticed my Internet bill through Frontier has been steadily creeping upwards over the past year or so. I remember a few years ago when in was 29.99. Now it is nearly double that. Textbook case of boiling the frog where the changes have been very subtle with little to no warning.
At the same time, the quality of the service has declined with choppy and inconsistent internet service. Recently, I was out of service for almost a week. I use this service for my business and the lack of service was not helpful at all.
Mark Chatterton almost 6 years ago
Follow-up to my earlier post regarding Frontier's Internet Infrastructure Surcharge. Starting on October 2018, Frontier doubled this charge. Again, this is a backdoor price increase in direct conflict with its statement that after having been "rebundled," I would not see an increase in my internet charge during the term period (6/9/18 - 6/8/21). I believe this is deceptive billing by Frontier.
Erin Dockal almost 6 years ago
From Denham, MN.
I don't even know where to start with this company.
I first dealt with them while living in town, a rural town of 300, but still "in town." I was quoted $19.99 per month and was sent a router to plug into a phone line that I originally told them I did not have (no phone jacks inside the house due to recent remodel). I called tech support and was told to plug it into the box mounted on the outside of my house and string the line though my kitchen window. While this was laughable, I did so and happily paid the $19.99 as they refused to come install an indoor jack without a fee like they previously said they would for no charge. When my bill rose to $35.99 a few months later I ended up having to call every month to get a $15.00 credit and every month they said they were unsure why it was happening but neglected to ever fix it.
I eventually moved out of town to live with my boyfriend who has been with Frontier since building his home in 2008 and was appalled at the price he was paying for such shoddy internet service. The trouble I had with them previously was nothing compared to what we were about to encounter.
Firstly, I must mention that the initial nightmare of trying to get his ex's name off the bill was beyond ridiculous. It took around two months of phone calls and emails to get it sorted out, along with them eventually demanding that she be present to remove her name. We ended up having to bother her multiple times while she was at work with 3-way calls (between her, Frontier and ourselves) as distance and work schedules made it hard for her to just pop over here to talk on the phone.
In an effort to shorten up what is becoming a rather long story, the situation in this very rural area (poor to no cell service and reliant on landline for emergencies) is identical to what so many commentators here are dealing with: slow speeds, call drops when communicating with customer service, a lack in communication between reps and repair men (I was once given the personal cell phone number of a repair man, oddly the rep told me to just call him myself, only to call and find out that it was a man I knew personally who retired from working with Frontier months ago!), constant need to reset routers, and, my biggest concern, the unwillingness of Frontier to charge everyone in the area the same amount for their slower than slow internet speeds (ours being touted as "High Speed Internet Max" yet only receiving .73 Mbps upload speed and .43 Mbps download speed). The last time I called about poor speeds with a high price tag I was politely told that I should keep in mind that we are basically grandfathered in out here and that they no longer service this area for new customers ... I was offered an insulting one-time $5 credit which I've yet to see.
Prior to learning about this investigation, I'd personally been doing speed tests and collecting price information from the neighbors in an effort to have something to fight with when I call back and try AGAIN to get our monthly rate lowered due to the incredibly slow speed. One neighbor, about a mile away, pays the same as we do, $50.99, with an even slower speed test than us, and another neighbor, also a mile away, pays $24.99 with slightly faster download speeds (1.75 Mbps). I understand that we are "in the middle of nowhere" and should almost expect to have poor-quality internet, but scaring customers to continue paying an arm and a leg for it is just awful. Basically they can charge what they want as they know we have no other option. Frontier has been nothing but a hassle with no positive outcome to date. I, as well as many others, would love to see something done about this horribly unethical scam they have going on.
Kristine Solheid almost 6 years ago
Frontiers billing practices are suspect and their customer service is non-responsive and very poor. We have had to call multiple times regarding billing issues and charges. From month to month your bill may be drastically different without any change in service or long distance charges. You have to watch very carefully to make sure additional surcharges and fees are not simply added. As mentioned in previous posts, when we finally gave up and simply cancelled our frontier internet service they raised our regular phone bill by about $20.00 per month. When I called to question this increase they told me that they had mistakenly continued promotional pricing on our account, but could not explain for how long or what promotion etc. After multiple phone calls and arguments, they finally agreed to temporarily credit the extra charge for a one-year time period. After that, no guarantees. During every phone call, they tried multiple times to sell me more services and products and get me to "bundle" services to get a cheaper price etc. All we need is a simple landline, and we were being charged almost $80.00 per month. If we had any choice at all, we would have cancelled Frontier years ago,. We absolutely hate being forced to do business with a company that is dishonest and has no concern for the quality of their product or customer service to the customers because they don't need to. No matter how they treat you, what they charge and or how poor the product is, there is NO OTHER CHOICE but to pay and put up with it or go without basic things like phone and internet. It is the most ridiculous and frustrating situation and needs to be changed.
John Zillhardt almost 6 years ago
In early 2017, I contacted Frontier Communications because I was unhappy with my Internet provider for raising my monthly service charges and saw a Frontier broadband Internet advertisement that promised a rate lock of at least two years. When I contacted Frontier Communications I was informed that I could receive their Simply Broadband Ultimate service with a three-year rate locked at $39.99 per month. Based on this information, I terminated my Internet provider and began service with Frontier Communications on 3/30/17. My initial bill from Frontier Communications reflected a Simply Broadband Ultimate Term of 3/30/17 - 3/29/20 as expected; however, it also included "State Taxes and Other Charges" in the amount of $11.37. Since I knew Internet-only service pricing to be exempt from additional sales tax I immediately contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and requested a refund; the Frontier representative agreed and issued a credit in the amount of $11.37 on my subsequent monthly bill. My billing situation was uneventful until my automatic payment was collected for the period of 3/04/18 - 4/03/18 in the amount of $42.49. Then for the period of 4/04/18 - 5/04/18 I was charged $54.99. Alarmed by this unexpected change, I contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and was informed that my rate lock term had actually expired as of 3/29/18. Upon my persistent request, the Frontier representative privately consulted with their so-called "offline promotions" department and then informed me that there was no way to honor the original rate lock of 3/30/17 - 3/29/20. I then asked to escalate my case and the Frontier representative dutifully entered an "ELL" escalation form but was unable to provide me a case reference number. Subsequently, a Frontier ELL representative who identified himself only as "Mike" called and left a voice message on my phone to call the number 855-891-4468 and leave a message for him in order for him to call me back and inform me of Frontier's determination regarding my escalated case. When I attempted to execute Mike's instructions I found I could not leave a voice message at the number 855-891-4468 unless I had Mike's phone extension that he had failed to provide in his voice message. Accordingly, I again contacted Frontier Communications' customer service line and informed the representative that I could not leave a voice message as instructed due to the automated menu prompts. The Frontier representative informed me that she also did not have a phone extension listed for Mike but read me notes from my account that were presumably entered by Mike from ELL and that stated Frontier's decision was to offer me a one-year rate lock for a $44.99 monthly charge. Upon my request the Frontier representative issued a credit in the amount of $10.00 on my subsequent monthly bill to mitigate the bill in the amount of $54.99 for the period 4/04/18 - 5/04/18. While I expected my next bill to reflect $44.99 I instead was charged $46.98; the additional $1.99 was described as an "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge." Yet again I called Frontier Communications' Customer Service to remove that add-on charge. This time, I was informed by the representative that Frontier Communications' legal counsel had opined they were well within their right to charge Internet-only customers for their self-described "Internet Infrastructure Surcharge" in the amount of $1.99 and would not remove that surcharge from my bill. Then in October, 2018 I observed that Frontier Communications doubled the amount of that surcharge to $3.99. When I called to inquire why Frontier Communications doubled the surcharge rate I was informed that I had been notified on my previous month's bill that they would do that. Once again I challenged Frontier's interpretation of the law for billing Internet-only customers and asked that the surcharge be removed from my bill but the customer service representative refused. I am completely dissatisfied with Frontier Communications' actions in my case. I consider this whole experience to reflect false advertising and duplicitous billing practices on the part of Frontier Communications. Furthermore, I now believe Frontier intentionally billed me that sales tax for my Internet service on my first bill. I am very concerned that Frontier is intentionally engaging in abusive billing practices towards many customers and profiting from these abusive practices.
Joe Hansen almost 6 years ago
it has been a rollercoaster ride with the billing from Frontier. I have a promo effective until 2020 for $29.99 internet only service. my bill has been as high as $53.00, but now averages $48.00 for INTERNET ONLY. There are many other issues with frontier as well, but the one that sticks out the most is the billing. I have to typically call customer service on a monthly basis to try to resolve the issue with no luck. I ended up chatting with a customer service representative through their "chat" line via their app. the representative continuously tried to tell me that the promo ended, but it shows on the bill that it is effective until 2020. she then hurried up and tried to end the chat saying that everything will be good by my next billing cycle, and that she will be contacting the promo department to get the changes made. jump forward 1 month to my next billing cycle, and nothing has changed, BUT I screenshotted the whole conversation with the representative and myself. this needs to change asap.
I have had issues with internet speed as well as internet dropping for days at a time. when I call to schedule a service technician to come out, the schedule me almost 2 weeks out and tell me that I will have to pay for the parts if anything needs to be repaired. I ended up going to the store and buying a CAT-4 cable and switched them out myself.
My neighbor has the option for a higher speed internet than I have, and he has no complaints. when I called to inquiry about this option, they told me it doesn't exist, but he showed me his bill. I thought that was rather frustrating. - Joe Hansen, Scandia, MN - Docket # P407,405/CI-18-122
Amanda Bedell almost 6 years ago
My husband and I live in a rural area and Frontier is our only option. We have had many issues with them. Back in April our service went down on 4/18. I called in to report and was given a repair date of 4/21 by 12pm. I was told that it would be escalated and would receive a call within 24 hours. (My husband works from home and has to have internet service to work). I never received a call. 4/21 12:15pm, still no internet. spoke through chat and was told that a tech performed a repair at the box around 10:15am and the problem was fixed. Tech never came to the home. I was told there should have been a door tag left. There was not. No tech came and we were still down. Was given a repair date of 4/25. Husband went to local Lakeville office, the rep called and we were told to go home and wait for a tech. No one came.. 4/24 Spoke to a supervisor and was told a tech would be out on 4/25 between 8 and 5. 4/25 A tech finally arrives and replaces modem. He mentions a module on the outside box. Internet works for 10 minutes and is down again. Called again, given a ticket number and repair date of 4/28 and is told it is being worked on remotely. Repair finally made on 4/28.
Another time I called in to check on service. Was told we qualified for faster service. Setup an appointment. Tech came out, put in equipment. Internet goes down. I call in, we cannot get that speed here and need to replace the modem and go back to old speeds. We are down a couple days and have to fight billing issues of being charged for the service we cannot get.
Over the last several weeks our internet drops not less than 6 times a day, If we had an option other than Frontier. We would happily use it. The customer service is awful. We have had many other instances of service dropping but I do not have the specific dates.
Frontier did not send the information to their electronic billing clients to comment on this. It was supposed to be in our July bills and arrived in November with a statement that it was not included.
Amanda Bedell Farmington, MN - Docket #P407,405/CI-18-122
Rebecca Soh almost 6 years ago
MPUC Docket Number P407,405/CI-18-122 Rebecca Soh Lakeville, MN
First, is Frontier any worse than its competitors? I don't know. They all seem to have shady pricing structures, hidden fees, etc. We recently came back to Frontier because we found a store front where we could actually see the people offering us prices. We could see that they were referencing something and not just pulling numbers out of the air. It helped restore a bit of confidence in them...temporarily.
So when we first signed up with Frontier, it was December 2016. A man came by in the freezing cold, telling us about a new cable offering by Frontier. Wow! An alternative to Spectrum?! This cannot be. So we listened, and it sounded good - a price under $100 for three services, locked in for two years. And it was pretty good...for the first year. We had a good price on Internet, cable, and phone (though we didn't use the phone ever). After taxes and fees, it was over $100, but it was still worth it to us. Well, when that bill came in for the thirteenth month, it was higher. What? I thought we had a locked-in price for two years. So I compared bills, and suddenly we were being charged for the DVR. I called and explained that it was to be the same price for two years. The rep alluded to the date range on the bill next to the DVR term, and I saw that yes, it did appear to "expire" a year before the rest of the deal, but perhaps that was a mistake to begin with. She just kept referring to the date and said she couldn't do anything. I told her that they could fix the date to align with the rest of the items to be two years long, as we'd been told a certain price for TWO WHOLE YEARS…that when we signed up, there had been no mention that we'd start being charged for DVR service after one year. Nothing. I asked to speak with a manager, and nothing. I gave up. We moved a few months later and went to a competitor at our new house.
Well, of course the competition is shady too, so after a month of that, my husband stopped by the Frontier office nearby, and wouldn't you know, they are actual humans that actually refer to a pricing sheet when quoting services. They did seem to have way more options than you ever get on the phone, so I do recommend going in and talking to them in person.
Anyway, we chose Internet only for $32 with $10 more for the router. $42 for Internet...not bad, right? After taxes, charges, and fees, it's $64.88/month...54% greater than the $42 we were thinking was so cheap. Are those taxes, charges, and fees necessary and correct? I don't know. I don't know how to figure out if they're doing what's right or just screwing me over. And I get it. I've explained payroll taxes to employees on numerous occasions. There are certain things you cannot control but have to charge people. When I've questioned fees, Frontier has just referred me to some document online.
So…There are my two cents. Thank you for your time.
JOHN COSTELLO almost 6 years ago
I have paid for the 6 Mbps service for several years. $64.52 per month seems pricey for the low quality DSL link. Our average download speed is 1.5 to 2.2 Mbps. Our average upload speed is 0.5 Mbps. What these numbers don't express is the fluctuation in the availability of the connection speeds during a typical day. The connection becomes slow enough to be practically unusable for hours every day.
mike basta almost 6 years ago
I locked into a 3 year plan for simply ultra broadband with frontier. My rate was supposed to be $29.99 a month for around 12mbps of service. Right off the bat I got additional charges for some device protection that I neve signed up for. From there is was every month calling in because my bill was incorrect and having to have stuff taken off that I never signed up for. Then our service started getting slow. After talking to a bunch of people and being transferred all over the place I finally find out the capped my speed to like 6mbps. WITHOUT my knowledge or ever talking to me they were constantly making changes to my service and bills. so finally I get them to bring my speed up to find out the next month that my speed was brought up to where is was supposed to be but they upgraded my service charging me more. I told them I was not going to pay more for what I was already signed up for $29.99 so they kept adjusting my bill every month. I have become so sick of this joke of a company. About 5 or 6 months ago I talked to someone that finally resolved some problems. My bill for the past 5 to 6 months has stayed at $34.99. Even though it is supposed to be $29.99 this company is so bad that I have just dealt with paying $5 dollars more a month because my service seems to be at least working and I do not have to sit on the phone for and hour plus onces a month to pay my bill. At one point I recall telling them I just want to cancel service because THEY were not providing me the service that I was signed up for they then threatened me I would be charged some outrageous cancelation fee. As soon as my contract is up I will be leaving this company. I literally laughed when I got the letter in the mail that frontier is being investigated. I truly hope they get shut down. P407,405/CI-18-122
John Slatinski IV almost 6 years ago
Frontier charged us for high speed internet that was not even offered in our area. We live in a rural area and Frontier is our only option really. The internet service is horrible!! But we happened to call and get someone that couldn't figure out why our internet was out yet again and he finally slipped up and said that we were set up for a speed that wasn't even an option in our area due to it not being in our area. So once he took our speed down it did improve but barely.
Karen LeBrun almost 6 years ago
We have used Frontier for serveral years and have consistently had spotty coverage. Many calls made to Customer service with no results. They consistnetly told us that our Wi-FI and internet were fine even though service was slow and often dropped. Pulling like 5mbps. Now getting 150 with new service. We finally deceided to cancel service. We were charged a fee to cancel (not sure if this was disclosed when we signed up as we had no contract). We had just paid our bill and they said they could not offer a refund for a prorated month. We canceled service and received confirmation of cancellation on October 26, 2018 and just today recieved a bill for service (late fees also inlcuded on this as well as a broadband processing fee that I am assuming is the cancellation fee. I am trying to manage payment option to delete our payment informationa nd it will not let me get in.No have to call to make sure we are not charged as we canceled over a month ago and they have sent this bill for service into December.
Phillip Bakken almost 6 years ago
Several months ago I noticed on my bill that I was being charged $6.99 for additional storage. I thought this was strange as I had not used up all my existing storage. I got in touch with them and after much discussion the representative admitted that they owed me money. I was told to call back. I called back in a month because the charge was still on my bill. Again it took a inordinate long time for the representative to identify again that I had been overpaying. We figured as close as we could an amount. I believe it was around $195. The rep said it should show up on my bill in a couple of months. Well it did not! I called again and after long explanations of my previous calls the rep said the claim was denied because they had not been notified. I swallowed hard and explained that I had if fact notified them and to please check our taped phone calls. She assured me that she would have a supervisor review them and get back to me. Well it has been over 9 months since I began having these discussions and nothing has changed. I penned a letter to Daniel McCarthy the CEO, sent it registered mail and it was returned as not deliverable to address and unable to forward.
I cannot believe that they are able to deal with customers in this fashion.
Brian McCarthy almost 6 years ago
I can relate to the way Frontier operates as far as overcharging and then having to call, or "chat" with them for being overcharged. This happened for the first 4 months of my service. I was told one rate and then charged a rate which was $25 higher for every one of those months. I was also being charged for a premium home phone line which I had never asked for. I believe I was reimbursed for that, but it took a month for them to investigate it and go through the recorded phone conversations between us. Reading through these comments I see the pattern in them so-called making mistakes with billing but yet it happens again and again and it is the same problem.
Brian McCarthy almost 6 years ago
Also, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this complaint but for the last 3 months virtually every weekend our internet would go out on Friday and be out until Monday. Trying to get a hold of customer service was next to impossible as I'm sure my whole neighborhood probably had the same issues. The internet light would be on but we would get no service and they would tell me I would have to have a technician come out and probably be charged a fee for it. They would go through the same process with reseting the modem every time and me knowing full well that it was nothing with my equipment because like clockwork this would happen. I have to do work and time sheets on Sundays and this would make me have to go to a friend's house to be able to do my paperwork for my job. Huge inconvenience!
Dean Johnson almost 6 years ago
MPUC DOCKET NUMBER P407,450/CI-18-122 DEAN JOHNSON, KANDIYOHI, MN
I'm an 11 year customer of Frontier Communications. During this time they have billed me for 6 Mbps service while only providing 2 to 3 Mbps at best. I have contacted them about this and have asked for credit or refund with no success.
Currently I am being billed for a land telephone line that I no longer have. On 09/13/18 I requested to have the land telephone line disconnected. Since then I have to call each month to request a refund. At first I was told that I could not receive internet if I did not keep the landline. I know is not true since I have had internet with no landline from them before. Now they refund the expense of my landline if I call and request the refund. Otherwise they will continue to charge me for the land telephone line that is no longer hooked up.
I have had numerous other problems with Frontier Communications but don't believe they are fraudulent like their billing practices are.
Shannon Dempsey almost 6 years ago
We have had Frontier for 10 years for internet and phone. Our phone services are fine. Our internet services never go above 1mpbs and I have speed tests to prove it. They just come out and give us a new router every year but it doesn't make a difference. We pay for 6mpbs and never even come close. I'm fed up with it.
Wendy Hoeck almost 6 years ago
We pay for service we do not receive.
John Wallace almost 6 years ago
My internet speed has always been well below the advertised speeds. I would pay for 6MB and run a speed test at less than 1MB. The service is not consistent either. There have been dozens of days where it slows way down, too slow to stream any video, so we have to just turn the TV off or watch a DVD. There have been items billed that I was unaware of. I increased my internet speed and receive a $49.99 charge for the switch. I don't know why I have to pay that extra when I am already agreeing to pay more...? I recently cancelled service with them because I am tired of paying them and they charged me another fee, and I wasn't under a contract.
Jordan Sams almost 6 years ago
Well, I typed a lot in this comment block and it didn't upload. I don't feel like spending another 20 minutes, so I'm just gonna shorten it this time.
My bill went up from $30 in May, to $33 in June, to $38 in July to $46 in August to $49 in September where it is, for right now, as it stands. I have no idea why they keep raising it on us. We pay for supposedly 6 mpbs speed. We only get about 2 on average for download and 0.3 for upload. It's the worst service I've ever had. It's a monopoly where we’re at and therefore no other provider service will come into the area and so we're stuck with frontier and they know that. They never fix any of our problems or our neighbors. They send out a tech all the time and they say they have fixed the problem and they don't. I recently called on 11/26/2018 to get our bill lowered because we have absolutely horrible service that we can barely have one computer on at a time, let alone trying to watch a movie streaming... a "Wendy" said she'd give us a $10 discount to $38.98 for the next foreseeable future because of my Military service and having these troubles. She also said a tech person would be calling to come out and to be next to the phone. Well, you guessed it. No tech ever called or came out and surprise, surprise.... my bill was still $48.98 again. I called back on 12/04/2018 at approximately 4:30 p.m. and spoke to a "ricky" at frontier customer service. Spoke to him for a 1 1/2 hours. He said he couldn't do anything for me even though someone said they could lower my bill to $38.98. He said I was already receiving the discount since I signed up 1 1/2 years earlier.... I told him that's impossible because I only spoke to their customer service rep, "wendy", just a week prior and that when she instituted it. He first said he had no idea what I was talking about and that it wasn’t in their records…. Miraculously he found it after I pressed him. Weird. "Ricky" kept stepping over himself as I corrected him on my bill many times as he blatantly lied to me countless times thinking I was an idiot and would just go away. I literally asked to speak to his supervisor over 20 times and he wouldn't let me. He kept saying that they're too busy and that we'd be waiting all night. I told him I would wait. We waited some and he got impatient and said, "well, sir, we'll be here at least 30-60 minutes waiting for a supervisor." I told him again I would wait, but he came up with another excuse when he got impatient.... a little later he said he spoke to a supervisor who said that my problem might be fixed with getting transferred to promotions. I told him I didn't want a promotional offer, I wanted what was guaranteed to me. And I also told him that in the amount of time he had to explain my entire situation to his supervisor, he could have just handed me off to him/her. It seemed like he was really trying to avoid letting me talk to a supervisor. I tried for 30 min to get a supervisor and in the end he said he was transferring me to a supervisor and hung up on me. Completely the worst experience with Frontier and the most incompetent person of all the people I've spoken with at Frontier. I'm fed up. We need a new service and I'm tired of being ripped off. I'm tried uploading this 6 times now and the internet keeps failing.....
Bill Sherck almost 6 years ago
I am laughing a bit as I write. Frontier’s technician was supposed to be here between 8 am and 12pm today. It is now after noon and we haven’t heard a word. Another half-day of work taken off for Frontier’s LOUSY service. Same story, different day. This will be visit number six or so. Each time they come out they “fix” our intermittent internet service. Next day? The internet signal stops working . My wife and I have spent countless hours online with Frontier’s support folks trying to get our service to work and also trying to get our money back. We pay $107 a month for service that drops daily. We have asked repeatedly for refunds and each call we get a different answer. We have yet to see our money back! We have documented our conversations with the support folk who freely admit they can see our service drop multiple times a day. That said, we don’t always meet their “required” numbers of drops to send techs. The support folks always tell us we live in a “high use” area. We live in the City of Independence’s low development area. This company is taking our money and falsely advertising quality and service. We feel completely helpless as we sit on hold and receive the same excuses each time we try and look for solutions to our nonstop problems with Frontier. PLEASE HELP US!
Paula Illi over 5 years ago
We started internet service with Frontier in 2015. Since 2015 our rates have increased by 25% and each increase was without prior warning. More importantly, each increase was not also accompanied by improved internet service. With the last increase we were told the $3.99 "Other Charges" were actually a surcharge specifically for Frontier to maintain and improve their service in our area.
Due to the poor internet service Frontier provides, this latest increase/surcharge is wrong in so many ways.
1. We are currently paying for service of 6MB (as stated by Frontier Customer Service.
2. Our phone line, installed prior to 1972, is only capable of 1.3MB (as stated by Frontier Technical Support). 3. We would have to pay MORE for 3MB service than we do for 6MB service yet our phone lines aren't capable of either (as stated by Frontier customer service and technical support.
Since 2015 we have experienced frequent outages - sometimes a day or multiple days but mostly our outages are intermittent throughout a day, hour or minute. We have spent too many hours on the phone with Frontier over the past 4 years - each call made was for billing increases, outages or both. For outages, at times we've had to wait days for someone to arrive from out of state to arrive. Other times, a local service person would switch our line to a "less used" port within the sub station (as stated by the frontier service person). During the first year that tactic seemed to work for a week or two but that doesn't help anymore.
During the fall of 2017 Technical Support decided to replace the buried telephone line from our road to our house - the new line did not help and actually decreased our already poor internet service. At that time we were told by the service person that that was all they could do because they COULD NOT replace the line from our road to the substation which is what they said was needed.
Frontier is the only wired internet option in our area. Our cell service is not 100% reliable so we must rely on a wired internet to utilize wifi calling on our cell phones when emergency situations arise.
To summarize: - we are paying for 6MB service that we are not receiving and would have to pay more for 3MB service that our buried lines are not capable of supporting - we are getting extremely unreliable intermittent 1.5 MB service - our billing now includes a surcharge by Frontier to maintain and improve our service
Our internet service provided by Frontier is simply not functioning as though it is maintained or improved. If it were we would get the level of service we currently are billed and pay for each month.
Kathy Mercier over 5 years ago
It sounds like your having the same problems we are dealing with. Our internet has had 197 drops from December 1- December 22. We had Frontier out on December 28 and the service guy said that they put in new internet lines in and we are going to have 100MG in a few weeks, we will see if that amount of MG will help get better service. We will believe it when we see the faster service and no drops in service.
Janice Krumwiede over 5 years ago
I cancelled my service due to moving on 11-5-2018. Was told I had to pay $9.99 disconnect charge and that I had to pay my internet for rest of month anyway. I asked about my refund for the period I was billed. which was thru 11-21 but I still have seen no credit of any kind. Just a bill for the $9.99 I paid the bill thru 11-21-2018 so I feel I have a refund rather than a extra bill. Now I will be moving back to the same address but have not called about a new hookup.
steve macdonald over 5 years ago
I've subscribed to Frontier on two different occasions. Both orders were completed over the phone, which is clearly what they want so they is no record of what they promise. FIrst time I was contacted by a rep to add internet to my existing phone service. He never mentioned a word about bundling, just that I could get internet for 19.99/mo. A year later when I wished to cancel phone, I was told that internet would increase to 54.99/mo. That was actually more than I paid for both services at the time. I had them cancel both services and they tried to hit me with $400 of ET fees. I filed a complaint with the Attorney Generals office and after a couple of responses they seemed to drop the matter.
Flash forward two years later and I was contacted by a frontier rep selling internet service. I explained my past dealings and she assured me she could correct everything. Very nice, courteous gal, and I had service up and running the next week at a rate of 29.99/mo. Two years later the promotional price ran out and they upped me to 34.99/mo. for the 3Mbs speed. Then a couple months later they raised the price again to 39.99. I called into to inquire about the price increase and was told it was a normal increase, but he could upgrade me to 12Mbs for the same price. I was skeptical on the speed after working with a couple techs in my area on another problem (who were exceptional employees who have since retired). I was assured by the rep that it was possible. Came time for the upgrade install and my new tech explained on the phone that the speed was not possible at this time. I thought that was the end of it, but my bill came with additional chargers of about 7.00/mo. eventhough I was told it would be the same price. I called in waiting through the ridiculous hold times, and was told that i was getting the upgraded speed but they would look into. 8 months, 4 or 5 calls, and 15 hrs of my wasted time, and they still had not corrected the billing which not had a late fee total of over 100.00. MY last call they had guaranteed they would fix the billing issue AGAIN, but had to submit the total over 100.00 to another department that they can't call. I month later I received an email from collections letting me know the credit request was refused, and I needed to pay my bill. I responded not so nicely and told them to review my account. Their response was to disconnect my service and add another 9.99 to my bill with more late fees and continue to bill me for the service they turned off.
I gave up and filed a complaint with the FCC, and low and behold someone from Frontier actually responded by email. A month later they had addressed the problem by sending out a local tech to check my available speed, who confirmed what i thought all along that it wasn't possible to get what they offered. I had them cancel the service, and received my credit about a month later. At some point it just isn't worth my time. I now use my cell as a hotspot and it is actually cheaper.
If nothing else the state should force them to remove "Communications" from there name, because that doesn't exist in their company.
Some competition in our area sure would be a nice thing!
Gary Mutchler over 5 years ago
To the Commission:
We have been frontier customers for over 25 years. We just found out in January of this year that the plan we have with Frontier (which is internet only) included a double billing for internet that goes back to 2011. The difference in billing was $10 per month which equates to $840 (estimate) over a 7 year period. This plan was offered to us through Frontier and we were not aware of the double billing. Frontier would not offer us any refund or credit regarding this issue.
We also discovered on a recent billing that our current rate jumped from $42 per month to $60 per month without any previous notice or contact from Frontier. We had no other options to choose from regarding billing.
We also tried to apply for “lifetime discount” which is funded through Minnesota for people on limited income. We were told that we weren’t eligible for this through Frontier because we are at a lower monthly billing even though we are paying $60 per month.
All the above is of great concern to us because we are living on Social Security only and a SNAP PROGRAM through the State of Minnesota for food.
Please consider these comments from us when the above document is filed.
Gary & Kathy Mutchler 4125 Chippewa Circle Loretto, MN 55357 763-843-2722 Munch2315@usfamily.net
Jessica Feltmann over 5 years ago
Unfortunately we pay $75/month for 24mbps and only receive at best 6mbps. It is unfortunate that we can't pay them what we feel we are receiving on our end. The reason I pay the high premium is because I was promised that service to be able to stream more than one device in my house at once and that has not been the case and I am tired of wasting air and time calling to complain when nothing changes anyways. Funny how they can give terrible service but if I refuse to pay the amount they charge and only pay what I feel I received I will be disconnected. Doesn't seem fair....DOES IT??
Bill Sherck over 5 years ago
We have given up on Frontier. After countless hours on the phone and more than half a dozen visits from Frontier's technicians we have decided to take action. We can no longer pay over $100 a month for internet and phone service that does not consistently work. Last tech out said advertised speeds are not guaranteed. We also notice various surcharges and fee changes on monthly bills. We can not conduct work from home as internet drops repeatedly during the day. Frontier says it tracks the drops and can see our weak connection. The techs come out and "fix" the problem, drive away, and our internet drops. We have asked for our money back for years without success. We believe the last tech was actually being honest when he told us our home sits near the end of "Frontier's line" and we will always receive a weak signal. For those who have called Frontier's support line, it is an endless maze that never seems to lead to someone who can help. We want our money back. It's that simple. We paid (for years) for a service that has never worked.