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Frontier Communications has found a new way to make a little extra from customers who disconnect their Internet service.
According to a document obtained exclusively by Stop the Cap!, Frontier will charge a $9.99 “Broadband Processing Fee” for new customers shutting off their Internet service starting Nov. 1. Customers that order Internet service from Frontier after Oct. 1 are supposed to be notified about the new fee during a review of their order. Existing customers are not affected.
This fee is above and beyond any early termination fees contract customers may face for ending service before the end of a service contract.
According to Frontier, broadband services subject to the new fee include:
- DSL
- “Simply Broadband” (broadband-only service)
- FiOS Data
- Frontier Satellite Broadband
- Frontier Tandem (VoIP)
- Wi-Fi (Commercial accounts only — basic, sponsored hot spots, etc.)
“The fee will not apply to customers who change their service plan,” Frontier’s Christy Reap tells Stop the Cap! “We work to meet our customers’ needs and are confident they will find Frontier’s service and its value better than our competitors’ offerings.”
[Updated 8:30am 10/12: Updated to include statement from Frontier.]
A brilliant business move by Frontier executives to profit off the rampant bleeding of their customers.
Normally companies try to profit from the aquisition and retention of customers, but clearly Frontier has figured out some devious new way to increase revenue as people cancel and flee from their sub-par service and high rates.
They should take this opportunity and lay off more service people, increase broadband rates another 5%, and double the “disconnect fee” to easily triple their income from this new scheme.
Funny you should mention that. Customers are reporting a significant increase in the USF fees and some are seeing a $1 rate hike for Internet service later this year.
Not only is Frontier at/near the bottom of broadban ISP rankings “by a leading US consumer magazine”, but they are the stupidest utility that I have ever dealt with personally. It took them weeks to respond to an email question, without giving an answer to me. And now, they pull this stunt!! Have you ever heard of competition? You are headed for the scrap heap! In economic theory, it’s called “creative destruction”, if memory serves. Capitalism.. you can’t handle it.!?!. I would rather deal with Comcast, and they are one of the most hated companies in the US(as judged by… Read more »
(corrected for spelling) Not only is Frontier at/near the bottom of broadband ISP rankings “by a leading US consumer magazine”, but they are the stupidest utility that I have ever dealt with personally. It took them weeks to respond to an email question, without giving an answer to me. And now, they pull this stunt!! Have you ever heard of competition? You are headed for the scrap heap! In economic theory, it’s called “creative destruction”, if memory serves. Capitalism.. you can’t handle it.!?!. I would rather deal with Comcast, and they are one of the most hated companies in the… Read more »
NOTICE: EXISTING CUSTOMERS *ARE* AFFECTED.
They just attempted to charge this fee to me. I have been a Frontier customer since before it was Verizon here, am not under any contract, and just received a new bill that is $1 more than last month. They told me I had to pay $9.99 to end service. Obviously, I never agreed to any such terms. Eventually, after much discussion, I was able to get the fee removed, but I guarantee most will not go through the trouble. Contact your attorney general about this fraudulent action by Frontier.
That is yet more bad training for Frontier CSR’s. I am getting a sea of complaints about fraudulent “installation fees” showing up on customer bills this week for Second Connect service that was supposed to be installed free. Some customers were billed despite having the service installed months earlier.
We are investigating.
We have been with Froniter for 3-4 years and their service has gone from horrid to down right terrible holidays weekends and 4pm-11 Pm speeds drop 80% latency goes from 80 ms to 300-2000 avg about 800 not only are they nearly as bad as dial up their latency is worse. not only that is they avdvertise on their website now that they can offer you a 25Mbit connection for the price we are paying for the 1.2 mbit that they can’t even deliver on they are suckering more people in while they do nothing to upgrade their lines and… Read more »