ELKINS — The Randolph County Commission is urging affected residents to contribute to a formal complaint regarding Frontier Communications’ phone and internet service.

“Back a few months ago, we had voted as a commission to lodge an informal complaint with the (state) Public Service Commission regarding Frontier and their service in Randolph County,” Randolph County Commission President Mark Scott said at the most recent commission meeting.

“We’ve had major issues not only with the quality of the phone service but also the speed of the internet service in our county for years. As a result, we asked citizens if they would reach out to us and let us know. We had several people who called us and talked about it,” Scott said. “As a matter of fact, I called Whitmer today. I was talking with a citizen and I could barely hear them because of the buzzing noise on the telephone.

“So we prepared an informal complaint. We highlighted the names of those people who gave us permission to complain on their behalf. We have received a response from the Public Service Commission,” he said.

Scott then read aloud the letter from the PSC.

“While this commission previously filed individual complaints on behalf of two of those listed in your letter … we’ve never been directly contacted by any of the other listed customers,” the PSC letter read. “Our records indicate that the prior complaints of these two individuals were resolved following staff investigations … Upon receipt of your letter, the commission submitted an informal complaint to Frontier on behalf of the RCC. Frontier has provided an individual response to each of the residents named. That information has been enclosed for your review. Please feel free to share this information with those named parties. You will note that Frontier indicated that the majority of customers named in your letter did not contact the company directly to inform Frontier of their service issues prior to contacting the RCC.”

Scott said there were problems with that statement.

“They didn’t contact the Public Service Commission but each of them had contacted Frontier and had seen service personnel from Frontier on multiple occasions, and they kept getting the same story time after time,” Scott said about the residents represented in the informal complaint. “That’s the reason we filed the complaint on their behalf. They weren’t getting a resolution to their problems.

“The problem is, it’s not the direct service of the line that goes to the home. The problem is the main line of service that transmits the service to these areas,” he added.

Scott then continued reading the letter from the PSC.

“We would like to share that the (Public Service) Commission has a pending formal complaint before it concerning the state of the copper network in West Virginia …,” he read. “It’s a petition requesting a general investigation by the Commission into Frontier. Customers can write the Commission with comments and ask for their letters to be included in the case file.”

After reading the letter, Scott said, “I would like to ask residents of Randolph County who are having issues with Frontier Communications to please write the Public Service Commission. Explain to them what you’ve tried to do to solve this issue, what they said to you when a technician has come out to see this, and whether or not you’ve gotten a resolution.

“I’m glad to hear there’s a formal complaint,” he added. “That’s the next step in the process… Since there’s one pending, what we will do is we will piggyback to that formal complaint … You can address them either to the Public Service Commission directly, at 201 Brooks Street, P.O. Box 812, Charleston, W.Va., 25323, or you can address them to the (Randolph County) Commission and (we) will forward them on your behalf.”

“There is some movement on that, and we’re glad to see that’s happening,” Scott said of the issue.