Businesses affected by Frontier Communications outage still in limbo over compensation

Published 10:39 am Friday, January 29, 2016

It has been more than a year since construction crews accidentally cut a cable during a downtown project that affected about 6,000 Frontier Communications FiOS and copper customers.

As a result of the outage, many local businesses in the downtown Redmond area had their phone, television and hi-speed Internet services interrupted. In addition, some 911 services were also affected.

For these businesses, the interruptions were more than just a matter of inconvenience — it was the matter of their livelihood.

And while service has been long restored, not everything has been resolved.

Julian Ramos, owner of Agave Cocina & Cantina in Bear Creek Shopping Center, said as a small company, they depend on their day-to-day business, which took a hit when the cable was cut.

“It affected us in a huge way, to say the least,” he said.

When the restaurant lost Internet and phone service, Ramos said customers were not able to call in to place to-go orders or to make reservations. And while the restaurant’s point-of-sales machine was able to store customers’ credit card information on a computer so they could complete sales later, he said they weren’t able to immediately retrieve information such as whether a card had declined or was expired — as they typically would. As a result, they lost thousands of dollars in credit card sales during the almost two weeks Agave had no service.

Since then, Ramos and other local business owners affected by the outage have filed insurance claims to be compensated for their losses. It has been more than a year but no one has received anything.

Ramos said he has tried contacting people at the City of Redmond as well as the insurance company but has received no specific details from anyone other than that people are looking into the issue.

“Looks like everyone is on the same page,” he said about other business owners he has spoken with about this. “Everybody’s getting the same feedback…nothing solid for sure.”

Aaron Christensen, of the Law Office of Aaron Christensen, PLLC, was working out of Thinkspace in downtown Redmond at the time of the outage. He said the building did not have Frontier for its Internet service, so their computers were not affected. However, their phones did go down as a result of the cable being cut.

Christensen said he has called Redmond Mayor John Marchione’s office, but other than initially saying the city would help businesses affected, Christensen said the mayor has been “MIA” when it comes to the issue. Christensen said it would be one thing if the city said they would not be getting involved, but failing to act after saying they would help is contradictory.

Marchione said he understands people’s frustrations.

“When something happens that disrupts people’s lives and livelihoods, everyone wants to get back to normal as soon as possible,” he said. “When the telecommunications cables were accidentally cut by the contractor, the city worked closely with Frontier to communicate with their customers and the community. Quickly following, the city worked with all parties to identify and communicate the insurance claims process. Those claims are being addressed by the insurance companies.”

Marchione also admitted that the city’s response was lacking and could have used some improvement.

“Could we have done a better job reaching out during the incident?” he asked. “Absolutely. Learning from that, we have restructured our communications to be more proactive and responsive.”

Mike Bailey, financial director for Redmond, said when the city hires a contractor for a project, part of the contract they sign states that the contractor is responsible for any damages related to the project. He said this can range from someone’s car sustaining tire damage after they have driven over a pothole on a construction site, to the major outage of 2014.

In this case, Bailey said, even though city employees were onsite, the construction company IMCO General Construction is responsible for the damage, according to the contract. He also acknowledged that the situation is complicated, which is why things have been taking so long.

“It has taken too long,” Bailey said.

The law firm of Forsberg & Umlauf, P.S. is representing IMCO and the city, as well as Zurich, the insurance company representing them, in this case and provided the Reporter with an update.

“Representatives are investigating the claims and working with claimants to try to resolve the claims,” said Jeffrey Kestle with the law firm. “Claims representatives are asking for back up documentation and are working to establish a protocol and time frame to resolve the claims.”

Bailey said in addition to the small local businesses affected by the outage, Frontier also sustained damage, as well, and the company is also a claimant with losses.

After multiple attempts this week, the Reporter was unable to reach anyone at Frontier for a comment.