Fayetteville

residents will get a chance to air their

complaints about MediaOne cable television

company in a public forum if company officials

follow through on the City Council's suggestion.

"A

town hall type meeting where people can talk to

company representatives and express their

concerns might be beneficial to you and the

community," City Councilman Larry Dell told

MediaOne vice president Deborah James during a

council work session last week.

It

was James's second trip "to the

woodshed" in recent months. As the company's

government liaison, she has twice visited City

Council meetings to hear council members'

concerns about customer service.

The

company holds a franchise as Fayetteville and

Fayette County's cable company, so the city is in

a position of speaking for its residents when

service isn't up to snuff. And according to

council members, it hasn't been up to snuff for

years.

James

said the firm is taking steps to improve service

in the near term, including moving more of its

work in-house instead of hiring independent

contractors. "Our labor is 80 percent

contract and about 20 percent employees. We are

trying to get that switched around over time to

80 percent employees and 20 percent contract

labor," said James.

Customers

also recently received an apology letter for poor

service in the past, James said, and a newsletter

detailing steps the company is taking to improve

service, including reorganizing customer service

work shifts so there are more people working at

times when there are typically more complaint

calls.

James

also introduced Steve Rhodes, who recently took

over the maintenance and engineering of

MediaOne's facilities in the area, and Rhodes

promised that things are going to be different.

"We're

going to do a better job of maintenance,"

said Rhodes.

He

said as early as Monday of this week he would

begin replacing faulty power supplies so that

when electric power outages occur, only customers

whose power is out will experience cable outages.

The power supplies have batteries to provide

backup power to the cable lines during electrical

outages, but the equipment often is not

maintained, according to local experts.

The

frequency and long duration of outages in Fayette

County have overloaded customer service phone

lines, resulting in long waits on hold and

frustration for customers trying to get credit

for outages.

"We

have not done as good a job as we should have in

extending our powering," Rhodes told the

City Council. "I apologize on behalf of

myself and MediaOne," he added. "I am

making a commitment to do the best job that I can

to try to eliminate some of these outages and get

all of the standbys on so only the area where the

power is out will be affected," he added.

In

the long run, James and Rhodes said, Fayette's

troubles with cable service won't be over until

its 30-year-old lines and facilities are replaced

with new, state-of-the-art wide band technology.

That work is scheduled to begin in January with

completion by next November.

In

the meantime, they warn, problems will get worse

before they get better.

Council

members urged the company representatives to make

sure customers are warned when their cable is

going to be down because of construction, and to

find a way to automatically credit customers for

lost service, even if the customers don't call to

ask for the credit.

City

manager Mike Bryant promised to help the firm

build a database so that when an area is going to

lose its cable service, those residents can be

notified and their bills reduced if necessary.

Rhodes

and James did promise to get information on which

areas of Fayette County have had the most

frequent outages and bring the new technology to

those areas first.

Residents

also complained that when they do get through to

customer service, they are promised credit for

outages, but the credit never shows up on their

bills.

James

said she doesn't personally deal directly with

customer service, but those who are having

difficulty can phone City Hall or the county

government, and she will personally look into

their problems.

"They

can call me and I will personally see to it that

they get credit," she said.

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