AT&T Broadband has assigned

a customer service representative to Fayette County full-time to deal

with problems resulting from the company's system upgrade, as well as

continued problems resulting from the age of the system being replaced.

Toni Sisco is now available

to help you with billing problems and cable outages and to answer your

questions 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. She can be reached by

phone or e-mail: 770-460-5730, extension 5205, or [email protected].

"It's a goodwill gesture

on their part," said County Administrator Chris Cofty.

Cofty and county commissioners,

along with officials in Fayetteville and Peachtree City, have frequently

expressed dissatisfaction with the handling of cable television customer

complaints by the communications giant, as well as the pace of the construction

upgrade.

As grantors of the franchise,

Fayette and the local cities receive calls from customers when they can't

get through to the company's customer service center, and Cofty said those

calls have been frequent of late.

"We were spending an inordinate

amount of time on complaints," he said, adding that county workers

were pulled away from their regular duties to answer the complaints.

AT&T Broadband spokesman

Reg Griffin said the company decided Fayette needed help. "One of

the things Steve White [vice president of the company] has committed to

is to be a better listener," said Griffin. In meetings with county

officials, White learned that the construction work has generated extra

calls, he said.

"We felt like the call

volume they were talking about was such that it did make sense to put

someone there," said Griffin.

If problems occur at nights

and on weekends, customers will still have to phone the AT&T Broadband

customer service center at 770,559-2500, or wait until morning or Monday

to reach Sisco.