The city of Batesville recently delivered over 200 complaints to Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office about the cable television and internet quality provided to residents by Suddenlink.
Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said residents using the services of Suddenlink have complained about internet reliability, speed, and connectivity, as well as television connections, pricing and billing issues, repair issues, the quality of overall service, and overall business practices.
The mayor said Suddenlink has a near-monopoly within the city of Batesville for residential television service and true high-speed internet service. He said companies that enjoy such “near” monopolies have a duty to provide exemplary customer service. He added that a good number of customers believe Suddenlink fails to meet those expectations.
Elumbaugh said many of these people have complained to the provider company for years over these issues with little or no resolution to their problems.
Batesville Councilman Tommy Bryant (pictured above) reviewed the 200 written complaints before forwarding them to the Arkansas Attorney General’s office which has been asked to investigate them.
One complaint he ran into more than once was that of a Suddenlink technician coming to work on an issue at a residence.
“They’d get it working, and 30 minutes after they left, they were out of internet again,” Bryant told White River Now’s Gary Bridgman on Tuesday.
“I don’t know, in a given instance, whether it could’ve been the homeowner,” Bryant said. “But if it was the homeowner’s problem, and they were just illiterate as far as technology goes, you would not have this widespread of a problem. It’s a problem with speed. It’s a problem with connectivity. People complaining about cable television pixelating…the sound dropping out. And a lot of these people had complained to Suddenlink months ago. And still no resolution. Several people got cut off when they were trying to talk to them on the phone. It’s just ridiculous.”
Bryant will appear on “The Offical Word,” sponsored by First Community Bank, tomorrow at 9 a.m. on 93 KZLE. A full version of the interview will also soon be available on White River Now and the White River Now mobile app.
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