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Complaint Details
Note that complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. See details.
Initial Complaint
01/09/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Customer Service Issues
- Status:
- Answered
On June 2, 2022 I agreed to use Empire Access for their services. Everything was fine until one Thursday night we were going to watch the ******* ***** football game. It was no longer on our TV from Empire Access, according to a Representative that I spoke to the next day. In my view they broke my contract with them so we canceled with them and went to ******** where we could watch the games. This month I got a bill for $500 for cancellation fee. I don’t feel that I owe that fee because I am no longer getting a service that I signed up for and is no longer available to me. When I called and talked to a Representative she said it’s not our fault but that doesn’t matter . I am not going to pay for a service that I am not getting. I also have a piece of paper that I can’t read nor did I sign. I would appreciate your help in this matter. I am retired and can’t pay $500.00 for something that I do not consider my fault. They claim that I was told I would have to pay when I called to cancel. That is NOT true.Business response
02/06/2023
Frank P****** explained that they took away the early termination fee as a courtesy.Initial Complaint
09/20/2022
- Complaint Type:
- Billing Issues
- Status:
- Resolved
September 18 2022 I called in my internet bill to pay it and they took my payment then on september 20, 2022 they turned off my service when i paid my bill they took the money out on september 18 2022 so now i had to pay it again and pay a fee to turn it back on they messed it up not meBusiness response
10/05/2022
Our Billing Manager, Brenda S******* contacted this customer today. She explained to him that when he called in on Sept. 18th to pay for some reason the payment never went through and he was not notified. She confirmed that only one payment hit his account, which was the payment on Sept 20th. and issued credit for the reconnect fees. Customer is now satisfied. Let me know if you need anything else.Customer response
10/05/2022
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
******* ********
Initial Complaint
06/19/2022
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
Date of transaction: 04/16/22: Spoke with sales agent Sue F** to discuss their current new customer offers and the requirements to sign up for service. We discussed in great detail how hesitant I was with switching providers since my current internet plan did not require a 12 month commitment. I questioned if there was any sort of money back guarantee or trial period and she told me they did require a signed 12 month service contract to start service but if customers were unhappy with the service there would be leniency with canceling. I agreed to make the switch from ******** and signed the service contract which was sent via email on that day. After they got my signature- I was then advised the first avail install date was not until 05/04/22, funny how that bit of information was left out of the sales pitch. Once they got my signature and locked me into a contract, I received no further communication from them, other than the technician showing up to install service 2 weeks after I signed up. I received no correspondence with regards to my billing cycle, No account number information so I could access my account online through their web portal- they completely ghosted me. During the first week of the installation service starting buffering on/off- I would lose connection completely at times for minutes at a time. 05/I0/22 & 05/13/22 I attempted to contact the 800# on their website and got a recording that all their agents were busy and to call back at a later time. 05/20/22: I completely lost internet service throughout my entire house. I called the 800# at 7:20am to report the issue and the guy who answered told me he was unable to assist me with the issue and that a technician would call me back within the hour. I work from home and told him that I could not be without service for much longer than that. I finally got a call from someone at 9:20am and he claimed to be a technician, he said he had attempted to access my connection remotely and could not, I advisedBusiness response
06/29/2022
The customer listed above has terminated service with us on 5/23/22. I attempted to contact her
at the number listed above, but had to leave a voice mail. I also sent her an email letting her
know that I issued credit for the Early Term Fee she was charged for leaving, when she was not
satisfied with the services she received.
Thank you,
Brenda S*******
Billing Manager
Empire Telephone CorplNorth Penn Telephone Compnny/Empire Access
Internet Phone IPTV - Security Systems
###-###-#### - ******************** - 34 Main Street - Prattsburgh, NY 14873Initial Complaint
04/05/2022
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
Ever since we signed up for internet service through Empire Access there has been issues with reliability in their service. It started out where once a month would loose service, any where from 1 minute to 1 hour. My wife works from home requiring internet service. The problem seems to be getting worse. Now it is up to at least once a week to multiple times a week. Usually lasting less than 5 minutes, but still enough so my wife looses connect with work and some of the work that she has done. Empire Access does not return emails to when I try to address this problem. When you call them on the phone, their technical department blames it on our equipment. Our equipment has been tested and there is no issue! Also my wife's computer is hard wired and not wirelessly connected to the system. It seems that since I just signed a new 18 month user agreement that the problems have gotten extremely worse with Empire Access.Business response
05/03/2022
There have only been 4 troubles reported from this customer since June of 2021. The 06/23/21 trouble report had to do with a drop cable running through trees that the customer was not comfortable with, not actually service affecting.
Trouble reported on 3/2 left message for the customer and we did not receive a call back. Trouble on 3/23 Motor Vehicle Accident took out fiber cable and customer received one months credit for Phone and Internet for the inconvenience.
On 4/5 our NOC technician worked with customer and reconfigured services on a separate port on the router and issues persisted, customer then replaced some of his own equipment and issued stopped. Customer said he would let us know if the problem
Comes back but we have not heard back from him as of today.
Regards
Frank
Initial Complaint
10/17/2021
- Complaint Type:
- Product Issues
- Status:
- Unanswered
My mother and I have internet through them. They say we have cheetah high speed dsl. We have to reset the internet many times a day. We have called them about it and they say everything is fine. They have put new wiring all over the area years ago. We are at the end of the line and still no wires. My thing is I want internet that works and doesn't freeze. I cant even use my tablet if I am watching something on my firesticks and if my doorbell goes off you can for get everything its all frozen until its reset.Initial Complaint
09/20/2021
- Complaint Type:
- Customer Service Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I have for a month now been trying to get the correct remote for my Tv. I have requested three remotes and they send me the wrong one every time. Employees are extremely rude when calling in! Told me i would get no credit due to me not understanding why a remote was requested in the beginning of month but later explains my significant other did request it after this they sent me 3 wrong remotes and told me to just call them to have them change the channel. They never have techs available to help and all employees I’ve spoken to our extremely rude and condescending. Do not recommend this company to anyone else they are not willing to even meet me in the middle for all of my issues!Business response
10/20/2021
Business relayed to BBB:
The customer was unable to program the remotes themselves. We sent a Tech out to help with the programming and issued a 1 month credit for her TV.Initial Complaint
08/13/2021
- Complaint Type:
- Product Issues
- Status:
- Unanswered
I paid this amount for service to be connected it finally got connected on May 5th 2021. I had my service disconnected on May 28th 2021. I am to be refunded some of my deposit that I paid in advance of my service being connected.. It is now August 13th and I have not heard anything from this company. I have called numerous times to get this resolved with always the same answer " Audrey is working on this". It has been almost 3 months since I had my service disconnected how long do I legally need to wait for a refund?
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