Frontier customer struggles to get crew to fix broken utility pole, finds answer with BTU

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – A Bryan resident recently noticed the utility pole across the street from his house had a large crack. This caused it to bend and created a potentially dangerous situation.

After struggling to get ahold of the right crew to fix the problem, he contacted KBTX.

George Hester lives just across the street from Fannin Elementary School. Right now, he and his wife have a break from long pickup lines and buses traveling past the house. But, that ends in just a few short weeks.

This is why Hester was adamant to get the cracked pole fixed.

“About two weeks ago. I noticed that our phone line to the house was hanging pretty low to the ground,” he said. “If the [buses] were driving down the street towards the school and hit that line, they’d be pulling that line down on top of the bus.”

Hester tried to contact Frontier, saying he knew it belonged to them. But the person on the other end wasn’t much help.

“I talked with a fellow from somewhere around the world. I’m not really sure that he understood exactly what I was getting to but he promised that they would put in a work order for the following Wednesday. That was a week ago,”

KBTX met with Hester on Thursday. This was a week after the Bryan Fire Department assessed the pole. After reaching out to BFD to ask what came of that report, they told us that the issue was forwarded to Bryan Texas Utilities.

BTU confirmed that this was not their pole. But, since they were brought in on the issue, they told KBTX they have a number at Frontier they can use. Sure enough, Friday morning George says a crew contracted by Frontier showed up.

“Bottom line, if you’re having a call somewhere around the world to tell them about a problem that’s right across the street from your house, and then nothing happens, you start getting discouraged with the whole thing,” Hester said.

KBTX reached out to Frontier and even called a few customer service numbers available online. We have not heard back and it is still unclear how to report a utility pole concern directly to Frontier.

BTU says if it’s their pole, those reports should go directly to them. If a customer is unsure, BTU will come to assess the pole to determine who it belongs to and can directly contact that company if it turns out not to be theirs.