West Virginia Public Service Commission image.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Suddenlink Communications continues to work on service improvements in West Virginia as the company faces pressure to make changes.
The House of Delegates Technology and Infrastructure Committee discussed Suddenlink’s presence in West Virginia. The Public Service Commission’s ongoing investigation into complaints regarding Suddenlink’s internet, cable and telephone services throughout West Virginia.
According to Jim Campbell, the vice president for state and local government affairs for Suddenlink’s parent company Altice, West Virginia is in the company’s top five for subscribers; 300,000 West Virginians have services through Suddenlink.
“By way of an overview, we share the state’s goal that we want to provide the best technical and customer experience to the residents of West Virginia, and we also acknowledge that we’ve had substantial challenges over the last two years,” Campbell told lawmakers.
“We own them. Some of the factors that have caused them have been external, but a lot of them have been internal. And we recognize that it’s up to us alone to fix these issues and solve these problems for our customers.”
Campbell said the company is recording a 45% decline in technical call complaints. He added service visits have decreased 30% over one year.
“That means one of two things,” he said. “That means our network’s working a lot better. And from a customer care standpoint, our agents that we have on the phone are handling things over the phone that should be properly handled over the phone as opposed to just falling back and deploying a truck.”
Suddenlink has faced pressure to reopen a call center in West Virginia to address local issues better. According to Campbell, the company is looking at opening an “on-shore” facility to handle calls.
Campbell added the company plans on opening three stores in West Virginia this year for customers to purchase and return equipment. The stores would be in Charleston, Parkersburg and Princeton.
“The company is actively pursuing opening retail stores,” Campbell said, noting Suddenlink plans to open three other stores in 2023.