Some CenturyLink customers still without service six weeks after windstorm

More than 100 CenturyLink customers remain without service more than six weeks after a windstorm caused massive damage to phone and electric company infrastructure.

Stan Nelson of north Spokane is one customer who has thrown in the towel. He has purchased a cellphone and arranged for Internet service from Verizon.

“I just got tired of it,” he said.

A tree fell in his yard during the Nov. 17 windstorm, taking out his CenturyLink line. The line is still there in his backyard, draped across his garage. Repeated phone calls to the company have resulted in various promises to have repairs completed soon or being told that there is no outage in his area, he said.

“I’ve called them probably 15 times,” he said. “They have never contacted me.”

The most recent repair date Nelson has been given is Jan. 10, something he’s not counting on. Nelson said he’s heard that extra crews have been brought in for repairs.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re not coming to my place,” he said.

CenturyLink has continued to send him bills, however.

Sue Anderson, CenturyLink vice president of operations for Washington, released a statement Thursday that said fewer than 200 customers in the Spokane area are still without service.

“Our crews continue to work around the clock to restore service to affected customers,” her prepared statement said.

After weeks of waiting, Claryn Reid’s elderly mother finally had her landline service restored on Jan. 2.

Reid said it was inconvenient to have to relay messages to her mother by driving to her home, but she really worried about what would have happened if her mother had a medical emergency.

“There’s no way for her to get out of the house and walk down the street for help because the sidewalks are icy,” she said.

Though her mother’s service has been restored, the old broken line is still lying in the yard. Reid said she has not yet called and tried to get a bill credit for the time her mother was without service.

She’s still upset about what she perceives as a lack of response from the company while she pleaded with them to fix her mother’s service.

“It just went round and round and round,” she said. “Or I’d get somebody in India who had no clue.”