CenturyTel to look at customer claims case by case

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

VANDERWAGEN — A CenturyTel customer said he had trouble trying to get credit for the week his telephone service was out for areas south of Gallup.

Timothy Julian was offered credit for one day without service from his telephone company, CenturyTel, until he faxed copies of articles in the Independent describing the lack of service to CenturyTel’s main office. After receiving the faxes, CenturyTel gave Julian credit for two weeks.

A representative with CenturyTel said that the company would handle each request for credit individually.

“Because we value each and every customer, we do look at customers on a case-by-case basis,” Kim Valiquette, marketing/communications manager for CenturyTel, said. “That’s basically our policy.”

Julian is worried that other customers will not be able to get their credit because he said he was told that the company did not have a record of the phone service outage for the area, which was why he had to fax in the Independent articles. Valiquette did not comment on Julian’s situation.

“I told them they have a lot of customers they need to accommodate,” Julian said. Approximately 2,000 people were affected by the phone service outage beginning on Sunday, Feb. 17 and lasting for up to a week by some accounts.

However, the state’s Public Regulation Commission has not received any complaints from customers unable to get credit.

“No one has come to us yet,” PRC spokesman Paul R. Carbajal said. He added that the PRC has not forgotten about the service outage for Vanderwagen, Zuni and Ramah areas, but that the investigation is still pending.
Carbajal also said that customers who are having problems getting credit for the time when the phone service was out may call the PRC’s Consumer Relations Divisions at 888-427-5772,

CenturyTel provides phone service for the majority of people in Vanderwagen, Zuni, Ramah and Pine Hill areas.