THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412030142
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 172 lines
THE CABLE LINE slithered across Bill Brooks' lawn and driveway like a long piece of black licorice. Brooks hesitated to mow his grass for fear of cutting the line. And every day he pulled in and out of his driveway, he was greeted by a minibump from the wire.
Brooks tried to get it fixed. He hounded the local cable service, Falcon Cable TV, over the phone. But despite the inconvenience, despite the line fraying and nearly breaking, nothing was done - for a year.
``I know I called a half-dozen times,'' says Brooks, 40, a state employee who works in Suffolk. ``One man called back and said there was a subcontractor who was responsible for the burial. But nothing was done. So I called Falcon Cable, and they said it was ridiculous. Another week passed and nothing was done. I called again. And finally, someone came out.
``It took over a year and a dozen phone calls to get a cable buried,'' Brooks says, ``and that's ridiculous.''
That's not all.
In 1993, Brooks was told he could get two cable channels for the price of one. But when the cable bill arrived, he'd been charged for two channels, both at the regular price.
When Brooks called Falcon back, customer service said there was no such deal.
He says he has been charged $29.95 for a pay-per-view wrestling match advertised as costing $19.95. Falcon later gave him credit. And he has been charged for cable radio service without requesting it, he says. That problem was also fixed.
``I'm just sorry Suffolk can have just one cable company,'' says Brooks - although he added that service has gotten better in the past year. ``People are tired of that. When you pay for a service, you expect to get that service.''
Brooks is not alone.
If ever you want to strike up a conversation with a stranger from Suffolk, mention Falcon Cable. The franchise, which has been feeding cable television to Suffolk homes since 1984, is often the brunt of criticism by customers who experience outages, bad reception, billing errors and the highest cable rates in South Hampton Roads.
Letters to newspapers and to city officials have complained about being placed on hold by the company for upward of 20 minutes, fuzzy reception and having cable service interrupted without explanation for hours on end.
Suffolk city officials recently began talking about the future of Falcon, going so far as to suggest that, if the Los Angeles-based company doesn't offer better service to Suffolk, the city could take over the operation under new federal guidelines governing cable service. Falcon is the 15th largest multisystem cable company in the nation.
Falcon officials have said change is under way - though they've said that before. Once they have a firm grasp on next year's company budget, they say, they plan to meet with city officials to discuss Falcon's plans for the city.
A change in service won't come soon enough for Martha Weaver, a city resident with fuzzy cable reception.
On about one-third of her channels, ``It's like looking through a blizzard,'' she says. ``But then, every once in a while, it clears up.''
Weaver, 48, who lives in the outlying Holland section, says that ever since Falcon extended service down her road, the reception has been horrible. She and other customers in outlying areas of Suffolk face the same problem: powering the cable signal throughout this huge city.
A cable line can be compared to a water line in this respect - over long distances, the signal needs a boost to send it on its way.
Falcon has about four amplifier stations per mile, pushing the signal along the line. But the farther out the cable, the more power is needed to push the signal.
Falcon customer complaints today are similar to complaints voiced in a Sun article on the company in 1991. And as in the past, Falcon officials are promising to become more attentive to customer needs as well and to improve service.
Some changes are already under way.
After almost six months without a full-time regional manager, Jack Edwards will take the helm Jan. 1. He replaces James M. ``J.T.'' Thomas, who retired earlier this year after serving in Suffolk since 1984.
The decision to bring Edwards to Suffolk came after Falcon officials had considered operating in Suffolk without a full-time manager by combining the Suffolk district with another region. But they decided a full-time presence is needed here. The Suffolk region includes service in Gates County, N.C., and on Virginia's Eastern Shore - totaling about 20,000 customers.
Edwards brings with him a new office manager, a new engineer for the region - and, he says, a new attitude about customer service.
``We've always said we're in the entertainment business,'' says Michael Singpiel, a Falcon regional manager based in Burke, N.C. ``Cable originally derived from giving a better signal, especially to rural customers. But when you mess around with that TV set, you create havoc.''
For example, Singpiel says, when Falcon changed from the Home Shopping Network to QVC - another home shopping network, which has facilities in Suffolk - the phones lit up. But Falcon officials couldn't figure out why customers were upset.
``I found the answer to this question by telling my wife about it,'' Singpiel says. He discovered that people had credits with Home Shopping Network that they did not have with QVC. Some people complained that they missed certain personalities on the channel.
``I guess the key is that any time you're going to make a change in the cable system that's going to affect the viewer,'' Singpiel says, ``we have to better communicate those changes.''
The biggest complaints Falcon gets are over busy phone lines and service disruptions, Singpiel says. Falcon has eight phone lines and five customer service representatives serving Suffolk customers. At the end of October, Falcon was serving 7,683 customers in Suffolk.
Some disruptions, Singpiel says, are beyond the company's control. Most, he says, are caused by power outages.
But for 1995, Falcon plans to install a standby power system that would bolster the cable signal during power outages and provide uninterrupted service throughout the city.
Another problem associated with the system and the cost of having cable in Suffolk is the size of this 430-square-mile city, Singpiel says.
Falcon has 500 miles of cable in Suffolk.
``And the further you go with your cable, the more problems you are going to have,'' he says.
Housing density is a major factor. Because Suffolk has an average of about 30 homes per mile, the cost of cable is higher than, say, Virginia Beach, which has about 100 homes per mile.
``I think it's the nature of the beast,'' Edwards says. ``Management style has something to do with it. But our new motto is this: After you're done dealing with a customer, did I leave that customer with a positive image of our company and our service?''
According to both Singpiel and Edwards, the future of cable in Suffolk is likely to be rosy. As the two men wait for their new budget to be approved, they talk of what could lie in store - including the laying of fiber-optic cable throughout the city, which would not require as many amplifying stations and is less affected by temperature changes.
Falcon also has recently hired new technicians for the region and has begun performing pro-active maintenance and repairs throughout the cable system.
``The Falcon focus,'' Singpiel says, ``is to get ourselves in a competitive mode.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color cover photo
Falcon's new manager, Jack Edwards.]
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Jack Edwards checks equipment in the Suffolk office of Falcon Cable
TV. He will take over in January as regional manager of Falcon in
Suffolk and hopes to bring improvements in service, he said.
Michael Singpiel, regional manager in Burke, N.C., says Falcon plans
to install a standby power system that would bolster the cable
signal during power outages and provide uninterrupted service.
Falcon's monthly TV Host lists the cable schedule, but fuzzy
reception make some programs hard to watch.
This informational chart at Falcon Cable shows the orbital positions
of satellites. Falcon is the 15th largest multisystem cable company
in the nation.
[Chart]
The following rates include basic and so-called Tier II service and
includes charges for a signal converter and remote (number of
channels in parentheses):
Portsmouth (48) $22.56
Virginia Beach (48) $22.57
Norfolk (48) $22.38
Suffolk (43) $28.03
Chesapeake (45) $23.13
Kill Devil Hill (37) $24.26
(Falcon)
Source: city of Suffolk survey, November 1994
by CNB