It appears TVPA (Television Viewer Protection Act) may have backfired on consumers, at least when it comes to Frontier FiOS. Last month, I reported about my call to Frontier about TVPA and the day the regulation took effect (December 20), I called again. The advisor was very helpful and told me I’d receive a box with a return label. I received the box on December 23, along with a couple text messages confirming it was sent. A few days later, I received a second flat-pack box. I was tempted to make something out of it, but other things came up.
Fast forward a year and today I received a call from a lovely woman in asset collections. She asked if I sent the modem/router back and when I said I had, she magically confirmed that the device had been received. I then asked to speak to someone in billing.
I was promptly transferred to Chiffondria (she really said that was her name) in billing and she looked up my billing information so we could discuss.
“Your bill has already been adjusted for the hardware return,” said Chiffondria.
“That’s interesting. It says $53.98 and I felt pretty certain we were paying $39 plus the rental modem/router $10, which should put us in the $40 range. I’m totally open to being wrong because I believe we should all be, but I must be missing something here,” I replied.
And would you know it? I was missing something. Frontier had raised the bill by ~$10 in October before I had even asked them about TVPA. According to Chiffondria, we’d been receiving a discounted rate since 2019 and the discount was removed in October.
How many Frontier customers will pay more for their service as an indirect result of TVPA? And more importantly, is Chiffondria getting a raise out of it?
Update: I (Devin) would later consult for Frontier Communications’ restructure and rebranding efforts through Bottle Rocket Studios contract after it declared bankruptcy. I worked alongside McKinsey & Company to help Frontier revise its marketing toward potential new customers. Perhaps this post is part the reason I was tasked? Who is to say?