Hundreds in N.S. still waiting for phone, internet, cable service to be repaired a month after Fiona

A month after post-tropical storm Fiona hit, hundreds of customers across Nova Scotia are still without phone, internet and cable service.

At Laurie and Maxine Monk’s property in Brookfield, N.S., the problem lies at the back of their property but sits top of mind.

“I still don’t have any cable television, I have no Wi-Fi and I have no telephone landline,” Laurie Monk said. 

Monk said Eastlink has told them crews would be there on Oct. 31 to repair the issue.

“That’s promise number five,” he said, noting the company has told his family they would fix the issue four times already but said all four times, no one showed up.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said.  “Don’t say you’re coming if you have no intention of doing it.”

Down the road, Julie Walters faces a similar problem and response. 

“You call and you sit on hold and sit on hold and sit on hold,” she said. “And even when somebody calls you back, they make an appointment for you and the day gets here and you get excited and think, 'OK, today’s the day,' and nobody shows up and then you call again.”

Walters said Eastlink has told her they would come four times already but never have. It’s been a month since Fiona hit and she still can’t work from home. The customer is now considering switching providers.

“Terrible service. No customer service whatsoever in my opinion,” she said.

"We understand that being without service for an extended period of time has been very frustrating and we apologize for delays," said Jill Laing, Eastlink's director of public affairs, pointing out that hundreds of customers across the Maritimes are still waiting for repairs.

The Eastlink spokesperson said on-the-ground crews, including additional resources brought in, are nearing completion of their work repairing storm-damaged equipment.

Laing said when crews responded to Brookfield, they found challenges in heavier wooded areas, such as downed trees, that may have damaged power lines.

"These hazards may have since been cleared and we are sending a crew back to this area so that we can complete the repair work in the coming days," she said.

Last week, CTV News spoke with several frustrated Bell Aliant customers in Mill Lake, N.S., who echoed complaints about poor communication. They’ve since been reconnected.

Nick Payant, Bell's vice president operation services and core network, said as of Monday afternoon, about 600 customers in Nova Scotia are still waiting.

“Because the damage as you know,was so spread out, there’s lots of tree trimming and things like that that have to happen for us to restore service, but we’re focusing right now on the northeastern part of Nova Scotia,” Payant said.

Deputy Mayor of Colchester County Geoff Stewart said telecom companies need to up their game.

“I think they have to have better contingency plans put in place, I think they have to have better maintenance programs to maintain the infrastructure they have,” Stewart said.

Payant noted that one of Bell Canada's take-aways is to look at improving customer communications.

"We're going to look at everything we can do as an industry to improve the resiliency for our customers," he said. "Obviously we're looking back at everything that has to do with comms [communications] for customers, everything that has to do with infrastructure."

The same afternoon CTV News reached out to Eastlink, the company called Walters to make an appointment to fix her connection on Wednesday.