Borrego Sun - Since 1949

For two days, Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, customers of AT&T and Cricket experienced issues with their cell service in the Borrego Springs area, and many have expressed their anger toward these services, especially after not receiving clear answers as to why these problems are occurring.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Aug. 18, those in the area had “No Service.” When contacting AT&T and speaking with multiple agents about the problem, many were dissatisfied with how it was handled.

Residents were given the run-around of being given a clear answer if there was an outage or not.

According to those who have spoken with agents of AT&T, they were told to give their phone number, zip code and many other questions before checking to see if the Borrego Springs area had an outage, despite telling them the issue is in Borrego Springs and that others in the area too are experiencing the problem.

After answering the questions asked by the agents, they were then told that there is actually no outage and that it could just be the persons’ phone, which were untrue.

One resident was told to download an app and troubleshoot her phone, in which she found as ridiculous.

“Towers were completely provisioned and the area is not typical for an outage. There were no outages and there are currently no outages in your area,” it was told to a resident, and that it would take “a while to review all the details.”

The answer of the area not being “typical for an outage” is questioning to many.

WiFi calling is also an option for when an outage occurs, however, again it only works when there is a connection nearby.

After much time passed, it was finally admitted by one agent that indeed there is an outage, saying “there is no to low signal causing service problems, estimated repair by the end of the day 8/19/2018.”

However, the question of “Why is there an outage?” had been dodged multiple times, as customers of this service are getting frustrated each time this occurs in the area.

An option of calling 611 was given, however, the call drops.

One resident called AT&T and was told she would be given a credit of $25 for the inconvenience.

“When I called, I was told there was an outage and they were trying to resolve it as quickly as possible, and that I would be getting credit.” However, it is unclear if all those in the area with AT&T accounts will receive the credit, so everyone should give them a call to check on that.

It is still unclear of what caused the outage for the two days. Parts of the Julian area also experienced this problem.

This is not the first time that this issued has occurred. In June, the service was out again for two to three days, with no estimated time of return of service. And again, those who contacted AT&T were given the run-around before being told it was due to a down power line, as well as a fire in the area causing the outage.

Service was restored in Borrego Springs on Aug. 19.

Residents have also issued several complaints against AT&T.