South Florida AT&T Wireless customers lost cellphone service for more than four hours last week because of an equipment failure. The outage cause irritation for some who could not call work, family or friends and angst for others, including a pregnant mom-to-be who was having pains during the ordeal.

The first thing you should know is that outages are common in South and Central Florida caused by weather, faulty equipment or other problems. Major wireless providers such as AT&T, Sprint and MetroPCS have policies and processes to deal with complaints and customers who deserve a credit for the service interruption.

“This outage has not only been inconvenient but worrisome in the sense of being out of contact with work,” said Stephen Richman, a health care worker from Weston who lost service last week. “I and my wife use our phone for social purposes and to stay in contact with each other, but equally important, we use our phones for work.”

Leslie Alison of Sunrise realized her cellphone was not working around 6 p.m. last Tuesday, the same time AT&T reports the outage began. “I couldn’t make personal calls, I couldn’t text, I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “It was annoying and made me thing something was terribly wrong.

When Alison went to bed that night around 9:30 p.m. her phone still did not work. “I think I deserve a credit or discount for those hours,” she said.

The outage was not a mere inconvenience for some; it was a downright scary situation.

“I am 28 weeks pregnant and when I lost my cellphone service I was trying to reach my boyfriend at work to get him to come home early due to pains that I was having,” said Amanda Lantz of Fort Lauderdale. “Not only could I not reach him via text, phone call or Facebook, I was unable to call my OB-GYN. Is this going to happen to me again when I go into labor?”

AT&T blamed the outage on an equipment failure along the company’s network somewhere in southern Broward County. The service failure affected the company’s mobile broadband customers, which includes 3G and HSPA+, the latter being AT&T’s current version of 4G service.

The problem was repaired shortly after 10 p.m., ending the four-hour ordeal for most locals. On the following day, however, some readers contacted the Sun Sentinel to report they were still having connection issues.

“AT&T experienced an equipment issue in South Florida that impacted 3G wireless service for some customers. AT&T technicians quickly worked to resolve the issue,” said AT&T spokesperson Kelly Layne Starling. “We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”

Starling said the company did not know how many customers were affected and has no current plan to credit customers en masse. But that doesn’t mean customers can’t seek a credit.

“We handle customer requests for credits on a case-by-case basis,” Starling said.

How to ask for a credit:

Any AT&T customer experiencing an extended service outage can call 611 from any AT&T phone to report the problem and ask for assistance. Customers can also call 800-288-2020 to speak to a customer representative or communicate with AT&T’s via its website at for a live chat 24 hours a day.

“If a customer is requesting a credit for a service interruption, they need to [report] the the date and duration of the interruption,” Starling said. “The length of the outage is taken into account when issuing a credit.”

Other major South Florida wireless service providers including MetroPCS and Sprint have similar policies.

“We immediately work to resolve to any network outage and related customer service issues,” said Linda Richardson, a local spokesperson for MetroPCS.

MetroPCS customers can report outages and and other problems by calling 888-863-8768 by a landline or 611 from their cell phone, she said.

Sprint customers can call 888-211-4727 for Sprint-issued cell phones or 800-639-6111 for customers with Nextel handsets. You can also visit http://www.sprint.com/contactus/.

Bottom line: If you are the victim of an extended outage, contact your provider as soon as possible to report the problem and request a reimbursement if you believe the outage was severe enough. You will find contact numbers on bill statements or you can visit the company’s main website.

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