Jesse Jones helps Ballard auto shop after it was ‘dead in the water’

SEATTLE — The owner of a Ballard auto shop said the internet went down for weeks, putting a large dent in business. When they couldn’t get their internet provider Lumen to repair it, they called KIRO 7′s Jesse Jones for help.

J and J Collision has been around since 1955. Chris Nelson, the owner of the shop, said the business depends on the internet.

“Dead in the water,” he said. “Our business is completely dependent on the internet.”

From communication to billing, and even paint orders.

“We have to go online and tell them all these different things so that they’ll update our payment system,” he said. “If we don’t do that, then all of our formulas for all the different cars are nonexistent anymore.”

Nelson said it was almost two weeks with no internet and it was spotty for weeks before that.

Jesse Jones contacted Lumen and was told, “A technician is going to the customer’s address today to check on the issue and restore service.”

“Okay, that’s a crock,” Nelson said.

Jones contacted Lumen again and they told him in a statement about an intermittent issue in Ballard:

“We have had technicians working in this area for the last few weeks, restoring the service only to have it go down again,” they said. “Our network design services team is working to find a permanent solution for this problem as soon as possible.”

“We are turning people away constantly all day,” Nelson said. “And she just had a call. I’m sorry we can’t write an estimate for you. We would love to. We would love to take care of you so we can’t.”

“We need to be back in business,” he added.

So Jones tried Lumen again, and guess what?

Nelson’s internet was finally repaired.

“But when you called, we got action,” Nelson said. “We had some very nice technicians that came out. Stayed with us after hours Friday until we got it up and going then. But if it hadn’t been for you, I think we have still been stuck.”

Lumen said the company’s cables have been repaired and are permanently fixed.

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