Business and residential customers of Frontier Communications are still having issues with Internet and U-verse television services two weeks after the company took control of AT&T's former Connecticut enterprises.

Complaints revolve around slow Internet service, spotty WiFi coverage and freezing television feeds, among other issues.

"It's muddy slow," Antonio Suarez, owner of Northern Light Gems jewelry outlets in New London and Niantic, said in an interview Thursday. "It's actually connecting like dial-up right now."

By Friday, however, after being informed of the problem by The Day, Frontier had sent out a two-man crew to try to resolve the problem.

"They checked the server, rebooted, refreshed and everything seems OK," Suarez reported.

A representative from Frontier even followed up with an offer to credit his account for the inconvenience, he said.

"I think they're trying to resolve things," Suarez added.

Frontier spokeswoman Brigid Smith said the company is aggressively addressing service problems, deploying technicians around the state to help work on what she called "network-configuration issues." She insisted, however, that the number of customers with problems was small in comparison to the 1.3 million households that use Frontier services.

"The majority of cases are behind us," Smith said.

Suarez said his business requires quick data because he does a lot of custom design work and needs to see photographs over the Internet to be able to determine his customers' needs. The computer slowdowns had left him exasperated, but when he called Frontier customer service, a representative could only suggest unplugging and rebooting - something he didn't want to try in the middle of the day for fear that the system wouldn't come back on at all.

"I can't afford to disable two stores," he said.

Suarez first noticed the problem at home when he tried to view Facebook photos and they were not loading quickly.

Toni Grillo, a Waterford resident, said service goes in and out. Sometimes, she said Thursday, her television freezes for about 30 seconds at a time, and she has noticed that she no longer can search for upcoming television shows and a service that once projected incoming phone calls onto her television screen also no longer works.

"It's aggravating," she said. "I'm already disgusted with them."

Katherine Goulart of Oakdale said her basic problem is slow Internet service. But she said her DVR also has been giving her trouble, and the number of on-demand television channels is far below what she was receiving under one of the higher-cost AT&T plans.

"We're paying for things we're not getting access to," she said.

After calling Thursday night and remaining on hold for more than an hour to complain about the problems, Goulart said, all of the issues went away, except for the lack of a large on-demand catalog.

"We've been trouble-free today," she said.

Goulart, once the owner of a small business, said she understands the difficulty of handing off an operation to someone else, so she has tried to be understanding about Frontier's issues. She is hoping the smoother service continues, but is ready to walk if she has to.

"If Frontier can get things back to the quality of U-verse by the next billing cycle, we will stay," she said. "If not, we will have to shop around."

Frontier pointed out that it has promised a $50 credit on the bills of U-verse customers to compensate them for their aggravation. But Grillo, like others, said she would rather see her service restored.

"That doesn't get it for all the things that are wrong," she said.

Frontier admitted that it has shed a few television channels with very low viewership, but plans to add a few more as well, including a soccer channel known as beIN Sports starting later this month. The company also said it is quickly working to resolve a problem that led to the loss of a video-on-demand library with about 10,000 titles that was inadvertently deleted during the AT&T handover.

Frontier said residential customers with problems should call 1-800-921-8101, while business customers are asked to dial 1-800-921-8102. Tech support is available at 1-800-219-6877.

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience the transition may have caused and we look forward to exceeding your expectations as your television, Internet and phone provider," Frontier said in a Facebook posting.

l.howard@theday.com