VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas — When a bolt of lightning struck the internet host tower on the Matthews family’s property during a January storm, they knew there was significant damage to their home, but thought the contract they signed with CIP, now Point Broadband, allowing them to put the massive stories high tower up next to their house, meant the company would be liable for any mishaps.
“It's very crystal clear,” said Erin Matthews. “It says, um, the construction of the tower, the tower in general, the removal of the tower, that Brian Matthews will not be held responsible for any damages.”
But nearly 11 months later, they’re still dealing with the headache.
“To no avail have we had any success in getting anything resolved,” said Brian Matthews.
The couple says CIP first approached them about building the tower while they were building their dream home at Tailwind Airpark in rural East Texas about 4 miles outside of Canton.
“When we moved here, there was no underground internet utilities,” said Erin Matthews.
They were skeptical at first, but with a little assurance - they agreed.
“We felt like we were kind of helping everybody out by putting a tower up,” said Erin Matthews.
In return, they got their roughly $120-a-month internet service for free. They say they didn’t have any issues until that storm.
“It blew one wall in pretty drastically,” said Brian Matthews. “A lot of damage from, I guess the metal conduit where all their cables and wires were running from the antennas.”
They say a surge of electricity blew out their septic system and damaged the homes foundation.
“You can see singe marks where the electricity had come out and smoked, the rubber grommets around the screws and it traveled so far,” said Brian Matthews. “That's my concern. What's the damage in the structure of our home that we can't see?”
They say Point Broadband came to service the tower the same day as the storm. Afterwards, the Matthews sent them quotes for the $10,000-15,000 of work needed to repair to their home. They even had conversations with the company’s insurance provider. But say communication has been scarce and there’s still no solution.
“Really the only thing that they've done was remove the tower,” said Erin Matthews. “You can still see concrete and rebar and there's a, basically a sinkhole in the corner of our property next to our house.”
Erin Matthews says even that didn’t happen until after they left a one star review on Google.
“I tacked pictures of our damage and I said if I could give them a negative 10, I would because they damaged our home,” she said. “Well, marketing very quickly responded. 'I'm so sorry,' you know, 'let's make this right.'”
In a statement, Point Broadband said the following:
“We were made aware of a lightning strike and alleged property damage at 380 Private Road in Wills Point, Texas in January of this year. We filed an insurance claim with our insurance provider. The insurance provider denied the claim on April 30th as - in its sole determination - it did not receive information from the homeowner substantiating Point Broadband’s liability associated with the alleged lightning strike damage. The insurance provider spoke with the homeowner recommending their best source for the alleged property damage claim is their homeowner’s policy. The homeowners have not filed a claim on their homeowner’s policy to Point Broadband’s knowledge.
Thereafter, we collaboratively worked with the homeowners to promptly remove the tower and concrete pad in response to their request.
We have maintained open communication with the homeowners to date, passing information onto our insurance company upon our receipt. The insurance company re-asserted its denial on October 21st.
Point Broadband values its customers and works to restore service promptly whenever and wherever severe weather impacts our networks.”
“In hindsight, we would have never allowed the tower,” said Erin Matthews.
The couple says ultimately, they only want one simple thing.
“Stand by the contract and fix the damage. I mean, that's all we're asking for.”