SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA — All is quiet inside Joseph Chermak's dealership in South Abington Township; no ringing phones or chatting with customers.
The dealership doesn't have phone or internet service.
Saturday afternoon, a tree came down along a road behind the dealership, tearing down phone and internet lines.
"There's basically nothing we can do but handwrite some bills and do some service work," Chermak said.
Nearby, Lisa Accardi is trying to continue business as much as possible in her hair studio.
She has been without internet service for five days and isn't sure when it will be fixed.
"It's a struggle because for people to use credit cards, we can't do that because I have no Wi-Fi or internet, so it just really stinks," Accardi said.
The businesses are trying to operate as normal as possible, but it's hard to communicate the problem to customers when the phone lines are out as well.
"Our customers are upset. They're trying to call in and they can't. The ones that live close drive in to see what happened and can't understand why," Chermak said.
Accardi said she's thankful she can use her cell phone to communicate with customers and run credit cards but is choosing not to if customers have other means of paying her.
"Square charges you more when you swipe the cards and use the chip and not through the main thing, so it just really stinks. I'm losing money," she said.
The longer these businesses go without phone or internet, the more it hurts the bottom line, and time is money when you're running a small business.
"We have seven lines that come in. If we can get one line and the internet service going, at least we can function and try to get things caught up," Chermak said.
Frontier Communications is responsible for the lines.
Business owners said they were told that repairs may not be completed until Saturday.
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