ArosNet owner Michael Winsett said Monday that e-mail and Web access should be restored today - but he's already lost many of his customers due to the four-day outage.

"We have lost users over this, about 600 of them - that's about one-fifth of our total," Winsett said. "We just want our [remaining] customers to know we really care about them and want to get [service] restored as quickly as possible."

Complicating the 12-year-old ArosNet's problems is an ongoing dispute with former owner Bjorn Ablad. Winsett said the two are litigating over disputed rent and utilities payments. Ablad did not immediately return a late Monday afternoon call seeking comment.

But Winsett said that squabble, which led to an eviction notice being posted on the old ArosNet office door Monday, was a major factor in his decision to move offices from 2800 S. 400 East in South Salt Lake to 2300 E. 4647 South in Holladay.

Winsett said Qwest Communications crews were supposed to have taken down ArosNet's Internet connections at its old office today, after having first installed services at the new offices last Friday.

"Instead, we got taken down and put up on the same day, last Friday," Winsett said. "That didn't give us the time we were counting on to make the move. We've been scrambling ever since."

Qwest spokesman Gary Younger said he was not immediately able to locate ArosNet work orders, but said the company would continue to look into the matter.

ArosNet customers were not happy with the interruption of their services.

"I've been with them 10 years now," said Mark Borges, a Salt Lake City engineer. "I came back from vacation late last week and couldn't get on the Internet."

Borges tried calling ArosNet offices and attempted to e-mail the ISP from his work. "No one has called me back yet," he said late Monday afternoon.

Ryan Seeborg, a Salt Lake City stock broker, said that he, too, was still without service late Monday. He said he is signing up for a Qwest Internet account.

"The last e-mail I got was Thursday afternoon,” said Seeborg, an ArosNet customer since 2001. "Until now, I hadn't really had any problems at all."

Rod Folkersen, a Salt Lake City real estate agent, said he depended on ArosNet e-mail for his business.

"[Monday] I called every single number on their Web page and got an automated message saying I was next in line," he said. "I waited and waited. Finally, I left the phone off the hook and still connected while I took my kid to school."

When he got back about 20 minutes later, Folkersen said, he was still “next in line.”

"This is my business e-mail account," he said. "I decided to sign up for MSN instead."

ArosNet's bigger and older rival, XMission, also was benefiting from Winsett's woes.

"We've been signing up ArosNet customers like mad," XMission owner Pete Ashdown said. "We had extra staffing through the entire weekend and [Monday]" to handle new client calls.

bmims@sltrib.com