SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Spectrum is still feeling the heat from affected customers and law makers over last Saturday’s service interruption.
The major provider of internet, phone and cable services in Central New York went for about four hours Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t until Saturday evening that service was restored.
At Cazenovia Jewelry, the internet cut out a little after 1:30 p.m. That left the business unable to process any kind of credit card payments until 5 o’clock when their internet service came back. Owner Ralph Monforte explains how the timing of the outage inconvenienced him and his customers.
“It was just the wrong four or five hours,” said Monforte. “We had people coming in to get ahead on their Valentine’s Day shopping, but we could not even process a simple $5 charge.”
Monforte added that things could have been worse.
“It wasn’t the day before Christmas,” said Monforte. “Still, it’s an important time of year for us.”
Monforte owns two locations. He has a store in Cazenovia and another in Fayetteville. Both experienced the same issue. He does not know exactly how much Spectrum’s outage cost him in business, but Monforte is thankful his customers were cooperative.
Ralph’s daughter Lauren is an owner of Beer Belly Deli Pub and Restaurant in Syracuse. Her restaurant also relies on Spectrum for internet, but recently she installed a system to back up the stores computers in case of an outage.
“That’s the first time we’ve ever had that situation,” said Lauren Monforte. “In the past when the internet’s gone down, it’s shut down the business for the day, so it was only because of this new system we upgraded to.”
Lauren was prepared. Ralph was not. But both Monfortes say the credit Spectrum is offering will not be worth their time fighting for.
Customers have to call customer service and ask for a refund to receive a prorated credit on their monthly bill. On social media, Spectrum users have said the credit usually ranges anywhere between $4 and $10 with some people getting as much as $15.
Spectrum explained that the outage started on Friday in New Hampshire and in Maine. It kept creeping its way south and west before it finally got to CNY Saturday afternoon. Lara Pritchard is the senior director of communications for the Northeast at Charter Communications, Spectrum’s parent company. She explained how Spectrum was knocked out across the region.
“The outage was caused by weather-related fiber damage to primary and redundant networks, and our teams worked to restore service as quickly as we could,” said Pritchard. “The vast majority of customers lost TV service, however there is some variation on impact, which is why we will work with customers on a case-by-case basis.”
U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D – NY 22nd District) wanted an investigation into Spectrum for Saturday’s outage. In a press release, Brindisi announced Thursday that the New York Public Service Commission would indeed look into the service provider.
“I am thrilled the New York PSC listened to my call for an investigation,” said Brindisi. “Countless families and businesses were left without internet and the PSC can help us get to the bottom of this. Spectrum needs to be held accountable and look to create redundancies to make sure this type of prolonged outage doesn’t happen again.”
