Keene residents look for Spectrum to address reported service concerns

Jul. 24—Following complaints from more than 25 Keene residents regarding Spectrum's cable and Internet service, Randy L. Filiault, city councilor at-large, is asking Keene's mayor and City Council to request Spectrum representatives to address these concerns.

In a recent email to his fellow councilors, Filiault explained that when he and his constituents reported outages or service interruptions to Spectrum's customer service, their only reply has been "we don't see a problem in your area," despite repeated complaints.

His email to City Hall was spurred by other Keene residents spread across the city sharing similar stories.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Filiault asked local Spectrum customers to share the street names where they live and are experiencing reception issues. In under two hours, the post received more than 20 comments. These include customers living on Old Walpole Road, Winchester Street, American Avenue, Marlboro Street and Park Avenue.

Filiault, a Spectrum customer himself, said he's noticed issues with his cable becoming more frequent in the past several months.

"The issues I see are these 10 to 15 second delays, where the screen goes blank," Filiault said Saturday.

He added that on occasion his television screen will freeze or the audio and picture might not be synced, with one lagging behind the other. When he's watching network television, Filiault said these issues are happening "about a third of the time."

"It's just a small situation that I want to get fixed," he said. "Obviously this isn't earth-shattering, but for people that pay it's an annoying issue and the customer service is less than adequate."

Lara Pritchard, senior director of communications for the Northeast region at Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, told The Sentinel that an overwhelming majority of the company's service interruptions are caused by loss of commercial power to an area. But once power is restored, service typically resumes.

Following weather events that may result in downed telephone poles or wires, Pritchard explained in an email that Spectrum teams are not allowed access to their equipment on those poles until an area is deemed safe by the utility provider. Furthermore, sometimes roads cannot even be fully traveled until debris is cleared and declared safe.

But Filiault told The Sentinel that delays and interruptions could happen anytime, during any sort of weather.

"That's why so many people are upset," he said.

Pritchard said that Spectrum customers can sign up to be notified of service outages on Spectrum's website, and she urged anyone experiencing issues to contact customer service.

Although the Keene City Council is on summer vacation until mid-August, Filiault said he hopes by the time they return that the city will be able to resolve the issues with representatives from Spectrum.

Heidi Vandenbrouck, senior communications manager at Charter Communications, said in an email Sunday that the company plans on looking into the issues experienced by Keene customers.

"We're committed to our customers in the City of Keene and the quality of the services we offer," she wrote. "Our team will be reaching out to city officials to identify specific customer information needed to properly address and resolve any questions and/or issues that they may have."

Hunter Oberst can be reached at 355-8585, or hoberst@keenesentinel.com.