'No real ETA and no updates': Spectrum customers complain about outages

Some residents of a retirement community in Auburndale have scrambled to make phone calls and check email in the days following Hurricane Ian as their Spectrum internet service remained out.

Jann Gobble, a resident of the Hamptons, resorted to buying a substitute internet connection to create a WiFi hotspot, which has provided what he called “semi-internet” while he and neighbors wait for their Spectrum service to be restored.

The Hamptons is one of many areas of Polk County still dealing with Spectrum service outages on Wednesday, nearly a week after Hurricane Ian churned through the area.

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How many customers in Polk County are without service?

Spectrum did not disclose how many customers in Polk County remained without service as of Wednesday morning. A statement on the company’s website said it expected to restore service by Thursday in Polk County, as well as Seminole and Volusia counties and northern Manatee County.

“Spectrum has throughout our footprint all available technicians working on service restoration and have supplemented that with hundreds of contractor crews so we can make repairs and restore services as quickly as possible to areas affected,” Spectrum spokesperson Joseph Durkin said in an email Tuesday. “More specifically, Lakeland area customers can expect to see Spectrum Internet restored in the wake of Hurricane Ian as soon as commercial power is restored.”

Durkin said that Spectrum service would return for most customers “when power is restored to their homes or business, or to our network serving them nearby.”

In cases of network damage, power restoration is the first priority, Durkin said. In some cases, Spectrum technicians cannot gain access to sites needing repair because of flooding or until a power company completes repairs and deems the site safe, he said.

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For customers facing outages that are not power-related, Durkin said they should call to report service problems.

“We are able to restore Spectrum services within 48 hours of power restoration for the vast majority of customers,” Durkin said.

Gobble said that some residents of the Hamptons retained their Spectrum service during and after Hurricane Ian, while he and others still lacked internet and cable connections as of Wednesday morning. He said part of the community is connected to a power grid from Auburndale and the rest to a grid from Lakeland. The outage is affecting those with the Auburndale connection, he said.

“We have people who went out of power but got it back really fast and never lost their cable,” Gobble said. “And then we had people — the other half, like me — that went out of power and were down until (Sunday). And then our internet came up right after the power there for about 45 minutes, and then it went out.”

Gobble said he went to a T-Mobile phone store and bought a 5G home internet system, which serves as a WiFi hotspot. He said the internet service isn’t as fast as his usual Spectrum but has provided welcome access.

Gobble, a self-described “tech guy,” said the WiFi reaches a home across the street, allowing neighbors who rely on WiFi phone service to use his hotspot for making calls and getting access to their email.

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Lack of communication from Spectrum

Gobble and other Polk County residents expressed frustration at what they called a lack of communication from Spectrum about the outages. Gobble said he went to the Spectrum corporate office in Auburndale after power had been restored to ask why internet service remained out and wasn’t given an estimate of when connections would resume.

Abel Gonzales of Davenport said his Spectrum service was out Wednesday afternoon, and he had been told it might not be restored before midnight on Thursday.

Mindy Langley, who lives near Peterson Park in South Lakeland, said Wednesday afternoon that Spectrum service had been out for most if not all of her neighborhood since the evening of Ian’s arrival. She said Spectrum is the only provider that offers high-speed internet for her neighborhood.

Dan Bruce of North Lakeland said his Spectrum service remained unavailable as of Wednesday morning.

“I think it is insane that Spectrum has lacked proper communication with their customers and refuses to give an ETA and/or a cause as to why it is taking so long to restore service,” Bruce said by email. “It is day 7 without service for our community, with no real ETA and no updates.”

Bruce said he lives in an apartment complex with more than 350 units, all of which receive service from Spectrum. He said the complex’s office uses Spectrum for phone service, and that remained out on Wednesday morning.

“I'm just disgusted with their service and their lack of response to this whole thing,” Bruce wrote. “As of (Tuesday) night, Lakeland Electric has restored 100% of power to Hurricane Ian-related outages. There is now no excuse for Spectrum not to get their crew out and restore service.”

Spectrum is part of Charter Communications, a company based in Connecticut that claims 32 million customers in 41 states.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Spectrum customers in Polk County complain about extended outages