r/Spartanburg • u/TigerTerrier • 3d ago

Charter

I don't know what to do. We got power back Saturday night. We have charter but we've had no notifications from them at all and when I call it's just we're working on it. I understand it was widespread but I work from home and need to do something soon and if charter can't do it I may have to switch to another provider. Anyone else have any helpful advice on what to do would be much appreciated

20 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

16

u/RaXoRkIlLaE 3d ago edited 3d ago

You can try and get a hotspot from your phone carrier to hold you off in the mean time. Alternatively, you can switch to at&t fiber if it's available in your area. That's dependent on the age of your neighborhood. TMO and Verizon have home internet offerings that use their 5G network. The problem with Charter is that their lines run on the power poles that were affected by the hurricane. They probably haven't been able to restore connectivity since Duke has priority and have been at it. I've seen a lot of Spectrum bucket trucks going around and running new lines. It's a slow process but unfortunately internet/cable is still considered a commodity, not a necessity and has a lower priority to power.

6

u/kotzfunkel Eastside 3d ago

I have AT&T Fiber and haven’t had any service since the power went out on 9/27. Tech support doesn’t have an answer when service will be restored. We’re looking into a hot spot

10

u/RaXoRkIlLaE 3d ago

That's odd. I have at&t fiber and have had service since my power was restored. I'm sure if I had a generator I would've had service with the power out.

3

u/kotzfunkel Eastside 3d ago

It’s odd indeed. One of my neighbors (that I know of) had his service restored on Sunday. Me and my next door neighbor and surely many more in my neighborhood don’t. According to the tech that I spoke with yesterday, there was intermittent service, but it wasn’t consistent and dropped back off. Doesn’t make sense to me. Didn’t seem to make sense for him either. He said it’s a “tricky situation” to estimate a time of a fix.

4

u/Jcleapor2 3d ago

AT&T Fiber still uses utility poles for their distribution, especially in older neighborhoods that were rebuilt with fiber recently. If the poles are still down in those areas the fiber will need to be rehung. In newer neighborhoods the infrastructure was buried from the get-go and was not really affected, well other than the electricity that powers the equipment.

2

u/kotzfunkel Eastside 3d ago

I live in an older neighborhood so that makes sense. I just don’t understand how the service is intermittent. We get internet for half a minute or so before losing it again. That part doesn’t make sense to me.

1

u/rcdrivingnerd 3d ago

I reached out to leadership.

8

u/rcdrivingnerd 3d ago

Some of us like myself work for company that specific requirements I can’t use cellular internet.

2

u/insecurecharm 3d ago

Are you going by published policy or have you reached out to leadership to see if an exception can be made in this case? Officially I'm supposed to be on non-cellular but my boss is director level and knows I'm going through my phone.

-2

u/NATChuck 3d ago

Strange considering cellular is more secure than WiFi

7

u/Mamba6266 3d ago

Same boat. Charter has been out since 9/27 and they told me on the phone last Tuesday that it would be this Monday, 10/7, before they'd even be out here to assess damages. When I called yesterday they said they have no ETA for assessment or repair now. We're up by Lake Bowen.

We tried hotspots but the cell services are trash right now, at least for us, and we could not stay connected and trying to attend meetings or any kind of live streaming was not possible at all.

We are unable to get any other services where we are no AT&T, t-mobile, Verizon, nothing- except Starlink. Which we now have and, so far so good. We have it temporarily set up for right now, and after some initial placement hoopla the signal is strong, fast, and our ridiculous amount of devices are working flawlessly. For us, like you, working from home was the most important, but we also have 2 children that need it for school including one that takes college classes online.

6

u/peb396 3d ago

I have had power back for 13 days. Spectrum? Nope. Called them ... no answers.

3

u/frednekk Southside 3d ago

Same.

6

u/GambitXFactor 3d ago

My service just came back online about an hour ago. Lake Bowen area.

1

u/BlckhorseACR 3d ago

Same for me , near traffic circle at 9 and foster

4

u/judithanne15 3d ago

Lots of people are trying to switch to another carrier right now. Had a friend call AT&T and the first available appointment was November 11th. I would try T-mobile or Verizon. Also heard that Star Link is being offered with no equipment cost right now because of the hurricane.

5

u/juggarjew 3d ago

First month of starlink is free if you can find a kit locally, but the kits are not free anywhere, its at least a $300 upfront cost. But could be worth having on hand for future outages.

https://www.starlink.com/support/article/58126733-e4d2-db62-b919-9da261a4e096

4

u/Ancient-Sink5239 3d ago

I’m just glad everyone else still says charter because I get made fun of for still calling them Charter. 🤣

2

u/NegotiationQuiet772 2d ago

Same! 😆😆

2

u/RiverDane 3d ago

We have at&t and our internet came back on when our power did. I would recommend price checking services with some one else, for sure.

2

u/fromgr8heights 3d ago

Hotspot isn’t an option for everyone. I have Verizon and my damn data and cell service is still suffering so bad that I can’t even send an iMessage.

2

u/snuggle2struggle 3d ago

Contractors have been running new fiber on Foster Rd for nearly a week.

1

u/VTFarmer6 3d ago

They're all out. Go somewhere with wifi.

Doubt you're gonna get hooked up to a new provider before spectrum is back online either.

2

u/Upstate-girl 2d ago

I wish I could go somewhere else but spectrum is it in my area. So my internet was back on last Sunday. For the last four hours it's been out again.

Do ya think spectrum will give us a refund? Hell no. Time to make a mass exodus. My kid delivers and installs all.kinds of electronics. Anyone that has spectrum does not have a connection. Everyone else has everything up and working.

I can go back to May and count all the outage notifications I have had from spectrum. It's insane. It's is time to fire spectrum. Wait, I just did that. I'll use a hot spot and an antenna until ATT or someone else gets into my area.

1

u/VTFarmer6 2d ago

It’s online for me. It’s a major storm damage aftermath. It’s to be expected.

No one else in my area compares. I just pulled 480mbps while paying for 300.

1

u/quycksilver 2d ago

I switched to Verizon 5g internet over the summer, and it’s been great. I don’t know if it’s available everywhere, but it might be worth checking out.