Update: West Seattle Comcast service restored, outage explained

| Utilities | West Seattle news

9:33 AM: We’ve received multiple reports of Comcast trouble this morning – from Admiral to Arbor Heights (we’ve also heard so far from Alki and Lincoln Park). The cable company confirms it is doing maintenance/upgrade work in West Seattle, and if you’re having cable/Internet trouble, that’s likely the problem; we’re still checking to see if there’s an estimate for how long this will last.

10:41 AM UPDATE: Comcast spokesperson Steve Kipp says everyone should be back on now: “The outage to our high-speed Internet service was due to network maintenance and upgrade work we were doing last night. Normally, this work takes place overnight, when it impacts the fewest number of customers. Unfortunately, in this instance our network engineers took longer than expected and did not complete their work until about 10:15 a.m., when service was restored. The outage impacted customers primarily in West Seattle.”

onceachef August 2, 2011 (9:50 am)

Thanks for the info…the irony is that you can’t see this until Comcast fixes the issue…looks like it’s back on now.

WSB August 2, 2011 (9:56 am)

Many people use their phones to access the Web – same thing in power outages – so that’s why we still hear from lots of those affected in such situations … TR

Trick August 2, 2011 (10:01 am)

Whew…
So I can put down the hanger and foil hat now?
I was wondering why I couldn’t connect.
Thanks WSB!

Jeff August 2, 2011 (10:04 am)

People use not only use phones, They use hotspots, wireless cards, Tablets with 3g etc.

This explains why my modem lights were blinking oddly when I woke up this morning. I’m glad it’s not a problem I have to fix when I get home.

Thanks

WSB August 2, 2011 (10:39 am)

Updating the story – Comcast confirms that as of 10:15, everyone should be back up (let them know if you’re not!) – TR

Cami August 2, 2011 (10:07 am)

Back up and running on Alki!

LP August 2, 2011 (10:28 am)

Back up here in Lincoln Park area. Fortunately the good folks at Cafe Ladro still had connectivity…

DryFly August 2, 2011 (10:54 am)

Wow – for once Fauntleroy was NOT affected! We’ve had six outages in the last six weeks during prime working day hours. Twice they blamed it on Seattle City Light but can’t account for the others. Comcast had better get it together … this level of disruption is not acceptable.

Sjoy August 2, 2011 (10:56 am)

Does Comcast announce their scheduled upgrades to customers? I don’t think I have ever received anything stating when they are going to do upgrades and that we might not have internet/phone/cable.

As someone who often works from home, it is very frustrating to not have your internet working. It is more frustrating to find out that they knew we wouldn’t have connection and they didn’t bother letting us know. I realize that the scheduled outage went longer than they anticipated but a little heads up would be nice.

In addition, just because they do it at night and it doesn’t impact as many people, doesn’t mean that there isn’t an impact to some of their customers. Whether it’s 50 or 2000 customers, an outage is still an impact. But I guess notifying customers of schedule outages/maintenance might be considered customer service – God Forbid!

Findlay August 2, 2011 (11:00 am)

We had an outage overnight YESTERDAY morning (8/1). Service was restored around 9:00 am. Wonder why they didn’t mention that in their response?

Pete August 2, 2011 (11:01 am)

Not up and running in the 35th & Cambridge area as of yet..

george August 2, 2011 (11:25 am)

This happened yesterday morning also in Fairmount. Looks like their engineers are a little slow on the ball. Can’t believe they just randomly “black out” their customers like this. What happens during an emergency when someone needs 911 and their telephone has been disconnected for “maintenance at night because it impacts fewer people”? THAT is pretty lame and careless.

metrognome August 2, 2011 (11:59 am)

if you have Comcast phone service, the outage also knocks out phone service. My line in Morgan Junction was dead at 5:30 am, but came back shortly after that; I have no idea how long it was out.
Comcast does have our e-mail addresses; you’d think they would send an e-mail alert about the upcoming work …

blueemerald August 2, 2011 (1:31 pm)

I work from home and was unable to access the internet from 5:00-10:30 am due to Comcast’s activities.
When I talked with Tech Support from Comcast, I inquired as to why they didn’t send out a broadcast to their customers anticipating the disruption (and possible extension of disruption). Certainly this would have been reasonable so I could have made alternative internet arrangements and avoid interruption of my work. The Tech was unable to provide any info.
I requested credit to my account for the hours of unavailable service. The Tech credited my account for 1 day of lost service. I encourage others to contact Comcast and request credit for lost service time.

metrognome August 2, 2011 (2:23 pm)

oh yeah, for those of you without a cell phone to call Comcast, the Thriftway in Morgan Junction is still one of the few places that has a …. wahdyacallit? Oh yeah, pay phone.
SHHHHH! don’t tell anyone or ‘they’ will take it away…

rw August 2, 2011 (3:30 pm)

I was curious whether this was a shared inconvenience (I figured it was). I planned to work from today, so spent the first few a.m. hours at Freshys and then migrated to the W Seattle Library from 10-12. Fortunately I didn’t have to travel too far to find public WiFi, otherwise I would have had to trek over to my office on the east side.

I also contacted tech support to confirm the problem and demand a credit.

SuitsAreNotBoring August 2, 2011 (3:49 pm)

I noticed my internet was out in the Admiral area Monday morning and last Friday morning. Did they mention other changes? I actually thought it was a problem with my computer and bought a new Ethernet. It would be nice if they gave a head’s up

WestSide45 August 2, 2011 (8:59 pm)

Why should Comcast care? Who are you going to use instead? Qwest (CenturyLink?) Some other DSL provider? Dial-up? Hughesnet? Monopolies can get away with this. Until there is another viable cable provider we are stuck with what Comcast dribbles our way and with their horrendous customer service.

Chris August 2, 2011 (9:10 pm)

@metrognome – I love the belittling comment that you made, it’s always just one person isn’t it – I suppose you’re that one. I work from home each and every day, it’s my official office – I do rely upon my internet to access a database, to actually make quite a few phone calls throughout the day, and it’s imperative for me to have access in order to do my job. People are relying upon me. Waking up and finding that it’s out is not a pleasant experience, so while it’s not exactly life and death, it is actually more important than wanting to just make a simple phone call or read a website for celebrity news. Fair enough?

out for a walk August 2, 2011 (10:45 pm)

This is totally unacceptable. Comcast needs to alert all customers when they do an upgrade and let them know their estimate of the time the service will be off-line. Many of us depend upon the service for work. We probably can make other arrangements with some advanced notice so our clients and customers still receive service. We need to know what comcast is planning.

Also, in my humble opinion, the cable-internet service, in general, will not improve until we get more competition from more providers. We should all write our Seattle City Council members as I recall they have something – or a lot to do with our cable options within the city. They need to hear from us. …. And don’t even get me started about the e-mails that do not go through because Comcast has swallowed them somewhere. They do not bounce back; and when I call the party on the other end we discover they cannot find them in their junk mail either. where did they go? It appears Comcast has them somewhere in their system. It took over 24 hours for my sister to get an e-mail I sent her.

I send many e-mails related to my work… It’s been a BIG pain and Comcast denies that it is their problem!

Megan August 3, 2011 (10:40 am)

Interestingly, Monday morning about 6:30am my husband was walking the dogs on the trail that connects Camp Long to Longfellow Creek and came upon a couple Comcast trucks and techs standing around the open big box there, and all the cables looked to have been ripped out. When he got home and I mentioned that our internet was out, he said that it looked like someone had stolen all the wire and the Comcast guys were waiting around for someone to help them fix it.
Seems like an odd coincidence on timing, that it would happen at the same time as a planned system upgrade. On the other hand, I don’t know why they would lie about the cause of the outage.

higgins August 3, 2011 (11:07 am)

I have used Clear for five years now and am very happy with my service. I still pay the same $24.95 I did when I first subscribed. They let me put my service on hold (for free) indefinitely while I was in the midwest, and started me back up at the same price. It’s very reliable and fast enough to stream or download anything I want. It’s a great alternative!