Skip to main content

Time Warner cable hit by massive service outage throughout region

By Howard B. Owens

If you're reading this at 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, and you're in Western New York, Time Warner is not your Internet service provider.

Customers throughout the entire northeast region have been hit with a service outage that has disabled Net access as well those customers using TW for phone service.

The outage started about 10 a.m. in the Syracuse area and spread from there.

The massive outage comes, ironically, after Time Warner tried convincing customers that some of them should pay more money for their service.

This from WHAM 13:

The company says they don't know what is causing the outage but once that is determined they will try to get service back up as soon as possible. 

There is no estimated time for restoration.

UPDATE: Service was restored about 5 minutes after I posted this.

bud prevost

up and running as of 1pm....this has been on and off at my house since friday evening...should we expect any compensation for the inconvenience?? yeah, i almost spit out my coffee when i thought it to myself! LOL

Apr 26, 2009, 1:01pm Permalink
Brian Hillabush

Internet down for three hours on NFL Draft weekend!!!!! What a terrible time for this to be down. I'm back up and running now, but very slow and still having some pages not come up on the first try.

Apr 26, 2009, 1:10pm Permalink
Lorie Longhany

And how many of you tried, as I did, to call TW and got nothing but a busy signal? Which did help me surmise that it wasn't on my end but some kind of outage. Finally I was able to get through and heard the recorded message explaining.

Apr 26, 2009, 1:29pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

The last time I had TW was back when all they had was cable TV. Long periods of outage were quite common back then and i can imagine now with three different services on one line would cause three times the potential problems. I cant understand why anyone would get digital phone coz if the electric goes off you cant use it at all. I have had verizon dsl since early December and have not experienced any problems. My phone service however is a constant problem. Sometimes the static is so bad I cannot use my phone. When ever the wind gusts over 20mph i have to call verizon argue with them about where the problem lies and after 2 attempts by them to fix it The static goes away. Till the next high wind. I ha ve called verizon 7 times about three seperate issues this month of April. They fixed my last problem friday and so far no static !

Apr 26, 2009, 1:31pm Permalink
John Roach

If you also had TW digital phone service and tried to call that service number from a cell, it kicked you off becuase they didn't know your number as a customer.

Apr 26, 2009, 1:36pm Permalink
daniel cherry

Bud they should give you credit for the inconvenience.My cable was on friday.I was not on this morning.Does anyone know if time warner monopoly,...is still planning on charging for bandwidth in the fall??Dan

Apr 26, 2009, 4:19pm Permalink
Richard Clark

Know whats really funny!!???

When I called about the outage they said that I was in an area where the outage was affected, then they had the nerve to say "We see that you are not taking advantage of our phone service." I said, "We both (my girlfriend and I) have cell phones and have no need for home phone service." Then they said "well what about in an emergency?" I told the rep "are you kidding me, I am calling because the service isn't working and now you are trying to get me to sign up for phone service just in case of an emergency?" They were speechless!

Man I sure hope FIOS hurry's up. Not like I'll be able to get it here in Alexander but its a good dream.

Apr 26, 2009, 10:53pm Permalink
Elizabeth Krenzer

I did not get my internet back till 8pm. I had tried to reboot my modem, which did not work. I called TW and they gave me all theses instructions which I had already done. Finally after put on hold, the service agent came back and said my internet should be working. Guess what it was working. I asked what the service agent had reset and the agent played dumb. TW needs to be careful for if service becomes poor-I'll have to change service.

Apr 27, 2009, 7:45am Permalink
Karen Miconi

There you go Chris, they want to see their customers "BLEED" for a while. My family doesn't have cable, we have the DTV box awaiting June 17th. We have cell phones and no house phone, but if there is an emergency, the rotary phone, if plugged in can be used to call 911.

TW Just a Big Rackett! What a good way to get you to call, so they can sucker you into more charges. Just Bull, if you ask me. Scamming and dishonesty will get you nowhere. The people are smarter then that. Did you read Richards blogg?? They've got you right by the kyoonies. NOT ME!

The customers see Right
Through your ploys TW!!!

I Say BOYCOT THEM
OPEN YOUR EYES GENESEE COUNTY

Apr 27, 2009, 8:42am Permalink
bud prevost

That DTV box is ready now Karen. Every station in WNY is transmitting in digital, with some doing so exclusively. While I concur it is a racket, ESPN/Foxnews/YES/and History channel are my current "drugs of choice". And I'm not all impressed with the OTA signal I receive in analog, so I would imagine digital will be worse! If the conversion in power is similiar to cell phones, the digital signal uses 1/10 the power of analog. BTW, I don't buy into the conspiracy theory. This was a hiccup, happened before, will happen again.

Apr 27, 2009, 9:03am Permalink
Peter O'Brien

Digital is either on or off. So if you can receive the signal at a high enough level you'll have a great picture, if not you won't have anything.

Apr 27, 2009, 10:33am Permalink
Karen Miconi

If its ready now, then Im in big trouble cause I get 3 channels with it on,and those are broken up, 6 or so channels with antenna, and they come in beautiful. We bought a better digital antenna too???? UGGG Bud their is no way you can watch all those channels at once. Unless you have a multi viewing option. Must be nice. Anyway, I only watch a few shows at nite and one during the day if Im home. Couldn't pick up American Idol this season, as they did away with the channel 31 in Feb. The Fam. loves Dancing with the Stars. Tonite @ 8pm, on good ole channel 13.

Apr 27, 2009, 11:24am Permalink
Beth Kinsley

I am a slave to Time Warner. I was absolutely lost yesterday without my internet and had all of the kids trying to figure out what was wrong before we realized that it wasn't the computer at all. We currently have cable in 5 rooms with every pay channel imaginable and every on demand station plus digital phone and the DVR in the livingroom to tape all of my shows. Sounds like it would all cost a fortune but my daughter locked us into a great deal years ago and for some reason the price just keeps going down. I'm hesitant to change anything like getting rid of some of the pay channels that we get because I'm afraid they will realize that we aren't paying what we should be and jack it up.

Apr 27, 2009, 11:33am Permalink
Beth Kinsley

You can have the attic! Full cable up there. I've mentioned getting rid of it but the kids insist that they watch it all the time. Like I said, I would probably get rid of it but I'm afraid they would jack my bill way up.

Apr 27, 2009, 11:45am Permalink
Beth Kinsley

The cable bill is nothing. It is the cost of food that is killing me. I need to figure out how to feed a family of 4 for $100/week. I used to feed twice that many for less.

Apr 27, 2009, 11:51am Permalink
Karen Miconi

I know about the food thing too. I usually go to TOPS, but even then I have to spend over 100 to have enough for the week. How do you do it???

Apr 27, 2009, 11:56am Permalink
Beth Kinsley

I don't! It's at least $150. I go to Walmart. I know I should shop at Aldis and I do sometimes but I can't get some things there so I end up doing 2 trips and spending more than if I'd just gone to Walmart to begin with.

Apr 27, 2009, 12:19pm Permalink
bud prevost

call the station and find out if it is on a different channel. fox in rochester dropped the analog signal back in feb, so it sounds like you are having the problem i alluded to earlier

Apr 27, 2009, 12:34pm Permalink
Richard Clark

In alexander on 98 I get all of the buffalo and rochester local stations. I do have an outdoor antenna attached with a rotor and an amp. I know that in batavia people can get more stations but it does take a bigger antenna. If anyone is interested in getting an outdoor antenna feel free to contact me. Stop by Batavia Computer and I can tell you what its going to take to get all of the digital stations in the area. I just took down my old analog antenna and put up a smaller digital antenna. The signal is much better but it did cost some money. I know there are videos on "tube" sites that have antenna making videos for antennas that will pull in digital stations pretty well.

Karen I would love to boycott TW but that is the only thing I can get for internet besides Sat. Internet. I am certified to install WB and Hughes. I have done many installs. But TW is much faster. I know I can get EarthLink but they still ride on TW lines. I wish FIOS would hurry up and make a link from Batavia to Attica.

Apr 27, 2009, 8:34pm Permalink
C D

@ Karen, I honestly doubt TW would sabotage their own equipment like this. That's a bit too Tom Clancy-esque.

@ Beth, I am so jealous. I'm paying $106 a month for just standard RoadRunner and 1,000 channels, with 1 - 99 available off the cable splitter.

Apr 27, 2009, 9:26pm Permalink

Authentically Local