Internet connectivity issues have become such a consistent problem in downtown Cullman, Berkeley Bob’s Coffee House owner Andrea Allison has developed her own version of shorthand to let customers know service is down.

“It’s pretty bad when I can put a sign on my door saying ‘We Have Charter,’ and people know that it means our internet is out,” she said.

Allison isn’t alone, and now more than a dozen local business owners are putting pressure on Charter Communications and its Spectrum Business service to solve what they describe as persistent outage issues that have gotten worse in recent years. Charter officials say they are working to address the problem, although specifics have not been delivered and business owners worry it could be a long time until the outages are resolved.

At Berkeley Bob’s, Allison said the service drops can hinder its ability to accept credit or debit cards — while also knocking out the free Wi-Fi it offers for customers.

“If someone doesn’t have cash, we really have to turn them away. But, that typically happens after we make the drink, so we lose the product and the sale,” she said. “Not to mention the fact that our phone service is also out, and people who call think we’re closed. I think we’ve definitely lost business over it.”

The Vine Cellar has experienced similar problems, and owner Candace Blevins said she was forced to close the shop at one point last week because the outage lasted so long and crippled her ability to do business.

“The phone was out and I couldn’t field calls, and the internet was out so I couldn’t take credit cards, since that’s most of my business,” she said. “I needed to work on invitations for a private event, and I couldn’t even do that because the internet was out. Now, I’m behind on everything.”

---

What’s the problem?

With complaints reaching a high level last week, a group of business owners met to express frustration. In an effort to work on a solution, the City of Cullman agreed to facilitate the process. The city’s FCC regulator Tom Charney requested any business that experiences an outage to note the time and date, and report that information via e-mail (tcharney@cullmancity.org). The information will be compiled and sent to Charter.

After receiving numerous reports and complaints from local businesses, Charney said the issue seems to be more widespread than initially thought.

“It’s starting to look like a broader problem, almost like a city-wide problem,” he said. “We just encourage everyone to file a complaint and let them know when and where, so they can work to replicate the problem and fix it.”

Charney said Charter indicated the issues could revolve around a need for more “nodes” on the system, as well as potential “noise” affecting the cable signal.

When contacted by The Times, a Charter spokesperson did not provide details about the outages or when the issues might be resolved, but instead released a prepared statement noting the company is aware of the issue and working to resolve it.

“Charter Communications technicians continue to diagnose and investigate the service interruptions that downtown Cullman business owners have reported,” Patti Michel, who coordinates marketing for Charter in the South, wrote. “We are working diligently to resolve the issues and apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Business customers may contact the Spectrum Business Support team at 1-800-314-7195 any time they have a question or service issue.”

Follow-up questions requesting additional information by The Times were not answered. A Charter technician working specifically on the Cullman situation refused to comment and referred all inquiries to the company’s public relations department.

The affected business owners have given Charter 30 days to address the outages and plan to hold another meeting in late July to review any progress.

“We’re meeting again in a month, and hopefully some things will have changed,” Shane Quick, with Premiere Productions, said. “If not, I’d imagine we’ll probably have even more people at that meeting.”

---

‘It pretty much cripples us’

Quick recently moved his concert promotion offices into the heart of downtown, and said his business has been plagued by outages since it opened. When it comes to small business, Quick likened reliable internet service to a public utility, and said it’s practically a requirement for most to successfully conduct business.

“I’ve had to send employees out to work from home because the internet or phones were out,” said Quick, whose company coordinates Cullman’s Rock the South and other national events.

“It pretty much cripples us. If our phones don’t work, or internet and e-mail, we can’t do what we do. Lately, it’s been going down at a rate that almost makes workflow impossible.

“When you’re having so many disruptions, it’s not just the time you’re down, but the time it takes to get people refocused to do what they need to be doing. Sometimes this is taking half the workday away from productivity. We know the team and technicians at Charter are working hard, and we appreciate that. But at the end of the day, it has to work. We’re down almost every day.”

Charter was open to hearing about the issues, Quick said, and he’s hopeful the dialogue will lead to a resolution.

“We’re having to talk about this way too much, honestly, and we’d like to see there is a plan to get it fixed soon,” he said. “But, Charter was very open-minded, and they listened to everyone and assured us there is a plan. They said think they know the problem and they’re working on it. Hopefully when we come back together we’ll have witnessed some resolution.”

Margaret Hamm, owner of Monograms Plus, said the outages are so severe at her Warehouse District location that she has opted to pay for a back-up internet service to use whenever Charter is down.

“When it drops out, we’re not able to process debit, credit or gift cards, which are our largest payment types. It shuts us down to a degree, and sometimes when their system bottoms out, it crashes all our registers and we have to reboot them to do anything,” she said.

“For years, we’ve had a redundant provider, which is much slower but at least keeps us going. But, you have to pay for two providers just to stay in business, because the reliability is just not there. It’s been an issue for years for us, really. It reached a point a couple of weeks ago that I just unplugged Charter and I’ve been using the DSL service.”

Hamm said she understands nothing is 100 percent reliable, but noted the high number of outages her store has experienced is not conducive to operate a business.

“We’re not trying to bash, and everyone understands that problems happen, but this is something we depend on,” Hamm said.

“I understand a blip here and there, but this ongoing, never-ending problem just makes life impossible for almost any type of business. But, most problems are fixed in a reasonable amount of time. This one hasn’t been. There’s just been too much growth and progress in Cullman, and so many big things happening, for this piece of the puzzle not to be in place.”

* Trent Moore may be contacted at 256-734-2131, ext. 134.