AT&T internet restored after outage in Leland area lasts several days, leaves customers frustrated
LELAND, N.C. (WECT) - Many families and business owners in the Leland area were without internet access for nearly five days because of an AT&T service outage.
While the AT&T and DIRECTV Service Outage webpage shows service has been restored as of Monday evening, customers tell WECT they still do now know what caused the outage. Several customers were frustrated over the lack of communication from the company.
A day after this story was initially published, an AT&T spokesperson provided the following statement:
“We’ve restored home phone and internet service to affected customers in the Brunswick County area. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the patience of our customers.”
Charles Goldstein lives in the Waterford community and says he first noticed a problem last Wednesday, Sept. 20.
“Last Wednesday evening we noticed that one of our thermostats, which is an internet thermostat, the warning light had come on,” said Goldstein. “And that’s when I first checked it and noticed that everything was down.”
When Goldstein reached out to AT&T the next morning, he said a representative told him the problem would be fixed in a matter of hours.
“Got someone on the phone and they said, ‘Oh, yes, there’s an outage in your area, and it’ll be repaired by 10 o’clock tonight.’ That was last Thursday, I made the same call on Friday, and got the same answer,” Goldstein said.
Brice Clark says he received a similar answer from the company. The outage left him unable to check on his home and pets for days.
“I was out of town all weekend and wasn’t able to check up,” Clark said. “We’ve got cameras for the cat and stuff, couldn’t check up on him, and it was just basically no connectivity.”
Both Clark and Goldstein expressed frustration that AT&T has not explained what caused the outage. Goldstein even says he plans to switch to another internet provider.
“I need it for work, others need it for work, and it’s also a danger if you can’t call out and you have a problem,” Goldstein said. “So, that’s what really made us make the decision to move to another carrier.”
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