If your household is affected by a widespread cable outage, you have some recourse under the City of Seattle’s cable franchise agreements and the Cable Customer Bill of Rights. Please note that the City’s franchising authority extends to cable television service only and does not include Internet service.
First, make sure that you report your outage by calling your provider:
- Comcast: 1-800-COMCAST (266-2278)
- Wave: 1-866-928-3123
- CenturyLink: 1-800-244-1111
The Cable Customer Bill of Rights (Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 21.60) specifically allows for customers who report outages to receive credit. Under Section C.3:
b. In the event of a system outage (an outage is a service interruption that involves a loss or substantial impairment in reception on all channels for a period of one hour or more) resulting from grantee equipment failure affecting five or more customers, the grantee shall initiate repairs within two hours after the third customer calls to report the outage.
c. All customers who call the grantee to report an outage shall receive credit for the entire day on which the outage occurred and for each additional day the outage continues.
The Cable Customer Bill of Rights also establishes levels and quality of service to ensure customer satisfaction. Specifically when it comes to courtesy, accessibility, responsiveness, services for customers with disabilities, customer information, customer privacy, safety, satisfaction guarantees, complaint procedures and credits to customers, the City of Seattle can advocate on your behalf. Please visit the Office of Cable Communications web site for more information, including how to contact us.