Angry CableVision customers have hit out at being without service for weeks and say they can never reach the company for help.

A number of people contacted The Royal Gazette to voice their concerns after CableVision chief executive Terry Roberson said on Monday that 300 customers remained without power and that he expected everyone to have their television and internet restored by today.

He said on Friday that 99 percent of video subscribers and 95 percent of internet subscribers were already back online, and that those still experiencing outages should call the company.

But angry customers claim they cannot get through to a customer service agent and the voice message mailbox is always full, or if they do speak to someone they experience “rudeness” or “apathy”.

One Pembroke resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she had had no cable or internet since Tropical Storm Fay.

She called CableVision and when she finally managed to speak to a service representative, she told her she would make a report. She continued to call daily and filed similar reports.

“I call every single day,” she said. “Either nobody answers and we’re forwarded to a full mailbox, or the service representative tells you she’ll make a report.

“When I ask, ‘Where is the report that I made every single day for the last few weeks?’ the answer is ‘I don’t know.’”

The customer said CableVision visited her property last week but could offer no answers as to why she had no service — and it had yet to be restored by last night.

“We had a crew out to our house,” the customer said. “They were up the pole and assured me our line to our house is fine.

“We had an IT technician from CableVision in our home and he couldn’t solve the problem.

“He went on to tell me I have an appointment with CableVision; not this week but next week.

“We are one of many — in speaking to a large cross-section of workers at my job, there are still several without cable and internet. I don’t think 300 is accurate. The public are being lied to.”

The customer also criticised the company’s offer of storm credit for customers.

“I’ve been out of cable and internet for 22 days,” she said. “I’m being offered 25 percent off my bill. What is that?”

Other customers said that they had also been given appointments next week, despite claims of Island-wide service by today.

One resident said CableVision’s public pleas for clients to contact them was “an insult to anyone who has tried to call”.

She said: “They do not answer the phone and the mailbox gets full very often. Besides the poor people that didn’t get cable back yet, I’m sure there are many of us just trying to do simple things — like have our box zapped because it stopped working, or cancel a service.”

A resident of South Shore, Southampton, said he had tried to leave messages and had visited CableVision’s office.

He said he had received a bill on Monday citing late fees for a service that he has been unable to access for weeks.

CableVision confirmed yesterday that it would not be able to finish all hurricane restoration by today.

Mr Roberson apologised for difficulties in contacting the company and said that those who still had no service from Saturday (November 1) should e-mail them to discuss compensation.

“Yesterday [Monday] five fibre nodes unexpectedly shut off resulting in several mini-outages,” Mr Roberson said. “In addition, we discovered some fibre optics that had been damaged by machete and, as a result of the additional customer calls, we learnt there were more individual home issues than anticipated.

“This has resulted in another 500 outages and will affect our timeline for hurricane restoration.

“We understand that our subscribers are frustrated at having to call in to report outages following the hurricanes. Our customer service team has been dealing with thousands of subscribers over the past few weeks to address each customer’s needs and have been working every day since Fay.

“We are surprised to hear the feedback regarding service received from this team and will be investigating this immediately.

“We have 24 telephone lines in our customer service department and the team works hard to answer each call. We also check our voicemail frequently during working hours — 8.30am to 5pm.

“If you have called and the voicemail is full, we apologise and encourage you to call back the following day.

“For customers who require non-hurricane support such as box repairs, we encourage you to visit our Washington Mall location.

“Subscribers who have been without service beyond November 1 should e-mail us at stormcredit@cablevision.bm to discuss a potential additional credit.”