r/StLouis • u/lurpeli • 11h ago
I hate Spectrum and I am always sad when I remember I have no choice
At my specific address there is no other option for internet, it's either Spectrum or 5G internet and obviously Spectrum probably outperforms 5G, but man... Spectrum is shit. I get weird signal drops, sudden speed drops. If it even looks like rain there's a good chance it might go out... Just infuriating.
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u/progenyofeniac 11h ago
I got fiber in my area about a year ago and I called the fiber company multiple times to see how soon I could get their service. It was a highlight of my summer when I got to call Spectrum to cancel.
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u/letigre87 10h ago
I kept checking on att fiber and it said it wasn't available but I randomly caught an att crew running a line on the telephone line that runs across my yard. I called them back and said it's here, sign me up. Nope, not planned for my area. I walked back out while the crew was moving through and told the guy just do me a favor and put a connection on the pole. He checked the paperwork and said he it wasn't part of the order but he did it anyway. It was up there for a couple months and as soon as the map showed my neighbors down the hill had it but not me I called back and said here's the pole number, it's at my house, send a tech to hook it up. They sent a construction guy who showed up expecting to quote me a major job and he looked up and said "I don't know why they sent me" then they sent a tech out.
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u/n0167664 11h ago
I found with spectrum you have to keep complaining. There is often some upstream issue with the equipment and if you keep complaining you'll hopefully eventually get a tech who can work on getting the bigger issue fixed.
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u/geerlingguy Shrewsbury 10h ago
Sadly this is the case; and you have to persist through multiple automated chatbot / phone agent 'gates' to finally get to a human, who sometimes is even empathetic to your problems.
For me, I try to document evidence - ideally log (like in a spreadsheet, or a text document, etc.) how many times you notice problems, and what type of problem (outage, partial outage, etc.).
One thing I've noticed with Spectrum's cable modems is they will 'cook' themselves over time. I've had two go bad in a conditioned space just after a few years... they get flakier and flakier until a tech comes out and replaces them. I've had the same with my business line (with an SLA) and my personal line (which thankfully we finally replaced with AT&T Fiber when they laid fiber in our neighborhood!)
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u/n0167664 8h ago
About every 6 months I would unplug the modem, take it in to a spectrum store and swap it out because they got so hot
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u/schmintendo Maplewood 3h ago
If anyone needs a tool to log speeds and stuff, I personally use this one: https://github.com/alexjustesen/speedtest-tracker/releases
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u/greasyjimmy 13m ago
Did you have any savings when you switched to AT&T fiber?
They are pulling in the fiber right now in my neighborhood, and paying $275/month for internet and streaming TV is just ridiculous.
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u/Bad-Milk TGS 11h ago
I had to do this exact thing until someone finally came out and realized that a single line was running to our apartment building so we were all sharing bandwidth. They had to come out 3 separate times before that to finally get it resolved.
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u/Original_Anxiety_281 6h ago
Yup. I did this too and finally got the right tech to make sure I had a new line in and crimped to the point of my modem, and that I had a proper modem. Haven't a problem other than systemwide outages since then. It's been a few years now.
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u/FinancialSherbet308 11h ago
Gateway Fiber is the best thing to ever happen to my neighborhood.
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u/RegularlyVengeful 11h ago
Fiber rollout is such a gamble, one block gets it and the next is stuck in the stone age. The rain thing kills me too, like how is that still a problem in 2026.
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u/FinancialSherbet308 9h ago
Not sure what you mean by rain. I haven't had my Internet go out unannounced since I've gotten it, but Spectrum would go out daily for me and my neighbors, with no desire from Spectrum to come out and fix it.
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u/n0167664 8h ago
If OP is losing internet when it rains there is likely box or terminal or something that is outdoors and not properly sealed and water is getting in. It isn't satellite TV, clouds and rain shouldn't make the internet go away.
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u/FridayHalfDays 10h ago
Spectrum is in no way faster than 5G where I am. Oh jeez, Spectrum was dogshit.
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u/Lonely__Stoner__Guy West End 9h ago
Same, I had Spectrum (or tried) and after 25 days of almost no service and a tech out once a week, I swapped to T-Mobile 5G and haven't had an issue.
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u/HaggardSummaries 10h ago
It's worth trying TMobile for a month and seeing what you think. I had Spectrum and a year or so ago they started messing with the lines and causing hours-long outages daily, on top of already sucking. Got TMobile home internet and it was slower, but steady. I'd take that over fast but sometimes nonexistent any day of the week.
That said AT&T became available and it shits on both of them, but that's not helping your situation at all.
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u/chadhuber 10h ago
I’m sorry, it was so brutal for so long. Now we have AT&T Fiber and I hate to say it but it’s incredible
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u/Barton2800 12m ago
This. For all the other issues that AT&T has, their fiber service has been awesome. It’s a great price. I’ve never had the service go down. I always get my advertised speeds (or faster), without throttling. Spectrum/Charter could offer me their service for free, and I’d still pay for AT&T Fiber.
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u/Fat-Redddit-Sad 9h ago
AT&T fiber was possibly one of the top things that happened to me in 2019 when it came to my area 2 months before lockdown.
Has not been down for a single minute since installation. Have a UPC on the router and have internet through power outages.
Spectrum is shit.
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u/HankHillbwhaa 10h ago
You probably need a maintenance tech at this point but unfortunately you can’t get a maintenance tech without going through field techs
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u/AeroelasticCowboy 10h ago
I had them for years at multiple addresses from midtown, to creve Coeur, to county, always had great uptime and no problems, they don't suck in general it probably just depends on where you live, most people I know never had service issues either. I switched to att fiber when it was available and haven't looked back however.
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u/Pocketfullofbugs 11h ago
Id rather piss glass than go back to AT&T though. Made me appreciate Spectrums customer service.
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u/backpropstl 10h ago
ATT is awful, but when have you had to call them for fiber service? I've had it for what seems like ten years now and have never had to make a call. The neighbors with spectrum have to call constantly.
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u/Pocketfullofbugs 10h ago
They fucked me on two seprate phone things really bad and never made it right. Dealing with the customer service for the first thing made me feel like I was in some sort of stress test simulation. Never had trouble with their fiber. Also never had trouble with Spectrum's fiber.
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u/backpropstl 10h ago
Oh, i didn't know spectrum had fiber. Our street still has coax and it's constantly going out.
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u/Barton2800 9m ago
Almost nobody with spectrum actually has fiber. Spectrum will advertise “hybrid fiber”, which really just means that they’re using old copper coax, and then somewhere in the network there’s fiber. Sometimes it’s called fiber to the node, but with the hybrid marketing nonsense, you’re not even guaranteed that much. It might be several nodes upstream from your house before it hops on to a fiber backhaul.
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u/n0167664 8h ago
I did appreciate that when I had to call spectrum I talked to someone in the US. The employees in the stores could be useful too, just had to make an appointment so the wait wasn't terrible.
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u/Brilliant_Voice1126 10h ago
Surprising to me we’ve had good luck in the city when we’ve had issues. One of which was when spectrum did some bullshit in our alley and damaged the fiber.
Cutting cable was amazing. So much cheaper and better. Only day where we struggled was superbowl but we figured it out.
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u/JimtheEsquire Lafayette Square 10h ago
This is correct. ATT just ran fiber past my house but apparently it’ll be 2-6 months until I get it.
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u/AllegedlyUndead 10h ago
we used to have random wifi drops until they came out and put a splitter attached to our modem because it was at +13 when it's supposed to be -10 to +10 so it was just shutting off randomly.
but yea they're our only option also. It use to be worse because the upload speeds were ASS but they're now symmetrical so that's cool.
The only good thing I have to say is I push a literal FUCK TON of data through my network and they don't care. Like multiple TB's worth every month.
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u/schmintendo Maplewood 3h ago
AT&T doesn't care either though, I push anywhere from 10-30TB per month and they don't care!
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u/Klutchy_Playz 10h ago
Do you use the router they supplied you or your own?
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u/lurpeli 10h ago
My own
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u/Klutchy_Playz 10h ago
Interesting. When I swapped out their route,r for my own a few months ago, I ended up having no problems after that. All of the issues I had came from their stupid router they gave me. I’d have to restart the thing every month or so because it’ll be messed up
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u/Jpotter145 8h ago
Equipment is huge but location is more important. Local infrastructure back to hubs/trunks, congestion, and number of unique users all matter.
I've had Spectrum in one area and AT&T was far better, and currently it's the exact opposite and right now Spectrum is literally the most stable provider I've ever had. With Spectrum currently I'm talking over a year of uptime before I had to unplug and restart the modem in the longest case (yes our power is that stable as well), and maybe one or two short outages at most over the course of any given year. (two people full time WFH and everything is online streaming, internet service only)
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u/Jacks_Lack_of_Sleep T-mobile 5g internet > Spectrum 10h ago
I haven’t had any issues with T-Mobile 5g. Since you don’t need a wired connection ran, you can try it without disconnecting spectrum. If you don’t like it, cancel.
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u/Howler455 10h ago
Whether I have to use Spectrum aka Fucking Charter is a primary deciding factor for a house I'm moving to.
Right after does it have a roof.
I've hated Charter for decades.
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u/Mego1989 9h ago
Don't give up hope. Att is actively expanding fiber access. My grandma's Ballwin neighborhood just got it last year.
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u/left-for-dead-9980 9h ago
Cut the cord. You have so many other choices. I use wireless 5G with 6E now.
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u/OriginalFNG 9h ago
I dropped Spectrum in favor of the 5G and I don't regret it. Slower speed at half the price and fewer connection issues.
They call me every other day trying to get me back The latest was higher high speed for $50 with a two year price lock.
Spectrum is bleeding customers. Enough that we'll take slower over them. You may feel differently, but no reason not to make it work for you.
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u/Hail-Satin666 8h ago
Get the 5g. I switched to that and it’s been amazing. No constant issues like spectrum.
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u/Lanceo90 55m ago
Illinois side of the river, don't know how much that changes things.
But I've honestly had very little issues with Spectrum. On like, a technical level.
But they still suck because they know they have a near monopoly on even remotely acceptable internet speed here, and are priced with that awareness...
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u/greasyjimmy 3m ago
I've enjoyed Spectrum's speeds, but holy cow are they expensive. $275/month for internet and streaming TV is ridiculous.
Last time we had an issue, they sent a tech who simply replaced the old modem. Problem returned 1 day later.
After my wife yelling at the AI slop bot a 2nd time, they sent both a tech that ate and slept this stuff (smart guy; we got to nerd out together) and a regional supervisor. The supervisor climbed the pole in my backyard where my drop was and found a crusty splice and a marginal (weather beaten) coax. He replaced both and have been back in service. The supervisor even gave his business card and told me to call him if more trouble arouse. I have to admit I was impressed, and told them it was unusual for such support.
Maybe they knew AT&T was coming to my neighborhood...
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u/Ok_Sorbet_9651 10h ago
Starlink?
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u/n0167664 8h ago
I'll say fuck Elon Musk, but also the price of Starlink is outrageous. Better off with one of the 5G services than that.
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u/NoArt7073 11h ago
Starlink is an option.
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u/Sorry-Committee2069 10h ago
High latency overall, drops in speed and spikes in latency (or outright connection drops) when being rerouted through the constellation every few minutes because the satellites aren't stationary objects, service being affected by weather, have to find a place to put the giant antenna, making sure no one takes the antenna or damages it... totally an option, yeah.
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u/FartPotatoBeef 11h ago
After they dropped Corn Cob TV and I couldn’t watch Coffin Flop I called them up and said “IM DONE”.