Google Fiber disruption continues for some customers, still no explanation of cause

Google Fiber service remained out late Wednesday morning for some customers in the Kansas City area as the disruption approached 24 hours.

The company acknowledged Tuesday that some customers “across the country” had been sent cancellation notices in error but that their service had been cut off. It has not offered an explanation or a clear indication of when service would return.

The outage is forcing some consumers to change their plans.

Lawrence Chabela talked about the service outage on his drive into work, which is about 45 minutes from his Liberty home. The software developer works from home and relies on his Google Fiber internet connection for work but gave up waiting for a fix.

“I feel like I’m getting the run-around,” Chabela said Wednesday about conflicting times for possible repairs.

Some were notified Tuesday that service could be restored that evening. Chabela said he has seen references to restoration of service coming soon.

Another customer emailed to say his service returned at about 11 a. m. Wednesday.

But customer service tells Chabela that Google Fiber has no idea when his service will be back.

He even asked about opening a new account but was told not to do so, that the problems were “location based” and it wouldn’t help.

Google Fiber acknowledged Tuesday that the company accidentally sent cancellation notices to customers when they had not canceled. A spokeswoman said Wednesday that the problem affected “several hundred customers across multiple markets.”

The company has not provided additional information about which markets have seen problems, but Google Fiber lists 19 “Fiber city” locations.

In comparison, AT&T Fiber is available in 84 markets, including Topeka and others added Wednesday.

Julie L., a customer who asked not to be identified, said she received notice that her connection would be back early Wednesday morning. She still doesn’t have service.

“I spoke with Google Fiber via live chat and was told that the initial situation (the cancellation of customer accounts) was resolved but that a new issue had come up,” she said in an email late Wednesday morning.

She and some other customers have been told they’ll receive credit on their bills for the time service has been disrupted. The outage also has hit some Fiber TV subscribers.

Tuesday’s outage may keep some potential Google Fiber and Fiber TV customers from signing up for service.

“I was really on the fence about Google Fiber,” said Shelly Bolling-Strickland, who had missed one scheduled appointment to switch from Spectrum.

After talking to neighbors with Google Fiber, Bolling-Strickland was close to calling again. Then the disruption hit.

“Nope,” she said. “That’s off the list.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2018 at 12:02 PM.