Power restored to Comcast subscribers

Comcast has restored service for most customers affected by an outage that left screens dark across the country.

An unknown number of subscribers with new X1 set-top boxes lost cable TV connection during a software upgrade. A steady stream of complaints on social media suggest there were Internet outages, as well. (The company denied an interview request.)

“We know some of our customers may have missed their favorite shows off and on over the past few days and were unable to easily reach our customer care representatives for assistance … and we’re really sorry,” wrote Charlie Herrin, senior vice president for customer experience, in a blog post published on the Philadelphia-based company’s website.

“Thanks to our customers who have been patient with us, and to our employees who have been working around the clock on this.”

The software fix will be installed automatically, and customers don’t need to restart or reboot their machines, Comcast said.

Jedidiah Waller, who runs a small web design business in Center City, lost Internet connectivity for a while Thursday.

“When the web goes down, productivity basically stops,” he said.

Comcast  plans to offer credits for those impacted, something Waller said he’s attempted to redeem in the past.

“The credit they give you is not worth the time it takes to call. An hour call for $20 of credit?” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense for me.”