VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — People living in a Virginia Beach neighborhood say they were without internet for two days.
The service issue has caused a lot of frustration. Customers said it’s led to missed days of work and school.
Several people who live in the Ocean Lakes neighborhood contacted 10 On Your Side for help after they were unable to get clear answers themselves.
We went to the service provider, Cox Communications, to get some information.
A spokeswoman said the area was part of a network upgrade.
Cheryl Paseka is working from home right now, but she had to take Thursday and Friday off because of the connectivity issue.
Paseka said she lost internet connection late Wednesday night. She contacted Cox technical support for help.
“Forty-eight hours later, we still have no internet,” Paseka said.
Tim Walker had a similar experience. He woke up Thursday morning to no connection. He also called Cox.
“They gave us a few more times when the internet would be restored. Those times came and went, always followed by a message saying the outage has been resolved even though it had not,” Walker said.
Parseka and Walker have been back and forth with tech support ever since.
“The tech service kept telling us that it was due to Hurricane Zeta down in Louisiana, which is nowhere near Virginia Beach, and the winter weather down in Oklahoma City,” Walker said.
Even more residents turned to the Nextdoor and Facebook apps on their phones to gauge the problem. According to posts online, the issue spanned several streets in the neighborhood.
“At least 20 people are without internet service and they’re telling us all that there’s no outage so I’m at a loss,” Parseka said.
A Cox spokeswoman sent 10 On Your Side a statement.
At this time, I’ve confirmed that the Ocean Lakes neighborhood you inquired about was a part of a network upgrade late this week. The upgrade took place during our overnight planned maintenance window to ensure the least amount of interruption to our customers. We know this is an inconvenience, especially now, and we appreciate everyone’s patience.
“We can’t work, we can’t teach our kids, we can’t pay our bills,” Parseka said. “They need to understand the importance of the internet and what’s happening today.”
Since speaking with Parseka and Walker, both have internet again.
10 On Your Side also saw a Cox truck working in the neighborhood while we were there.
Parseka said a Cox representative reached out to her personally after 10 On Your Side contacted them.
Other customers we spoke to voiced additional connectivity concerns, which we asked Cox about.
We’re told they’re looking into our questions.
Stay with WAVY TV 10 for any updates.