Talk about being held hostage – I read with great interest the Nov. 4 Press Herald story concerning Spectrum (“Internet, cable may lag behind restoration of power,” Page A8).

The company’s director of communications (Andrew Russell) should be a politician. He gave no direct answer to any specific question: How many outages? How are you progressing? Date and time of restoring services?

It’s called “the blame game,” and they blame it on the power companies: “Well, we can’t go there until we get an OK from the power companies.” That’s a weak and vague excuse.

Why not contract with Central Maine Power to maintain your system, communicate with CMP and set up schedules? Why are there periodic outages when there are no storms? Why do you get a message about your outstanding balance when you call about an outage? When you call CMP, at least you get an answer. Spectrum does not even have the courtesy to provide a hint about service restoration.

Does the Public Utilities Commission in Maine still exist? If so, how can a company that is now a monopoly get away with such terrible service?

I could go on and on, but I’m sure the majority of readers will agree: Spectrum is not our friendly neighborhood company. It has bought up the competition and now holds all of us hostage.

Is Dish the answer? Drop your landline phone and go with either Dish or DirecTV and see how quickly Spectrum reacts then.

No, I do not work for any of these companies, but I am a victim of Spectrum, just like the rest of you.

Richard Cohen

Raymond