JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – Slow internet speeds and high prices have many people in Northeast Arkansas thinking about leaving Suddenlink.

Back in 2020, the Jonesboro community had a heated discussion with the company at a meeting, where issues such as billing, poor services, and customer service were brought up.

Many of those issues are still lingering to this day.

Shea Rogers has been a customer since 2017, and since then, their payments have increased significantly.

“We started out paying I think 50 dollars a month, 40 or 50 and recently it’s been closer to 140 a month and they have no explanation for why,” she said.

When Rogers noticed the higher prices, her husband called the help desk and was greeted by a woman yelling at him.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I work in customer service, and you can’t talk to customers like that. You can’t treat them like that. It’s not okay.”

Many are questioning whether the sky-rocketing prices have resulted in better service.

“For my parents, their bill with the internet keeps going up to where they are almost 300 dollars a month now,” said Shonnon Guest. “With that price the speeds are still average at best.”

Guest dropped Suddenlink after she was given the run around over replacing her router.

“The day the tech was supposed to be out, they said, ‘No. The tech was out yesterday and worked on the outside part of the line,’ and I was like, ‘No. I was home all day’,” she said.

The main concern for many is the lack of options. Some neighborhoods can’t switch to other local providers like Ritter or Empower, so they are forced to stick with Suddenlink for the time being.

Earlier this year, Mayor Harold Copenhaver said he was looking for new internet providers to provide high speeds for the city, with Suddenlink cited as one of the factors in the decision.

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