Guys,
I would tend to agree with the OP on this topic. Spectrum is not anywhere near as efficient at outage notification as legacy TWC . The best (and only way) to know for sure is currently to call Spectrum, follow the prompts and than select "the appropriate options for TV, Internet, or Phone, THAN you finally get to listen to the Voicemail about outages or maintenance in your area. Tip: Maintenance, and this message heard, will usually happen on early Tuesday mornings between 12-5am. This process is the most accurate.
Spectrum reps say that you can log into "My Services" or "My Account" to get messages about the outages, but rarely do these messages show. Unless there is for example a whole node blacked out ,or a main fiber optic cable, cut the ONLY sure fire way to be notified about an outage or maintenance update, is to call Spectrum and see if there is a message on Voicemail.
With TWC, they would leave a message on your home answering machine years ago telling customers when a cable box update was going to happen. Not only that, you could sign up to receive notices of updates. You could log into My Services, (Now called "My Account") and you could see "We are currently conducting maintenance in the (State, City name) area."
About five years ago, TWC lessened those maintenance calls, but customers could find out what was happening without having to call and listen to the Voicemail if there was an update or outage. What's missing with Spectrum is at least some kind of communication-system relay during update Window times. A small maintenance social media team needs to appointed to replay information about outages reported on Voicemail to the other technology outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, and My Account.
Not even sure why TWC moved away from this years ago? Maybe the same reason why TWC moved away from the consistent maintenance and update notices reminders is also why Spectrum never picked it up again? Too costly and inefficient to call and leave messages on subscribers home answering machines for that system to come back.
Having said that, there should be a better communication system for planned outages and maintenance other than the need to call Customer Care and find out for yourself. Right now, that seems to be the only solution that Spectrum offers that is reasonably up-to-date and provides the most reliable update/maintenance notices.
Satch