Comcast crews were working to fix a service outage affecting customers in northern Santa Barbara County on Friday, a representative said.

“This is due to a piece of equipment failing at the head end,” said Comcast spokesman Bryan Byrd. “(The) cause is unknown at this time, but technicians are engaged and working diligently to repair or replace the equipment.”

Service was restored around 8:15 p.m., he said. 

Customers in the Santa Ynez Valley, Orcutt and Santa Maria complained about the lack of Internet and phone service.

Some residents claimed their Comcast services have had intermittent problems for several days, but Byrd said he is not aware of any troubles with service in the past few weeks.

Byrd said other customers in California are not affected by the problem.

However, DownDetector.com, a site that monitors service interruptions and outages for Internet providers and others, reported several Comcast outages in the state and across the nation.

— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.