Charter Communications

Reviews 3

JO

Jon S

I know some disgruntled consumers tend to go overboard when bashing companies that have seemingly rubbed them the wrong way, but I have no reason to be disgruntled therefore hopefully you can trust that this review is as unbiased as it can be. Let me start by saying unfortunately Charter is the only cable company in my area. Why in the year 2010 one company is allowed to monopolize an entire metropolitan area without any competition I will never know but I digress. I had just moved to the area and required internet services at my home. Being partial to a cable connection as opposed to dsl, etc. I decided to proceed with Charter even though everyone I had run into had told me otherwise. I think that it is important to note that my new address is less than ¼ mile from the downtown area of one of the largest if not the largest city in the state of South Carolina. It is because of this that I was jaw dropped when I spoke with a representative that informed me that they did not service my neighborhood. While inconvenient for me personally my concern with the company certainly isn’t due to their inadequate coverage. Call it lack of things to do, but I decided to pursue taking this to the next level and see what it would entail for service to be brought to my area, which I would imagine couldn’t be that big of an issue seeing as how all the surrounding neighborhoods in my area have Charter services. Seeing as how they have such a foot hold in the area there are two large Charter corporate offices here, and I decided to visit one to get some answers. I walked in and the set up was like that of a bank (roped off que areas where you wait until you see the next available teller), there was no one in line but out of respect I stopped at the “wait here until you are called” sign and did just that, I waited…and waited…and waited. After three minutes of this really awkward wait, one of the representatives called me to her desk where when I arrived she felt the need to spat out to me “looks like no one else wants you so you are stuck with me and I am pms’ing. Good luck!”…this was followed by a bit of laughter that only emphasized her amusement with the situation. Being a guy, as you might imagine it took me a second to gather my words. Now I am not a prude, I can handle a joke from time to time as long as it is well played and within the boundaries as the situation sees fit, but this was ridiculous. I proceeded to explain my situation (live near downtown, no cable service, yada yada) where she decided to go off on this long tangent about how she wished that she lived near downtown because then she wouldn’t have to drive home “plastered” (her words) every weekend night. When I finally got something from her that was what I guess she had considered useful information she told me that ‘it would take two weeks to establish whether or not my area has service or if their records were just wrong. If the area was not serviced by Charter then I could rally the neighborhood to bring Charter to the area by offering Charter financial compensation for the cost of doing such.’ So that was a couple of months ago now, and needless to say I have yet to hear from Charter about bringing their wonderful product to my area as of yet. I am happy I am not a customer of Charter, but I feel for you who are. If their current financial situation (bankruptcy) isn’t any indication of their business practices then maybe their status with the Better Business Bureau is: "The Better Business Bureau has received numerous complaints regarding this cable, digital TV, and high speed internet access provider. Complainants primarily allege that the firm had improper billing practices, referred customer bills to collection agencies in error, provided poor customer service..." Only you and I can do something about failed companies like this one…have a voice!

A

Anonymous User

The guy or gal in the field get less than zero-support from corporate. Orders fto replace items used off their trucks are often deleted by management that gets paid by "how much they can cut". I have had to call St.Louis Corporate and that used to work BUT now they dont help. Just send you back around to the CSRs in your area or at the Kentuckey main office where 8 times out of ten, youll be given a made-up promise just to get you off-the-phone. Right now, there is another major internet outage (8/17/09). Cant even get thru to customer service. Friend of mine depends on Ebay and Craigslist for a living. Hed have tried DSL thru AT&T but I can attest that in mid-state South Carolina, their service is just as bad AND MUCH more expensive (can you say bait-and-switch. You hardly ever get the sign-on rebates, and the additional fees, part-month pro-rates, takes your 59 dollar a month bill to over 100 dollars month after month). Heck, AT&T wont obey the law concerning 911 service in this area, refuse to bury squirrel-chewed above ground cables, or cut limbs hanging precariously over their lines. They give you the song-and-dance, wont even let you TALK directly with anyone in senior management, and even ignore the SC Public Service Commission edicts to improve. When the "protected" alternative is just as bad or WORSE than Charter, no wonder Charter treats its customers not just carelessly, BUT with CONTEMPT. What we need is to put the pressure on our represenatives to do their job. That is, if theyre not afraid theyll be exposed for getting free cable from the companies (I worked for Cablevision and ALL the city councilpersons got FREE cable with special treatment. Like when two techs were sent to a councilwomans house to teach her how to use her new converter when there was a MAJOR outage going on). Also, there needs to be more WIFI provided. Encourage competition so that people do not even need wired service. AND, push the BelTels to upgrade to fiber-to-home as the dimunitive Pond Branch SC Telco has done. Incredibly fast feeds, video, and VOIP for like 60 bux total a month. IF a very small company like Pond Branch can do this, make a profit, and provide SUPERIOR service to a rural area IN this economy, then our ppolitikos needs to encourage said inovation and competition NOT protect those with the best paid lobbyists. Little Cross Hill SC stood up to Charter and kicked them out. They replaced them with a local cable provider from Greenwood and so far so good. HELL, our county council (Laurens) wont even stand-up to Charters Monopoly by insisting 1)They FIRE the rude individual in their local business office 2)Keep the business office open until atleast 5pm so citizens can PAY their bill and RENT new equipment. Heck, must be some politicians wife they keep hired becuuse she closes at lunch and often goes home early, locking the door 10 minutes before the 4:30pm posted time. Bad companies SHOULD go out of business..Period. Choice/Compeition is the only way to go. Again, I dont blame the poor service tech. Its the cable company way of doing things that is continuing 35 years later from the start-up. Rake in the money first, then worry about customer service later. But thats what you get when you have government "protected" monopolies.

TI

Timothy Hall

I could not have had a more miserable experience than the one I just had with Charters technical services. I called their technical services to resolve an issue I had with the ARRIS phone/internet modem (they had installed a week earlier), the initial technician was pleasant and had the ARRIS equipment up and running quickly. However, immediately following the call my NetGear wireless router/modem would no longer access any other websites, other than the "Charter Set-Up Page." The call to the second technician started the misery (which lasted an hour). At the beginning of our conversation I informed technician #2, that I believed, Technician #1 had (not intending to) un-authorized my NetGear wireless router causing the issue I was currently having. I was told, more than a dozen times by #2, the issue was my wireless router and that I would have to call the NetGear manufacturer to resolve my problem. I would not let #2 off the line that easy and over the course of the next hour followed his futile instructions in a vain attempt to "fix" my wireless router. After his final "fix-it" failed I informed #2 that I was going to remove their equipment from the equation and that I wanted him to reset the permissions for my NetGear wireless router. As luck would have it he, and I heard the realization in his voice, admitted that Tech #1 had removed authorization for my wireless router and that he would now reauthorize the router. The NetGear router, not having an issue that any manufacturer could resolve (because it was working perfectly), again worked as it had before I made my initial call to Tech #1. I find it disconcerting that I had a better idea of what was wrong with my Internet system than the paid technician from Charter. Additionally it is maddening to know that Tech #2 wanted to get rid of me ASAP instead of actually taking 30 seconds to look as his screen to ensure that my wireless router had not been removed from authorization, as I prompted at the beginning of my second call.

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