Charter finally running cable here

[johann12]

well....Charter is certainly not off to a good start here.Waited till 1pm and they called in a replacement tech because the first one was behind.The tech got everything run from the pole to inside only to find out that something was wrong with the main cable.They couldn't get the modem to lock signal. Now they are scheduled to come back in a week?Not sure why it would take another week to get it fixed but,oh well.

First when I got charter, they came 4 days after the original appointment. The setup fee was $50 to get 4 rooms cabled in.per contract.
They came out when I was not there but my wife was there and they done only 2 rooms, which the contract said 4 rooms. When i called them, they said that they only do 2 rooms for new installations but if i want the other rooms to be cabled it would be $75 per room for an additional charge. It did not matter to them what the contract said.

Then 1 year before I canceled, lighting hit the coax and burned it up. They came 3 days later and hooked up a temporary cable from the pole, across my yard, across my driveway, across my walk, across my doorsteps but did not buried it. They told us that they would come back in 1-2 days.
After many calls and tripping over the cable it took them 7 weeks to come out and only because the last time i tripped over the cable I called them again and refused to hear that they would come out in a week.
I told them that If I, a family member or visitor trips over the cable one more time that I will file a lawsuit. They came out the next day and put it into the ground. 1 day after they put it into the ground a charter cable inspector came to make sure that they did the job right.
Charter = liar = bad business = rip off
A friend of mine used to work for charter and he would work 10,12,14 hrs a day plus Saturday, but they did not pay for overtime. About 2 years ago he turned charter in for not paying overtime and they had to pay thousands of dollars to all their employees for overtime they did not pay. A lot of guys got thousands of dollars backpay and it followed with a lot of guys loosing their jobs so charter can make more $.

 

[Teehar]

I reckon it's a pick your poison.With the speed and cheaper price I'm still happy to leave AT&T.

 

[johann12]

well....Charter is certainly not off to a good start here.Waited till 1pm and they called in a replacement tech because the first one was behind.The tech got everything run from the pole to inside only to find out that something was wrong with the main cable.They couldn't get the modem to lock signal. Now they are scheduled to come back in a week?Not sure why it would take another week to get it fixed but,oh well.

First when I got charter, they came 4 days after the original appointment. The setup fee was $50 to get 4 rooms cabled in.per contract.
They came out when I was not there and they done only 2 rooms, which the contract said 4 rooms. When i called them, they said that they only do 2 rooms but if i want the other rooms to be cabled it would be $75 per room at an additional charge. It did not matter to them what the contract said.

Then 1 year before I canceled, lighting hit the coax and burned it up. They came 3 days later and hooked up a temporary cable from the pole, across my yard, across my driveway, across my walk, across my doorsteps but did not buried it. They told us that they would come back in 1-2 days.
After many calls and tripping over the cable it took them 7 weeks to come out and only because the last time i tripped over the cable I called them and refused to hear that they would come out in a week.
I told them that If I, a family member or visitor trips over the cable one more time that I will file a lawsuit. They came out the next day and put it into the ground. 1 day after they put it into the ground a charter cable inspector came to make sure that they did the job right.
Charter = liar = bad business = rip off

 

[johann12]

Yea I have that in writing.Its straight up $39.99 for 30mbps,no tax,no contract.There is a one time install fee of $19.99.Charter has eliminated slower speeds and contracts.For how long who knows.

That is great and I am happy for you.
A installation fee of $20 and no contract is a deal. Back then they charged us $50 for doing 1/2 the rooms that the contract stated.
The last 3 years they lost thousands of costumers because they did not care.
This last quarter (3 month) alone, they lost 14,000 costumers.
Maybe, that's why you got such a good deal.

Back then when I canceled my charter cable TV and charter phone, they did not care, even though they where wrong.
Back then I switched to dish-network($32 including tax per month) and I prepaid Viatalk (VOIP) for 2 years($200 including tax and setup fee) and that was/is way cheaper. But I was/I am still stuck with charter internet, at least for now.
About 3 month after I canceled, charter called me and wanted me to come back to them. I told them no. They offered me to buy the contract I had with dish-network, but after all the bad things I experienced with charter I had to decline. This gentlemen told me that they lost a lot of folks the way customer service treated them and that they are trying to get those costumers back and that they re-training customer service.
Now I have a C-band satellite dish and an outside antenna and I get hundreds of my TV channels for free and legal without having to pay for it. I still have ViaTalk( VOIP ) and I am very happy with it, way cheaper than charter phone.

 

[Stargazer]

It is called the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/internet-tax-freedom-act.htm

 

[king3pj]

I've been using charter cable internet since at least 2002 even though we have had Dish or Directv for most of that time. The speeds are good and consistent with little to no downtime in my area. I'm not sure if it's still necessary but we did buy a Docis 2.0 modem a few years ago for about $60 because it saved us $5 per month. That might be something you should look into even though someone said they aren't charging for the modem anymore.

Also, here is a little tidbit for those with Charter in your area. According to Netflix Charter is the best performing ISP in the country at least with their streaming service. Here is a link to the CNET article with ISP rankings from top to bottom.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20029794-261.html

 

[Teehar]

I've been using charter cable internet since at least 2002 even though we have had Dish or Directv for most of that time. The speeds are good and consistent with little to no downtime in my area. I'm not sure if it's still necessary but we did buy a Docis 2.0 modem a few years ago for about $60 because it saved us $5 per month. That might be something you should look into even though someone said they aren't charging for the modem anymore.

Also, here is a little tidbit for those with Charter in your area. According to Netflix Charter is the best performing ISP in the country at least with their streaming service. Here is a link to the CNET article with ISP rankings from top to bottom.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20029794-261.html

Docsis 2 is going out the window.They are moving to docsis 3 now.If you haven't already received an upgrade message you will soon.According to the fine print a docsis 3 modem is provided for free when you sign up with charter now.

 

[king3pj]

Docsis 2 is going out the window.They are moving to docsis 3 now.If you haven't already received an upgrade message you will soon.According to the fine print a docsis 3 modem is provided for free when you sign up with charter now.

We will upgrade to Docsis 3.0 to take advantage of the speed upgrade anyways but is there any reason a docsis 2.0 modem wouldn't continue to work? The original modem charter provided us back in 2002 or so wasn't docsis 2.0 and neither was the network in our area. Several years ago after they upgraded our local network I bought the 2.0 modem to save the $5 monthly charge. The new modem took our speeds from around 10Mb download to just over 20Mb download. We got much faster speeds by upgrading but the old modem still worked fine.

Like I said we are only getting around 20Mb to 21Mb download and about 3.5Mb upload so we will get a new modem to take advantage of better speeds. I would just be surprised if they made their system incompatible with the thousands of modems already installed in people's homes.

 

[Teehar]

We will upgrade to Docsis 3.0 to take advantage of the speed upgrade anyways but is there any reason a docsis 2.0 modem wouldn't continue to work? The original modem charter provided us back in 2002 or so wasn't docsis 2.0 and neither was the network in our area. Several years ago after they upgraded our local network I bought the 2.0 modem to save the $5 monthly charge. The new modem took our speeds from around 10Mb download to just over 20Mb download. We got much faster speeds by upgrading but the old modem still worked fine.

Like I said we are only getting around 20Mb to 21Mb download and about 3.5Mb upload so we will get a new modem to take advantage of better speeds. I would just be surprised if they made their system incompatible with the thousands of modems already installed in people's homes.

You may be able to continue using your modem.I re-read the article just a minute ago.To get the ultra speed you have to have Docsis 3.

http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?supportarticleid=2623

 

[king3pj]

You may be able to continue using your modem.I re-read the article just a minute ago.To get the ultra speed you have to have Docsis 3.

http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?supportarticleid=2623

Wow thanks for posting that. I really do not like the fact that they will no longer activating customer owned modems on their network. As long as I have been a customer they have always allowed us to use our own modem and save some money. Now they are saying that if we make any changes to our account we can no longer use our modem because it will be listed as incompatible even though there is nothing incompatible about it. The same piece of equipment that works today doesn't just become incompatible tomorrow because you asked for a deal. By the way they are very good about letting you stay on new customer pricing when it runs out if you call. They have no contracts and they want to give you a reason to stay. We have basically been on new customer pricing the whole ten years. You just have to call and ask for a deal when it runs out and they take care of it without much hassle.

The packages with the modem included are $5 per month more than what we pay currently. It's a little suspicious that the new plans with free modems are the same price as the old plans with a leased modem. They didn't really make modems free they just removed that option and the modem lease fee line item from the bill. Luckily we are grandfathered for now but we will be unable to buy and activate our own doscis 3.0 modem to continue saving money. I know it's only $5 per month but buying your own modem pays for itself in a little over a year. When you have already been a customer for 10 years and no plans to go to anyone else because they are the only broadband provider at your house it doesn't make sense not to own your modem. We wouldn't leave anyways because we are very happy with the reliability and speed.

 

[Teehar]

Wow thanks for posting that. I really do not like the fact that they will no longer activating customer owned modems on their network. As long as I have been a customer they have always allowed us to use our own modem and save some money. Now they are saying that if we make any changes to our account we can no longer use our modem because it will be listed as incompatible even though there is nothing incompatible about it. The same piece of equipment that works today doesn't just become incompatible tomorrow because you asked for a deal. By the way they are very good about letting you stay on new customer pricing when it runs out if you call. They have no contracts and they want to give you a reason to stay. We have basically been on new customer pricing the whole ten years. You just have to call and ask for a deal when it runs out and they take care of it without much hassle.

The packages with the modem included are $5 per month more than what we pay currently. It's a little suspicious that the new plans with free modems are the same price as the old plans with a leased modem. They didn't really make modems free they just removed that option and the modem lease fee line item from the bill. Luckily we are grandfathered for now but we will be unable to buy and activate our own doscis 3.0 modem to continue saving money. I know it's only $5 per month but buying your own modem pays for itself in a little over a year. When you have already been a customer for 10 years and no plans to go to anyone else because they are the only broadband provider at your house it doesn't make sense not to own your modem. We wouldn't leave anyways because we are very happy with the reliability and speed.

Your welcome.I always try to read up on everything before making the plunge.Charter has probably struck some sort of deal with cisco on the modems.

If you don't mind my asking what plan do you have and how much does it cost?

 

[king3pj]

Your welcome.I always try to read up on everything before making the plunge.Charter has probably struck some sort of deal with cisco on the modems.

If you don't mind my asking what plan do you have and how much does it cost?

Charter Internet plus for $35.99. It doesn't list a specific speed but i just ran a test and speedtest.net. I got just over 21Mb down and just over 3.5 up. That is pretty consistent for us.

Keep in mind that that was the new customer pricing for people who owned their own modem whenever we called and asked for a deal last. We are 10 year customers. We just have to call once a year and ask for a better deal. Their modem used to be optional for a $5 per month lease fee getting it up to the $39.99 they are offering now.

 

[stardust3]

For that kind of speed with a high cap I'd pay $50 a month without question. That is awesome & you should consider yourself lucky. I install hughes on a regular basis & most of my customers have no other option but satellite.

 

[Stargazer]

That is a pretty good deal for the price and upgrading the modem gets you more speed so I would think it would be worth the extra $5 if you got another 10-20 MB.

Frontier charges you a modem fee whether you buy your own modem or not and its 6.99. With their new bonded adsl/vdsl plans they do not cost much more (due to no lease fees being charged when you upgrade).

 

[Teehar]

Yea It's a no brainer to make the switch to Charter imo.AT&T introduced 200Gb per month on the dsl extreme last year.They still haven't enforced it in some places but,it's only a matter of time.With Charter you get faster speed cheaper price and,50gb per month extra cap.I don't think we have ever used more than 30-40gb in a month even with dish on demand and netflix so 250Gb sounds great to me.A 10Gb heck even 20Gb cap is just not feasible for most folks.

 

[johann12]

Yea It's a no brainer to make the switch to Charter imo.AT&T introduced 200Gb per month on the dsl extreme last year.They still haven't enforced it in some places but,it's only a matter of time.With Charter you get faster speed cheaper price and,50gb per month extra cap.I don't think we have ever used more than 30-40gb in a month even with dish on demand and netflix so 250Gb sounds great to me.A 10Gb heck even 20Gb cap is just not feasible for most folks.

After reading your last post, I do not feel as bad about charter anymore, even though they done us wrong.
At least we have unlimited internet usage.
Last week our internet went out 3 times and it took 3-4 hrs each time to get it back.
I done a speed test 2 years ago and the company which name I can not remember said it ranked on the bottom of the list compared to other internet providers.

 

[Teehar]

After reading your last post, I do not feel as bad about charter anymore, even though they done us wrong.
At least we have unlimited internet usage.
Last week our internet went out 3 times and it took 3-4 hrs each time to get it back.
I done a speed test 2 years ago and the company which name I can not remember said it ranked on the bottom of the list compared to other internet providers.

Probably speedtest.net thats where most go to check their speeds.

Still waiting on the charter tech to get here.Dunno why they say between 8am and 12pm,they should just say around dinner time lol.

 

[Teehar]

Probably speedtest.net thats where most go to check their speeds.

Still waiting on the charter tech to get here.Dunno why they say between 8am and 12pm,they should just say around dinner time lol.

Well...Charter is just about as incompetent as AT&T! For the second time in 2 weeks a tech has been out to hookup the internet.After waiting till almost 1pm today he arrived.I will say very nice guy and it's certainly not his fault but,the chain of command is definitely broken.There is only one way data coming to our box,something to do with a node 1/2 mile from our house.It was supposed to have been fixed last Friday but of course it wasn't.So still no high speed internet.My patience is starting to wear a little bit thin,they are supposed to be back on Wed assuming that the line techs get whatever is wrong with the node repaired.:rant:

 

[Teehar]

Finally Charter has come to my house!Had it finished yesterday just been too busy to report back until now.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2236261322.png

3x faster than AT&T plus 37 clear qam channels all for $5 less than what I was paying!

 

[Teehar]

Finally Charter has come to my house!Had it finished yesterday just been too busy to report back until now.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2236261322.png

3x faster than AT&T plus 37 clear qam channels all for $5 less than what I was paying!

Oh forgot to add,that 3 of those 37 channels are tri cities locals.WCYB,WJHL,and WKPT.They are only analog sd till they get the upgrades finished but,that gives me more access to Titans games!