Incredible Charter Customer Service

[red hazard]

On 2 Sep my Charter internet service failed; the ready light on the Ambit modem was blinking indicating no incoming carrier. After wasting 30 minutes with the Charter automated attendant, I finally got a live person who wasted another 30 minutes even though I explained to him that my neighbors" cable was out too, both their video and internet. (I get my video from E*). He finally made the earliest possible appointment for the 23rd of Sep, TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LATER!! About 10 minutes later I saw a charter technician checking the pedestal/amp in my neightbort's yard. Well needless to say the whole neighborhood was out due to a bad amp which was replaced that evening. Can hardly wait for SBC to put a DSLAM in the RT for the subdivision. Wonder if charter's tech will still show up on the 23rd.

Charter Communications???? They don't know anything about communications!!

 

[korsjs]

you will have to let us know if he shows up or not.

 

[Madtown HD Junkie]

On 2 Sep my Charter internet service failed; the ready light on the Ambit modem was blinking indicating no incoming carrier. After wasting 30 minutes with the Charter automated attendant, I finally got a live person who wasted another 30 minutes even though I explained to him that my neighbors" cable was out too, both their video and internet. (I get my video from E*). He finally made the earliest possible appointment for the 23rd of Sep, TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LATER!! About 10 minutes later I saw a charter technician checking the pedestal/amp in my neightbort's yard. Well needless to say the whole neighborhood was out due to a bad amp which was replaced that evening. Can hardly wait for SBC to put a DSLAM in the RT for the subdivision. Wonder if charter's tech will still show up on the 23rd.

Charter Communications???? They don't know anything about communications!!

Charter sucks.....everytime. I use them for internet as no other option for broadband is available where i live. I went back and tried them for video and got an outstanding deal. $79.00 included internet (3.0/256k) and almost every channel they have including all movie channels, HD channels, 1 digital box, and an HD/SD DVR. Price good for 20 months and I can cancel at anytime.....this started on Sep. 1st.
Wel I call them yesterday and told them to come pick up their junk except internet. The pistice and signal go out almost every 70 moniutes to the second for a couple seconds. The damn DVR has no active DVI. They tell me they are worried about a lawsuit from movie studio's from people saving the film then burning to dvd, yet D* & Time Warners' DVI and HDMI work fine. I called them to ask how they could give me a digital picture when the only connections are s-vid, coax, or component....all analog. Sure the HD is not bad but compared to D* downrezzed HD lite on a monster DVI the difference is obvious. They also have no PBS-HD, Espn 2 HD, Universal HD, or Fox HD as the local wants cash due to packers games and thgey refuse to purchase. They do have TNT-HD. I called to have some one from charter tell me how to get a digital signal from the box with conections stated above and talked to 3 people ...none had an answer. Told me their head guy in Madison that handles tech stuff would call me no later than Wed. of this past week and I am still waiting. SO i ordered the HD-DVR from D* for $199 after rebate and got HBO and Showtime for 6 months from them for $2 more than I paid before. Now it will cost me an extra $50 bucks going back to D* but at least when D* tells me something it happens and they know what the hell they are talking about. The person at Charter who handled the disconnect call said she hears the complaint all the time of customers hearing different answers when they call and having issues with the video end.

anyway...back to D* for the duration(never quit service so been 6 + years now)
Charter will go the way of the DODO if their head remains up with rear end re: Video service.....get it together.

 

[cableman265]

Let me get this straight, you are complaining because an amplifier went bad causing you and your neighbors to go out. That sucks, but it happens sometimes. And within 70 minutes there was a technician onsite fixing the problem. I realize the people on the phone are almost worthless, but you had somebody at your outage alot quicker than any other service. As far as your trouble call goes, they usually keep it in there just to make sure that everything stays working until your date, so you are not playing phone tag again if something else happens. 2 and a half weeks is unacceptable, but the hour that you were on the phone, your neighbors could have been getting setup for the days before that. Hopefully everything stays working and you wont have to even think about it.

 

[dalady]

You know why you think that the phone reps are worthless? Because you want them to do what they can't. It is not acceptable to give you 3 months of credit because of a sun outage. It is not acceptable to scream and swear at someone because YOU didnt pay your bill. While I do agree that more training is needed, treating someone like crap will not get you help any better or quicker.

P.S. Most problems with service is due to connections and wires in the home. These do not belong to the cable company. They belong to you.

 

[red hazard]

They NEVER Showed Up!!

IRT CableMan:

You missed the whole point. They appeared to show up quickly because others in the neighborhood complained earlier about the cable being entirely out. My neighbor told me she had reported intermittent problems the previous day. As I stated, I do not get the video and only realized there was a problem after turning on my PC. The point is that the Charter ISP technician knew nothing about an on-going neighborhood wide problem - -even though I told him about it and he expected me to wait 2.5 weeks for resolution. No one notified me ever that the problem might be or was fixed. Not everyone understands how cable service works. Now suppose I had turned off my PC and waited for the technician to show up 2.5 weeks later? I could still be waiting :shocked This is just a continued example of incredibly abysmal Charter customer service. As it turned out, due to My Investigation, the bad amp was about a mile up the road toward the cable head and restored about 6 hrs later.

Regarding the dalady post just above, I consider this Charter employee's comments absolute proof of expected continual incredibly abysmal customer service!! Come on SBC--install that DSLAM!!

 

[cableman265]

Im curious if you have ever had to deal with SBC and their customer service. Do you realize that you will get an even more vague service call time? I have friends that work for SBC, and the grass only looks greener because you are not there.

 

[red hazard]

TELCOS vs. Cable Companies

Im curious if you have ever had to deal with SBC and their customer service. Do you realize that you will get an even more vague service call time? I have friends that work for SBC, and the grass only looks greener because you are not there.

I am not a Charter employee like you stated you are in another thread. I am not biased as I do not work for either Charter or SBC and I have been in the telecommunication industry for many years. I have helped those closer to the C.O. set up their SBC DSL and have always had a pleasant experiences with the SBC techs in getting service turned on. SBC local loops are regulated by state Public Utility Commissions. Usually DSL and POTS use the same local loop and SBC, as well as other TELCOs, are required by the PUCs to fix line problems within certain periods. Here in Illinois that is usually 24 hours for a local loop problem affecting one customer (NOT ABOUT THREE WEEKS!!) if they also have phone service. The fact that SBC carries both DSL and telephone service on the same line guarantees customers significant availability and reliability. The cable system infrastructure was initially built with the mentalilty that they were the only game in town. Cable companies including Charter have a long way to go to garner trust from the public. Various surveys have indicated this. Once SBC pulls fiber into neighborhoods, it is expected that both cable and satellite service providers will be in deep trouble. Cable companies in particular due to their bad reputation for customer service, reliability and their comparatively high prices. When I first got Charter pipleline there was a billing problem. Why?? Because they had my address in the WRONG TOWN. Good luck on future employment.

 

[korsjs]

keep it nice please.

 

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I LOVE YOU GUY"S... : :neener