Charter Rant

[Fuzzy]

Yeah - though I need to devote some time to adjusting/slimming the channel list.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Paul H

COMCAST!!!!
Fourth day tech arrives ON TIME! tech looks at my setup and freaks out. Says that the cable distribution amp I use to connect the three boxes is causing problem because the boxes cannot 'talk back' to the supplier. I show him the specs for the D-amp explaining that it DOES allow talk back and I've been using it for 5+ years without problems.
Cable tech is inching towards door trying to blame my equipment for problem, after agreeing to hook up his tester to cable that would go to wall (cable feed) he is showing me noise on line he says is coming from my system.
8< snip >8
BTW when the tech first sees my setup he asks "why don't I just get (rent) a DVR?" I explain that I can record seven channels (4 OTA & 3 cable) .
His comment "So you built your own Internet?" DUH

I hear you there! I dread anytime that Comcast comes to my house and asks to see my cable modem/router/tv cable setup. They take one look and start telling me about the wonders of their DVR's, my system is causing the problems, well you know the spiel.
A couple years back I (once again) was having problems with certain channels on their cable system. They came out and took one look at my setup and decided that it was my amp/distribution box that was the whole trouble. So he hooked up a couple of their crappy amps and decided it was all fixed inside the house. He then went outside (where he should have started) and did a line check. Sure enough several bands were way out of whack and they had to call out a line person to adjust the amps on the line.
I tried to tell him that because usually at least a couple times a year when we go from hot to cold and vice-versa they have to do that. So after he leaves and I see the truck arrive, adjust the line amps and leave I check the cable box in the living room and it is worse than before. I go downstairs, tear out their crappy amps and put mine (which had worked fine to over 2 years) back in. All channels were coming in clear as a bell again.

I had a huge hassle trying to get them to set up cable card on my HDHR Prime. One unit set up easily, but I couldn't get the other one to set up. Multiple trips to the customer "service" center to swap cards and try again. Finally I gave in and let them send a tech out. He spent more time trying to prove my setup was the trouble rather than checking out the Prime's issue (he'd never seen one before)
Finally he sat down and called "his" tech support (way above anything we can call) and he read off the EXACT same information I'd given to the phone drones a dozen or more times. No new, or different information. So his tech guy takes a look at the information they have on the Prime, their card, etc in their computer and sees that the card that is causing all the trouble is pointing to the wrong server so that it can't get authorized, nor get a lineup. Less than 30 seconds later the card is activated and I'm having the card get the lineup.
Their customer service can be horrible!!!

[Paul H]

OH YEAH!
A couple of years back, before the digital changeover, I was having problems with intermittent color loss on some channels. when I called Comcast support and explained the problem the phone person asked what channels were having the problem, I said that the History channel was one along with TMC. The phone person replied 'oh! they only show old film clips in B&W!" I told him that the watermarks and commercials were also losing color, and that the commercials were not 'old film clips'. A tech was sent and the problem was fixed but only after I was asked to record the "problem" to show the the tech.
I'd rather drag my teeth down the sidewalk than have to deal with Comcast!

[Cazador]

One thing you need to do when you get a chance, is call charter and ask for some money off. Charter gives a $20 discount for everytime they are late or miss an apt but you have to ask for it.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Let me start by saying that I really like Charter's internet service I have. For the 'bottom rung' of their service, I get a steady 32Mbps down any hour of the day.

My HDHR died a painful death, so I lost my OTA channels. Installed an old DVICO Fusion5 in the server to get locals back (single tuner though). In the meantime, did some shopping, and found a great price on an HDHR Prime on eBay, and snapped it up, with the intention of adding cablecard to get all my basic cable stuffs (3 tuners again will be quite nice after a power surge took out 2 of my R-5000HD VIP-211's through Dish Network).

So, last Monday, i call Charter to set up a CableCard for my account. ask about self install, but as expected, they still had to roll a truck to remove the trap at the curb. okay, fine. Well, since they were going to be coming out anyway, I figured i'd save a little dough and add the phone service (bundled price was cheaper than just internet and tv for the first 2 years). I had charter phone a few years ago, and had no complaints, but just lost the need for a land line, so i shut it down. Sales rep even says I can use the old number I had back then - I'm perfectly okay with that.

So the appointment is scheduled for Thursday, Oct 31st, 3-5pm. I get the confirmation robo-call the night before, all is good. I even took the time that night to straighten up my mess of a media closet, so access would be quick and painless. by 6pm, no one has shown. I call, and after a 45 minute call, the reason I get is that they 'think the tech had to leave early'. I never got a call or anything stating that they weren't going to show. I reschedule for Monday, Nov 4th, again at 3-5pm.

So this evening, by 5pm, there's still no show. I get right on the phone again. After about 25 minutes, they say there was a problem with the '3rd party verification' for the phone line, and that is why the appointments were not met - with no notification to me about the issue, and that I had to call another number to sort that out. Fine, i'll play your games. I call that number, and they say 'no, there was no problem with the verification, but the number that you had is still held by PacBell (who had been purchased by SBC 18 year ago, then AT&T 7 years ago), and that I'd have to re-activate it first with them, then port the number to Charter. argh - i didn't even care about the phone service, and now it's holding up my CableCard. So i tell them I'm canceling the order, and call the regular service line back. I tell them I want to change the order to JUST the CableCard. I finally convince them that all i need is the tech to roll by and remove the trap, and I'll stop by the office and pick up a CableCard and tuning adapter and do a self install (what I wanted at the beginning).

So, tomorrow morning, i hope to stop by the office and pick up a card and adapter, and hopefully they'll stop by soon to remove the trap and see if I can get this crap activated. What a mess. In the 8 years i've had charter I have had no problems with their product, and problems with their service every time I've needed it (thankfully, that has not been often - maybe 3 times in that 8 year stretch).

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Cazador

One thing you need to do when you get a chance, is call charter and ask for some money off. Charter gives a $20 discount for everytime they are late or miss an apt but you have to ask for it.

They already gave me that after the first time.

[will]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I have the same issues with TWC. Just for internet. I upgraded my speed from 30mbps to 50mbps because my 1 year "discount" expired.

A little off topic, but did you see any increase with TWC going from 30mbps to 50mbps? I currently have their 30mbps plan and I'm not satisfied with it. HD YouTube videos stop for buffering during 6pm to 12pm probably because everyone in my neighborhood is streaming Netflix/Hulu. I only continue paying for the service because this is the cheapest plan I can get with a 5mbps upload speed (the other plans drop to 384kbps for upload!).

I've considered going to 50mpbs but I don't see how that would make a difference. I'm not trying to stream videos larger than 30mbps and if the 30mbps can't handle it, why would the 50mpbs handle it better? I don't think I have a speed issue but rather a shared capacity issue.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by will

A little off topic, but did you see any increase with TWC going from 30mbps to 50mbps? I currently have their 30mbps plan and I'm not satisfied with it. HD YouTube videos stop for buffering during 6pm to 12pm probably because everyone in my neighborhood is streaming Netflix/Hulu. I only continue paying for the service because this is the cheapest plan I can get with a 5mbps upload speed (the other plans drop to 384kbps for upload!).

I've considered going to 50mpbs but I don't see how that would make a difference. I'm not trying to stream videos larger than 30mbps and if the 30mbps can't handle it, why would the 50mpbs handle it better? I don't think I have a speed issue but rather a shared capacity issue.

going to a faster cap isn't going to increase your quality when you are already maxed out due to congestion. That is, unless, they run some sort of QoS that prioritizes higher paying customers, rationing each congestion limited user to an equal percentage of their max (I might do that if it was my business).

To put it simply, though, if you are getting congestion so bad that youtube is lagging down, you are FAR below your 30Mbps, and TWC is going to have to do a lot more infrastructure improvements (splitting neighborhood blocks, for instance) to get it any better.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by will

A little off topic, but did you see any increase with TWC going from 30mbps to 50mbps? I currently have their 30mbps plan and I'm not satisfied with it. HD YouTube videos stop for buffering during 6pm to 12pm probably because everyone in my neighborhood is streaming Netflix/Hulu. I only continue paying for the service because this is the cheapest plan I can get with a 5mbps upload speed (the other plans drop to 384kbps for upload!).

I've considered going to 50mpbs but I don't see how that would make a difference. I'm not trying to stream videos larger than 30mbps and if the 30mbps can't handle it, why would the 50mpbs handle it better? I don't think I have a speed issue but rather a shared capacity issue.

I don't have any slowdown issues with mine. At either speed. I'm pretty shocked that TWC is as good as it is in my area. No noticeable congestion.