 Review by socalblitz 
UPDATED: 169 days ago
member for 1.3 years, 217 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Fullerton,Orange,CA
 $57 per month (month by month)
 "24hr live tech service - good field service - undergrounded line for free"
 "occassional outages"
 "could be cheaper and/or faster - great techs"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I currently pay $82.95 per month for 10/1 internet service + digital phone (unlisted) with unlimited local/long distance -- that's the price TimeWarner advertises and that's the amount I'm billed. No phony, made-up "fees" like AT&T adds onto your bill. If I had just the 10/1 internet service (i.e. no bundle) my bill would be $56.95 /month.
TimeWarner provides a Arris TM502G modem/phone adapter with battery (included) back-up for the phone.
TimeWarner took over my existing cable internet service from Adelphia, who had taken it over from Comcast, so there wasn't any initial sales/installation done by TimeWarner. There were some initial problems on what had been a very reliable, stable connection. After about 6 weeks TimeWarner got things running relatively stable, although their service tested about 10% slower than what Adelphia's had been (both claimed 8 mbit/sec at the time).
A few months after acquiring my area TimeWarner quit providing newsgroup feeds - I'm still not too happy about that.
When I upgraded my service to a faster tier but didn't get the expected speed increase TimeWarner sent out 3 guys (in 2 trucks) to my house. The service techs laughed as soon as they saw the modem -- it was so old it didn't support the higher speed. They replaced the modem with one they had in the truck and then verified I was getting the higher speed tier (took about 10 minutes). TimeWarner should have been able to tell me the modem I had was too old over the phone, either when I initially placed the upgrade order or certainly after I didn't get the faster tier speed. I would have gladly picked up a new modem from their office and swapped it out myself rather than wait around for 4 hours on a weekday.
There was an instance where I lost connectivity late at night and still had no connection the next morning so I scheduled a service call. Later that day service returned and seemed stable so several hours later I decided to call and cancel the truck. TimeWarner's automated call system recognized my number -- reminded me of the scheduled service call -- and asked if that was what I was calling about. I was then given the options to cancel or reschedule. No time on hold; no "please enter your number account number"; no long list list of options I wasn't interested in; no up-selling. Probably the only time I've ever encountered an automated system that helped me faster and more efficiently than a human could of.
When my cable line was first run from the pole to my house by Comcast it was installed less than 2 feet from the neighbor's power lines that crossed above. After an electrician told me it was illegal and unsafe to have the cable that close to the power lines, anytime I saw a cable company linesman (Comcast or Adelphia) working on my street I pointed out the problem. The typical response was that I'd have to call the cable company and "describe the situation" to "them" and more than likely I'd have to pay for it. I did the same thing one day when I saw a TimeWarner linesman working down the street and he said he'd check it out when he was done. About 20 minutes later he was at my house, looked at the line, agreed it was too close, and then radioed in to have my line undergrounded (I had put in conduit 2 years earlier when I redid the driveway on the side of my house). When the person he was speaking to told him there was a 10 week backlog for such work he insisted this was a priority safety and code issue and arranged to get a crew out the following week. He thanked me for bringing the matter to his attention and then left.
Maybe I've just been lucky, but every TimeWarner tech I've encountered, either at my house or on the phone, has been totally professional and competent -- unlike some of the clowns I had deal with from Comcast and Adelphia. Anytime they've sent someone to my house to fix or install something they did so in one visit, I've never had to call them back on a matter. I just wish their service was a little more reliable/stable so I would have to call their techs so often.
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