Review by wombatclov 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 7 years, 779 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Easthampton,Hampshire,MA
 $99 per month
 about 7 days
 "Good Value"
 "Slows Dowwwwnnn"
 "Good for the average user, and a good value if bundled."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I signed up when I moved into town, since they are the only cable provider in this town. I previously had Comcast with no complaints. The pre-sales info was adequate- although I think Charter could have some more information and tech support on their website- (for example detailing down to the types of cable modems you can use). I ordered the package that includes the digital TV for a total of 85.95 per month plus the $2.95 cable modem rental fee. The sales person told me that the cable modem "was included" in the price- of course when I got my first bill I found out that was not true.
The installer came on the date and time promised. It was a very easy install for him since I have a Linux router that I was going to hook the modem up to- all I had him do was install the digital TV box and verify block sync on the modem, and activate my account.
Once I hooked up my router- I got the IP address (dynamic of course), and connectivity. The first thing I noticed was that I could not ping anything. However, web browsing was fine. For some reason they were filtering outgoing pings. This was frustrating to me, because I am a network administrator and I need to test external hosts. At this point the speed was about 690kbs down and 119kbs up.
About 2 weeks after I was setup and running- I was working one night ant lost connectivity. It was late that night so I went to bed. The next morning, connectivity was back, and I noticed that I could ping hosts! This indicates to me that they were messing around with their routers and made changes, or simply do not know what they are doing!
More recently, I have connection cutouts for more than 10 minutes at a time. I will be in the middle of working on something, and bang- I am cut off! Usually this is at midnight, so I just go to bed, and the connection is back up in the morning, but it certainly indicates they are doing something!
Despite that sporadic trouble, I decided to take a look at their pricing plans again (it has been 6 months since I signed up), and sure enough, they now offer 2Mb down, for only about $4.00 more than I am paying now- so I upgraded to that with no problems. As a bonus, the upload is about 256kbs, which is twice what they published. I also returned the rented modem and installed my own I had from my previous provider. To Charter's credit, that was a painless process- the rep was very nice and made sure my modem worked before we hung up.
This weekend I have been having some strange problems that points back to their routers- both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I was not able to get to certain websites- from about 8 am to 11am EST- the websites that I was able to reach were either cloaked, or local on the East coast. I did go through the whole reboot and modem reset with no help. Oddly as I said, the problem disappeared about 11am. This is very annoying, when you want to get some work done! I did call tech support Saturday, and after 30 minutes they finally assigned me a ticket number, and promised a call back by a high level tech, but nobody ever called me.
So as it stands now- I have mixed feelings- the speed is great, but for the price I pay, they could be better with reliability and uptime. A notification of system outages would be helpful.
--------------------
Update 4/14/06:
So Charter has a nice bundle out for my area- Digital Cable + 3mb Internet + Digital Phone (local/long unlimited) all for $99 month. If I compare that to Verizon, I save $50/month, so I decided to give it a try. Telephone has just been released in this part of MA, and I read all the reviews, and it seems good. I like the fact that they use a seperate channel back to the head end and not my Internet connection.
I called and ordered one week ago. They scheduled an install on the Internet for 3 days after the date of my call, and install on the phone one week after my call (since I was not porting my # over yet). The night before my first install date, I realized I had an old cable modem and I could call tech support to provision it, so I did. The next morning, first thing, I called to cancel my Internet install, since I took care of it on my own, and I confirmed that the phone install date was still active. I got home that day and there were three calls from Charter- "Where are you?". This shows me that they don't have their act together. So, Internet works fine, speeds are all over the place though- from 900kbs to 2.5mbs, depending on time of day.
Now for the phone install- I was told between 8am and 12pm. It got to be 1pm (here I am taking a vactation day for this!). I called, and they couuld not find out why no tech had showed up, and I got disconnected on thier end! Then I called again, re-explained the problem, and after 20 minutes they informed me that it would have to be re-scheduled one week later! This is why I have rated the install co-ordination low now. I asked to talk to a supervisor, who basically said something about an outlet was supposed to be installed, and kinds making it my fault. I am glad I did not port my number or shut off Verizon yet! They did credit me the install fee. The funny thing is about 5 minutes after I got off the phone, a tech showed up! Apparently he had been running late and thought that Charter had called me. Not! Anyway, the tech was very nice and did an excellent job. It took a while because the first telephone adapter he installed was bad, and it was new, so it was the last thing he and support expected. Luckily the tech had another on his truck. But now it works fine, and he made test calls in both directions to ensure that before he left. I did not have him hook it to the main house wiring so I can use it only on one phone as a test. So far I can not tell the difference from a regular copper line. Voicemail is not working today though, apparently MA has a problem with that.
I would give this a try if you are looking for good value of phone + Internet + TV. I am confident about the phone service since it is FCC regulated and monitored by them. I have been waiting for this bundle for a while. Just be prepared for a mess of install dates and the normal tech support crap.
-------------------
Update 9/7/06
Ok- not good news again. The Internet part is terrible, but the phone and TV have been fine. Over the past month I have had so many outages, and slowdowns such to the point that it was worse than dialup. I do a significant amount of work from home and I need a reliable connection. Charter just does not cut it. Plus, I never, ever (even at early AM) got the 3meg service I am paying for- lucky if half that. And look at the competition- Charter is way behind in speed- just a plain ripoff. I call tech support, they treat me like an idiot and refuse to accept they have a problem when I tell them the traceroute data (and I am net tech). They even refused to let me talk to a supervisor or higher level tech. That does not help business! I am droping to the phone/TV package only, and getting naked DSL- I end up paying about $5 more/month, but to me the relabilty and staility (in my area) DSL is worth it. My advice is if you can get DSL, do it- at this point I recommend Charter for only Phone and TV. TV you don't have a choice unless you go Sattelite, but the phone has more features per dollar than Verizon at this point.
----------
Update 7/2/08
I switched back to Charter Internet again, got me a $29.99 for six months (no modem rental) with the 10M/1M package. I decided to switch because I needed the better upload bandwidth (work VPN, sharing photos and videos, etc). Verizon's 386k was just not cutting it. Also I heard that there were some improvements in my area to the system. So far (had it on about three weeks), there have been no issues with connections dropping (like I had described a few years ago), and pings work. The upload speed is pretty consistent at all times of the day, but the download varies, as expected, with the time of day. The lowest so far has been 1.5Mbs. Not horrible, but if I am paying for 10M, I should be getting it most times! I would recomend Charter if you need the upload bandwidth, and can negotiate a promotion or package deal. I don't think I am going to be laying out the normal $60/month at the end of this promotion though.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Charter Pipeline |
|
Charter Pipeline
(118)
(69)
·