Review by bgetchel 
UPDATED: 72 days ago
member for 9.3 years, 185 visits, last login: 72 days ago
 Boaz,Marshall,AL
 $94 per month
 about 3 days
 "Charter has gone from pathetic, to satisfactory, to near-excellent!"
 "Significant improvements in reliability and consistent speed."
 "Still expensive, and monopolistically so, but now they are worth it!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
[UPDATE: 08-29-2009]
Well... it's been nearly a full year since my last "update." In that time Charter has gotten better, and worse, at the same time. I've received another "stealth" speed upgrade to 20 Mbps, and I get most of all of it a good portion of the time. I can download NNTP (usenet) for hours at a time and speeds will stay within the 15-20 Mbps range for the most part. In fact, I'm downloading about 8GB via NNTP right now with speeds fluctuating in the 18-23 Mbps range.
Not too shabby!
The "worse" development has to do with connection reliability. Our phone is VoIP and we are in a rural area, so there's no cell coverage. As an aggregate, we're down roughly 24 hours per week. Outages are wholly random, rain, shine, storms, or perfect weather, day or night, weekends or weekdays, there is no pattern. Charter has actually regressed in reliability - not as badly as when I first got their service, but to a nearly unacceptable level. We pay $90/mo for internet only (no CATV, not even "basic"), which is very steep relative to other, superior service offerings, but Charter has a broadband monopoly out here in the sticks -- no DSL, no FiOS, nothing.
Let's get it together, Charter!
[UPDATE: 10-17-2008]
Charter has improved considerably, at least in my area. Credit where credit is due. I can't allow my initial negative review to stand at this time. Connection reliability, while far from excellent, has improved to reasonably satisfactory levels. Performance is generally excellent, and I now have been "stealth" upgraded to their new 16Mbps service since becoming available a few months ago.
All-in-all it has been a marked, welcome improvement. Charter, much to this cynic's pleasant surprise, has really come through.
Keep up the good work!
[Revised 6-24-2008]
Well, it's been another six-plus months since my last review update. Service and performance have improved considerably since my last report. Outages are down dramatically to only a few hours per month (not great, but great by comparison), and improvement to performance has been no less dramatic. I typically receive the full 10 Mbps that I'm paying for with negligible slow-down. I ditched Charter's television service altogether in favor of DirecTV. Their cable television was poor quality and woefully inadequate -- and lacked any real HDTV options. DTV, by comparison, has 10x the number of HD channels as well as a plethora of other channels that Charter doesn't even offer.
Anyway, about the connection. If services remains at the current level, as it has been for the past couple of months, I can retract my previous review and replace it with this much more favorable one. They're still more expensive than most every competing service (that I can not get), but still a reasonable value. Hopefully they will introduce their 16Mbps service soon when, at that time, I will report on in more depth.
For the moment however, I am fully satisfied with my Charter Pipeline broadband internet service.
[Original Review]
I've had Charter's (clogged) Pipeline for about six (6) months now. I wanted to give it a reasonable amount of time before writing a review, to see if there was a consistent pattern. There is, and it's not a good one, unfortunately. I immediately signed up for their 10/1 package, which was problematic from the start. It took numerous calls to their technical "support" department before I was actually seeing anything that resembled 10Mbps speeds. About the only good thing that comes from dealing with their support personnel is that they make you feel competent and intelligent by comparison. Talking to a Charter "tech" is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.
With Charter, you wake up wondering just what kind of internet connection they'll feel like bestowing upon you that day -- if it works at all. They're basically the Andy Kauffman of the ISP world: you get the distinct impression that they really don't want to be in the internet business at all, but if they're forced to do it then their clueless customers are going to bear the brunt of endless "practical jokes" perpetrated by beleaguered Charter technicians. Service and support this poor simply can't be caused by mistaken incompetence -- it just has to be intentional.
I know this sounds like a typical "squeaky wheel" rant, but I've dealt with a myriad of different companies and types of connections in my profession as a WAN developer, and while I've encountered incompetent individuals and companies none have reached the bottom wrung that Charter alone seems to relish. If you wanted to build a company from the bottom up around charging the most while providing the least I would submit Charter as the primary case study.
It's not all bad. On the ever-more-rare days when the connection is operating at full potential things are good. It's very fast and you can maintain a 10Mbps download for many straight hours. However, I can not recall the last time I've been blessed with such a connection. I've been paying a severe premium for their 10/1 package, but rarely do I see speeds above 2Mbps any more, and even those speeds fluctuate wildly from near zero up-to 2Mbps.
If you don't need 10Mbps (good luck getting it) I seriously recommend looking at DSL or other alternatives. I can, in no way, recommend Charter based upon my experiences and those of my two neighbors. They've had Charter much longer than I and absolutely hate it, but we're way out in the country with the nearest CO a good 25000+ feet away. Otherwise, I'd take the large on-paper speed hit and exchange it for a reliable, consistent connection any day.
For Charter, it's two thumbs down... WAY down!
UPDATE - 11-05-2007: I just received my first BBR monitoring report for the weekend. The most optimistic report cited a 75.94% reachability. I'm surprised it was that high. In my experience it's been down or sporadic 50% of the time. Of course, I assume this is a 24-hour monitor, so it might be great while I'm asleep in bed.
UPDATE - 11-12-2007: Here is my second BBR monitoring report. Talk about going from worse to horrendous:
Outage report as seen by new jersey USA ny-monitor.dslreports.com
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:10 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10018 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Outage report as seen by california USA sjc-monitor.dslreports.com
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:21 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10017 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Outage report as seen by san francisco USA 64.81.79.40
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:19 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10017 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Followup comments:  
OneStepAhead
@charter.com
| sucks for you i download at the full 10mb speed just about 24 hours a day.. and i keep it maxed almost 100% of the time downloading binaries from usenet. Im pulling 1200kbps right now from news.giganews.com via charter 10mb.. then again i dont live in the boonies.. | |
|  | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
1 edit | Re: sucks for you Hi OneStepAhead,
I hate to tell you this, but if you're getting 1200 Kbps you're only getting about 1/10th of your 10 Mbps speed. Congratulations on proving my point.
--
Da Biff | |
| | | matt314159
join:2006-01-18
Hesperia, CA
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Re: sucks for you He just typed it wrong I'm sure. I think he meant to say 1200KBps. Which is very close to the full 10mb, esp when you consider the TCP overhead and whatnot. I get 1200-1300KBps all the time with usenet on my 10mb charter connection.
Frankly, I wouldn't stand for it, if they couldn't resolve the technical issues, I would be gone. Luckily I'm not in your situation. | |
| | | | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: sucks for you Hi Matt,
I'm sure there are some that are getting what they pay for, and I'd love to be one of them. Unfortunately, judging from the reviews, Charter is the single worst major broadband provider in the country. I haven't seen any ISP with the number of bad reviews that Charter has -- and the bad reviews are REALLY bad, not just marginal.
I'm grinding my axe, for sure, but I'd love to be a fan if they'd just get their act together. I can be as vociferous an advocate as I am a detractor. The installer came by last night to remove the cable HD-DVR box and trap the signal (I dropped their cable TV service in favor of DTV) and he wasn't exactly a fan of Charter either (they don't have their own trucks out here) and said they act as though it's your privilege to do business with them.
I would pay $200/mo if FiOS were available here, or something competitive.
--
Da Biff | |
| PotentBoy99
join:2001-10-23
Simpsonville, SC | Some of us may live in the boonies... Hello onestepahead,
And, some of us may not...
Have you got the typing down yet?
Hope this Helps,
PB | |
|
renochartersux
@charter.com | 5 is 3 is less Here in Reno they signed a contract with charter for the next 7 or 8 years... Horray us!
PS they say 5m is the lowest and im pulling some solid 1.2's all the way up to 3.0 | |
| | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: 5 is 3 is less My speeds are literally all over the map. They range from near dial-up, or complete loss of connection (sometime for seconds or minutes, sometimes for hours) all the way up-to the full 10Mbps (increasingly rare). Yesterday I had almost an hour of full 10Mbps performance, but generally it was 1-3 Mbps. I can live with 1-3, but not while I'm paying for 10.
I'm going to see if a higher-speed DSL has become available in my area (which I doubt). Otherwise I'm going back to the "basic" speed package, since that's all I get anyway -- if I'm lucky.
I canceled my cable TV from Charter (I had their full package) and switched to DTV satellite. Charter has a paltry 5-6 HDTV channels here, and their prices are likewise absurd. DirecTV crushes them for both content and price.
--
Da Biff | |
| wilberfan2
join:2004-11-25
Burbank, CA
1 edit | Fed up with Charter, too I stopped by today to investigate alternatives to Charter--because I'm fed up as well... I've been with them for 5 or 6 years (?), and was pretty happy with them until last year sometime.
The outages drive me nuts. I've logged nine separate outtages in the last month--including all day yesterday (from noon to 9 pm, or so).
And they recently moved their tech support from (nearby to me) California to the Phillipines.
Bleah.
Love your tag line: "You can get better, but you can't pay more!"  | |
| 
defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI | Support Ya know bgetchel , you could reach out to those of us in the Charter CATV/HSI forum that might be able to assist... | |
| | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT | Re: Support Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be right over.
Do you think the forum can really assist with anything, or does it just elevate my soapbox a little more?
--
Da Biff | |
| | |
defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI | Re: Support We can't work miracles or intervene directly (most cases) , but we can try to get to the root of the problem and make it easier to get it resolved through the "normal" support channels. | |
|
CharterSux
@charter.com | Total Agreement Charter does suck. Anyone have any info. on TDS Telecom. They advertise 10K | |
| zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN | you should get charter phone they give discount and its more reliable then typical voip
if you areas like mine you can save quite a bit from doing that practicly get phone for free | |
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