Review by neilcar 
member for 160 days, 12 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 5 days ago
 Stanley,Gaston,NC
 $80 per month "When it's up, it works" "Poor reliability, poor support, poor service" "If I had another choice, I would take it"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I've had Charter for 7+ years now. Unfortunately, in my neighborhood, low-speed DSL is the only alternative so I don't have an actual choice.
When Charter is up, I have reasonably reliable service and throughput; however, about every six months, I have a problem (either I lose my connection intermittently or my throughput stinks -- I'm getting ~1-2Mbps right now with a ton of dropped frames).
When I have a problem, technical support is useless. Their tech support is limited to:
1. Restart your modem.
2. Restart your computer (Charter apparently doesn't understand ipconfig /release /renew -- "You have to restart your computer to get the new settings, sir.")
3. Oh, you're hooked up to a router? Well, unplug that and plug directly into the modem. Now, reboot the modem again. And your computer.
4. That's not it? Well, disable the firewall on your computer. (Of course that's unsafe. Do it anyway -- it could be the problem.)
5. No? Oh, well, clear out your cookies and temporary internet cache.
6. That didn't fix it? Well, we'll have to send a technician out. Of course, they're only available while you're at work.
Every time I have a problem, I end up going through this cycle 2-3 times before somebody finally fixes the problem. The problem is never in my premises -- it's always a network problem. And it always requires me to go back through this song and dance repeatedly, come home from the office to meet them repeatedly, and generally waste my time to troubleshoot their network.
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2012-11-11 update
Charter has now sent 4 people to my house and another 3 line techs. They still haven't fixed the problem.
On the plus side, my phone calls now get auto-escalated. When I enter my phone number into the automated system, it automatically says "Let me transfer you to somebody", then transfers me to a tech that isn't using their script. So, at least now, I can tell them that they're still failing in a fraction of the time.
2012-12-14 update
Technician #10 came out today. He arrived with no knowledge about what my problem was or what work had been done by the previous 9 guys. He said "Oh, well, if the problem isn't happening right now and normally happens later in the day, I guess we'll just reschedule this" and left.
2013-03-25 The problems continue. At this point, I have had fourteen different Charter technicians out to the house. I'm in touch with Nathan, the local service supervisor.
Nathan promised that capacity for my neighborhood would be fixed/increased on March 8th. I'm guessing nobody is surprised that this hasn't happened.
Called Nathan on the following Friday. Oh, yeah, that's a lot more difficult than he thought it would be. But he would like to send one of his technicians out so that he has a paper trail so that he can give me credit on my account when this is finally fixed. By March 28th, he's sure.
Guy comes out to house. Points out that the neighbors at the end of the street have an unburied cable running across their yard and this is probably my problem. (No, guy, this is because they, too, keep having problems and one of the guys who came out to their house thought it might be that cable EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT.) Guy assures me that getting this cable buried, which he is going to go ask somebody to do RIGHT NOW, will fix my problem.
Y'all can see the fallacy of the cable company promising me anything, right?
Then, on Saturday, Charter calls me to ask me to upgrade my Internet connectivity. No, really, Jennifer tells me, "did you know that you could get 30Mbps for less than you're currently paying for 20Mbps?" I explained to Jennifer that she was trying to sell me something that she clearly DID NOT actually possess. This degenerated for awhile into defining fraud and determining whether it applied to this offer.
Tonight, I have a conference call at 2200, something that I would normally do over Voice-over-IP. So...my current download speed is running around 400Kbps. I called to complain and, apparently, offended the young lady I talked to when I questioned how unplugging the coax would help.
"It makes it request a new IP address, sir. *huff*"
"Ummm, no, it doesn't. Power cycling the modem does that."
"*huff* It makes it get a _better_ IP address, then."
"Is there a DHCP DISCOVER option for 'better IP address' that I'm unaware of?"
"*huffhuffhuff* Sir, I told you what it does. I'm not going to argue about it."
At some point, I'm going to see what it would cost to run 20 miles of coax to anywhere that I could get Internet connectivity from somebody else.
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2013-04-03 Update
In spite of Nathan, the local supervisor, promising that capacity upgrades would be done on 2013-03-28, I'm still seeing slow speeds during primetime hours. I called Nathan again on Monday and his explanation was that the work _he_ was responsible for was done but there was additional work ongoing and he didn't know when it would be finished.
Yesterday, he promised me that the person responsible for the other work was going to be in town today and that they were going to draw up a plan to get me/my neighborhood temporary relief. He's supposed to call me again today to confirm what these plans are and when they'll be complete.
This is the third round of promises from Nathan -- he promised 2013-03-08, then 2013-03-28, and now I'm promised some unknown date in the future.
Comments:
 Reviews:
 ·DIRECTV
| Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS! I have noticed this too, instead of denying a Charter network issue, like they always seem to do, and waste their own time and money sending a tech out to our homes which solves nothing, why not just be honest and professional by informing the customer about the reality of the situation. I can promise you that I am much more understanding of such issues when they arise then being lied to about where the problem is. Honestly is the best policy. | |
|  |  ch
@charter.com | Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS! Charter has funny rules as far as that goes in regards to sending a system technician out to fix the main lines or network. They require a normal technician to go out first, get the readings and then they can setup to have a system technician come out and fix whatever outside issue is causing it to happen. If we would, we would gladly schedule line techs to come out in customer service when you call in but unfortunately we're locked down as far as that goes. | |
| | | Reviews:
 ·Charter
| Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS! "Charter has funny rules about providing quality service to their customer. We find it more important to waste your time so that we can save money."
If you have to use 'rules' as an explanation to me for why you can't solve my problem more quickly and with less interruption, then your rules aren't helping you provide customer service. They're helping you save money at my expense. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·Charter
| Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS! said by neilcar:"Charter has funny rules about providing quality service to their customer. We find it more important to waste your time so that we can save money."
If you have to use 'rules' as an explanation to me for why you can't solve my problem more quickly and with less interruption, then your rules aren't helping you provide customer service. They're helping you save money at my expense.
This is just about my feeling. Its ok, their lack of response and inability to correct their issues is goint to cost them 130.00 a month from me. I'm unfortunately stuck using them for HSI, but as for TV, I'm off to Direct TV, | |
| | | | rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | In any business there are procedures that are designed to govern how things operate. If we consider your comments with respect to the medical field, does it make sense to create a flock of general practitioners who are also heart surgeons? Would you want to pay a heart surgeon to prescribe cold medicine or steroids for some kind of inflammation/allergic reaction? I'm certainly not saying a general practitioner isn't a smart cookie but they have "front line" role and they defer to specialists after they make some kind of initial diagnosis.
I understand this takes longer to get things fixed but all businesses address problems with those most likely to fix them. That means the front-line tech is generally able to solve problems and the 20% of calls where they cannot, it does inconvenience the customer but I don't think it's rational to expect someone who can trench a new wire, install new pole hardware, replace a pedestal amp, tune the neighborhood segment and diagnose inside wiring problems. That's probably several different roles and specialists within the tech services group and it would be difficult train and staff a "do it all" tech. For one, the guy who specializes in more difficult tasks, likely doesn't want to bother listening to grandma describe what's going wrong with her cable TV picture. If he/she had to put up with customers all day, he'd probably leave and do something else. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS! Many businesses empower their employees to do a lot in the name of customer service. Cable companies however have decided it's better to centralize support and have "customers" only talk to tier-1 support which the company treats as mind-numbed robots incapable of independent thought. They're simply given scripts to follow with respect to customers. Many times they're not even in this country and most likely India.
I'd like to see a cable company allow a customer to talk to tier 2 and above support at tier 1's discretion if they even have another level. What's the point of sending a tech to a place over and over again if it's obviously a line problem that the tech can't fix. I've had techs forced to come over when the local office was aware that an outage was scheduled maintenance. I guess it's cheaper to abuse the subcontracted techs and hire phone monkeys than to pay for somebody to do real troubleshooting.
What really should happen is the support should again be decentralized and at the local office. The local guys always know more about what's happening with their system and could provide better support than what we're now getting. | |
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| | OMG What a Frustrating Call So the Charter service for Internet has gone back to choppy and inconsistent as usual. I have to flip flop between AT&T and Charter as a regular course of business. Each lasts about three months before deciding my patronage isn't worth the trouble to actually keep me connected.
Of course, both corporations claim the problem is with my D-Link router. Of course they run me through the same nonsense that they run everyone through. You know, 1. restart your computer, 2. power cycle modem, 3. oh you have a router, please connect directly to the router, 4. we can't help you if you don't comply, 5. I convince them to reset the modem (again) 6. magically online again without changing anything on my end 7. argue with them about where the fault is, again, and again, and again, and again...
This time I connected to the Louisville Kentucky call center and ended up talking with Megan. She was incapable of understanding that I was using a router that was hardwired to a gigabit network. She insisted that I was connecting wirelessly. I don't really think she even knew what TCP/IP stood for. Really, she was that clueless.
About halfway through the call I hear someone else's voice coaching her on what to say (all of which was designed to get me off the phone and plant responsibility on D-Link and not Charter). I didn't play. I demanded to speak with the person actually giving me the information and asked him, his name was Karl, why they were playing games when the problem is clearly not on my end.
He said something along the lines relative to me unplugging the router and connecting wirelessly and I interrupted him to remind him that I didn't change anything, and I wasn't connecting wirelessly. He was unphased. He just continued talking right over me and ignoring everything I had to say.
I'm hoping his supervisor, Fred (supposedly) will be in tomorrow so I can give him an earful and see about maybe getting some reliability for the price I'm paying. He didn't give me a direct number so I'm hoping I can find the guy through the corporate number.
If I could get the 100MB/s anywhere else (or faster) I'd jump ship and never look back. But every time I head to AT&T, they pull the same games. Currently Charter has the faster offering so here I am. I resent that I'm only allowed two choices. Prices would be lower and services would be higher if they actually had real competition. | |
| | | Ex charter tech 2012-11-11 update
Charter has now sent 4 people to my house and another 3 line techs. They still haven't fixed the problem.
On the plus side, my phone calls now get auto-escalated. When I enter my phone number into the automated system, it automatically says "Let me transfer you to somebody", then transfers me to a tech that isn't using their script. So, at least now, I can tell them that they're still failing in a fraction of the time.
2012-12-14 update
Technician #10 came out today. He arrived with no knowledge about what my problem was or what work had been done by the previous 9 guys. He said "Oh, well, if the problem isn't happening right now and normally happens later in the day, I guess we'll just reschedule this" and left.
When I worked as a lead tech all we could do is just setup techs. We know the issue isn't at the house we know its on the line. However per policy we setup a tech he goes out sets up a line tech that line tech then go's OHHH we need to fix this asks his supervisor if it's in budget he goes ya /na and that's how it gets fixed. I watch many people be down intermittently for months because the email back from the area is waiting for budget next year to fix this issue.
Some areas are different but, the ones that used to be able to get into the cmts and find these issues are all but, gone from charter. Charter has managers looking for bonuses and anyone that talks out against something is then forced to quit or wrongfully terminated. Good luck on getting the issue fixed ever since outage management was moved from Kentucky the new team just doesn't know how to find intermittent issues to peoples homes.
One more thing. When we lost the outage management to the new guys they asked us why Alabama was having issues. I told them dns. Next day I come in they asked night shift again where the calls are coming from and why Alabama has half the state calling in. I said dns. The response from them whats dns? Good luck! | |
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