Charter Annoys St. Louis Paper > Please someone buyout Charter

Please someone buyout Charter

I would say "wow",.. Charter has a 90+% Disapproval rating among those responding.. heh.. but,.. it does not surprise me.

I think the company and its infrastructure are fine. The name is fine,.. and the image isn't completely shattered.

Though,.. at the current pace and direction charter is falling off a very high cliff and still hasn't pulled the chute. They cannot control where they drift, and it is accelerating lately.

If Charter wanted to stick around, and garner some respect .. They would

A) Remove all the outsourcing. Period. (It's a service, you don't outsource).

B) Offer more, longer, and qualified training on ALL levels.

C) Increase pay at the lower to mid-end.

D) Scrutinize workers to be responsible to their appointments. Whatever appt. they have at that time, the *customer* is their boss for that window.

E) As above, there should be a no missed appt. policy, and 'above and beyond' calls of duty to attempt to get the customer for an "indoor appt.".

F) Even if part of the call is indoor, they should immediately check the Demarc and Tap if it seems reasonable. IE: Perhaps fix a problem even on a "house call". Instead of calling the customer, no answer, and going to the next appt.

G) Allow promotion jumping again -- Word it, design it, etc.. how you may... Change new customer incentives to offset similar pricing packages.

H) Get your pricing/packaging act together. Charter needs to know what their left hand is doing. If you offer 10meg, there needs to be a universal way of discerning such. Etc.

I) Saturation/Routers/Equipment -- Use your capital wisely. Never, ever, allow your quantity of DVR's,.. HD Digital Set-tops,.. etc To run *out*. That is silly. -- Plan ahead, and for reserve. Anticipate the 'what-if' --- IE: Late example, Howard Stern Channel.

Do something about Saturation of the Backbone, WELL before it gets to a ridiculously unacceptable level. We know it is monitored.. (Hopefully) -- So once you start seeing a creep to 75+ percent saturation,.. start working on greenlighting purchases more bandwidth and/or equipment UBRS. etc.. So that when it hits such a mark that your 10meg customers are crawling below 1meg during primetime, you can rectify the problem before it is a huge problem..

This not only helps your customers, your image,.. but keeps all those unnecessary service calls, and truck rolls from occurring due to a "Saturation" issue. The Trucks cost money, the techs cost money, the calls cost money, the materials used to "fix" such an issue, in vain, cost money -- Hell gas cost alot of money. Take all those truck calls,.. add up the cost, apply it to upgrading your DS3

J) Lastly -- Inter-company-communication. The communication from Field Tech (Bottom level) -- To Corporate needs to exist. And all points between.

The Network engineers need a line to field techs,.. Corporate needs to be easily accessed, and the top levels on the field level,.. ie: Supers, etc.. need to be able to contact directly to corporate for decisions.

The CMTS and Field do not need to be cut off from one another -- A field tech should be able to discuss with a network engineer.

The Customer should be able to get further than a call center manager if warranted. The supervisors should be more than WILLING to contact any customer who has a problem that has been ongoing for weeks,months or longer. It should be top priority.

So many calls/problems simply do not get an answer if they fall into a certain genre. IE: If they require a tweak from the CMTS,.. Then if not found by a Field Tech or some such.. It just sits, unresolved.. If the customer figures out (as happens on sites like this) a potential cause from their own troubleshooting.. Then it shouldn't be an impossibility to push your evidence on to the NNOC,.. (Locally) --

Basically,.. Escalation is fubared. -- There is like 1 level of escalation.

Customer to Call Center -- Escalate to Truck Roll.

Then, from here, it doesn't always happen, but -- It would be..

Truck roll (Tech I) -- Cannot diagnose problem -- Escalate to Supervisor.

From here on outward is the problem.

Either nothing is done, or the super might send a "System Tech" -- This is generally your last line. If that guy comes (if you are l ucky enough) -- and doesn't find the problem.. then you are generally SOL , unless you raise Cain .. quite literally, in many instances.

Their should be a multi tiered escalation process -- a 4-5-6 step process, that has provisions for even the most stringent , annoying, "what if" issues. IE: Even a method, or process to handle "ingress" issues. Things that are often not dealt with due to their nature of difficulty.

Anyhow - Alot of this applies to many MSO's , obviously -- But I suppose, Charter isn't too far gone to save themselves, but I am afraid they do not realize what they have 'done wrong' -- They are blind to their mistaken decisions,.. For that, the customer needlessly pays, until , hopefully, they realize before it is too late, or are bought out by a company that gives a damn again.
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Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Thank Zod someone is saying this other than me.

I told Vancouver pretty much the same and they blew into it like a snot rag.

Maybe now that it's in the open... they will get the damned hint.

I'd go back to work for them if they changed their attitude... and a good deal of their management.

Thankfully I have no need as I'm quite secure where I am at. :-D