MX5Speed
join:2009-01-02
34754
| After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable Hello,
I live in Morgan County, Alabama. Serviced by Charter Comm.
I recently purchased a home, the previous owner has had Charter Cable TV and HSI installed according to Charters records for 10+ years.
I have ordered TV and HSI and several 1st level techs have visited, each said the house was unserviceable due to it being 350 ft from access point. Even though the home had service prior. The second tech to visit, climbed the utility pole in my yard and cut the cable between it and the highway.
Charter, sales person had ordered a survey of my property and returned with, "Serviceable" The next tech said, "it was too far, the cable couldn't be strung, he was too small to string it, it would pull him off the pole."
I really want to talk to the local installation supervisor, if they will not place service to the house, then put a HSI drop at the utility pole in my yard. I will construct a suitable enclosure, place My cable modem inside and run CAT 6 ethernet cable into my home. (Ethernet has cable length of 100 Meters ) BUT I need to have the tech install the cable.
Anyone have any suggestions?
I am not within DSL range, and trees prevent using WISP.
Many Thanks in Advance
MX5Speed
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Doug B.
Laceys Spring, Alabama
Electronics Engineer/Systems Analyst NASA | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by MX5Speed  :I will construct a suitable enclosure, place My cable modem inside and run CAT 6 ethernet cable into my home. (Ethernet has cable length of 100 Meters ) BUT I need to have the tech install the cable. They're not going to go for that. The cable modem's are not intended or designed for outdoor use.
Since you're not an existing customer, I don't think you can force them to run a plant extention to make your home servicable. You may be able to get the plant extention run if you AT LEAST a portion of the cost. But, even then, that's remote possibility.
The person you need to speak to is the area Construction Supervisor/Manager. Go to the local office and ask to speak to him/her. Be prepared to give contact info. | |
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budone
join:2002-09-07
Traverse City, MI | I would be madder as all get out, to have them come and say your house is not serviceable, THEN remove the existing Charter cable line that was run to the house to begin with that used to service the house.
Good luck on that one. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by budone :I would be madder as all get out, to have them come and say your house is not serviceable, THEN remove the existing Charter cable line that was run to the house to begin with that used to service the house. Good luck on that one. We're talking about Charter. Should any of us be shocked? | |
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| | budone
join:2002-09-07
Traverse City, MI | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable True, But I still would be mad!  | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI
| Under the current specifications, beyond 300' is too far to support the services currently available without a plant extension.
I know it seems rather dumb that Charter will no longer service a home that had a drop run to it, but they have to guarantee that the plant can provide enough signal, forward and reverse, to support (usually) up to 4 outlets, which would include digital cable service, HSI and Charter Phone.
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The comments and/or views expressed in the post above are my own and may not reflect those of my employer, Charter Communications. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by defiant :Under the current specifications, beyond 300' is too far to support the services currently available without a plant extension. Only problem with hat theory is that Charter already had service at that place for YEARS. Of course we are talking about a company that is not only $20 bil in debt but whose stock can be bought for a quarter and you'd get change back. | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI
2 edits | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable At some point in the past, 300-400 feet was fine for the services offered THEN. NOW, is a different story. Since we're talking about someone (the OP) that currently isn't a customer, Charter may have no obligation to run a plant extension and foot the bill.
It's decisions like this that protects them from running continuous service calls to a home or spending, potentially, thousands of dollars on a plant extension and never seeing profit from it. | |
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| | | MX5Speed
join:2009-01-02
34754
| Thanks for everyone's feedback. I am willing to foot the cost of a plant extension. As to level of service, I am wanting JUST high speed internet. And if I did place a cable modem outside it would be in a suitable shelter. Protected from weather, with forced ventilation. I am an engineer and have been one for 40 yrs now.
As to contacting the construction super, I have been to the local office (two ladies taking payments) and requested the super contact me. He has not. I cannot get above a supervisor level talking on the phone, never to a manager, or service folks.
Frustrating. I wonder how folks can with clear conscience do their jobs and know they slacking and taking the easy way.
I shall contact my county supervisor, and the local TV helplines.
Thanks folks for the input.
Doug
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Doug B.
Laceys Spring, Alabama
Electronics Engineer/Systems Analyst NASA | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by MX5Speed :Thanks for everyone's feedback. I am willing to foot the cost of a plant extension. As to level of service, I am wanting JUST high speed internet. And if I did place a cable modem outside it would be in a suitable shelter. Protected from weather, with forced ventilation. I am an engineer and have been one for 40 yrs now. As to contacting the construction super, I have been to the local office (two ladies taking payments) and requested the super contact me. He has not. I cannot get above a supervisor level talking on the phone, never to a manager, or service folks. Frustrating. I wonder how folks can with clear conscience do their jobs and know they slacking and taking the easy way. I shall contact my county supervisor, and the local TV helplines. Thanks folks for the input. Doug Ask to speak to the Customer Care Supervisor/Manager. It can be difficult at times to get other deparments to "play ball", unfortunately. Dealing with the Customer Care supervisor might yield better results. | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by qworster :said by defiant :Under the current specifications, beyond 300' is too far to support the services currently available without a plant extension. I know it seems rather dumb that Charter will no longer service a home that had a drop run to it, but they have to guarantee that the plant can provide enough signal, forward and reverse, to support (usually) up to 4 outlets, which would include digital cable service, HSI and Charter Phone. NOT TRUE! My old house (that my ex wife still owns) has over 400 feet of RG-11 foam coax installed by the cable company 15 years ago. It goes over 3 poles. They have FULL digital cable and full speed Internet (Comcast owns the system now). He should be able to pay for RG-11 and get serviced from Charter. The cable would likely be around $100.00. What part is "NOT TRUE!"? I never said it wasn't possible or feasible. I said "under current specifications" and it depends on the plant setup. Each situation is different. | |
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henrybf
@charter.com
1 edit | To the OP, tell somebody to get creative, then they could do it, theres ways to do the job to get you enough signal and sustain it. | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable And, any responsible tech/tech supervisor won't do it. | |
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henrybf
@charter.com
thumbs down from:
Fluke
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable things work differnt in the field, than they do in the warehouse. 1 span of cable would get him in range, hardly any costs. Thats the problem, to many people take the easy way out. There are ways to temp with rg-11. Worst case scenario, rg-11 looses 3.65 db per 100 feet @ 750 mhz, we all know the modem carry is lower in frequency than that right defiant??? So at 350 feet the loss would be around 12.775 db, heck you could split it at the house and still have enough gas. | |
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| | | | | sittin_tech
join:2004-04-13
Rochester, MN
1 edit | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable you can't really say it will work without knowing the situation. what if he's coming off an end of line tap only starting with 10db on his high band. so his highest carrier is -3 and the side of the house meaning his data carrier is already -9 if he's lucky.
we can't make these decision from here or at call centers. if the field techs are saying it's not going to work, I'm going to believe them. his best route is still to get in contact with the construction department to see what his options are. | |
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rahlquist
Redeye
join:2001-10-30
Villa Rica, GA
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by sittin_tech :we can't make these decision from here or at call centers. if the field techs are saying it's not going to work, I'm going to believe them. his best route is still to get in contact with the construction department to see what his options are. Ok but to pick nits a bit here. If the OP is right and the previous resident had HSI what changed? Or did Charter knowingly bill the previous resident for a service it never and/or substandardly delivered?
Or is it simply because OP only wants HSI and not cable service and Charter isn't willing to even try when they can avoid it?
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Fed Up With Stupidity?
Patentlystupid.com | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI | I really don't think the attitude is necessary...
I'm merely speaking from experience -- 9 times out of 10, if the drop is beyond distance spec., they won't run it without construction. Period. | |
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henrybf
@charter.com | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable I dont like the cant do attitude, sorry for voicing my opinion, but if people would put forth some effort there would be alot less whining on here. Its just a never say never attitude, sorry I dont give up easy. | |
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defiant
Garbage in, garbage out
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Monroe, MI | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable It's not that it can't be done, it's that it likely won't be done due to policy. | |
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moon1234
@charter.com
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable It's policies like these that get Charter in hot water from franchising authorities and state regulators. Has anyone heard of a drop amp at the house before any splits with upstream amplification?
If there is only 9DB at the tap then the Charter techs are NOT doing their jobs. I always try to get the job done for my users. I guess some people just don't want to help the customer. | |
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Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable Well the guy said the previous house owner had TV + Internet so it sounds crazy to me that they won't let him have it and they cut his cable that was there. | |
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| | | | | | cloves69
join:2004-01-11
USA
 ·Charter Pipeline
1 edit | said by defiant :I'm merely speaking from experience -- 9 times out of 10, if the drop is beyond distance spec., they won't run it without construction. Period. Totally agree. Though I would like a second technician opinion. Another concern would be the size of the house and how many potential outlets may be used in the future. | |
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dispatcher21
join:2004-01-22
united state
1 edit | Talk to your franchising authority for the city or county. They may have a provision stating that they have to service all people living in a certain place, here in Walla Walla, Charter HAS to service all residents within the city limits and I think the urban growth area. | |
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cork1958
Cork
join:2000-02-26
Fruitport, MI
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by dispatcher21 :Talk to your franchising authority for the city or county. They may have a provision stating that they have to service all people living in a certain place, here in Walla Walla, Charter HAS to service all residents within the city limits and I think the urban growth area. Yep,
Same way it is here. Charter HAS to service everyone in the village of Fruitport.
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The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ | |
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henrybf
@charter.com | You cant harldy say it WONT work ,so your saying you have only 9 at the tap? If so, your plant has issues. | |
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BinaryXtreme
join:2004-04-20
Sparks, NV | My parents had he same issue for years. Then a neighbor working for Charter heard of it and a tech was out and was installed with no problems, even being 400 ft. out. Their full of crap. | |
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progen
join:2008-01-12
Paris, TN | in my area if its over 280ft we have to call the charter super to get aproval. depending on the length and the plant and what they are getting he will aprove or send a line tech to make adjustments or extend the line. | |
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sdog
@charter.com
| Don't know if you had an in house or contractor visit you, but Charter rules and pay for a job with a super long drop would make it unlikely for you to find a contractor that would want to run it... unless you make it worth it to them to offset the extra time for a hard drop, signal troubleshooting, and potential out of spec modem charge back.
I've done 300 foot drops with RG6 and still had great signal at the house, but the tap was hot at that site.
BTW - the downstream channel can be as high as 900 mhz, but it's usually the return channel at 23 mhz that's the hold up when dealing with crappy lines or long runs.
You also got a couple of other options if you can't find a contractor to help you. | |
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| cloves69
join:2004-01-11
USA
·Charter Pipeline
1 edit | Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable said by sdog :
I've done 300 foot drops with RG6 and still had great signal at the house, but the tap was hot at that site.
BTW - the downstream channel can be as high as 900 mhz, but it's usually the return channel at 23 mhz that's the hold up when dealing with crappy lines or long runs.
300 foot RG-6 drops are unacceptable. Hot taps are far from the norm, especially as hot as it would be needed to allow for 18 dB loss on a 300 foot run and have "great" signal at the house.
The return is the last concern with long runs. 20 Mhz has a loss of ~1 dB per 100' of RG-6. At 750 Mhz, 5 to 6 dB loss per 100'. | |
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rra
Advice
join:2008-09-19
Kingsville, MO | Move your house closer to the street. | |
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atigerman
join:2002-01-19
Tigerton, WI | I think the easiest suggestion i can make is...
If you are not a gamer where low latency is a must, couldn't you go with directv which offers tv and internet? | |
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| mdrejhon
join:2004-02-02
Ottawa, ON
| Re: After 10+ yrs service Now home is declaired unserviceable quote:
I think the easiest suggestion i can make is... If you are not a gamer where low latency is a must, couldn't you go with directv which offers tv and internet?
Don't bother suggesting satellite when even EDGE or 1xRTT over Verizon or AT&T or T-Mobile is superior! Much cheaper, lower latency, more bandwidth, and no FAP stuff. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| said by atigerman :I think the easiest suggestion i can make is... If you are not a gamer where low latency is a must, couldn't you go with directv which offers tv and internet? directv does not offer internet. they sold off direcway years ago. satelite sucks and is expensive. $60 a month for 1 Mbps and a 200 MB daily cap? No thanks. | |
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rra
Advice
join:2008-09-19
Kingsville, MO
| Perhaps the previous resident had repeat service calls. And they changed the address to unservicable after they moved out (and said to themselves thank god). Maybe that's why the previous owner moved.
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If you are unhappy with your service stop using it. | |
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DaMaGeINC
The Lan Man
Premium
join:2002-06-08
Greenville, SC
clubs: | I would of walked out there and kicked that tech's ass and make him reconnect that cable. | |
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billmd91
@comcast.net
| I had a similar situation with Time Warner. My house was 400ft or so from the drop when I bought the home. The line was still intact and with some help I took it off the house and had an enclosure about 100ft from the pole. In there, put a 2 way active return amp and the cable modem. Ran coax and a Cat6 cable to the house, where I had a 4 way amp. Cable service works fine. | |
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mdrejhon
join:2004-02-02
Ottawa, ON
| This is very sad...
However, I have a suggestion. Do you have any cellphone *reception* at all? Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile?
If so, then you're in luck: You can get highspeed Internet over cellphone reception nowadays.
You might even be in a 3G area, but you'll at least likely get EDGE (which is like Cable Highspeed Lite, and still faster than satellite).
Get an "Internet stick" (Novatel 950 series USB modem, if using AT&T or T-Mobile). Or a "laptop card" if using a laptop. They work by getting your Internet over the cellphone airwaves. Much faster and better than satellite and dial-up, as EDGE is over 200 kilobits per second and 3G about 1 megabits per second, sometimes more than that (I've gotten 1.5 megabits per second actual performance in some rural areas that are now finally serviced by 3G)
Typical cost is about $30 per month (plus a few fixed fees and sales taxes that cellphone companies so typically charges), for about 5 gigabytes of data, with a 24/7 'always on' connection like cable and DSL. It's not too bad actually -- satellite and dial up don't give you that much service.
If you already have a cellphone, you might be able to get a discount by getting the Internet stick / laptop card through them as well. | |
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stevecraig
join:2006-12-05
Traverse City, MI
2 edits | That is downright sickening - I'm surprised because except for cost and a few restrictions on their home service (port restrictions that could easily be controlled) - I had very few problems (other than when I did have business class I was a friggen hack magnet on charter vs Megapath)
Anyhow, I had some (positive) situations in Traverse City, MI with Charter
(2002-2007)
1. The cable was there, but needed to be extended a bit - the installer didn't just extend it, he replaced the whole line, added extra drops thru the house, etc. - was there for like 4 hours in a blizzard and didn't add a dime to my costs.
2. Another situation - different location, original cable co had routed the lines so that my neighbor and I were on a buried splitter - cable worked, but dropped frequently (naturally, rust does that)... closest drop was too far so they (with no cost to me) brought out the trenchers and hydraulic pipe drills and relaid the whole side of our street with it's own drop...
3. Needed private HSI commercial service (due to port restrictions) while care-taking for about 9 months. (dual drops in one house) - debated a bit, said it couldn't be done (to standard) then finally just did it, creating a fake "suite" (spare bedroom).
(went DSL 2007)
Now I'm not sure what they'd do today, the only reason I switched was port restrictions and costs (AT&T/Yahoo slammed thru here with ADSL2 for less, no port restrictions, yay, mayhem and torrent carnage (and now experimenting with caps, go figure), anyhow, now it's over-saturated - Charter isn't in a great position fiscally, and I've no idea of their service now, but I'm about to see if/how their QOS has changed) | |
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geonap
lolatidiots
join:2005-12-14
Glendale, CA | OP, you'd be surprised, bbb.org and file a complaint. you will get a call from the turds at charter who'll be on their knees for you. | |
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