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jaming
join:2001-12-15
Jacksonville, OR

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Re: [Speed Issues] Nightly slow speeds..

Hi. We have Charter Business accounts at two locations: 30/5 and 100/5 meg. We Have been having slow internet downloads 5megs at best with speed tests, but usually around 100k for downloads. We have had techs out and call Charter last few nights. We can't get anywhere with this. Charter just makes excuses about how they don't see a problem. We can't run our VPN without disconnects and timeouts. Our business is hurting because of this. We work at night. We pay them almost $300 a month and can't make head way.

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

KoRnGtL15

Premium Member

Not surprised at all by this. Something has happened with in the past 3-4 months for it to be this bad. And it continues. I think part of it. Is from a lot of Charter customers dropping tv and moving to internet only. Everything is saturated now.
calc1
join:2009-02-19
Beverly Hills, CA

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i'm around valley and san gabriel. It was horrific last night barely managed 2mb down, but like clock work this morning.........

»speedtest.ookla.com/resu ··· 7776.png

The saga continues.
jaming
join:2001-12-15
Jacksonville, OR

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Just an update. I called charter about the problem. The phone-tech-support said he noticed some small issue with my rx levels and that he would dispatch a ground-tech.

Phone-tech-support is rated on how many calls they take so they try to keep them really short. I was just being punted to ground support but I went with the flow.

Two techs came out and didn't find a problem (not surprised). They were nice enough guys but had little tools or knowledge about networking. I explained to them about traceroute and carrier peering. There we no tools on the linux laptop and without super user access we couldn't install any tools. I let them use my laptop and told them about traceroute and spoke about MRTG. They left and little changed for about a week.

My wife was sent a bill for $115 for the visit. bleh... She is pretty good at fighting with people on the phone and soon they got tired of her and refunded the money in a very threatening way... She was about the go over his 20 minute allowed time-per-call so he gave in. He told her she was recorded and this would be a one time exception etc. etc.

Speed has improved since. The VPN has stopped dropping out every few minutes. They found the malfunctioning router and typical of corporations they never said anything or refund any money for your lost business.

Charter will continue to abuse they're customers, because they are the only game in town (the monopoly). I'm just surprised...

I thought the business side would be better.

lnphoenix
join:2001-01-05
West Covina, CA

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I'm now seeing my night time crawling speed since last week and I'm with Charter for more than a year. Every night, around 8:30PM all the way to 1AM in the morning (I went so sleep so I don't check after 1AM), the internet speed (supposedly 30Mbs/4Mbs) dropped down horribly, mostly around 4Mbs/1Mbs. Last night was the worst, 1Mbs/150Kbs from 9:30PM to 1AM and basically we just quit using it. I've called Charter many times, and last night the call center said the signal into my modem is the worst she've ever seen in her career. This morning Charter tech came out early and everything is as good as ever. The tech said this probably is caused by congestion (too many internet subscribers download heavy stuffs at night time) and the ones in Charter who know it the most are those watching data usage, bandwidth etc. The tech said they couldn't do anything about this problem for me but to put my modem on watch list.

That's all there is to it.
15444104 (banned)
join:2012-06-11

15444104 (banned)

Member

@Inphoenix:

It seems like that "it's a bad signal into the modem", is the offical Charter EXCUSE for this issue and a LOT of other issues that are on Charter's end.

I've had it with them and I'll be cancelling in the next couple of weeks, the price is too high for speed I don't want or need, and the customer service has become HORRIBLE since
CEO Tommy Boy Rutledge started on the job.

5 "Aw sh**ts" for Tom Rutledge and his horrible attitude towards the customer. Do not advance, do NOT collect 2 million dollars.

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

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Took that at 2:32 am a few minutes ago. Just goes to show it is not my "hardware" or "signals". It continues to be a saturation issue.
calc1
join:2009-02-19
Beverly Hills, CA

calc1

Member

»speedtest.ookla.com/resu ··· 7112.png

WORST night i've seen.....

I had to kick everyone off my network tonight because i needed it for work purposes. I have my modem directly plugged into my desktop just to get that.............

I've about had it, I can't even cancel service because i'm on a 2 yr contract Must i create a scene with customer service to get off without any early termination fees.
jchl89
join:2004-03-04
Rosemead, CA

jchl89

Member

the cable connection is completely down, right now. modem isn't even online.

mullingitove
@disney.com

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I've been paying for their 100Mbps subscription since 6/12. Like many here I've been getting terrible download speeds in the evenings, typically 10Mbps. I thought they'd lawyered themselves an allowance for this in their terms of service, but apparently they're supposed to be serving *at least* 70% of advertised speeds at all times.

I finally called them about it, and explained that this issue is with their node and not with my connection, because the slow speeds are happening in the evenings when of course they're hitting peak traffic. Their customer service of course followed the script and ignored reason, telling me that in order to troubleshoot they'd need to send a line technician out to my house to troubleshoot.

The line technician, to my surprise, informed me that he doesn't have any tools to troubleshoot connection speed. Charter corporate actually took those away in the recent past. So he couldn't simply plug in a modem at the utility pole and check download speeds there to do some simple deduction. He also was not allowed to view the stats on my node. Instead he could only focus on the signal readings, which were slightly out of spec but not much. On the day the service was installed, I got 98Mbps so I knew it wasn't an issue with the connection.

The line tech ended up replacing every piece of wiring from the utility pole to the modem. It resulted in a minor boost in signal strength. Of course by the time he finished it was early evening, so even with the improved signal my download speed actually went *down* from around 50Mbps at around 2pm to 15Mbps by 5pm. When he contacted the office to set up another visit to my house by a level 2 line technician, he learned that Charter staff were indeed aware that my node was heavily congested.

I called Charter to ask about a credit for my months and months of bad service. They rejected my request because I hadn't been vocal enough about complaining about the poor service. They told me they wouldn't issue a credit of any kind until the level 2 tech visited today. I had my subscription downgraded to 30Mbps service.

Level 2 line technician visited today, and again confirmed that the node is congested and "has been for a long time."

I'd recommend that every single time you're able to confirm that the service isn't delivering at least 70% of the advertised speeds, call charter and have your complaint logged. If they aren't quick to offer a refund, register a complaint with the FTC, because you're being defrauded.
neilcar
join:2012-10-29
Stanley, NC

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I've been in the same boat (Stanley, NC area) for about 8 months now. I've been promised repeatedly that capacity is being increased for my neighborhood but it has yet to happen.

»Review of Charter by neilcar
15444104 (banned)
join:2012-06-11

15444104 (banned)

Member

Look at how quick they get off their asses...

When the local television media gets involved. You'll see a brief ad first the story will follow be patient.

»www.wspa.com/story/21789 ··· et-speed
15444104

15444104 (banned)

Member

Just to follow up on the local news story from last night.

According to WSPA 7 the customer reports that Charter made changes to the node to allow more bandwidth to his home and a technician arrived and spend time replacing cabling to the home.

The customer reports that his evening speed problems seem to have been solved.

I went to the WSPA 7 website but have not seen the video package of this update uploaded as of yet. It only aired on the station's evening newscast tonight.
calc1
join:2009-02-19
Beverly Hills, CA

calc1

Member

Re: [Speed Issues] Nightly slow speeds..

»speedtest.ookla.com/resu ··· 1394.png

This is the first and only time i've seen the upload speeds fall below 4mbps, either charter is having one terrible night or i've got some faulty hardware..
a
Thought i was having router issues, power cycled the modem several times, plugged it directly into my desktop and this is the best i can do..

This totally blows. Guess i have to call my local news agency, because i'm getting no where with charter.
jhwee
join:2007-09-12
Monterey Park, CA

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Have you tried the BBB? I'm thinking about filing another claim again.
SwitchFX
join:2007-09-15
La Canada Flintridge, CA

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I've been a Charter customer for over 10 years. Over time I've come to realize that Charter, save for a few, has incompetence that runs from their executives down to the customer support agents on the phone. It's infuriating to pay so much for their top tier service and experience 56K like slow down every damn morning from 8 AM til noon. This isn't supposed to happen at all. Anytime you call Charter, they regurgitate the same cold cycle steps I've heard ever since Charter offered cable internet, this was around '99, IIRC. Sorry, but in 95% of cases that simply doesn't cut it when it's your hardware that sucks, it's your employees who are absolutely stupid when it comes to diagnostics, and thirdly, it is you, an ISP that is so incompetent and has its head so far up its behind you can't understand why you're continuously losing money. It's absolutely annoying having to visit this site each week and see so many damn complaints about your company. There is no point in suing you, for one your ToS (which is poorly written ) saves your hide and two, even if it didn't and we all banded together for a CALS, you wouldn't have the money to pay out. I hope and wish Charter goes bankrupt and all of your executives end up being homeless. Not just for the poor treatment of your customers, but the way you giddy all your lower employees and make them bait for us customers. Charter is run by scumbags.
15444104 (banned)
join:2012-06-11

15444104 (banned)

Member

I agree with most of what you said. However I don't agree that the majority of the ordinary rank and file Charter employees don't care about doing their best for the customer. I think most of them do the best they can with the meager resources the executives give them.

The problem starts at the top. Since the latest CEO took over it is palpable how he is hollowing out the focus on customer service and satisfaction. It is clear that Mr. Rutledge and his executive manglement team don't care about the folks that pay the bills to pay his compensation, the customers.
jchl89
join:2004-03-04
Rosemead, CA

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My node got finally got upgraded to 8-Channel DOCSIS 3 last night between 12:30am and 1:30am when the service was down. Let's see if my internet service is actually usable tonight!
SwitchFX
join:2007-09-15
La Canada Flintridge, CA

SwitchFX

Member

At the end of the day, Charter doesn't about their customers. Every single day like clockwork my home connection slows down to a trickle. We'll go from 100 mbps down to less than 5 and then at 11:56 AM sharp it'll go back to normal. I sincerely doubt Charter is serving cables or boxes in the area because it's been happening for over five months every day.
15444104 (banned)
join:2012-06-11

15444104 (banned)

Member

@SwitchFX:

If your service is so poor you should call Charter and tell them that you want to down grade your service to their 30 mb tier.

I would be calling them and demanding a monthly credit for service not rendered.
SwitchFX
join:2007-09-15
La Canada Flintridge, CA

SwitchFX

Member

said by 15444104:

@SwitchFX:

If your service is so poor you should call Charter and tell them that you want to down grade your service to their 30 mb tier.

I would be calling them and demanding a monthly credit for service not rendered.

Unfortunately while I'd like that, I'm in a decent deal for their 100 mbit plan. It wouldn't make sense to downgrade at this point, aside from needing the bandwidth (I love streaming movies and shows). I haven't thought about calling them for credit, but if it's anything like in the past, it isn't much. I'm not concerned about the cost of my cable bill, it's the service promised but not quite delivered that ticks me off.

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

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I am still working on my problem. In the mean time. I have received some credit back and will continue until its completely fixed. I asked about downgrading to 30mb service. They want $69.99 per month for it. I am paying $84.99 for 100mb service. Why downgrade for a $15 savings? Not worth it to me. They are so slick with their pricing and little gotchas. And let me tell you. They was very pushy in chat to get me to downgrade my service. Asked me 3 different times if I wanted to proceed and did not ask me once. Why I wanted to downgrade or if they could do something for me to keep it.
said by 15444104:

@SwitchFX:

If your service is so poor you should call Charter and tell them that you want to down grade your service to their 30 mb tier.

I would be calling them and demanding a monthly credit for service not rendered.


rotax
@charter.com

rotax

Anon

Exact same over saturated/subscribed network here in Reno, NV.

Charter is complete garbage.

Paying for 30/4 service. Like the rest, lucky to get 1.5 (200KB/s) down during peak hours.

I have never had internet so bad. I'd rather have my 10/1 DSL when I lived out in the sticks in northern MT..at least it was consistent.

Just another cable company in it for the money, and not to supply a legit service.

Its pretty pathetic that we keep these big corporate pieces of garbage in business.

Don't even get me started on the port blocking and pulling DHCP addresses on 3rd party routers.

And right at the moment, I've been seeing 20-40% packet loss since 7am...such a horrible service.
kherr
Premium Member
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL

kherr

Premium Member

I guess I'm fortunate to get 30/4 24/7. I asked the neighbor after I ordered service if he had cable internet and how was it. He said that his and the neighborhood's speed was slow. I feared the worst and it turns out he don't have a clue as how to use it. Once I installed Internet Download Manager, it rocked. Some servers bypass the utility, but even some of them will go full speed, like Microsoft but even sometime they're slow.
calc1
join:2009-02-19
Beverly Hills, CA

calc1

Member

I finally got a tech to come out after I threw a furious fit over the phone with support.

Right after I greeted the tech he asked me if i was having slow issues between 5PM-midnight........ first question out of his mouth was dead on correct.

He didn't even want to bother troubleshooting just checked the signal really quick and left, said he would waive the charges for the service call, and i would get a call from corporate about getting my bill discounted for lack of service.

This is a KNOWN problem.... he openly admitted about the massive over congestion and node issues.

That's the good news. For those of you in the rosemead area, this won't be "fixed" for another ~2 months..... don't hold your breathe folks.
jhwee
join:2007-09-12
Monterey Park, CA

jhwee

Member

They have given me that response, "fixed in the next month or two" for the past year...
15444104 (banned)
join:2012-06-11

15444104 (banned)

Member

This is the kind of attitude that just befuddles me.

When you consider all the thousands of miles of cabling that must be maintained and also the associated equipment along with it. (nodes, amps, ect..I am amazed that things most times work as well as they do. The problem with Charter is that they refuse to level with their customers when there are actual problems BEFORE the customer gets outraged!

Most folks are willing to be understanding when they are kept informed and billing adjustments are made to account for degraded service when there are maintenance issues which are on a schedule to be repaired over time.

@ Charter, why not just level with your customers and give them an appropriate credit on their bill. You'd be surprised at how customers will actually appreciate the candor. Instead of denying and lying.
jchl89
join:2004-03-04
Rosemead, CA

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calc1
i have a feeling your area will be fixed soon. they took some step forward today in upgrading the node to 8-channel docsis 3 here in my area. Although the speeds aren't like what they used to be, It is at least more usable now, and games don't lag as much. Hopefully they'll be doing the same to your area node soon.
ajguzman39
join:2009-10-12
Reno, NV

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@rotax

I'm in Reno too - around the Idlewild Park area. Same problem.

I've actually spoken to someone at corporate last month, who in turn had a local supervisor contact me. They said they were aware of local node congestion and that it should be fixed "soon".

That was March 8th, so clearly they have a different definition of soon than most people.

I've tried to contact the person at corporate again but he isn't returning my calls.

AT&T doesn't offer U-Verse in my neighborhood so I guess I'm screwed. Have you looked into pyramid.net at all? I'm thinking I'll give them a call...
jhwee
join:2007-09-12
Monterey Park, CA

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I got a call from Charter saying my area is fixed. We'll see tonight...