Yeah Charter sucks...

Case in point on Thursday night we were going to watch the 2nd episode of "Hung" on HBO On Demand, but of course On Demand won't work. I call customer service, he reboots it remotely and it still doesn't work and then he tells me to uplug from the wall and let it re-cycle itself and it should be fine. Except at that point the box does not even have full functionality and will only let me access the basic channels, no HD, no on Demand no nothing.... So calling and resetting the box actually made me LOSE channels for the night.

My lower tier HD channels work very sporadically, the ones in the lower 700's HGTV, NATGEO, Smithsonian etc.... Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Charter blows.

we usually lose internet when it rains (both at our old address and our new one)... but for the past month is has been cutting out EVERY saturday, regardless of the weather, for most of the day.

hey - how do we approach the city to get them to allow a second cable company? We can't get directv at our house (no sight lines), and there's no FIOS or Comcast or anything else to choose from, for high speed internet or cable. who do we write to to get them to consider breaking up the Worcester monopoly? would a petition help? are there any city officials or offices we should address complaints to? because having no options but SUCK is really unfair to the residents of the city.

I've got about a million problems with Charter. the customer service blows. they lie about their rates (we were told we were locked into our price for 12 months, but 6 months later we got a notice that they were raising fees). their online bill payment rarely works, and it costs extra to pay over the phone. signals cut out regularly for long periods of time. OnDemand doesn't work about 25% of the time. and it costs WAY more than cable did in Somerville (where we had 2 options for providers). The HD channel selection sucks, the package offerings suck, and they don't publish prices anywhere. I think they need a little competition to keep them honest. Of course, they are filing for bankruptcy on monday, so I'm sure honesty is not their strong suit: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/07/13/daily37.html but can it really be in the city's best interest to have a bankrupt cable company as the only source ov TV and high speed internet available to the second biggest city in MA? what is this, 1990? one cable company??

i really wish we had another choice... i have come pretty close to telling them to go fuck a rolling donut on several occasions, but i need internet for work. trapped.

Hello All,

My name is Eric Ketzer, and I manage the Social Media Outreach team for Charter Communications, Umatter2Charter. We came across this site by following a Twitter link, very sorry to hear about all the problems going on. If anyone would like some additional assistance, please feel free to e-mail us at Umatter2Charter@chartercom.com. To allow us to be more efficient in handling your request, please include the following information in the e-mail:

Name:
Phone Number on Account:
Contact Number:
Best Time To Call:
Email:
Address:
MAC (if HSI Issue):
Serial #(If Cable Equip Issue):
Additional information about the issue including any speed tests, pings, traceroutes, previous related trouble calls, attempts to resolve through other support channels, when issue started happening etc.:

Also, in the subject of the e-mail, please put worcestersite.com and your name.

Again, we are very sorry to hear about all these issues, but we look forward to helping you all out.

We've had problems with Charter reception on channels 2 through 7, then all's fine till channel 70. I couldn't care less about 4, 5 and 7, but to tamper with GBH and especially TCM amounts to outrage. Not as bad as watching Charlie Chan through grainy UHF reception as a kid, but not good, either!

You notice how a lot of companies say they do technical support via EMail but it's really a web-based form on their website you have to fill out and you can never quite Email them directly... you have to go through their website form system? What if I decided to stop taking email on my email account, and setup a Web Based Form everyone had to use to contact me. How many companies do you think would go to my website and type in their responses into my form to contact me back?

The above form the person wants people to fill out reminds me of that. Why can't I just send Email to support@charter.net... My email address is on file (and in the From: of the email) and they can easily map it to my account information? Why do I need to repeat to them all the information they already have?

My peeve is companies shouldn't say they do email support unless they take EMail both directions, incoming and outgoing.

Warren

I have issues with Charter but it's pretty cool that you are here Eric posting on the site and trying to help.

Thanks for posting, Eric, but the main problem a lot of people have is something you can do nothing about, and that is the monopoly forced upon Worcester residents by your company. If you really want to help, give us the info we need. What avenue should we take to pursue breaking up said monopoly?

You think Charter would want competition, so they could prove to people that what they are offering is better than the other guy. Competition breeds more business, right?

I will say this, however, I compliment your company for it's low rates for advertising.

Hello All,

My name is Dylan (Far right in our avatar :) ) and I'll be hanging out here helping any of you experiencing issues with your service. I have sent PM's to a few of you that have expressed issues that you are having already. Please feel free to PM this account or hit us at the email provided so that we can address any problem that you may be having.

Hello Bill,

I appreciate your sentiment about the monopoly and do not want to disregard your frustration, but we are here to help customers with service issues and do not have the ability to provide the information you are requesting. If there is anything we can do to improve your Charter service, please let us know.

Thanks!

Dylan

i think the reason for the monopoly has to do with the fact that they own the majority of the lines in and around the city for cable. a competing company would have to lay a lot of their own cable. if i remember correctly, that's one reason why fios isn't able to come in.

and as for the volume increasing and decreasing, it's not the cable provider's fault. it's the commercials themselves, as well as the shows. it's a cheap attempt to get your attention. a legislator in california is looking to pass a law that regulates broadcast sound at one level. turns out a lot of people are annoyed by that one.

That one wasn't scheduled by us! :) He may have been in the area for a trouble call or possibly maintenance. However if you'd like we can definitely look into the issue you're having with your net dropping. Please PM me the ph# on the account and we'll get it sorted.

This thread is weird, I had constant problems with Charter over the winter. Our sound would cut out like once a day and when we would call to have them reset it, they would try to upgrade us...is a upgrade from no sound be more channels with no sound? Then they would charge us a $35 fee for fixing the sound. If Kyle wasn't so obsessed with Sports Center I would cancel it all in a heartbeat.

it will all be over soon.

within 5 years we shouldnt need any wires except for power... high speed internet from cell phone towers. meow

also... with further integration of tv's and computers we should start seeing full on cable service through the internet (ironically over coax cable wires at first probably) soon as well.

i think that once cable service is pirated / hosted via the web it will be like the death of the physical media music industry all over again... companies will cry and people will get shit for free.

this is probably why they charge $150 for cable service now... did cable really change THAT much since 5 years ago to justify tripling in monthly fee? i think its a smash and grab... they want to suck everything they can out of it while they own the infrastructure and before the wires become obsolete.

Well, I don't usually comment on this thing, but had to say I've had great service with Charter. They come out when it's convenient for me, within the next day or two, and fix whatever's wrong. Of course the first time the guy bad-mouthed the installation guy, but the second time it was a bad amplifier thingie and the guys told me it was a bad part from the manufacturer. AND he replaced my HD box, said it was a dinosaur - now this is the box that I bought when I moved in 9 months ago... Anyway, I'd probably go to FIOS if it was an option, but so far Charter's been OK to me - surprising considering all the horror stories I've heard. (Sorry those who are having problems.)

Switched to fios and will not be going back. Charter never could seem to get their shit together when we moved into my new house 3 years ago...collection calls for the boxes we brought with us from the old house, charging us for services we didn't have, fees keep going up up up etc. I don't miss them one bit. I don't live in the city anymore but whatever you can do to get other providers into the area would be good for everyone.

This seem shady to anyone else?

So every once in a while I go on a spree of ordering a bunch of on demand in a very short period of time. Like 4 or 5 movies over the course of 3 days, usually with the following result:

A. The movies will freeze up mid movie

B. I'll order the movie, the screen will say "Thank You, Enjoy Your Show" and no movie comes on.

So I call customer service who within seconds fixes my problem. Once the problem is fixed they then give me this spiel (to paraphrase)

"Mr Rollins I see that you enjoy ordering many movies on demand. May you be interested in the deal we are offering right now on HBO/Cinemax blah blah blah"

This sound shady to anyone else?

Charter has been relentless in sending me crap in the mail (all of it marked "Important Account Information", of course) trying to get me to sign up for stuff I won't use. For a while they were also calling me from toll-free or unlisted numbers for the same reason. I opted out of their junk mail program, and they seemed to honor that pretty quickly; dunno about opting out of the phone calls, since they've become much less frequent. I think they're just super pushy when it comes to marketing.

I hate Charter. I had to call last night 'cause Keith was doing work and our internet went out and I'm persistant enough that I get what I want 9/10 times I call some place. It went out about 5 times over the last 4 days, only for a few minutes at a time, like <15, but every time it was annoying. The asshat I talked to in customer service was a pedantic, patronizing jerk with one of those nerd-raging voices... you just know if you mention his little pet FQUID29538-02 (fill in the variable with a game or gadget) that he'll start moaning about how the 01 was SO much better and only the cool kids use the 01 and it's just posers and nubs that use the 02 and how the whole thing is just for casual users and how nobody old-school and knowledgeable and hard-core would EVER be caught DEAD with it... Plus he had the oh-so-obnoxious valley girl habit? of asking questions? in the middle of sentences? and at the end?, especially when he felt that I didn't cotton on right away to his instructions to unhook my modem? completely? I wanted to instruct him in proper diction and customer service and instrutional tones. I'm sure I was a stupid chick he went home and complained about to his nerd-raging, pedantic, equally socially-awkward friends. "These people can't answer what kind of modem they have right off the bat and have to look, sheesh, how dumb". I bet he says "lawl" when he laughs. You know the type?

I hate Charter, I hated Verizon, I hated DirectTV... I want honest, friendly SERVICE that doesn't suck and doesn't make me feel like I'm bending over every time I pay the bill... why is this such a difficult thing? I think I was lied to (again) last night and Charter was fixing it, 'cause again, after 10 minutes, we were magically back online.