 Review by owenhome 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 2068 visits, last login: 102 days ago
 Wichita Falls,Wichita,TX
 $55 per month
 about 3 days
 "Fast!"
 "The installation was a bungled mess!"
 "I really like the service, it's stupid fast, and so are their people, except for the fast part."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Ok, to start at the beginning. I had AT&T phone and "pro" DSL. I had the basic options on the phone, call waiting, voice mail, caller ID, unlimited long distance (lots of family out of state). My average monthly bill was $130/month for AT&T. I also had DirecTV with all the show channels, that was around $125/month. So for phone, data, tv, I was paying a little over $250/month.
My step-dad has the Time Warner "triple-play" (cable tv, data, phone) which costs him ~$230/month. With that he has the "Turbo" data package which is 10/1 here. He was really happy with it so I looked a little deeper.
I called Time Warner, told them I wanted ALL the show channels (HBO, Stars, Skinimax, Showtime, etc), two HD DVR's, 4 digital cable boxes, and the "Turbo" 10meg cable Internet service. I told him I had 6 tv's to set up, he said since they were already wired, I would only need to pay the installation ($9.99 each) on the two tv's that were getting the DVR's. He said it was $139 with the standard 7meg service and $158 a month with the 10meg service. I said "Great, let's do it!". He then informed me that there would be a $50 installation fee, some other fee's for the fee's, and what not, and that I needed to pay $258 up front. He took my money, made my order, and said the installer would be here on Wednesday (2 days later) to set everything up.
Wednesday morning the installer called at 8:45am and said he was on the way. I showed him where all the cabling was and where I wanted my modem and he said "How many tv's do you have because they only have me setting up two." TWO?? I told him what the salesman said and he said they charge "per outlet" whether they are wired or not and he could only connect the two tv's and the modem. I called to see what I needed to do to connect the other tv's. I didn't care if it cost more, that didn't matter, I just needed those tv's connected.
I was very nice and just explained the situation to the woman Time Warner. She was an amazing bitch! She says "Sir, I don't care what the salesman told you! In fact, he only charged you half price 1/2 price for the installation! There is nothing we can do for you!" I said "Look, I don't care if it costs more. What do I need to do to get those other tv's connected?" She asked to speak to the installer, all I heard him say was "Yes, they are already wired". He handed me the phone back. The woman said "He's going to connect your other tv's but I am going to bill you a $40". I thought it was odd that she said "I", like she IS Time Warner.
After he got everything installed, I settled in to test my new Internet connection. All of the tests I ran looked like I was on the 7/512 plan instead of the 10/1 plan I ordered so I called to find out. The next woman I spoke with was very nice! I asked her what Internet plan I was on, sure enough, I was on the 7/512 plan. She said that the order placed was for 7/512. I told her everything that happened, she took off the additional $40 that the bitch charged me and changed my plan to 10/1 turbo. Here's the catch, it wasn't $158, now it's $189! Apparently the salesman who took my order got NOTHING right. He probably couldn't find his a$$ with both hands and a road map! So I asked her, "Is this standard fare for Time Warner? To say one thing and do another? If it is, I think I made a big mistake!" She said there was nothing she could do about the rate difference, but she said all those calls are recorded and she would request them to listen to the call. She said I would pay whatever I was quoted, period! That's nice, but things like this shouldn't happen. This seems to be a blatant case of BAIT AND SWITCH!!!
So she switches me over to 10/1 and says to simply reboot my modem but when I did, EVERYTHING quit! Every link I clicked on or typed in took me to this page that said I needed to activate my service! I called Time Warner's local office, they transferred my to a national office when they thought they couldn't fix it, the national office transfered me back to local, that happened several times. I finally got a tech who seemed to know what he was talking about. He said my account somehow got "nuked", completely destroyed, gone, wiped out, garbled, trashed, and he would have to rebuild it. He said it would take a while and he would call back. He called about a half an hour later, all was working again. Speed tests showed about 9800 down and 970 up, so I was obviously on 10/1.
I switched my pots phone service to Vonage too, that was soooo impressively easy. I could have gone with TW for the phone too, but I just couldn't see paying 50 bucks a month for the exact same service that Vonage offers for half as much money! That service, along with the Road Runner service, has been absolutely rock solid so far.
Now that everything's worked out and right, I am really happy with it. Getting it to that point was like pulling teeth though. I honestly had less resistance training my Labradors. Wow. I don't know what they are doing. Do they hire their office staff from bars, half-way houses, rehab centers, what? Those are some damaged goods folks! The installer seemed nice enough and he new what he was doing, but those people on the phones, oh.....my.....God!!
"Do you have a firewall? Where did you get your modem? Did you reboot it? Unplug it for 5 minutes and plug it back in. Do you have a router? Did you put your left or right shoe on first?"
"Look you retard, I told you, it was working fine before you guys upgraded my account, now it doesn't. I unplugged it and let it sit for 10 minutes SEVERAL times! If you were listening the first 6 times I said that, you would have known that already!!! Nothing, nothing, NOTHING has changed within the 15 minutes I have been telling you this 6 times. If I didn't have a firewall the first 5 times you asked, do you THINK one just magically appeared??"
Anyway....
I am really happy with the service they offer, it's stable, solid, and fast. But I think they are waaay too used to dealing push-over idiots and treat everyone that way. When they get someone with an IQ over 70, they just can't handle it.
With my data, cable tv, and Vonage VOIP service, I am paying about $210 which is a good bit down from $255, plus I get almost 10megs of download instead of about 2.5.
And for what it's worth, they still haven't got my Stars subscription working. I guess I will have to call about that AGAIN.
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