 Review by I Use Dial 
UPDATED: 79 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 295 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Morgan Hill,Santa Clara,CA
 $70 per month
 about 3 days
 "They're reliable at billing."
 "They delete customer complaint history."
 "Criminals."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
Original Review:
Overall, I am very happy with my Charter Pipeline service.
The only thing that irritates me is how they try to attach a fee to just about everything. They wanted to charge a fee of I think $6.95 per month for the cable modem. I instead purchased a Linksys cable modem for $70. I'll easily have this service for longer than 10 months, so that cable modem I purchased will pay for itself.
I think it would be a lot better if they just charged me outright for the part. I own all of my DirecTV hardware (which, by the way, is the reason I did NOT get Charter cable -- they want to charge a fee for their cable boxes, too!) and that's the way I prefer it. I know I'm a bit eccentric, but I have taken a personal stand against subscription based products, it's why I don't own a Tivo box, either. I simply will not pay a subscription fee for a product. For a service, that's fine, but not a product.
So my recommendation is get the Charter service (far better than any DSL I've ever seen) and purchase your own cable modem (I recommend Linksys).
Update 10/23/07:
Charter has done something to make my connection in the evenings terrible. It is quite frequently 500 Kbps, even dipping down to 150 Kbps for some periods, and NEVER getting above 1 Mbps. Also, the latency is terrible making online gaming frustrating.
During the day, it's great. It is very consistently 4.8 Mbps.
I contacted Charter about this problem and they have sent 2 technicians to my house who did nothing more than perform a visual inspection, something I can do myself (and had already done).
The second one that showed up told me that Charter is considering doing something to fix the problem. How kind of them.
Update 10/25/07
I contacted Charter tech support yesterday and was told that they are upgrading local service to 5, 10, and 16 mbps service levels. Somehow this 'upgrade' is killing bandwidth.
The tech signed me up for trial of 10 mbps service and said to watch my speeds over the coming week. My upload immediately when to about 700-1000 mbps, and previously was never higher than 500 kbps. But my download was just as terrible (I called in the evening). Today my download is 7-8 mbps, but when the upload test is run I get the following message: "Warning: ISP upload compression was detected. Your upload speeds may be inaccurate." I have never recieved that message before.
Update 11/7/07
Yesterday I received a Hallmark card from Charter that said:
"We're sorry about the problems you had with your service recently and want to thank you for letting us know about them."
"Keeping everything running smoothly so you have time for the things that matter most is our top priority. Please call us if there's anything else we can do to help."
Last night my speed was 150 kbps from Speakeasy Palo Alto, which is about 50 miles from my house.
I contacted Charter today and learned that the first guy that showed up to my house did not file the proper work order, or something, so no follow up was done. The second guy wasn't even on record as having visited my house.
They told me that they have to send a third tech to my house to verify what the first two techs have already discovered, and that was scheduled for this weekend.
I told them that I would like a refund because the internet is basically worthless in the evenings and they haven't done their job in servicing my account, as their own records show.
So they referred me to a corporate number for Charter, which I called, and was told that someone will call me back.
Update 11/16/07
Aside from giving me 12 months of free service, I don't think there is anything that Charter can do to ever earn a higher rating that they have from me right now.
Sometime in October my service went from consistently 4.2 Mbps or greater, to having near dial-up speeds in the evening, every evening. It happened like a switch being thrown. It was not something that crept up over time, it was something that happened immediately.
When I finally realized that the problem was not going to take care of itself, I contacted Charter to have them fix the problem. They bungled that up terribly and it took a month for them to finally figure out that the problem is not at my house and it is a problem with their service.
They have just informed me that they are not going to upgrade the system until sometime in December. So I basically have no internet connection at all in the evenings. Just browsing websites is a painful experience.
Verizon is in my area and am praying that they will offer to me their FIOS service. Charter Pipeline has 656 positive reviews and 675 negative reviews, whereas FIOS has 727 positive reviews and 27 negative reviews. I have zero loyalty to Charter.
Update 11/18/07
Charter told me that they don't want to have to work over time to fix their problem, so they are leaving me with slightly better than dial-up speeds for 2 months.
Update 11/26/07
Charter customer service told me that there was an outage in my area and completely ignored everything that was in the notes about my account. Tonight my speed is consistently 124 kbps to a server only 35 miles from me.
Update 1/2/08
Supposedly everything was going to be fixed in December. The person I spoke with today said that they are aware of the problem in my area and have no plans to fix it. However, in the event they do fix it, they will consider compensating me for all of these months that I have not been able to use the internet in the evenings. They have also decided to start blocking TCP access to port 80, which of course they don't feel the need to inform their customers of such a decision.
Update 9/2/08
I still rarely get better than 5 mbps. I contacted customer service to see if they are ever going to do something about this and they have erased their records of all my complaints. There is now nothing to show the year long problems I have had with them. Obviously I should have been recording all of the conversations, writing down the names of everyone, keeping a log, and tracking all confirmation numbers. Now I just have an ISP that is happy to rip me off at every opportunity and I have no other choice.
Followup comments:  zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN
 ·Charter Pipeline
edit:
October 24th, @06:18PM
| 54 a month for just 5 meg where do you live
i get 10 meg from charter here for 59.99 a month
as for the cable box the reson they charge rental for it is becase if hacked in a certain way you could get all channels just paying for basic
if i wanted i could get 5 meg here for 49.99 a month
ushely if you call and threaten to cancel they will knock 10 dollars off price | |
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kmh
@charter.com
| from crawl to stop We have been having problems for two months. I always get told "It's your modem". The tech came out the other day and I told him the problems always start around 4pm and we crawl on the 5meg until around 1am everyday. He could not find a problem and said it has to be your modem, he never even looked at it. I guess my modum has a timer and screws up daily at 4pm. I explained all my neighbors were having the same problem. "Well they must be on different servers." What an idiot! I think they are selling their bandwidth. Tonight it was down for hours and I called, they said not a problem on their end they could not see a connection to my modem duh their server was down, had to be No one around me was getting their charter internet service but the tech says it must be MY MODUM! That is the answer they have for everything. I have had enough I taking my money to someone else. | |
| | | | |
kmh
@charter.com | Re: from crawl to stop I am in Greenville SC | |
| | | | nikesboy
join:2007-09-29
Greenville, SC
| Re: from crawl to stop Oh, we've had the same issues. The internet speeds are up and down all the time. The company told me to quit using the speed test site I was using and use another one. Of course, that's a Charter site and you'd expect Charter to Charter to be good. I use several test sites for fairness and, when it slows, there is no explanation, modem or not.
I think their customer service is extremely weak and statistics bear that out. They've raised prices for years but used that to expand plant. They are now playing catch-up with customer service and it shows. | |
|
composer777
@charter.com
| my service went from 10 meg to less than 1 meg You're not alone. My service has went from rock solid, never less than 10 Meg, to less than 1 Meg download in the past week. I forgot to check where you are from, but I am in the Saint Louis area. If they don't fix it in the next day or two, I plan on contacting them to register a complaint. | |
| bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
·Charter Pipeline
·Comcast
edit:
November 7th, @03:58PM
| Serious issue pile-up with Charter How can such a diverse geographical cross-section of their customer base be experiencing similar, if not identical, problems if it's not systemic?
Charter, while I doubt you read these reviews (I try not to look at myself in the mirror much either), come clean with us! If you're having issues that you are aware of and are truly trying to resolve them most of us will understand. Most people reciprocate loyalty and candor. If you told us that you were fixing issues, etc that would take another month most of us would acquiesce and live with it until you got your act together.
Just give us a legitimate reason (no, my modem is not broken) and a reasonable time frame for resolution and we'll sit tight.
--
Da Biff | |
| | Bombgod
join:2006-06-05
Lawrenceville, GA
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: Serious issue pile-up with Charter No doubt. I have given Charter the benefit of the doubt for several years but their poor plant, poor video service, poor broadband, and poor customer service have tortured me for too long. I dropped their broadband after they added new housing developments to the node (they claimed nothing in the network changed and it must be my wiring - even though it was fine for years). My Moto HD DVR is a piece of crap - my HD went out this weekend - I am canceling my Charter TV after Monday Night Football tonight. I will either go Dish or increase my netflicks. I refuse to reward a company that treats its customers so poorly. | |
|
Flashbulb
@charter.com
| Charter Charter in Morgan Hill has to be the biggest joke around. I ping a server in Palo Alto.....get a 990k download and 146 upload with 440ms latency...the darn server is 40 miles away. I wish I had other options. This happens Sunday night thru Thursday night from 6pm to 11pm. I have complained, phoned, emailed......they even told me once it was because of the fires in Southern California. | |
| |
charter_blows
@csupomona.edu
| Re: Charter lol
Charter told me that they don't want to have to work over time to fix their problem, so they are leaving me with slightly better than dial-up speeds for 2 months.
that is classic.  a call rep said that or someone higher? | |
| | | | | | | AdamC831
join:2007-09-15
Hollister, CA
| Re: Charter I live in Hollister, CA. and i am experiencing the EXACT same problems with charter as you. Really, it's like reading a detailed autobiography on my own experience with charter. Tech support gives me a different answer every time, and when i do actually get someone with some common sense, any help they gave me is washed away when the next dummie in line can't bring up/find what the other did. And don't even get me started on the number of dropped calls ive gotten when i try and talk to a supervisor  | |
| astevens
Premium
join:2007-12-19
Turlock, CA
 ·AT&T Yahoo
|  Offer of assistance - strength in numbers
I have seen, like with every other captive isp (charter, att, etc) where you have no choice, they try to cram as many users in an area as possible.
I use to have a 10mb fiber feed from them to a business and know that they can get stuff going, but only after you hold their hand along the way.
Just like most places with hundreds of thousands of users, their is too much for them to do so you have to be your own advocate. I even got ATT to clean up a router for me finally. It can be done. 
Anyways if you want my help, IM me traceroutes to some major domains and I will have a peek if their is anything you can tell your noc to change to help you out.
Happy New Year!
Arthur | |
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