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Review by howardfine 
Posted: a few hours ago
member for 5.9 years, 148 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Saint Charles,Saint Charles,MO
 Contract price not specified.
 "Good speeds and prices; Quick response to line and modem problems"
 "Online and phone support is handled by brain dead people"
 "The best service to have but look elsewhere for set up problems."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I have had Charter internet, phone and TV for many years. We live in a somewhat outlying area so relability and speed took a while to get here. Now, I can't say anything but the best about Charter's products and relability.
However, getting technical help that really helps is useless. You won't get it. It's almost not even worth calling. For example, Charter has a web page suggesting a strong, secure method of setting an email password. But using those methods doesn't work. Calling tech support only brought the response that the problem must be my browser and I should call the browser software maker to get it fixed.
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Review by nicomore
Posted: 2 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 169 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Topanga,Los Angeles,CA
$47 per month (month by month)
 about 7 days
"it works consistantly"
"none so far"
"no complaints after 2 months"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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No other service available in my area except satellite which is an over priced joke
Motorola surfboard modem
10 mb $44 pm + 3.00 modem rental
Month to month, no contract
$40.00 service fee, which in my case wasn't bad, cable had to be run from the poll
No service failures to date
Speed test results from this site and two others , average 95 % or better regardless of time of day
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Review by wombatclov
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 623 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Easthampton,Hampshire,MA
$99 per month
about 7 days
"Good Value"
"Slows Dowwwwnnn"
"Good for the average user, and a good value if bundled."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I signed up when I moved into town, since they are the only cable provider in this town. I previously had Comcast with no complaints. The pre-sales info was adequate- although I think Charter could have some more information and tech support on their website- (for example detailing down to the types of cable modems you can use). I ordered the package that includes the digital TV for a total of 85.95 per month plus the $2.95 cable modem rental fee. The sales person told me that the cable modem "was included" in the price- of course when I got my first bill I found out that was not true.
The installer came on the date and time promised. It was a very easy install for him since I have a Linux router that I was going to hook the modem up to- all I had him do was install the digital TV box and verify block sync on the modem, and activate my account.
Once I hooked up my router- I got the IP address (dynamic of course), and connectivity. The first thing I noticed was that I could not ping anything. However, web browsing was fine. For some reason they were filtering outgoing pings. This was frustrating to me, because I am a network administrator and I need to test external hosts. At this point the speed was about 690kbs down and 119kbs up.
About 2 weeks after I was setup and running- I was working one night ant lost connectivity. It was late that night so I went to bed. The next morning, connectivity was back, and I noticed that I could ping hosts! This indicates to me that they were messing around with their routers and made changes, or simply do not know what they are doing!
More recently, I have connection cutouts for more than 10 minutes at a time. I will be in the middle of working on something, and bang- I am cut off! Usually this is at midnight, so I just go to bed, and the connection is back up in the morning, but it certainly indicates they are doing something!
Despite that sporadic trouble, I decided to take a look at their pricing plans again (it has been 6 months since I signed up), and sure enough, they now offer 2Mb down, for only about $4.00 more than I am paying now- so I upgraded to that with no problems. As a bonus, the upload is about 256kbs, which is twice what they published. I also returned the rented modem and installed my own I had from my previous provider. To Charter's credit, that was a painless process- the rep was very nice and made sure my modem worked before we hung up.
This weekend I have been having some strange problems that points back to their routers- both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I was not able to get to certain websites- from about 8 am to 11am EST- the websites that I was able to reach were either cloaked, or local on the East coast. I did go through the whole reboot and modem reset with no help. Oddly as I said, the problem disappeared about 11am. This is very annoying, when you want to get some work done! I did call tech support Saturday, and after 30 minutes they finally assigned me a ticket number, and promised a call back by a high level tech, but nobody ever called me.
So as it stands now- I have mixed feelings- the speed is great, but for the price I pay, they could be better with reliability and uptime. A notification of system outages would be helpful.
--------------------
Update 4/14/06:
So Charter has a nice bundle out for my area- Digital Cable + 3mb Internet + Digital Phone (local/long unlimited) all for $99 month. If I compare that to Verizon, I save $50/month, so I decided to give it a try. Telephone has just been released in this part of MA, and I read all the reviews, and it seems good. I like the fact that they use a seperate channel back to the head end and not my Internet connection.
I called and ordered one week ago. They scheduled an install on the Internet for 3 days after the date of my call, and install on the phone one week after my call (since I was not porting my # over yet). The night before my first install date, I realized I had an old cable modem and I could call tech support to provision it, so I did. The next morning, first thing, I called to cancel my Internet install, since I took care of it on my own, and I confirmed that the phone install date was still active. I got home that day and there were three calls from Charter- "Where are you?". This shows me that they don't have their act together. So, Internet works fine, speeds are all over the place though- from 900kbs to 2.5mbs, depending on time of day.
Now for the phone install- I was told between 8am and 12pm. It got to be 1pm (here I am taking a vactation day for this!). I called, and they couuld not find out why no tech had showed up, and I got disconnected on thier end! Then I called again, re-explained the problem, and after 20 minutes they informed me that it would have to be re-scheduled one week later! This is why I have rated the install co-ordination low now. I asked to talk to a supervisor, who basically said something about an outlet was supposed to be installed, and kinds making it my fault. I am glad I did not port my number or shut off Verizon yet! They did credit me the install fee. The funny thing is about 5 minutes after I got off the phone, a tech showed up! Apparently he had been running late and thought that Charter had called me. Not! Anyway, the tech was very nice and did an excellent job. It took a while because the first telephone adapter he installed was bad, and it was new, so it was the last thing he and support expected. Luckily the tech had another on his truck. But now it works fine, and he made test calls in both directions to ensure that before he left. I did not have him hook it to the main house wiring so I can use it only on one phone as a test. So far I can not tell the difference from a regular copper line. Voicemail is not working today though, apparently MA has a problem with that.
I would give this a try if you are looking for good value of phone + Internet + TV. I am confident about the phone service since it is FCC regulated and monitored by them. I have been waiting for this bundle for a while. Just be prepared for a mess of install dates and the normal tech support crap.
-------------------
Update 9/7/06
Ok- not good news again. The Internet part is terrible, but the phone and TV have been fine. Over the past month I have had so many outages, and slowdowns such to the point that it was worse than dialup. I do a significant amount of work from home and I need a reliable connection. Charter just does not cut it. Plus, I never, ever (even at early AM) got the 3meg service I am paying for- lucky if half that. And look at the competition- Charter is way behind in speed- just a plain ripoff. I call tech support, they treat me like an idiot and refuse to accept they have a problem when I tell them the traceroute data (and I am net tech). They even refused to let me talk to a supervisor or higher level tech. That does not help business! I am droping to the phone/TV package only, and getting naked DSL- I end up paying about $5 more/month, but to me the relabilty and staility (in my area) DSL is worth it. My advice is if you can get DSL, do it- at this point I recommend Charter for only Phone and TV. TV you don't have a choice unless you go Sattelite, but the phone has more features per dollar than Verizon at this point.
----------
Update 7/2/08
I switched back to Charter Internet again, got me a $29.99 for six months (no modem rental) with the 10M/1M package. I decided to switch because I needed the better upload bandwidth (work VPN, sharing photos and videos, etc). Verizon's 386k was just not cutting it. Also I heard that there were some improvements in my area to the system. So far (had it on about three weeks), there have been no issues with connections dropping (like I had described a few years ago), and pings work. The upload speed is pretty consistent at all times of the day, but the download varies, as expected, with the time of day. The lowest so far has been 1.5Mbs. Not horrible, but if I am paying for 10M, I should be getting it most times! I would recomend Charter if you need the upload bandwidth, and can negotiate a promotion or package deal. I don't think I am going to be laying out the normal $60/month at the end of this promotion though.
Followup comments:  HyPeRbAnD
join:2006-01-07
Stow, MA
| Slow Speeds in Easthampton We will be doing work for Easthampton in the very near future. We already added a new CMTS for Easthampton and are in the process reworking some combining. I dont have an exact date on when it will be complete, but if you give me your email address I will keep you updated.. I cant say for sure if your speed issue is directly related to this work, but it is possible. If you give me the MAC of your modem I could check on our end to see if anything looks out of the ordinary. | |
| | wombatclov
join:2002-10-16
Easthampton, MA
 ·Charter Pipeline
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Slow Speeds in Easthampton I'd be interested in the details of what work. IMO, Charter is WAY behind the competition (in this area) in regards to speed for the Internet.
What does a new CTMS do? Was it a replacement, or addition, or does it actually help reliability?
Many peak times I can't even watch VOD on the Digital converter box- that is quite disappointing. It is not just the Internet that I am unhappy with.
Part of the reason I switch Internet is something that Charter can't fix- the topology of the technology- sharing the bandwidth with my neighbors. | |
| | | HyPeRbAnD
join:2006-01-07
Stow, MA
| Re: Slow Speeds in Easthampton You may have a separate problem all together. You may have an RF issue between you and the node. When you say you have a problem with VOD and HSD. The only common thing is the outside plant, everything on the other end is separate. Different equipment ect..
Charter upgrades their network as needed. Example if Charter see x amount of HSD modems going to a single port that is high, they will reduce that number by node splitting. Yes it is a shared network, but if splitting is done correctly customers should not see the impact with QOS.
CMTS is Cable Modem Termination System. This particular CMTS is new. Some areas in Easthampton have been split already. Without knowing where you live, I could not tell you if your area is going to be split or not. However if your service area has a high number of modems in it you will be split, that I guarantee.. | |
| | | | wombatclov
join:2002-10-16
Easthampton, MA
·Charter Pipeline
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Slow Speeds in Easthampton Guess I'd just rather have something reliable. With DSL, my uploads fly. With the cable I could not upload more than one photo without a timeout.
Over the rainy labor day weekend, download speeds were like dial-up.
The worst thing is that if you call support they treat you like an idiot and nothing ever gets done. I am not willing to pay for a service call when I know the issue is Charter, not my house. I can send you my modem stats if you want. I'll PM you with my street name. | |
| | | | | 
Charter Tech
@insightbb.com
| Re: Slow Speeds in Easthampton Sorry if you get treated like an idiot on the phone when you call. I have ran into many people who have weather related issues relevant to their cable service. If you there are valid proofs that there is an issue at your house, you should not recieve any fee for the tech visit, just as long as there is no extensive work done inside your home. I hope your issue gets resolved soon and your work done at home is no longer interrupted. I have noticed increased problems through your area Im not sure if has something to due with increased VOIP service or not. | |
| | | |
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Review by Phatty
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 3946 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Valley Park,Saint Louis,MO
$80 per month
"Great Package Options, Works 99% of the time better than advertised"
"Can be slow once a network issue pops up to respond"
"If you live in the right spot such as STL, you can't go wrong with Charter"
| Pre Sales information:
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-------------- Update 4-------------------------------------7/2008
I am now on a business plan through my office with 5mb down/512mb up with a few static IPs. Charter had a bit of a slow down late last year that took them about a month to fix but now they are back to their usual good performance that I have grown used to with charter. Overall I still think the negotiation game Charter forces you to play to get good pricing is a bit lame as their every day price is way to high when compared to DSL. When it comes down to it though I would recommend Charter to anyone that comes asking as the only major competitor in the area AT&T has nothing on Charter's speeds or performance.
-------------- Update 3-------------------------------------8/2005
What can I say, Charter has improved a load in the many years from dialup upload(one way modem) days. The pricing is doing better, and the speed tiers that they offer have improved a load. Charter is still always a step behind when compared to other cable providers but when you actually compare price/speed to local ISPs Charter is now equally matched or better than most other providers in the area. If they could only get rid of the server rule in the TOS like most dsl providers do it would be perfect. I still get the occasional problem pop up that is directly Charter's fault, but overall I feel Charter is the best choice for an ISP and would not consider any other provider.
-----------------UPDATE 2---------------------------- 09/2003
Well service has been decent over the last year. I think the last time I had problems that seemed related to Charter over selling bandwidth was about this time last year. Charter has had a few problems here and there, usually related to the backbone so it seems like charter service is still getting better. But I still believe Charter could do a lot better on the reliability side, the backbone problems happen with them more than they happened when I had DSL.(ISP used 2 different providers instead of just using one like Charter seems to rely on.) I would recommend charter to friends now unless they need static IP/server then they are still better off with DSL. Charter changes price structures/speed a little too often, but as of right now paying around 45 a month with rental for 2mb/128 and that 128 is rumored to get increased soon. So for the first time in my 3+ years of pipeline service they are finally starting to have speeds and prices that make more since for the home user. Although the 2mb upgrade seems a bit late when you consider the number of cable providers now switching to 3mb as the standard. Oh well, if in STL area the service is fairly good, and probably a better choice than DSL unless you need to run a server.
-----------------UPDATE----------------------------
Service has stayed about the same, rarely any long term downtime. But the occasional short bits of downtime still seem to happen to often. They have changed around the prices/speeds now to give the service a bit more value, but I still feel when compared to other providers, they could offer better speed value into the packages. I currently pay around 50bux for just the pipeline after a discount of it being packaged with digital cable. I see a fairly consistant 1.6-1.7 mb down now, and upstream is a fairly constant 300kpbs but that is supposed to be leaving shortly to a nice cap of 128...
-----------------ORIGINAL----------------------------
I Originally had the pipeline service several years ago when they were One-Way service, and then had just switched to two-way... After several months of troubles when they were just getting everything going on Two-way I switched to dsl........ After a year+ of DSL that company went under so I decided to take the dive back to Pipeline in July of 2001. Overall the service is fairly reliable, although when problems do occur tech support has no tools or abilities to do anything so it always requires a service call of a tech to dispatch... and that is always slow with several hour windows of the techs coming out which waste a lot of your time, and is a long time to wait while being down. I think DSL is better overall for the money, and static IP's and such. But I didn't want to get stuck with another DSL company that goes out of biz. and that is why I went back to Pipeline.... The tiered service that pipeline offers in St. Louis area is a joke and the price/speed does not go up accordingly..
256 is like 25-30ish
768 45ish
1000 is 75...... small difference for a lot more money....
IF not for Charter's capped low, priced high plans it is pretty good. And I would recommend them to friends on the basis that I was able to switch from my DSL when it went down to Cable in the same day.....
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 Review by TheMadSwede
Posted: 4 days ago
member for 7.4 years, 1223 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Holland,Ottawa,MI
$60 per month
about 3 days
"Solid speeds"
"Paid install? 3 hours late?"
"The only choice is the best choice"
| |
I tried ATT DSL; however, the speeds just weren't up to snuff. So given my area, I had to go with Charter's 10Mb package. I'm getting about 8 down and 1 up right now. I didn't know companies still had installation fees. And the sign up guy never mentioned it to me. And I don't think I should have to pay for an install where the guy was 3 hours late. I'm not using any of Charter's equipment. I've only had it for 1 week now.
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 Review by nirvansk815
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 7 years, 2455 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Rancho Cucamonga,San Bernardino,CA
$44 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Low pings and consistent speeds"
"Only two tier packages, and modem rent fee"
"Good for consistency, bad on the wallet."
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The following was reviewed in the Temple City Area
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
Charter is reliable. They've been down 3 times in the last 3 years and only once mixed up our tier package. If you live in or around the Temple City, CA area the investment is well worth the consistency. Charter's customer service could be better but overall were happy.
*Update* Charter increased speeds to 2mbps down and 128kbps up. THANK YOU! (235KB/s)(16KB/s)
**Second Update_4-1-04** Charter increased speeds to 3mbps down and 256kbps up for 10$ more. (375KB/s)(32KB/s)
***Third Update_3-29-05*** Charter still going strong. Good job!
****Fourth Update_6-15-06**** Charter has been reliable with up-time and speed consistency. No problems to speak of. I am happy with the service.
*****Fifth Update_1-25-07***** Still no down town, speeds consistent, overall great service. Charter increased speeds to 5mbps down and 512kbps up for free! Thanks.
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The following was reviewed in the Rancho Cucamonga area.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
*Update*_12-12-07* I moved out to Rancho Cucamonga and signed up for the 3mbps/256kbps and basic cable package @ 44$ per month for 12 months. Installation was a breeze and both the internet and cable services work as advertised. Internet speeds have been consistent and service hasn't been down yet. Would like to see a lower tier option since the plan I'm on is temporary, but word has it you can keep 'renewing' the latest promo. We will see.
**Second Update** 06-27-08 As promised if you call and threaten to cancel service they will sell you on the newest promo which is always cheaper. I'm paying $44 for 5Mbit service bundled with basic cable service on a 1 year contract. Speeds are fine, and the service doesn't go down. Thank you Charter.
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Review by semilife
Posted: 6 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
Escanaba,Delta,MI
$150 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"90 percent of the time it is on when you need it"
"when it is down, well it can be down for a while. depends on problem"
"charter pipeline is a good system but it is a little expensive for what it is."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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overall charter pipeline is a good system. i have 5mb down and 512 up. most of the time 90 percent in fact it is right up there. full motion video and such. so i think that as long as charter does not put it up any more, it will be a good bundle as i have it with the cable tv and the phone. 50.00 per is a good deal. without anything it is 59.00 monthly.
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Review by bgetchel
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 8 years, 182 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Boaz,Marshall,AL
$80 per month
about 3 days
"Typically fast, when it works. Their techs make me feel like a genius!"
"Frequent, sporadic, random outages or dialup-like slowdowns"
"You can get better, but you can't pay more!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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(ratings match consensus)
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[Revised 6-24-2008]
Well, it's been another six-plus months since my last review update. Service and performance have improved considerably since my last report. Outages are down dramatically to only a few hours per month (not great, but great by comparison), and improvement to performance has been no less dramatic. I typically receive the full 10 Mbps that I'm paying for with negligible slow-down. I ditched Charter's television service altogether in favor of DirecTV. Their cable television was poor quality and woefully inadequate -- and lacked any real HDTV options. DTV, by comparison, has 10x the number of HD channels as well as a plethora of other channels that Charter doesn't even offer.
Anyway, about the connection. If services remains at the current level, as it has been for the past couple of months, I can retract my previous review and replace it with this much more favorable one. They're still more expensive than most every competing service (that I can not get), but still a reasonable value. Hopefully they will introduce their 16Mbps service soon when, at that time, I will report on in more depth.
For the moment however, I am fully satisfied with my Charter Pipeline broadband internet service.
[Original Review]
I've had Charter's (clogged) Pipeline for about six (6) months now. I wanted to give it a reasonable amount of time before writing a review, to see if there was a consistent pattern. There is, and it's not a good one, unfortunately. I immediately signed up for their 10/1 package, which was problematic from the start. It took numerous calls to their technical "support" department before I was actually seeing anything that resembled 10Mbps speeds. About the only good thing that comes from dealing with their support personnel is that they make you feel competent and intelligent by comparison. Talking to a Charter "tech" is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.
With Charter, you wake up wondering just what kind of internet connection they'll feel like bestowing upon you that day -- if it works at all. They're basically the Andy Kauffman of the ISP world: you get the distinct impression that they really don't want to be in the internet business at all, but if they're forced to do it then their clueless customers are going to bear the brunt of endless "practical jokes" perpetrated by beleaguered Charter technicians. Service and support this poor simply can't be caused by mistaken incompetence -- it just has to be intentional.
I know this sounds like a typical "squeaky wheel" rant, but I've dealt with a myriad of different companies and types of connections in my profession as a WAN developer, and while I've encountered incompetent individuals and companies none have reached the bottom wrung that Charter alone seems to relish. If you wanted to build a company from the bottom up around charging the most while providing the least I would submit Charter as the primary case study.
It's not all bad. On the ever-more-rare days when the connection is operating at full potential things are good. It's very fast and you can maintain a 10Mbps download for many straight hours. However, I can not recall the last time I've been blessed with such a connection. I've been paying a severe premium for their 10/1 package, but rarely do I see speeds above 2Mbps any more, and even those speeds fluctuate wildly from near zero up-to 2Mbps.
If you don't need 10Mbps (good luck getting it) I seriously recommend looking at DSL or other alternatives. I can, in no way, recommend Charter based upon my experiences and those of my two neighbors. They've had Charter much longer than I and absolutely hate it, but we're way out in the country with the nearest CO a good 25000+ feet away. Otherwise, I'd take the large on-paper speed hit and exchange it for a reliable, consistent connection any day.
For Charter, it's two thumbs down... WAY down!
UPDATE - 11-05-2007: I just received my first BBR monitoring report for the weekend. The most optimistic report cited a 75.94% reachability. I'm surprised it was that high. In my experience it's been down or sporadic 50% of the time. Of course, I assume this is a 24-hour monitor, so it might be great while I'm asleep in bed.
UPDATE - 11-12-2007: Here is my second BBR monitoring report. Talk about going from worse to horrendous:
Outage report as seen by new jersey USA ny-monitor.dslreports.com
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:10 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10018 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Outage report as seen by california USA sjc-monitor.dslreports.com
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:21 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10017 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Outage report as seen by san francisco USA 64.81.79.40
--------------------------------------
DOWN 2007-11-05 04:03:19 - 2007-11-12 03:01:12 (10017 minutes)
** You had 0.62% reachability during the period
Followup comments:
OneStepAhead
@charter.com
| sucks for you i download at the full 10mb speed just about 24 hours a day.. and i keep it maxed almost 100% of the time downloading binaries from usenet. Im pulling 1200kbps right now from news.giganews.com via charter 10mb.. then again i dont live in the boonies.. | |
| | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
edit:
November 3rd, @10:42AM
| Re: sucks for you Hi OneStepAhead,
I hate to tell you this, but if you're getting 1200 Kbps you're only getting about 1/10th of your 10 Mbps speed. Congratulations on proving my point.
--
Da Biff | |
| | | matt314159
join:2006-01-18
Hesperia, CA
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: sucks for you He just typed it wrong I'm sure. I think he meant to say 1200KBps. Which is very close to the full 10mb, esp when you consider the TCP overhead and whatnot. I get 1200-1300KBps all the time with usenet on my 10mb charter connection.
Frankly, I wouldn't stand for it, if they couldn't resolve the technical issues, I would be gone. Luckily I'm not in your situation. | |
| | | | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
·Charter Pipeline
·Comcast
| Re: sucks for you Hi Matt,
I'm sure there are some that are getting what they pay for, and I'd love to be one of them. Unfortunately, judging from the reviews, Charter is the single worst major broadband provider in the country. I haven't seen any ISP with the number of bad reviews that Charter has -- and the bad reviews are REALLY bad, not just marginal.
I'm grinding my axe, for sure, but I'd love to be a fan if they'd just get their act together. I can be as vociferous an advocate as I am a detractor. The installer came by last night to remove the cable HD-DVR box and trap the signal (I dropped their cable TV service in favor of DTV) and he wasn't exactly a fan of Charter either (they don't have their own trucks out here) and said they act as though it's your privilege to do business with them.
I would pay $200/mo if FiOS were available here, or something competitive.
--
Da Biff | |
| PotentBoy99
join:2001-10-23
Simpsonville, SC | Some of us may live in the boonies... Hello onestepahead,
And, some of us may not...
Have you got the typing down yet?
Hope this Helps,
PB | |
|
renochartersux
@charter.com | 5 is 3 is less Here in Reno they signed a contract with charter for the next 7 or 8 years... Horray us!
PS they say 5m is the lowest and im pulling some solid 1.2's all the way up to 3.0 | |
| | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT
·Charter Pipeline
·Comcast
| Re: 5 is 3 is less My speeds are literally all over the map. They range from near dial-up, or complete loss of connection (sometime for seconds or minutes, sometimes for hours) all the way up-to the full 10Mbps (increasingly rare). Yesterday I had almost an hour of full 10Mbps performance, but generally it was 1-3 Mbps. I can live with 1-3, but not while I'm paying for 10.
I'm going to see if a higher-speed DSL has become available in my area (which I doubt). Otherwise I'm going back to the "basic" speed package, since that's all I get anyway -- if I'm lucky.
I canceled my cable TV from Charter (I had their full package) and switched to DTV satellite. Charter has a paltry 5-6 HDTV channels here, and their prices are likewise absurd. DirecTV crushes them for both content and price.
--
Da Biff | |
| wilberfan2
join:2004-11-25
Burbank, CA
·Charter Pipeline
·Comcast
edit:
November 7th, @11:14AM
| Fed up with Charter, too I stopped by today to investigate alternatives to Charter--because I'm fed up as well... I've been with them for 5 or 6 years (?), and was pretty happy with them until last year sometime.
The outages drive me nuts. I've logged nine separate outtages in the last month--including all day yesterday (from noon to 9 pm, or so).
And they recently moved their tech support from (nearby to me) California to the Phillipines.
Bleah.
Love your tag line: "You can get better, but you can't pay more!"  | |
| 
defiant
the fly on the wall
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Whitmore Lake, MI | Support Ya know bgetchel , you could reach out to those of us in the Charter CATV/HSI forum that might be able to assist... | |
| | bgetchel
join:2000-07-05
Waterbury, CT | Re: Support Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be right over.
Do you think the forum can really assist with anything, or does it just elevate my soapbox a little more?
--
Da Biff | |
| | |
defiant
the fly on the wall
MVM
join:2000-09-04
Whitmore Lake, MI | Re: Support We can't work miracles or intervene directly (most cases) , but we can try to get to the root of the problem and make it easier to get it resolved through the "normal" support channels. | |
|
CharterSux
@charter.com | Total Agreement Charter does suck. Anyone have any info. on TDS Telecom. They advertise 10K | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Charter Pipeline |
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 Review by artulo
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 1016 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Madison,Dane,WI
$150 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Easy connection to set up yourself, decent speeds."
"No competition in the area to keep service up and prices down."
"Expensive, connection is mostly stable."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I had initially wanted to get DSL with TDS Metrocom or Verizon and not have cable TV, but both TDS and Verizon gave me the finger after initially saying that I could get it, even after extensive line tests.
So, I broke down and ordered a package with Platinum Pipeline and Digital Cable for around $100/mo. Initialy started at 1.5/256 and was recently "upgraded" to 2/128 thanks to Charter, but that's another issue altogether.
Service is DHCP, I called in my MAC address to the tech support folks and they said I would be up "within an hour". Well, after numerous phone calls and 5 days of waiting it was determined there was a "filter" on my line and they removed it. Viola! Good speeds.
The service has been mostly good, with the occasional outage. It seems to have had more problems recently since they "upgraded" it.
I have never been able to get the 2Mbit download speeds. 1.8 is about the best I have been able to do.
I had my own modem from an old Charter Business Networks account, so I saved on that monthly fee. It's an old RCA DCM 235 (?) and works well enough. I don't know if it would be worthwhile to get a new one, perhaps a Motorola Surfboard.
All in all, I am basically staying w/ Charter until I have some more options and find something better.
Update 10/19/04: Charter service has been SLOW during evening hours for the past few weeks. We have been upgraded to 3.0/256 earlier this year, but it doesn't make a bit of difference if you've got a 600+ ping to everything...they'd better fix this soon or away I go.
I've had to knock down the "value for money" and "connection reliability" since the service has been so bad lately, we'll see how it turns out.
Update 7/5/05: Charter fixed the peak hours lag issue, and everything is fine. Connection is stable, and rarely is there an outage when I want to use it. It's definitely more reliable than my Linksys wireless router, that needs to be powered off and on at least once a day to get a connection back.
Service is 3/256, which I guess is adequate. I'd prefer more upload. Supposedly there are 5mb upgrades coming "soon" but in Charter terms that could be years off.
My package recently expired, with the HSI/Biggest Value Package combo so now my cable bill is quite outta hand (over $120/mo) so I'm looking into DSL and dropping down to expanded basic cable, or at least getting rid of the movie channels. Service for DSL has expanded recently so hopefully I can get into a $20/30 per month rate.
Update 6/23/08: I have purchased a Motorola SurfBoard modem of my own to replace the now-defunct RCA modem. It's working fine. I've been upgraded to the new 10/1 service and get around 9.5/1 so that's pretty good. Prices have steadily risen but also the services they provide have gone up, too. The On Demand features are great, it's nice being able to watch pretty much whatever's on the movie channels plus other network stuff anytime. Although they do need to increase capacity because at peak times errors happen since too many people are attempting to view an On Demand show. We have pretty much every channel plus 10M HSI and telephone and all of it is around $150/mo.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Charter Pipeline |
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Review by beckyboo
Posted: 11 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
Contract price not specified.
"Fast if it's up"
"Goes down all day"
"Wouldn't use it if there were a real alternative"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
I have the 5 mb service in the bundle. Support is typically horrible when you call. I have been working from home and my VPN connection goes down about 5 times in a work day, so the connection goes out all the time. Annoying. The phone service sucks, I will probably go back to a landline since my cell coverage at home stinks.
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