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Review by slmetcalf 
UPDATED: 1 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 935 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Athens,Limestone,AL
 $55 per month
 about 10 days
 "Umatter2Charter Guys"
 "Reliability, Customer Service, Supervisors for Customer Service"
 "It is beyond horrible and customer service is useless"
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We signed up for charter in 2006. Nothing else was considered as there are no other options in our area. We did have the cable and internet but dropped the cable due to horrible reception that charter could never correct. We have kept the internet as their are no other hsi options where we live. We have the 5mg package. Over the course of the last year our connection has become a problem. The product is sub standard. Problems are so bad that our internet drops at least once a day for 10 minutes. Just as mysteriously as the connection drops it comes back up. Problems still exist even after changing out modem. We own our modem. If I had an alternative to them I would drop them in a heart beat.
Update problems thought to be corrected 2 weeks ago are happening again. In the last week my connection has dropped 4 times three of them were for more than 20 minutes and the last one today was for more than an hour with 100% packet loss. What these people refer to as broadband barely passes for usable internet anymore. Have contacted charter yet again and waiting to hear back from the tech today. Well the rep that I talked to today told me incorrectly. I had them verify that it would be today that a tech would be coming out. I was assured that my connection would be fixed today. Customer service is useless. If I could tell them where to go I would but I have no alternative for internet here.
Update was told yesterday that someone would be coming today between 3pm and 5pm no one has called and no one has showed up and it is 4:45. Guess I will be calling again in 15 minutes to find out what excuse they have for not calling or showing up yet again.
Well the tech did not show up to my house they claim to have called me. Phone never rang and I was home all day. The last supervisor that I spoke with claims they called yesterday also but said I was not home again untrue. Explained that this was an ongoing issue but they refuse to dispatch a tech on the grounds that we did not answer the phone. Can't believe that customer service is so horrendous. Out of all of the broadband providers I have dealt with Charter's Customer Service is the worst. Price was the one thing that I could say is good about charter but not even that is true anymore for the product quality that I get.
Update 10/12/2009
My appointment that should have been Friday got pushed until 7:45 tonight not happy about that but the Umatter2charter guys have been great and are doing everything they can to help me with my problems. Customer service however continues to be the worst that I have ever dealt with. Although a handful of the reps I have spoken with have attempted to help and even fewer have actually worked with me regarding my issue
Update 10/13/09
Technician finally showed last night at 7:45 which was bumped twice in one day. Connection dropped last night just before the tech arrived and very briefly did this morning around 11:30am. Was told that a supervisor would be coming today still have yet to hear from them if or when he will show. Umatter to charter guys are still working with me and that is greatly appreciated.
Update 11/5/09
I was informed yesterday by the local office that I have been dealing with since my problem was escalated a month ago that my problem is corrected. My better judgement tells me otherwise. Still experiencing packet loss as much as 39% just this morning. If the connection were fixed the packet loss would not be there.
Update 11/19/09
Well my better judgement was right. My connection has dropped 3 times in two weeks since the problem was fixed on Oct 22nd.My modem has continued to reset in this time frame as well My most recent drops were late tuesday night early wednesday morning and late Wednesday night early this morning. All they can tell me is my connection has been steady which it has not. I have now asked for the plant manager to become personally involved as this has gone on way too long
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 Review by erin1
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 1767 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Buford,Gwinnett,GA
$55 per month
"Has decent speeds, and quite reliable. Better than ATT by far."
"Bordering on unfordable and thats having internet only!"
"If you want internet only they rape your wallet! free market...sigh"
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Speed is as advertised, latency seems to have been somewhat fixed for prime time.
I have the 20/2 internet service for $39 +$10 for not having useless tv service. Having only one cable choice in town sucks. I have my own modem.
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Review by glangston
UPDATED: 28 days ago
member for 28 days, 0 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis City,MO
Contract price not specified.
"service has relatively few problems in my experience"
"couldn't process a move request correctly. called 7 times to get them to correct"
"service is ok, but don't ask for anything out of normal (why is moving an oddity)"
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Put in a request 2 months ago for a move request. The move process seemed to go fairly smooth. The engineer showed up on time, the process of ACTUALLY moving was fairly straight forward, but WOW did stuff mess up with the billing.
I work in IT support, so I understand the process of when a customer asks for something, and you (the service rep) agree, then you should do it. When I started getting delinquency notices was when I really started getting irritated. What happened was they essentially had both of my accounts (my old address and my new address) still open and the old account was getting credited with my payments instead of the new one. This resulted in me receiving several notices that my balance was overdue/etc.
Numerous attempts to remedy this issue resulted in 6 times having to contact Charter support and all 6 I was promised that it would be resolved and the request for credit had been put in. Meanwhile I was still receiving (increasing in severity/threat) delinquency notices and my payments were still being credited to the old account.
Then the last notice I received, I received a collection notice from their outsourced ERS to request I return a router (I had already returned), and upon contacting support, even after I had let the rep know of my previous problems with support, requested I bring my receipt to the charter office THAT I HAD ALREADY RETURNED THE ROUTER TOO. I'm sorry, but returning equipment should NEVER BE A CUSTOMER ISSUE because once it's turned in, the customer has little recourse to dispute the claim...
On my last call, Beth was very helpful and it appeared was able to help fix this issue finally. (Pending the credit for the returned router) However, the result was 3 weeks worth of hassling with Charter Billing support and basically getting no where. I even spoke with Retention once during this process, which I assumed would've been able to get things fixed in a timely manner, or correctly.
-Greg Langston
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Review by snowmew
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 4.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 31 days ago
Auburn,Lee,AL
$40 per month
"None. They are the only cable ISP in this area. No contract."
"Internet is always down, tech support is very bad and not empowered to handle issues."
"If you are in Auburn/Opelika, go with AT&T FastAccess. Its the better option"
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In Auburn and Opelika, AL, you have three main options: Charter Cable, FastAccess ADSL, and Satellite.
For most people, its a choice between Charter and AT&T. I've been on both services, and for the past three years I've been on Charter. While Charter beats AT&T on the pricepoint and advertised speeds, after three years of being on Charter, in my opinion, AT&T is the better option because they offer reliability.
In the past 2 months, I've been down 20+ times (I've counted), and I've had techs come out to my place on 6 different occasions. Charter constantly has connectivity issues that affect entire neighborhoods and cities. In fact, as I'm writing this (I'm using a Alltel datacard to connect), there is a network outage in my area. Some days I just get speeds that are so slow, its just as bad. Their tech support staff isn't empowered to tell you what the problem is, or when it will be fixed. Furthermore, if powercycling your modem and a review of the modem internals doesn't fix the problem, that's the end of the line as far as tech support goes. At that point, they schedule someone to come out to take a look at the issue. Scheduling a tech is a nightmare, the techs have issues being on time, they don't seem to get the problem fixed right the first time, and the time frames when they can come out are grossly large. Also speaking of service techs, in many cases, the techs don't even work for Charter. Sometimes you get subcontracted techs who don't have a clue about whats going on.
I contacted Charter's corporate office, and while they did put me in touch with a territory manager, the underlying issues are still prevalent. If this ISP would actually empower its tech support staff to fix the problems, and keep open lines of communication with its customers, it would probably be better off.
However, I don't see that happening anytime soon, so at the next available opportunity, I'm going to cancel my Charter service and go to AT&T. During the time I was with AT&T, they were nothing short of remarkable.
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Review by roanoke
UPDATED: 35 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 697 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Roanoke Rapids,Halifax,NC
$32 per month (24 month contract)
"Service is reliable and system has little down time."
"You do not get the level of service as advertised."
"You have to just learn to live with some things."
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I have been with Charter for TV and internet service for more than 8 years. They have provided service at a level as advertised for the last 3 years. Prior to that not so good. Recently, I dumped all of my HD TV service with Charter and went with Dish Network. However, I kept my internet service with them at $32.00 per month for 5000/1000. I could have switched to DSL for $16.00 per month. Charter's HD packages do not provide local area HD and their HD channels quite often experience significant jumping. I do not have this jumping with Dish Network. That, along with recent price increases by Charter as well as more proposed price increases is the main reason for my switch to an Embarq Satellite and telephone package. If prices continue to rise later, I may switch to Embarq for my internet service as well. If I need to contact Charter now, I get in the car and drive about 2 miles to express most service concerns in person at the local office, which usually results in a prompt response from them. Charter has been pretty good service wise lately. Rates are my concern now.
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Review by apply17
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 952 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Easley,Pickens,SC
$64 per month
about 1 days
"Very reliable over the past few months."
"Tech support over phone is awful. Indians that barely speak English. Expensive."
"Umatter2Charter guys are very helpful."
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Connection has been very reliable over the past 4+ months. Speeds very consistent and don't drop during peak hours. I usually get around 10.7Mbps/1.7Mbps on my 10Mbps/2Mbps connection. Routing is still mediocre and my latency is much lower on AT&T DSL.
The phone tech support is still god awful. I'd even venture to say it's worse than DELL's. The Umatter2Charter guys on DSLR forums and twitter are very helpful though.
I wouldn't recommend Charter unless it is your only option.
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Review by Quiver
Posted: 45 days ago
member for 46 days, 18 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Rancho Cucamonga,San Bernardino,CA
$59 per month
"It works when it works. I'm signed up for 5M up, 1M down."
"Always going down. Slow speeds. System is not reliable. No alternatives in my area."
"Verizon FIOS cannot be installed in my area soon enough"
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I have been a Charter Pipeline customer for about 5 years. Early on the service was good. But for the last 3 years it has continued to get worst. Just went though another 2 days without service. It seems that service will go down or have very slow speeds about 3 or 4 days a week. I'm in a area without DSL, so no alternative ISP. Verizon FIOS is scheduled to come to my area within the next year. That will be my day of liberation!
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Review by harshat
UPDATED: 49 days ago
member for 103 days, 47 visits, last login: 47 days ago
Birmingham,Shelby,AL
$180 per month
about 7 days
"Some Techs are Good, VoIP Service is Good"
"Avg Channel Line-Up, Huge Problems with HSI, Installation Problems"
"Sadly, The only Cable Provider in N. Shelby Cnty."
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Here's a review of Charter Cable, for those in North Shelby County, Alabama (the Birmingham Area).
I am new to Alabama, moving here for work about 9 months ago from Tampa Bay. There I had Verizon FiOS, but had Brighthouse there for almost 15 years, prior to FiOS. My experience with both Brighthouse (Cable) and FiOS (AWESOME) was more than satifactory.
I am a "power" Internet user, as I work from my home office, and I also play a MMO FPS (Battleground Europe - check it out www.battlegroundeurope.com). So my demands are quite high of Internet Service.
Charter Cable TV is completely avergage, and the connection for VOD and HD can be vert spotty. I reset my STB at least once a month.
Charter VoIP phone service is good, and other than a few hicups with installation (took 3 trys), has been working fine.
Charter HSI is a disaster! The techs are doing their best, but there is a huge problem with packet loss, and speed are terrible. I bought the 10/1 package, and then the 20/2 package, but neither has ever been fast. My average is somewhere nere 2M Down, and 500k Up (as compared to the 20M down, 2M up service description). Speed is no big deal, but packet loss can be up to 80%, and that's completely unacceptable.
Charter is trying to work on this, but no relief is in site yet. I will update this when it gets fixed, or when I dump Charter!
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Review by michigandave
UPDATED: 55 days ago
member for 2.5 years, 851 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fenton,Genesee,MI
Contract price not specified.
"Reliable service"
"Outsourced customer service is horrible and local office has their hands tied."
"Charter lost another customer today."
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Updated 9-26-2009:
Just wanted to freshen up my review of Charter since I have been an AT&T customer for nearly two years solely because of Charter's horrible local and outsourced customer service. I was tempted by the $29.99 5M HSI for 24-months but each time I consider it I remember how you treated us like s**t. You could give me a free 20M pipe and I'd tell you to cram it sideways today just like I would have nearly 2 years ago. Maybe when Charter is forced to sell off our system in bankruptcy I might consider cable again provided the same people are not hired into the new company.
Updated 1-8-08:
We had downgraded to 5M internet and basic cable. The tech came out and trapped out every single channel on Jan 2nd or 3rd. We were going to raise hell over the sheer incompetency of the company but we were waiting for our DSL line to go active anyway before canceling altogether. Piss poor customer service at the local level and either the tech didn't know his a** from a hole in the ground or Retentions sent down bad info - either way...goodbye Charter!
Sorry defiant. You're a great guy and I truly admire that you come here to help people on your own time, including me, but my patience has reached it's end with your employer and I'm voting with my dollars.
Updated:
Our cable and HSI bill jumped from $74.99 + fees to $113.99 + fees within a month. The problem was not only did Charter raise their rates but we fell out of a promotional price at the same time.
Going to the local office wasn't fruitful as they can't do anything there except take money, start/stop service and direct people to call Retentions. After deciding over the holiday break what to do, we decided to try to order an internet-only package that was offered on their website.
We went back to the local office and tried to order the internet-only package. We were told that those promotions were for new customers only. What? It's not like I was trying to scam the system. Those offers were listed on the website even when we logged into our account. If they weren't meant for existing customers, then they shouldn't be offered while logged in.
At this point, the CSR, in a real nasty condescending tone, said "Those are new customer prices. Too bad."
Upon calling Retentions, we were offered a semi-reasonable deal for what we were kind of looking for - but not the package price I was referring to. We explained that if the package wasn't available to us, then it shouldn't have been offered on the website. I'll say it again - these offers show up when you log into your existing account. We negotiated a price for basic cable and 5M HSI and returned our DCT back to the local office.
The same CSR "helped" us again. We walked up with the DCT and told her that we called Retentions. She said "Yeah, I can see that" as she looked up our account. She said "I see you got what you wanted" like we were trying to rip off Charter or something. We said "Yes. It is what we wanted" as if wanting some kind of customer satisfaction is an over-reaching goal. Again, in the same nasty tone she said "Well...you do realize that this is a promotional price for only 12 months" to which we replied "Yes and we'll be sure to cancel it then." And to top it off she told us "Well, a tech won't be out until Monday to trap the higher channels...just so you know" like I should be soooo fortunate and personally indebted to her and Charter now that we are getting extra channels for free until they come and trap them out.
Because of the s***ty attitude we received at the local office, we are now new customers of the competition as we ordered DSL today. When the equipment arrives, we will be returning our cable modem back to the office so they can have it for their next "new customer".
You know, we were frustrated because our bill jumped nearly $40/mo for without changing services. It's not like we were asking a lot but $113 base for 5M HSI and digital cable (including HBO/Max for $5/mo) was now out of our reach and unreasonably priced as far as I am concerned. And only to be told that there was nothing we could do about it for at least 90 days or call Retentions to see maybe what they could do.
But the attitude we received today at the local office is beyond acceptable. I've been a retail manager and, yes, I've been very frustrated with people. But I NEVER treated my customers like that and I NEVER wish to be treated like that myself.
I've been very supportive of Charter up until today. I tell naysayers "Hey, they're okay but you just have to deal with the local office. There are good people within the company - you just have to know where to look." I'm done with that. It's incomprehensible that the local offices on the front line that represent the company can't do anything except take money (and apparently give sh*t to the customer). It's incomprehensible that the outsourced service from the 1-800 number isn't helpful at all and bad information is given out. It's incomprehensible that there is no consistency within the company, no one knows what the other is doing and customer service can only be done at the corporate level. I honestly know of no other business that could sustain a business model like that and survive.
I try to have extended patience with the service industry being a veteran of it myself. But there is a limit and you found it today.
F**k Charter. There will be nothing you could ever do to win my patronage or loyalty ever again.
Yes, I finally did get what I wanted.
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Review by posermobile
Posted: 61 days ago
member for 61 days, 5 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Burbank,Los Angeles,CA
$130 per month
"fast when it works"
"Worst customer service I have ever dealt with"
"DO NOT give your money to these people!"
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Since the first time I ever had to call Charter Customer Support, I have had the worst phone experiences in my lifetime in my dealings with them. The service constantly breaks and when it does, it is an absolute nightmare to deal with their support lines.
I have had no less than 6 major service issues where I needed Charter's assistance to resolve the problems in the year I have had service with them. By the time the problem actually gets resolved, my dealings with Charter support leave me absolutely bitter and extremely frustrated.
The first time my service went down, I called support and the person I spoke with told me to cycle the power to my modem. I complied and went through his basics even though I had done them 20x on my own. When it didn't resolve the issue, he hung up on me. I later learned this is not a fluke and they must think it's funny.
They lie. They will say anything to get you off the phone, regardless of whether it is beneficial or not. If you challenge them, they hang up on you, purposefully transfer you around endlessly, put you on mute until you hang up or attempt to punish you in any way they can get away with. I had one Charter CS rep who was supposed to transfer me to another department, and she transferred me to an offsite number where I received a pyramid scheme recording to invest money in real estate.
Most calls to support appear to end up in Pakistan or India or another outsourced location. Those people will not help you resolve technical matters because they do not have the ability to help you for anything other than issues which you can look up yourself in Charter's online help pages. They will ignore any information you give them and read basic instructions back to you. To get any help besides being told to cycle your modem, keep trying back until you get someone in an American call center.
When you reach an American CS rep, don't be surprised that there is apparently NO accountability. They appear to be encouraged to purposefully cause frustration to their customers. It never takes long before the first level representative says the exact opposite of what I want to hear, and it's a constant demand of mine to speak to a supervisor as the first level reps always fail to help unless I want a basic appointment changed. Supervisors never help. They will put their foot down and always side with their support reps, no matter what. The only ones who will help you are the account salvage teams, but it's hit and miss with them as well.
One time last year, I changed the bank where my checking account is located. I did not update Charter right away so my next bill was declined due to an invalid account. I had already been paying Charter from the previous account for over 6 months at that point. Since my charge was declined, I was now a criminal in Charter's eyes. They disconnected my services right then and there. Any attempts to update Charter's billing records and pay my balance fell on deaf ears, they would not take my payment. My only option was to bus across town every month and pay my bill in person. That was it and they would not budge. Nothing I could do or say for the hours I spent on the phone with them would allow them to update their billing records. I still cannot pay them to this day. Oh, until one of the CS reps hinted to me very secretly that I could enter my new CC info online on your website. Thanks for causing me an ulcer on that one for no reason, Charter. After that fiasco, I refused to pay the $80 telephone reconnection fee that they would require to give me phone service back after their own mistake. What a joke. I still have no home service to this day. Also, since my services were forced to change, I lost my package deal from this mess and ended up paying them MORE per month due to their own mistake. They refuse to discuss it.
For my most recent problem, my modem reboots itself every 5-20 minutes for the last month. I waited a week for a Charter Tech appointment and when he got here, he diagnosed the issue as voltage coming from the internet cable. I couldn't let him into the room with the cable outlet so we had to reschedule. A week later, another tech comes out and tells me they do not need to get into that room after all, he just need to ground my connection at the box outside. Gee thanks alot. That did not fix it at all. I was absolutely done with this and called Charter to cancel service. The lady was real nice and waived my last months bill and made a escalation appointment today for another tech to come out and check it out. This one actually attempts to solve something and uses his voltage meter to tell me that extra voltage is coming from my television cable and feeding back into the cable modem, forcing it to reboot. He tells me to call an electrician because it is not Charter's problem. I'm absolutely livid that it took a month to solve that and I'm still suffering constant disconnects. I'm now done with Charter and am going back to DSL and an analog TV converter box.
Since I've wasted half of my free time of the last month fighting my Charter Pipeline Internet connection and the other half fighting Charter Customer Service, I walked a half mile to the payphone to cancel I was not accepting any offers from them this time. I was going to cancel. Except the CSR who I spoke with refused to cancel my account. She made up a story that since I didn't have my account security code on my bill, I would have to call back another day. This is wrong and she was not familiar with my experience with what Charter techs are allowed to do. I have had every dealing under the sun with them and I KNEW there was no way she could not help me because I didnt have that specific number. I wanted a supervisor and she laughs and says they wont help me either. 10 minutes later, I had a supervisor and she had no problem cancelling all my services.
I am so glad I am done with Charter. I'll continue to have no Internet for the next few weeks until I find something else and get it installed, but at least I'll have a bit of sanity back.
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