Charter : All reviews | DSLReports.com, ISP Information

Re: Any knowledge?

I had Brown Dog...they were at best functional and most of the time not even that. I was in Lake Serene and got service as soon as it came down the road but not sure what areas it covers or if they only fed the subdivisions and not some of the outer areas. There is also Bays (they are in Pacific too) and while the price is a bit higher than Brown Dog their service is better as it's on a motorola network and more stable.

But as far as I know most of Catawissa that was being served by any Charter cable (including analog) should now be able to get HSI.

permalink · 2011-07-30 00:36:43 · Print ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by vaxvms

member for 8.2 years, 3544 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 3 days ago

Worcester,Worcester,MA
$50 per month
about 7 days
"Technicians that come to my place have been great."
"Telephone support sucks. Service outages."
"I _was_ very happy but that has changed."

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings match consensus)

Ordering service was quick and pleasant.
Installation was good. Installer did what I asked without hassle. Arrived when scheduled.
I HAD to get Charter phone service - Verizon service was a big problem. It's been fine.
I have my own modem and router so I don't have any Charter hardware.
I haven't had to use tech support yet.

update April 2008
Phone support is useless. 1) When I had a problem and called support the person wasn't interested in hearing my problem. The operator just wanted my name and address to send a tech. 2) One day my connection dropped. After waiting 2 hours I called support asking if there was a problem. They weren't aware of any problems and told me there must be a large area without service and I happened to be the first to report it. Not the case.
Techs visiting my home have found and fixed problems quickly. These fixes have been simple. I hop not-so-simple problems are resolved quickly.

update: July 2008
Phone support is still useless. Techs sent out to fix hardware problems have been knowledgable and make quick work of diagnosing and replacing broken hardware. The time to get a tech to my home has been very fast. Scheduled a visit on a Saturday morning and tech arrived in 4 hours.

Update January 2009
Things are slacking off. There have been many times where the net connection will drop a few times in a short period. No real pattern to when the connection drops. It doesn't take long to come back but it's more than just annoying when there's 3 or 4 dropped connections in a hour.
I've given up on calling tech support and the standard "There's an outage in your area. We don't know when it'll be fixed." response. Cable service has vanished a few times in the past couple months.

Update April 2009
Outages of all 3 services is becoming more common; at least once a month. Typically service is out for more than 4 hours. Calls to support require I give them my name, phone number, account number, address, and more before they tell me the standard "There's an outage in your area. We don't know when it'll be fixed." response. When service is restored it's back for less than an hour before it goes out again for half an hour. The "new" SA box I got had to be replaced after 3 months.

Update Oct 2009
Service has started dropping out sporatically in rainy weather. When it was happening last(?) year they replaced their box on the utility pole that had become full of water. Literally full of water. Techs were at the neighbor's house this week. Shortly after they arrived my service went out. It's been flickering ever since. Talked to the techs before they left. The techs said the neighbor was having problems with their 'net connection but they could find no problem. Powerboost was introduced a couple days ago.

Update Nov 2010
Network service has been stable.

Update Jun 2011
Phone support is still completely clueless to the real world.
A couple extended outages over the past couple months

Update November 2011
Home service: N/C
I work in downtown Worcester. We have Charter business service. When things are working they work well. When there are problems it can be a nightmare. But that seems to be the case with any service that is provided using wires in downtown Worcester.

Update July 2012
When service works, it's great. When there's a problem phone support is USELESS. For example: I call and report a problem. Tech support says there's no outage in the area. I ask Could it be I'm the first person to be reporting a problem? Support person response is NO YOU COULDN'T ' BE. Then a minute later tells me there is a problem in your area.
Upgrading from service I currently have to the new minimal service will cost me $15/month. Lord I wish there was some other provider available here.
ARRRRG!

30 minutes later
When service is out, phone support is LESS THAN USELESS

10/14/2012
Again I say
Charter phone support sucks farts out of dead dogs butts
both home and business service.

5/18/2013
Yet again I say
Charter phone support sucks farts out of dead dogs butts, both home and business service. 4 out of 5 CSR are completely ignorant and useles.
I've been forced to 30/4 service. I don't need or want 30/4 15/3 would be great. But Charter has declared that to be NFG. The only good thing to say about the required 30/4 service is getting a DOCSIS 3 modem from them.

Comments:

cabledude @charter.com	try this have someone come and check your house for noise. if you have been having that many problems with your phone and internet, then most likely that is what it is. if you can get a charter tech to your house most likely he will understand what you are talking about.
	permalink · 2011-05-31 23:46:37 · ·

ChrtrFanBoy6 join:2012-07-02	useless So they are not useless then? Good. 3
	permalink · 2012-07-23 14:04:28 · ·

Duggue @charter.com	Review Hey - I'm in the Tri-Cities too. After fighting a losing battle with Verizon for many years, bagged 'em and got Charter Cable Internet. Wow!! Super-fast 15Mb/sec down, 3 Mb/sec upload. Had it a year now and only two outages the whole time. One tech support to my house, went well and fixed the problem. Started at $19.99 a month - has kept creeping up now to about $30.00. My only complaint!
	permalink · 2012-07-26 04:27:34 · ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by firemanoften

member for 15 days, 0 visits, last login: 15 days ago
lodged 15 days ago

Union,Franklin,MO
$100 per month
(24 month contract)
"Not much to say. Girls in local office are nice."
"ALL bad."
"Dont take unless you have to."

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings well below consensus)

I was paying for a "bundle" of tv,cable,and dsl. After 6 months of installs, yes 6 months, they never got it right. Every time a new "TECH" came to the house he would tell me "The last guy who was here was an idiot, none of this is right". Same story each time. Finally the install tech said a "line" tech was on his way but everything was just terrible and done in a lazy way. The line tech who showed up....WAS THE OLD INSTALL TECH. So I told the line tech that this install tech said he was an idiot and lazy and they got into an argument IN MY HOME. I promise Im not making any of this up. So at this point I have fired Charter from everything but my internet because they are the only provider I can get but, I no longer have the 100 meg because they say they "upgraded" the system and wanted me to pay a $200 monitoring fee. LOL yeah right... hold your breath Charter. Pay 200 bucks for 100 meg to only get 40, aint happening. USERS BEWARE.

Comments:

ron @verizon.net	very bad...... I will never ever recommend it to any body...I dont understand Why I get the same reason all the time that there must be a maintainence at my area...Even I know that it is just an easy way so that you dont have to be answerable to anyone... Charter should definately considering working on their maintainence dept..
	permalink · 2013-05-07 04:47:45 · ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by pbee75

member for 10.2 years, 99 visits, last login: 16 days ago
lodged 19 days ago

Glendale,Los Angeles,CA
$44 per month
"Very Bad,promises 30megs but delivers only 6.8Megdownlod ."

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings match consensus)

I have no choice except to have charter as my internet provider as they have have a contract with the city of Glendale. They promise you 30 megs of download speed but delivers only 6.8 megs.

Comments:

tootal2 join:2013-05-19 Eureka, MO	is your cable modem close to your computer? do you have your cable modem on top of your computer? I had my cable modem on my computer and the speed was only 10mps and when i moved it and it went up to 30mps. Try moving it away from your computer or anything else.
	permalink · 2013-05-21 00:16:30 · ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by VanPeebles

member for 24 days, 0 visits, last login: 24 days ago
lodged 24 days ago

Birmingham,Jefferson,AL
$60 per month
(12 month contract)
"Inferior to Comcast, my last ISP in the Northwest US"
"Can't wait to evacuate the South"

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings match consensus)

Rated: Worst‼

I have “Had”,. to be with Charter for almost 2 years now. I don’t know exactly but I would try an objective guess that the server has gone down at least 100 times. It’s always (90%) the same scenario, no matter what time of the day or night, service just Stops. I go thru the f’nk same routine, reboot, restart check all DNS setting etc. then all of a sudden it comes up. This has taken anywhere from 5 min to 4-6 hours. I am on the comp almost all day and at night I trade the Asian & European sessions on their markets and this problem has cost me thousands of dollars. Try to explain that one to any fool at Charter and you know what you get, “”crickets”””””. I have only recently re-arranged my DNS sets to alternate servers, we’ll see how that goes. Oh, btw, upon my recent move over to my new apt, Charter made a really big stink about me wanting to use my own modem, even though it is the EXACT modem (Motorola SB6121) she was insisting I use, theirs, hmmm.

Best Regards,

Cliff
cliffordgobreski@gmail.com

p.s. this was helpful, thanks:
»[HSI] charter DNS fails

Comments:


your comment..

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by dickmead

member for 13.7 years, 4467 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 24 days ago

Pasadena,Los Angeles,CA
$35 per month
(24 month contract)
about 3 days
"Promo price was as good as could be expected for this area."
"Promo price high for quality of service, new prices out of control."
"Charter management decisions now rate 2 strikes..."

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings match consensus)

My Other Reviews

·DSL EXTREME

Since my DSL provider can no longer provide an upgrade faster option at a price I'll pay, likely due to AT&T changing it's speed/distance rules, I decided to finally try cable internet (otherwise the DSL is just fine).

Charter has this 3 months for $20, $35 after, (it is a 24 mo. signup) plan. Plus you do get 30 days no fees cancellation for residential. So, with not much to lose but a bit of time and a few bucks, I tried Charter HSI (12/1 Mb).

Ordered on a Tues, up and running Thurs. afternoon. The installer tried two of some off brand modem that failed to sync, and then tried a Motorola SB6120 (rented) which worked right off.

Speed test showed a peak 20Mb down, settling to a solid 12Mb and 1Mb up. Confirmed with several software updates downloaded from zippy servers.
We'll see how things (billing, stability, etc) go.

Update: (10/2012) First year using my own SB6120 modem was pretty stable.
Until a forced firmware update seemed to result in frequent dropout and restarts.
Decided to get a backup modem (Ubee) and while it still has lots of complaints
in its log, it has not been restarting like the Motorola was.
Of course, it hasn't received a nice firmware update yet, either.
I am looking forward that that other shoe dropping.

Charter has made changes to what service and prices it offers. I'll wait until my
forced servitude ends before deciding if I want to pay them more for something I don't need.
Update:(12/2012) Charter's new prices and now terminating "social media support services" in favor of phone support (which is essentially useless), has given
Charter 2 strikes in my opinion. Unless they do a serious turn-around, I may not be
continuing after my term.
Of course I realize they don't care. Duh!

update 4/27/13; cancelled. good-bye

Comments:

compuguybna join:2009-06-17 Nashville, TN	Threats to Leave... You think they really care? "Charter 2 strikes in my book. Unless they do a serious turn-around, I won't be continuing after my term."
	permalink · 2012-12-08 07:28:35 · ·

horseathalt7

join:2012-06-11

Reviews:

·DIRECTV

You can't just threaten....you have to cancel!

I'll be calling one more time before my old price ends to see if they are willing to offer a more reasonable price to me, since I told them I have NO want or need of anything over 3mb down and I simply will not pay 50 bucks for that UNneeded service tier.

If they can't offer up a more reasonable price, I will be cancelling my service. The loss of the social media agents makes it clear that the
"new executive team" at Charter could give a rats azz about the needs of the customer in general.

If it's going to be "Their way or the highway", the highway it will be for me...driving myself to ATT DSL at an everyday price of 30 bucks a month after promo. Sure it isn't fast but it is all I NEED.

permalink · 2013-01-10 19:05:08 · Print ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by gzt7d8

member for 11.8 years, 4391 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 36 days ago

Swartz Creek,Genesee,MI
$90 per month
about 5 days
"Nothing now"
"Raised my rates $15/month and NO EXPLANATION!"
"No value for your money"

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings below consensus)

Update April 14, 2013
Charter removed their social media support here at the site and the downward spiral continues. Now they've raised my rates by $15/month and I got NO explanation why. And did we get any improved service................NO.

I'll say one thing, the first service interruption or slow down, I'm going to make sure they see how pissed I am.

eom
Update December 16, 2012
Charter has removed their social media support at this site. A very sad day, in deed. I have had much success using this to resolve my problems, now the bean counters have shut it down and want you to call in and get frustrated out of your mind.

Service has been good but will take a turn as Charter positions itself. I'm on the Ultra 100 and have good speeds, usually in the 95%-105% range of the paid service. I don't have Television, just Internet. Connection is good so I haven't adjusted that.

I've reduced Tech Support not because of an experience, but because they removed coverage at this site.

Greg

Update November 18,2010
Channel Bonding has Arrived!! Oh and Ultra 60 came along too.

First night test

»www.speedtest.net/result/1036200191.png

Updated November 7, 2010
Charter has moved customers on the upper tier, here in Michigan to 25Mb/3Mb package. I continue to have pretty stable speed tests. I run a lot of my tests at SpeedTest.net, Since July 1, 2010 I've run 56 tests. My average download/upload is 34.22Mb/3.17Mb.

Best test
»www.speedtest.net/rank/1122211081.png

Earlier this year there was a lot of chatter about channel bonding being rolled out with Charter, but I haven't seen anything Michigan, yet. Closest I've seen any posts was in Wisconsin. Got my DOCSIS 3 modem, ready when ever you are Charter!

************************************************************
Updated April 19, 2009
Just upgraded to the 20MB/2MB package about a month ago. I was on the 10MB/1MB for some time and it was a very reliable package, for me. I consistently got 95% of the advertised speeds all the time, even prime time.

When I upgraded to the higher package my speeds were not as consistent as before. In prime time I'm lucky to hit 15MB on the download. Now reading other Charter posts on BBR forum I would have to consider myself lucky. I've read some real horror stories. Never the less, I'm disappointed in the results.

I'm not a heavy download user, but I still expect to get what I pay for. I've been checking my speeds daily since I upgraded. I've ran over 300 tests using Charter's speedtest and another off network speed site. When you breakdown the results, the morning time frame averaged 17.5MB, afternoon averaged 16.9MB, prime time averaged 15.9MB and late night averaged 19.5MB. The overall testing has averaged 17.1MB. People will say that you should have no complaints, but I wouldn't agree. I've only hit 20MB one time in my testing and that was in the 1AM time frame.

I not sure if contacting Charter would help, since there was so many others that have posted the same results. I'll tolerate it for now, but if it gets worst, I will contact tech support if I get no satisfaction I'll got back to a lower tier.

Lastly, I do want to give kudos to the techs that monitor the Charter Forum on BBR. They do attempt and have fixed problems that you have, and for that I'm grateful for their efforts.

Greg

Updated March 8, 2008
Late 2007 had issues with speeds. Prime time speeds were 20% - 40% of advertised tier. Actually got tech who monitors the Charter Forum to take notice of our problem. They were the reason it was corrected. Speeds have been very consistent for me other than the occasional problems.
I recognize that I pay a lot for the service 10Mb/1Mb, but it is not a packaged deal, so I have no room for compliant. I have to accept that and hope that the cost will drop over time. There is no competition where I live, so I don't have much leveraging capability with Charter.
I will consider the 16Mb service when it becomes available, because I love to surf at the speed of life.

Greg

Updated May 6, 2006
I've been disappointed with Charter this year. The speeds are not consistent anymore. I feel like I'm on a party line and all the life gets sucked out between 6pm and 11pm, daily. I'm paying for 5Mb/512Kb but it is not worth the value when you download speeds drop below 1Mb in the evening. It is just prime time that I see the huge slow downs, and I never had that problem prior to this year.

I've called Charter, but no change. Let's just admit that the infrastructure needs investment and they don't have the capital to get it done.

So I can complain, but I don't have other Broadband choices. Using direcpc was like a fast phone line connection, that is way over priced.

Greg
-------------------------

I live outside of any major city in mid-Michigan so my only broadband service available was DirecPC satellite service. I used this service for 21 months before Charter Pipeline was made available. Satellite worked well for me but it was a very inconsistent service.

Charter has been a good move for me. Installation went very well, and the service is consistent and my average speeds are very close to the service that I pay for. (1544/128) These speeds are all day long, I haven't had any experience with degradation of speeds. I hope it stays that way.

Of course, I can only speak for the service in my area. I have seen and read where the Charter service is less than desirable in other areas of the US. That was the reason why I tried a 3 month package with Charter before I committed.

My bad experience happened the first week after I had the service. I lost my service and after 4 field visits and 2 no shows it was fixed. Good thing I wasn't running a business.

At this time, my experience has been great. I'm very pleased with the service and hope continues.

Greg

Update June 8, 2003
I am coming up on 1 year and for the most part the Good and Bad points still apply. I feel "lucky" that the connection works as well as it does, but when I have a problem, it has taken Technical Support weeks to get the problem fixed. The last occurance probably could have been fixed in a week, but it took 7 weeks to fix. The Technical Support offices and Field Services do not work together in this area. I'm not sure why but Field Services keep sending the wrong Tech to fix the problem. It took way too long and was unexceptable service.

When it works, it works, but boy when it goes in the ditch it seems to take for ever to get fixed.

Greg

Update September 28, 2003
For Charter customers the recent upgrade to 2Mb down has been a hot topic of discussion. I was part of a stress test that Charter ran in the month of August for customers on the east side of Michigan. The network seems to handle the increase without issue. My speed tests continue to run in the 95% - 99% of advertised speeds. I also have had many speed tests exceed the 2Mb cap.

Upload continues to be a question of debate. But my conversations with local offices here indicate that 256Kbs will become the norm pretty soon.

For me, and I can't speak for others, Charter has been a good value.

The sound bites above continue to summarize my experience. I suppose I probably land in the lucky category. Maybe yes, maybe no.

Greg

Comments:

Chubbysumo join:2009-12-01 Superior, WI Reviews: ·Charter	Channel bonding Channel bonding is only needed on the higher tiers, like the ultra 60. I was running my old DOCSIS 2 modem on the 25/3 and it ran just fine, but channel bonding is necessary to obtain speeds of more than 30mbps up or down. Here in Duluth, mn/Superior, WI area ultra 60 works great, and you need a DOCSIS 3 modem for it(channel bonding only works on a DOCSIS 3 modem)
	permalink · 2010-11-10 20:10:04 · ·

gzt7d8 Aliens live amongst us Premium join:2001-07-13 Swartz Creek, MI Reviews: ·Charter	Re: Channel bonding That's my understanding too Chubbysumo, that channel bonding applies to the Ultra 60. I saw a post from another person here in Michigan that they've seen where channel bonding was turned on for them. They are about 70-80 miles north of me, so I suspect Charter is working on it here in Michigan too. Greg
	permalink · 2010-11-14 15:09:38 · ·

Chubbysumo join:2009-12-01 Superior, WI Reviews: ·Charter	Re: Channel bonding They have channel bonding in my area up and running(Duluth, mn/superior, wi) and it only turns on when you use the ultra 60 tier. I was on the 25/3 and when my own modem went bad, I got a d3 modem, and it supports channel bonding, but it did not turn on for the 25/3. Once I got the ultra 60, channel bonding turned on.
	permalink · 2010-11-14 16:23:23 · ·

gzt7d8
Aliens live amongst us
Premium
join:2001-07-13
Swartz Creek, MI

Reviews:

Re: Channel bonding

A picture says it all!

Greg

permalink · 2010-11-18 19:15:03 ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by SCLUCAS

member for 166 days, 5 visits, last login: 48 days ago
updated 48 days ago

Wilbraham,Hampden,MA
$65 per month
(12 month contract)
"On-site technicians are good."
"Off-site support, connection reliability and costs are unacceptable."
"If I had other choices, I wouldn't choose Charter."

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings below consensus)

I live in a town (Wilbraham, MA) that made a 10-year, exclusive Cable/Internet deal with Charter. As a result, Charter holds a monopoly position on Cable/Internet for the town. Only other options are satellite for Cable, and small DSL providers for internet.

The biggest complaint I have is connectivity reliability. I run the fastest - 30mbps service that Charter offers. I get no where near this level of service (ethernet or wireless). What is totally unacceptable are the daily drops in service. Every single day (weekdays and weekends), our internet service goes out right around 3 PM until 8-9PM. I've been told this is due to peak bandwidth usage that occurs when students get out of school and max out network. While this makes some sense, it is totally unacceptable. This is clearly a Charter, infrastructure issue. If I use my Verizon 4G wireless card at the same time the Charter service is down, I have no issues at all.

I'm not left with any other alternatives, other than use my wireless card, and pay for that service on top of the Charter ISP. Very frustrating, but I am out of other options.

Comments:

neilcar

join:2012-10-29
Stanley, NC

Reviews:

Good Luck

I'm 8+ months into a similar problem with Charter in my neighborhood. I've had 14 technicians out to my house -- all of them found that there was no problem in my house, of course. I've gotten to the regional supervisor, who confirms that there's a capacity problem in my neighborhood. He keeps promising that it will be fixed by a certain date...then, when that date comes and goes, he explains that there was some complication and sets a new date.

My suggestion is to keep calling them, preferably EVERY time you have a problem. Hammer them for refunds and hammer them to fix the problem.

permalink · 2013-04-04 06:39:45 · Print ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

Review by neilcar

member for 204 days, 12 visits, last login: 47 days ago
updated 48 days ago

Stanley,Gaston,NC
$80 per month
"When it's up, it works"
"Poor reliability, poor support, poor service"
"If I had another choice, I would take it"

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings below consensus)

I've had Charter for 7+ years now. Unfortunately, in my neighborhood, low-speed DSL is the only alternative so I don't have an actual choice.

When Charter is up, I have reasonably reliable service and throughput; however, about every six months, I have a problem (either I lose my connection intermittently or my throughput stinks -- I'm getting ~1-2Mbps right now with a ton of dropped frames).

When I have a problem, technical support is useless. Their tech support is limited to:

1. Restart your modem.
2. Restart your computer (Charter apparently doesn't understand ipconfig /release /renew -- "You have to restart your computer to get the new settings, sir.")
3. Oh, you're hooked up to a router? Well, unplug that and plug directly into the modem. Now, reboot the modem again. And your computer.
4. That's not it? Well, disable the firewall on your computer. (Of course that's unsafe. Do it anyway -- it could be the problem.)
5. No? Oh, well, clear out your cookies and temporary internet cache.
6. That didn't fix it? Well, we'll have to send a technician out. Of course, they're only available while you're at work.

Every time I have a problem, I end up going through this cycle 2-3 times before somebody finally fixes the problem. The problem is never in my premises -- it's always a network problem. And it always requires me to go back through this song and dance repeatedly, come home from the office to meet them repeatedly, and generally waste my time to troubleshoot their network.

---------------------------------------------------

2012-11-11 update

Charter has now sent 4 people to my house and another 3 line techs. They still haven't fixed the problem.

On the plus side, my phone calls now get auto-escalated. When I enter my phone number into the automated system, it automatically says "Let me transfer you to somebody", then transfers me to a tech that isn't using their script. So, at least now, I can tell them that they're still failing in a fraction of the time.

2012-12-14 update

Technician #10 came out today. He arrived with no knowledge about what my problem was or what work had been done by the previous 9 guys. He said "Oh, well, if the problem isn't happening right now and normally happens later in the day, I guess we'll just reschedule this" and left.

2013-03-25 The problems continue. At this point, I have had fourteen different Charter technicians out to the house. I'm in touch with Nathan, the local service supervisor.

Nathan promised that capacity for my neighborhood would be fixed/increased on March 8th. I'm guessing nobody is surprised that this hasn't happened.

Called Nathan on the following Friday. Oh, yeah, that's a lot more difficult than he thought it would be. But he would like to send one of his technicians out so that he has a paper trail so that he can give me credit on my account when this is finally fixed. By March 28th, he's sure.

Guy comes out to house. Points out that the neighbors at the end of the street have an unburied cable running across their yard and this is probably my problem. (No, guy, this is because they, too, keep having problems and one of the guys who came out to their house thought it might be that cable EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT.) Guy assures me that getting this cable buried, which he is going to go ask somebody to do RIGHT NOW, will fix my problem.

Y'all can see the fallacy of the cable company promising me anything, right?

Then, on Saturday, Charter calls me to ask me to upgrade my Internet connectivity. No, really, Jennifer tells me, "did you know that you could get 30Mbps for less than you're currently paying for 20Mbps?" I explained to Jennifer that she was trying to sell me something that she clearly DID NOT actually possess. This degenerated for awhile into defining fraud and determining whether it applied to this offer.

Tonight, I have a conference call at 2200, something that I would normally do over Voice-over-IP. So...my current download speed is running around 400Kbps. I called to complain and, apparently, offended the young lady I talked to when I questioned how unplugging the coax would help.

"It makes it request a new IP address, sir. *huff*"

"Ummm, no, it doesn't. Power cycling the modem does that."

"*huff* It makes it get a _better_ IP address, then."

"Is there a DHCP DISCOVER option for 'better IP address' that I'm unaware of?"

"*huffhuffhuff* Sir, I told you what it does. I'm not going to argue about it."

At some point, I'm going to see what it would cost to run 20 miles of coax to anywhere that I could get Internet connectivity from somebody else.

------------------------

2013-04-03 Update

In spite of Nathan, the local supervisor, promising that capacity upgrades would be done on 2013-03-28, I'm still seeing slow speeds during primetime hours. I called Nathan again on Monday and his explanation was that the work _he_ was responsible for was done but there was additional work ongoing and he didn't know when it would be finished.

Yesterday, he promised me that the person responsible for the other work was going to be in town today and that they were going to draw up a plan to get me/my neighborhood temporary relief. He's supposed to call me again today to confirm what these plans are and when they'll be complete.

This is the third round of promises from Nathan -- he promised 2013-03-08, then 2013-03-28, and now I'm promised some unknown date in the future.

Comments:

horseathalt7

join:2012-06-11

Reviews:

·DIRECTV

Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS!

I have noticed this too, instead of denying a Charter network issue, like they always seem to do, and waste their own time and money sending a tech out to our homes which solves nothing, why not just be honest and professional by informing the customer about the reality of the situation. I can promise you that I am much more understanding of such issues when they arise then being lied to about where the problem is. Honestly is the best policy.

permalink · 2012-10-29 22:53:08 ·

ch

@charter.com

Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS!

Charter has funny rules as far as that goes in regards to sending a system technician out to fix the main lines or network. They require a normal technician to go out first, get the readings and then they can setup to have a system technician come out and fix whatever outside issue is causing it to happen. If we would, we would gladly schedule line techs to come out in customer service when you call in but unfortunately we're locked down as far as that goes.

permalink · 2012-10-30 10:31:25 ·

neilcar

join:2012-10-29
Stanley, NC

Reviews:

Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS!

"Charter has funny rules about providing quality service to their customer. We find it more important to waste your time so that we can save money."

If you have to use 'rules' as an explanation to me for why you can't solve my problem more quickly and with less interruption, then your rules aren't helping you provide customer service. They're helping you save money at my expense.

permalink · 2012-10-31 22:20:19 ·

grimalkin74

join:2011-05-31
Morro Bay, CA

Reviews:

Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS!

said by neilcar:

This is just about my feeling. Its ok, their lack of response and inability to correct their issues is goint to cost them 130.00 a month from me. I'm unfortunately stuck using them for HSI, but as for TV, I'm off to Direct TV,

permalink · 2012-11-07 21:58:55 · Print ·

rradina

join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

In any business there are procedures that are designed to govern how things operate. If we consider your comments with respect to the medical field, does it make sense to create a flock of general practitioners who are also heart surgeons? Would you want to pay a heart surgeon to prescribe cold medicine or steroids for some kind of inflammation/allergic reaction? I'm certainly not saying a general practitioner isn't a smart cookie but they have "front line" role and they defer to specialists after they make some kind of initial diagnosis.

I understand this takes longer to get things fixed but all businesses address problems with those most likely to fix them. That means the front-line tech is generally able to solve problems and the 20% of calls where they cannot, it does inconvenience the customer but I don't think it's rational to expect someone who can trench a new wire, install new pole hardware, replace a pedestal amp, tune the neighborhood segment and diagnose inside wiring problems. That's probably several different roles and specialists within the tech services group and it would be difficult train and staff a "do it all" tech. For one, the guy who specializes in more difficult tasks, likely doesn't want to bother listening to grandma describe what's going wrong with her cable TV picture. If he/she had to put up with customers all day, he'd probably leave and do something else.

permalink · 2012-11-12 20:28:19 · Print ·

mlcarson

join:2001-09-20
Los Alamos, NM

Re: Seems to be SOP for them when problem is clearly THEIRS!

Many businesses empower their employees to do a lot in the name of customer service. Cable companies however have decided it's better to centralize support and have "customers" only talk to tier-1 support which the company treats as mind-numbed robots incapable of independent thought. They're simply given scripts to follow with respect to customers. Many times they're not even in this country and most likely India.

I'd like to see a cable company allow a customer to talk to tier 2 and above support at tier 1's discretion if they even have another level. What's the point of sending a tech to a place over and over again if it's obviously a line problem that the tech can't fix. I've had techs forced to come over when the local office was aware that an outage was scheduled maintenance. I guess it's cheaper to abuse the subcontracted techs and hire phone monkeys than to pay for somebody to do real troubleshooting.

What really should happen is the support should again be decentralized and at the local office. The local guys always know more about what's happening with their system and could provide better support than what we're now getting.

permalink · 2012-12-15 02:35:46 · Print ·

inlandman

@charter.com

OMG What a Frustrating Call

So the Charter service for Internet has gone back to choppy and inconsistent as usual. I have to flip flop between AT&T and Charter as a regular course of business. Each lasts about three months before deciding my patronage isn't worth the trouble to actually keep me connected.

Of course, both corporations claim the problem is with my D-Link router. Of course they run me through the same nonsense that they run everyone through. You know, 1. restart your computer, 2. power cycle modem, 3. oh you have a router, please connect directly to the router, 4. we can't help you if you don't comply, 5. I convince them to reset the modem (again) 6. magically online again without changing anything on my end 7. argue with them about where the fault is, again, and again, and again, and again...

This time I connected to the Louisville Kentucky call center and ended up talking with Megan. She was incapable of understanding that I was using a router that was hardwired to a gigabit network. She insisted that I was connecting wirelessly. I don't really think she even knew what TCP/IP stood for. Really, she was that clueless.

About halfway through the call I hear someone else's voice coaching her on what to say (all of which was designed to get me off the phone and plant responsibility on D-Link and not Charter). I didn't play. I demanded to speak with the person actually giving me the information and asked him, his name was Karl, why they were playing games when the problem is clearly not on my end.

He said something along the lines relative to me unplugging the router and connecting wirelessly and I interrupted him to remind him that I didn't change anything, and I wasn't connecting wirelessly. He was unphased. He just continued talking right over me and ignoring everything I had to say.

I'm hoping his supervisor, Fred (supposedly) will be in tomorrow so I can give him an earful and see about maybe getting some reliability for the price I'm paying. He didn't give me a direct number so I'm hoping I can find the guy through the corporate number.

If I could get the 100MB/s anywhere else (or faster) I'd jump ship and never look back. But every time I head to AT&T, they pull the same games. Currently Charter has the faster offering so here I am. I resent that I'm only allowed two choices. Prices would be lower and services would be higher if they actually had real competition.

permalink · 2012-12-15 06:04:02 · Print ·

dpgeiger

join:2012-12-19

Ex charter tech

2012-11-11 update

Charter has now sent 4 people to my house and another 3 line techs. They still haven't fixed the problem.

On the plus side, my phone calls now get auto-escalated. When I enter my phone number into the automated system, it automatically says "Let me transfer you to somebody", then transfers me to a tech that isn't using their script. So, at least now, I can tell them that they're still failing in a fraction of the time.

2012-12-14 update

Technician #10 came out today. He arrived with no knowledge about what my problem was or what work had been done by the previous 9 guys. He said "Oh, well, if the problem isn't happening right now and normally happens later in the day, I guess we'll just reschedule this" and left.

When I worked as a lead tech all we could do is just setup techs. We know the issue isn't at the house we know its on the line. However per policy we setup a tech he goes out sets up a line tech that line tech then go's OHHH we need to fix this asks his supervisor if it's in budget he goes ya /na and that's how it gets fixed. I watch many people be down intermittently for months because the email back from the area is waiting for budget next year to fix this issue.

Some areas are different but, the ones that used to be able to get into the cmts and find these issues are all but, gone from charter. Charter has managers looking for bonuses and anyone that talks out against something is then forced to quit or wrongfully terminated. Good luck on getting the issue fixed ever since outage management was moved from Kentucky the new team just doesn't know how to find intermittent issues to peoples homes.

One more thing. When we lost the outage management to the new guys they asked us why Alabama was having issues. I told them dns. Next day I come in they asked night shift again where the calls are coming from and why Alabama has half the state calling in. I said dns. The response from them whats dns? Good luck!

permalink · 2012-12-19 08:09:53 · Print ·

Forums > comments on review of Charter

next page (previous review)

Review by armed

member for 12.5 years, 3107 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 50 days ago

Carson City,Carson City,NV
$164 per month
"Its fast when it wants to be"
"Night time speeds are very bad"
"Its was great for awhile but night time speed drops have devalued the service"

Pre Sales information:

Install Co-ordination:

Connection Reliability:

Tech Support:

Services:

Value for money:

(ratings match consensus)

Speed ordered is 30MBs down. But it is all over the place... highest was 42 and lowest was 2 MBs..

Got triple play replacing ATT landline and DSL. Total cost with TV and phone including taxes is $164/month. Thats a $15/month savings with faster speed.

The phone and TV are fine but Internet is not all that stable yet.

Update: The Interent stability is fixed and the speed is in the low 40'sMps. I'm happy.

Oh, I got their free cloud storage service. 10 TB and no cost because we went triple play. I like that service... a lot!

Update 4/1/13: Ever since install the night time speed has been less than the 30 MBs (mostly about 10-15-MBs) but the last month I see drastic speed cuts at night. Most nights it drops to 2 MBs and sometimes down to 1.5MBs. I didn't complain before because the speed was at least 50% faster than my old DSL. But these new low speeds are a drag and its time to start squeaking like an ungreased wheel,

Oh, the unlimited online backup is history for new subscribers now... but it was very slow for uploads anyway.

Comments:

compuguybna join:2009-06-17 Nashville, TN	10TB? How can one have 10TB cloud storage? the bandwidth cap is 250GB a month....
	permalink · 2012-08-28 18:25:45 · ·

armed

join:2000-10-20

Reviews:

Re: 10TB?

You know they don't seem to be enforcing it. One rep said they won't on this. I don't know but its way beyond my needs anyway. I have all my music and pictures backed up there and my wife's documents. Total about about 40 gigs so far. Its not an issue for me as I won't exceed 250 gigs a month anyway.

Last night I backed up my Garmin GPS at about 6 gigs. It took about 5 hrs since upload is much slower( 4Mps). So up loading 10 TB would be a time problem. LOL

It so far is a nice surprise that I didn't expect much from. Their program seems to work well and it even has the storage cloud acting like a system drive so you can drag and drop files into it and it automatically uploads it. Plus they have an automatic backup program that works much like windows automatic backup.

It is serving as my redundant off site backup that I have been looking for. And with Triple play it free to boot.

Here's how it shows in the Windows Explorer window:

BTW I used to read you a lot when you were active on the Millinium board.

permalink · 2012-08-29 10:23:43 · Print ·

krupy

@charter.com

Slow Charter speed

I first got Charter broadband in 2002 and at first it was slow as dial up. The reason: squirrels. Charter replaced the affected line. I finally got broadband speed. They assurred me it was squirrel proof.

Fast forward to Jan 2013. No interrnet. Squirrels? Yes. Technician replaced 5 ft of cable that had (10) squirrel bites in it.

I am still convinced another section has been on the squirrels' dinner plate.

permalink · 2013-04-01 18:28:29 ·