EPIC FAIL! A Charter Communications Story (LONG.)

[marty]

It all began in August of 2007 when I contacted Charter Communications to set up cable and internet at my new apartment--I went to their office, set up an appointment time (a monday between 8am and 12pm) and settled back to wait the couple days before my hookup. So Monday came, and I was excited, waiting patiently by my phone for the call that would tell me the installer was there. It never came. I called CS and was told they hadn't called yet. So roughly around 4pm, I drove down to their office to ask, hey, what's up? Why no tech?

This was the first rude bitch that I encountered with Charter. I asked why I hadn't gotten a call and her reply was that her notes said I had. At 1pm. I was thoroughly annoyed at that point but remained polite, asking if it would be possible to get it hooked up the next morning. Her response was to roll her eyes and inform me that I should have answered my phone and they could hook it up next week. Oh hell no!
Me: When was my appointment time?
B: Today from 8-12.
Me: When did someone call?
B: 1pm.
Me: Now is that within or outside of the scheduled appointment time?
B: -more eye rolling- I guess we can do it tomorrow.

So the tech did come the next day, hooked up my cable, and set his blackberry-ish phone on my coffee table while setting up my modem, complete with a nice picture of a thong-ed ass on the screen. Lovely.


One year later. I call CS to have my services transferred as I was switching residences, making it clear that I will no longer be at the old apartment and so no longer needed services there. Setup goes smoothly. All seems well until I get the bill.

WTF $200?!?! Oh! I see. The old address was never disconnected and I'm still being charged for it.

The day after I got that bill my stepdad died. So my attention was a little diverted until a week after. I had paid the previous bill because I didn't want my credit affected. Fair enough, surely they can just credit me for the following month for it once I explain the situation?

So I called. I talked to a very nice guy who said he couldn't refund me, but his supervisor would and assured me that it would be done and the old address would be disconnected.

The next month comes. WTF?! again. I'm still being charged for both addresses and no money has been refunded. I call again. I get the same spiel. Nice representative, says the same thing, etc. etc.

November rolls around. Guess what? Same thing! And nothing refunded! I call again. Same run-around. I'm starting to get frustrated. Once again told that a supervisor could do it, and spent 45 minutes on the phone with the rep taking extensive notes and the whole situation. I ask to speak to a supervisor; none are available. Sure. I'll call back. Whatever. I am assured the services to the old address will be cut off and the money will be refunded within a week.

So I call a week and a half later, to give them time. Guess what? Nothing's been refunded! And there was no order to cut off services to the old address ever entered! The rep tells me that yes, she can see here on the notes how Charter is fucking me over (in much nicer words). At this point they now owe me around $300. Once again, a supervisor isn't available and the regular rep can't refund the money but they'll make sure it gets done!

December. You betcha. They now owe me $400. They finally disconnect the old address but still owe me money. I call a near final time. OH MY! A supervisor is available. A supervisor who proceeds to try and bitch me out for god knows what and tells me that supervisors can't refund my money. She also tells me that the calls I was on previously were recorded, trying to convince me to take back my story that the other reps told me the sups could refund my money. I derail her--"Excellent!" I say. "Then they know who to reprimand--either numerous CS reps for lying to me, or you for lying to me!" She gets nervous and I end the call with her assurance that it'll get taken care of.

January--still not taken care of! I call to cancel. After being on hold, I hear call center noise (talking and such) in the background and the call drops. WTF? I call again--same thing. I call a third time, wondering if they're trying to discourage people from canceling by hanging up on them, but finally get a person. She assured me that supervisors CAN refund money, I told her that's alright, just cancel it.

So tomorrow I'll make the drive to the office to drop off my modem and see if I can get my money. I didn't go to the office initially because every time I've gone there they've been much less than helpful to me. And at this point, if they give me trouble, I'm going to go hulk-SC on them. Half a friggin' year this has been going on with god knows how many people lying to me.

So lesson learned: If Charter's your only choice for cable and internet, get a satellite dish and a wireless card from your cell phone provider. I'll update this when more things happen, as they are bound to tomorrow.

[MaggieTheCat]

All I can say is...

Holy effin' crap!

[Aethian]

I love how the apointments are set for a two hour span and then when you call that they haven't been there....it's suddenly a four hour span.

I hope I don't have much trouble when I move from this place to the new place I'm in the middle of buying.

[Blade_Raver]

From my personal experience on both sides of the situation.. as a former employee and a current customer of Charter Communications, this does not surprise me.

[Polenicus]

The whole appointment thing with techs is notoriously sucky, no matter who yuo deal with. I've moved around alot, and each and every time, there's been a lot of craziness and stupidity.

One provider had a 'window' of 8am to 5pm. Had to be a weekday. I, like most other people who can afford cable internet, worked. In fact I worked until 3pm (This is important). I informed tem of this, asked them if there was any way to get a weekend appointment... no, had to be a weekday. Fine, I'll take a day off work.

I spend the day at home... no internet, no TV... not a whole lot to do, waiting for this tech to arrive. Eventually 4:45 pm rolls around, and so I give them a call and ask what's up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, he wasn't able to get to you today." The call center agent said, very casually as if this wasn't an issue. "One of his jobs ran long."

*Twitch*

"Why wasn't I given a call and informed of this?" I asked.

"Oh, well this sort of thing happens all the time. We've got you rescheduled for tomorrow..."

I sigh and say, "I took a day off work for this, from a new job where it was NOT convenient for me to do so, and now you want me to take ANOTHER entire day off work, and lose ANOTHER day's pay? Is there any way I can get an appointment that DOESN'T fall during my working hours?"

She seemed a little less cheerful at this point. "I'm afraid we can't guarantee any times outside of the 8am to 5pm range..."

"*Sigh* Can I speak to a supervisor, please?"

I got a supervisor, and very calmly asserted that this was unacceptable, and I needed the tech to come out no earlier than 3pm, so could meet him without missing work. The supervisor agreed, after repeatedly hammered through the concept that the tech COULD NOT show up earlier than 3pm. I provided my work number in case they needed to contact me.

The next day, I drive home... no tech. I waited until 4pm, then called.

"Oh yes, our records show the tech was there at 1:15pm, and no one was home. He called your home number, but no one answered."

*TWITCH*

"Ummm... there should be notes on my account... that since my first appointment was completely missed by the tech, that he was going to come by AFTER 3pm? That my WORK number was given as the contact number?"

"Oh, yes, I see that!" She bubbled in that same, false cheerfulness that appeared to have been enforced with drugs and psychological conditioning. "But I'm afraid we can only guarantee that an appointment will fall within 8am to 5pm..."

*TWITCH*

"Supervisor... please..."

I don't clearly remember what happened next. I don't usually lose my cool, especially not since I was fresh out of college, and still very much meekly out on my own for the first time. I DO remember I went up one side of that supervisor and down the other, and got them to turn that tech around and drive him back to my house THAT DAY. and install my cable and internet. A process that took about 15 minutes.

Then, sometime later, same company, the cable modem they provided me with started to fail. It would drop connection, then re-establish. At first this was infrequent, but it gradually became worse and worse until every 2 minutes it would drop out. I couldn't even surf web pages anymore.

I called tech support. After some quick diagnostics confirmed it was not my line that was the problem, but the modem, I was told they would have to send out a tech to replace the modem. The first available appointment?

A MONTH AND A HALF AWAY.

I asked if I could just bring the modem to them, and be given a replacement, but this was beofre the days of do-it-yourself setup, and they insisted they had to send out a tech.

I had to get dial up for that period, just so I would have SOMETHING. Again I had to take a day off work, though thankfully this time the tech SHOWED. He disconnected my old modem, plugged my new one in... and that was it. A 5 minute procedure that I waited a month and a half for, that I could have done myself.

[Chromatix]

A small tip about consumer rights: if they owe *you* money, stop paying them. The worst they can do is cut you off.

If they then take you to court for recovery, you can show the court that you do not owe them anything, but instead they owe you.

[Gerrinson]

I haven't had too many billing problems with Time Warner, other than the fact that they seem to be unable to send a bill to my P.O. Box rather than my street address.

However, there was the one day that I had scheduled an appointment due to my cable being out completely. Oddly enough, my cable dropped the same day that they were there to install digital cable for my landlord and my landlord's son (they live on 1st & 2nd floors, I'm on the 3rd floor.) Coincedence, right? I didn't believe it either.

So, they assure my I'm scheduled for an appt. between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. Having played this game before, I call the day before the appt. to confirm, since it will cost me 1/2 a day off from work. They read off to me that my appt. is between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. Good enough.

Next day, 8:00 comes, 9:00 comes, finally noon rolls around and no phone call. I call up and the CSR tells my my appointment was scheduled between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. I skipped and went straight to . I told the CSR it's not her fault and asked for a supervisor. Sup flat told me I was lying and that I never had an 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM appt. and that she had the tapes of my previous calls to prove it. I told her to listen to the tapes and call me back.

She never did call back. But 10 minutes later the cable van came flying into my driveway like a bat out of hell. Cable guy was and had a few choice words to describe me when he thought I couldn't hear him. He apologized later when he went up on a ladder and found out what happened - the landlord's cable wouldn't be ready until next week so the guy doing their install simply unplugged my cable and plugged in their line to my feed. I got a full week's credit on the bill for that one. And I'm guessing one cable tech got a serious reaming from his coworkers.

Other than that, I actually don't have many problems with TWC. I'm so very glad that I don't have to deal with Charter or Comcast, though, after hearing so many horror stories like yours.

[blas]

I feel for you. I HATE Charter!

Just scroll back throughout all the Sightings threads and I bet I have at least 5 of them on here. They upgraded me without telling me and charged me for it, they refused to activate my new account when I moved (a rep said I could take all my stuff with me to my new place and just call when ready, dumb bitch on the phone the next night said "No no, you need tech. You need tech come over to do that!") they gave me no answer as to why I'd gone nearly a week without Internet, and the thing they did with most audacity....charging me a FEE when my ex room mate and I switched the bill from his name to mine. Same residence, same package, just a different name. They wanted 50some dollars for that. UH NO. And they refused to get rid of it, that that was what they charged when you simply switched the name of the person whom gets billed!

Thankfully, basic cable is provided by the landlord here, but I still need Internet. Clearwire doesn't serve my part of town yet. My only option really is Charter. And I pay nearly $60 a month for Internet. And every time I have an issue (which is every time the wind blows the wrong way) I get a rep who refuses to help me until I've told them at least 10 times that NO I DO NOT WANT A "FREE" UPGRADE TO 10MEG PLEASE FIX MY COMPUTER! And nothing with them is free. Do NOT believe any of that shit. It isn't.

Ok done ranting.

[Merriweather]

From 1997 to 2000 I had the internet service from hell. Few people will believe all the details, but I swear, nothing is even exagerated in the least.

DH was stationed in West Virginia, at a tiny communications center (US Navy). Very rural, no large towns closer than literally across a mountain. No cable (not surprising for the time period and location).

I checked with every major dialup company, and because we were at the opposite end of the state from any populated cities, none of them had a local dial-up number for our area. To use any of them would have meant long-distance charges for every minute we were on line. Definitely not acceptible.

So, that left only one option, the one local internet company. First, they charged $25 a month. For that, we got only one email address, no online storage or webpage space, no extras - not even a start up disk. When you signed up, you were mailed a page of instructions on how to configure your email, etc. That was it. Oh, and you were supposed to pay another $10 a month for each person in the household who would be using the account (yeah, right ).

Bad enough, but the only game in town, so we live with it. But it got worse. They decided the demand was there (only cause they were the only game in town) so they would expand. Only, their brilliant business plan was first, sign up tons of new customers, and only after that, begin to update any equipment!!

You remember on dialup connections, how you set your computer to dial up x number of times before giving up, in case it doesn't get a connection first time? Well, for close to a year, I had mine set to dial up 25 times in a row - and unless it was the middle of the night, I would have to manually tell it to keep going at least 3 more times. Yep, you read that right. For almost a year, at anytime between oh, 6am - 2am, my computer had to dial over 100 times to get a connection established!!!

This was because they added all the new customers long before even beginning to update equipment and add more bandwidth and dial up connections. Only in times of insomnia from 2am - 6am was I able to get on in under 50 dial-up attempts.

And of course, once on, it was the slowest connection I've ever seen in my life. It was not unusual to be able to go make a cup of coffee (including boiling the water for instant) while waiting for a new webpage to come up.

At the time, with a daughter in California, in-laws in NY, and my parents and siblings in NC, and with numerous family problems that I was in the middle of helping them sort out, and little money for constant long distance, I had no choice.

And I repeat, the above it 100% true (and only the tip of the iceberg in some areas), not embellished or exagerated. The only birght side, once we moved away, I've found it takes quite a bit to irritate me or make me complain about my internet service, LOL. It all seems great by comparison!!

Merriweather

[MannersMakethMan]

And of course, once on, it was the slowest connection I've ever seen in my life. It was not unusual to be able to go make a cup of coffee (including boiling the water for instant) while waiting for a new webpage to come up.

I'll believe every word. I could brew pots of tea in the time it took a page to load on our first dial up connection. I actually finished a whole pot the once towards the end, and it still hadn't loaded BBC News. I think that was the point the decision was made to get broadband

Apparently it's our distance to the local exchange that determines the speed, so we're always getting worse speeds than advertised. Thank goodness technology's improved a bit since then. I never notice our computer or Internet's slow these days, until I try another computer. Then suddenly you realise what a difference a small distance makes.

[PepperElf]

i remember back when i got dialup for my old apartment. i used one of those free aol disks ... just so i could download netscape and after that i just used my netscape.

the aol deal was one month free... but you had to call before the end of the month to disconnect or they'd bill you for it.

when i called the first tech lied and said they were doing "upgrades" or whatever bs to my account and i'd have to call back in 2 days.

i called back 20 minutes later and that tech put through my disconnect and gave me the confirmation number.


i don't know if aol still pulls that stuff, but i know they've been through lawsuits. plus being a NY resident may help... ny law has outlawed AOL's (former) practice of giving bonuses to techs for retention (and possibly beatings for non-retentions), since it was causing the techs to lie and illegally keep customers on the books etc.

i know when mom called to cancel her aol i warned her ahead of time and she had no issue (thankfully!)

[Chromatix]

I once had to use dialup on a very bad phone line. I suspect that it had corroded and damp terminals in the connection box in the road. It's *still* that bad today, if the quality of some of my parents' phone calls are anything to go by.

The only way I could make it stay up for long enough to be useful, was to limit the modem to 4800 baud. No, I haven't missed out a zero in that. Four thousand eight hundred bits per second.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Hey, Marty, check out the Consumerist. There has to be a few stories there like yours, and usually they have pretty good advice as to what to do to get their attention and get your problem solved without resorting to SCness.

^_^

[Blade_Raver]

Got a story about Charter as to their extended levels of incompetence with their tech support. Before I go into this, just want to say that I have no ill will against any particular race, religion, creed, heritage, etc. etc.

The short explanation was that there was a cable box that my (now) ex-wife swore she returned to the Charter office after moving that they never credited us for.. and it was causing billing issues and constant disconnects.

Fast forward to when we were hard disconnected at the pole (only we didn't know about it) and we call Charter.. my ex-wife was furious at them because they couldn't communicate or understand what she was saying. So she handed the phone to me.

I went over all the billing info and had them check the notes on the account and they realized that it was the cable box that wasn't credited to the account that they said they did x number of months ago. So... they said they re-enabled the account and it should be working. Nope! So they transfer me to tech support.

Me and tech support got into it. I exposed their tech of complete incompetence.

Me: Me
CT: Charter "tech" (Outsourced to India)

Me: Okay, I have my cable modem plugged in, no cable light. Are you seeing a signal on the line via CMTS?
CT: Yes.
Me: Okay, what are the signal levels?
CT: (Gives signal level readings comparable to a standard working cable line.)
Me: Okay, let me do something. I'll be right back.

I go and unplug the cable modem from both the power and the coax.

Me: Okay, do you see a signal level now?
CT: Yes.
Me: Refresh, then check again.
CT: (5 seconds of hesitation, usually takes about 30-45 seconds) Yes.
Me: Okay, if you see a signal. Tell me the signal levels.
CT: (Repeats same signal levels as before.)
Me: (Explained what I just did.) Okay, you're not troubleshooting or using your tools correctly. Let me speak to your supervisor.
CT: I'm not lying to you! I'm telling you what it is... you need to listen to me it's your ethernet cable.
Me: I'm a former employee of Charter and have used the tools you are using to diagnose this problem. You've lost credibility and I want to speak to your supervisor. NOW.
CT puts me on hold for 30 mins and gets me in touch with a "supervisor" who I just explained everything that happened. It ended up in him sending a truck roll.

Truck roll came in 3 days later, said it's disco'd for non-payment, and left.

It took a call and 2 weeks waiting with Charter's corporate offices to get this issue straightened out. I also told my ex-wife to pay the Charter bill 2 months in advance to prevent this from happening again.


As a side note, after my ex-wife and I split.. and I cleaned out the apartment.. I found the cable box.. hidden away in a box..

I returned it and apologized to charter for the confusion with that.

[marty]

I returned my cable modem and got a receipt for it--in case they didn't give receipts, I had typed up a letter that someone would have to sign before I gave it back verifying I did give it back.

I got my money back. I stated in the office that I was not going to leave until I could be assured that I would get my money back. I was very polite but obviously at the end of my rope.

They were supposed to cut off the cable physically the 15th...guess what! More incompetance. I'm still watching TV. Guess they'll figure it out eventually, I've done my part, if they can't do theirs, not my problem.