I hate Charter Communications
These guys are incredibly incompetent at maintaining their network. It spent most of the day offline today, then came back on at around 6:30 PM, only go go off again at 8:30 for about an hour and a half.
My connection watcher needs tweaking still — it senses the occasional dropped packet and treats it the same as a real outage. I need to change it to only consider it an outage if the drop rate spikes, even if not every packet is dropped.
Tomorrow I’ll go somewhere that has more reliable Internet access to work, and let Sarah fight with Charter over this thing. Probably my mother in law’s house again.
This has now been going on for three weeks.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I hear ya man. I used to have charter communications as a cable TV provider, but after i realized how much they sucked i moved to a satellite provider, much happier there. But because i was only getting a 1.5 Mb connection with my DSL, i decided after some time to give Charter another try with hight speed Internet. It worked really well the first couple of months, the contract was good, the price was fair, and the speed was just as promised 5Mb. But these last 2 months i’ve been getting disconnected every 15 mins during certain times of the day. 10 am and 5:30 pm or so. I’ve had a tech out twice and am about to have them for the thired time. I’ve called countless times (don’t get me started on thier automated phone system). I even replaced my linksys modem-router combo with one of thier webstar momdems. NOTHING. They are so inept. Let me ask you. What are you using to monitor your connection? I need a better way to keep track of mine as well, but i haven’t seen anyhing good that will do the job of keeping a decent history for me. I swear, if they had some decent competition in the area i’d switch in a second. BTW, nice design on this site. Looks sleek. I love the notebook like lines in this textbox. TNA.
June 17th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
I wrote an app for my Mac that sends a batch of ten pings every minute, and counts how many come back, then uses that information to decide whether to consider the connection “up” or “down”. It logs the date and time at which each connection status change occurred, and graphs five minute averages so you can visualize how things are going.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Same thing here. They are complete lying creeps. I took advantage of their intro rate $30 and it would jump to 40 in two months. Fine, download was in the 5mb average. What those creeps never bothered to tell me or anyone else, as a matter of fact is that if you do not have television with them, that rate goes to $5o. They won’t tell you that over the phone and you have to get on their site to see it.
To make things worse, they are sending me promotional spam for their services I do not use, nor would I care to give them mo ney anymore. I asked to be removed and they quoted me obscure law prohibiting them from removing my address from their spamming list.
Now that is a class act smart company that knows how to not disclose the truth and piss off clients!!!
August 5th, 2006 at 7:09 am
In my area, Charter can’t even keep the basic cable up and running more than a week at a time, I’d be afraid to trust them (or pay them) for anything more. Severe interference on many channels, ongoing years, an area problem (many, many subscribers). Thankfully, we’ve got another company providing broadband wireless. I don’t believe Charter will ever meet even the minimum of standards in our area (Better to have no standards than the low stanards they adhere to).
August 21st, 2006 at 3:31 pm
charter gives less than satisfactory internet service. Oh, and make sure that when you talk to someone on the phone, that they don’t put you on autopay….they’ll charge your account whenever they feel like it, with no authorization. they put me on autopay and i never told them to, so they kept drawing out of my bank account until i was overdrawn. Then they come back to tell you it will take 3-4 days to get your money back in your account. god damn assholes. someone needs to sue them…that someone might be me.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:42 am
We’ve been without reliabe service for about a month. About 50 phone calls later, and lots of bogus promises, we are still without reliabel service. Supervisors (when you can actually speak with one as they all lie about calling you back) appear appalled and SWEAR IT WILL BE DONE BY LAST TUESDAY AT THE LATEST! Now we hear that was a lie and we aren’t scheduled to have a new cable installed for at least a month. All the lies, bogus promises, whatever you want to call them have us mystified that these gues are still in business. The only reason we have occassional service now is because of a $100 booster. All I can say is complain to your city council. These jerks need to be exposed!
October 12th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Hate, Hate, Hate Charter. Seems to be the same. For a while there life was good but for the last week - ten days it has been unbelieveably bad. I have HBO and a few times I have tried to watch but gotten the “you must be a subscriber” message, today tried to listen to some music and the music channels didn’t work. The internet has been around 2.5 mbps when it is up - but lately it has been spotty. Most nights it is too slow to bother with. I can’t wait to vote charter out of their monoply on this town! BTW my bill has gone up about $40 in the last year.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:26 am
This is how I decided to handle this today. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, also owns Charter…. good luck everyone.
Mr. Cuban,
According to my research online, you own Charter Communications, and I am reaching out to you for help.
A little background. I am married with a 9 year old daughter. My husband is a New Orleans Police officer, currently working for the DEA. I am a secretary for a millwork company. We live in Bush, Louisiana not because we had a dream of living in the sticks, but because we lost our home and everything that we owned to our names in Hurrican Katrina. So, here we are October 23, 2006 and we are just a few days short of being in our home for 10 months. We live paycheck to paycheck, just like every average person, and paying CHARTER over $100.00 per month…. faithfully, mostly on time…. and our cable only works 1/2 of the time. The other half of the time I spend on the phone with customer service. Some phone calls last for hours, trying to find that one nice person who is willing to listen to (at that point) a very irrate woman.
Now, I will be perfectly honest and lay it all out on the line for you. We were lured into Charter because of your internet…. which by the way isn’t always great but is much better than your cable. Living in the country, our internet options were limited, so by default you guys got our cable business as well. But, does that give Charter a right to charge me every month, expect me to take off of work for (useless) technicians to come out to my home, spend hours of my own personal time on the phone with customer service……… yet still go to bed at the end of the day with cable that works only when it wants too?
A family, still struggling to rebuild their lives. Living in a new home, that after 10 months still doesn’t exactly feel like “home”. Wearing clothes that were given to us by donations, trying to scrap money together to make sure we have enough spoons and forks for company at dinner.
One spluge we do have…. cable t.v.
Do you think that you could do something, anything to fix whatever the problem is that Charter is having with my service?
If you would please take the time to help a family just trying to live a normal life again, your efforts would be greatly appreciated.
With kind regards,
Mrs. Germann
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am
Hey, look at is this way, at least you don’t work in the Internet and/or Telephone department at Charter, and constantly having to be one of the 5 or so people actually doing their jobs, getting irate customers, actually fixing issues, and getting raving emails about how wonderful you were when the previous 20 techs were complete idiots. This truely has been some of the worst 5 years of my life, but at the same time some of the most wonderful as this is where I met my future wife at.
For me, that is the only good thing that has ever come out of Charter. Oh, and if you want to avoid being sold to, just tell the reps on the line “I decline being S2S’ed” and if you want to bypass our automated phone system, tell her “Agent” about 3-4 times, and she’ll get you to the next live person, and from about 1 PM eastern time to midnight, there may be a wait time of up to 10/15 minutes because of understaffing, outsourcing and downright incompetance.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am
Our service has actually managed to be fairly reliable for the last few weeks, except that my AIM connection keeps disconnecting every few minutes. But that may be a problem with my router at home, rather than with Charter. I’ve not had time to look into it yet.
October 25th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I have had charter high speed in Spartanburg for four months and it has been awful!! I’ve yet to have one day where I didn’t get disconnected at least five times and I cannot get anyone to do anything to help me with this problem and they try to blame the fact that I am using a router/laptop instead of direct from the high speed into my desktop. Don’t others use their laptop and get high speed? They rope you into their cable/internet/phone service but don’t tell you that the high speed is crap. I was getting more work done with my dial up than with high speed. This has been a terrible HS experience!! Say no to charter today!!!
October 31st, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Th e Crap I’ve Gone Through With Charter
It started back in August when I tried to have phone, internet, and cable with a DVR hooked up. I chose an 8-5 appointment on a Saturday because I work Monday-Friday 8-5. The technician finally showed up at 4:45pm. He said he would have to go under the house to hook it up and he couldn’t because he said there was water under the house that smelled like sewer and it was against company policy to go into water and he wouldn’t want to risk it anyway and get sick and he said I would have to reschedule when it dries up. After that I signed up for the Bellsouth and Direct TV package because I knew they wouldn’t have to go under the house. They ended up being a hassle and as bad as Charter so I didn’t let them hook it up by the time they got out to my house at 6:30pm. I had my landlord come and look under the house to make sure there was no problem and told him what the cable guy said about the water. He checked under the house and there was no water or sewage leakage.
Then I decided to try Charter again. By this time it is October. I scheduled another Saturday appointment from 1-5 on October 21’st. I received a voice mail on my cell phone on Friday before my appointment from someone from Charter to remind me of my appointment on Saturday. I sat around all day Saturday and by 4:50pm the tech still hadn’t shown up so I called Charter to see if he was coming and they told me to call back in 10 minutes when it was 5pm if he still hadn’t come. So I waited until exactly 5pm and called back and spoke to a different person of course and told them the tech still didn’t come and they said they would send out a call and the technician would call me to let me know when he’d be there. By 6pm I still never received a call so I called Charter back and explained my whole situation to a whole new person and they said if he hasn’t come by 7pm then call back. So I waited until 7pm (and I still hadn’t cooked dinner yet cause I didn’t want to be in the middle of dinner when the tech came) then I called Charter back at 7pm and spoke to another person who seemed like he really didn’t care about how angry I was at the time and he told me I’d have to reschedule. I told him he needed to send someone out tomorrow since this wasn’t my fault or problem and he said they didn’t have anything tomorrow but they had something next Saturday and he could give me my first month of phone service free for the inconvenience. I said what about cable and internet and he said he couldn’t give that to me free because he worked in the phone department. I said fine I’ll sit around and waste another whole Saturday and took the appointment for Saturday October 28th between 8 and 5. Then when I got off the phone I thought don’t I already get the first month of phone free anyway? So he really wasn’t giving me anything for my inconvenience. I called Charter myself this time on Friday just to make sure I really had an appointment on Saturday and they confirmed that I did and I asked them to make sure it was for phone, internet, and cable hookup with a DVR and the lady on the phone looked it up and said yes it is. So on Saturday I waited again and the technician actually showed up around 2:30. He said I’m here to hook up your phone service and I said yeah and internet and cable. He said the work order only said phone and it said the other services were already connected last Saturday. I said no, no one ever showed up last Saturday and I even called to confirm yesterday that everything would be done today and she said it would. So the technician used what he had in his truck, an old internet modem and a DVR that he was suppose to give someone else that day. Neither one of them worked. He said he would contact his supervisor and get someone to bring new equipment out that works.
The next day on Sunday the same tech called me and asked if he could come hook up the equipment. He came and hooked it up and it was working fine. He said it would take awhile for the MOXI box to download the channels. I checked it Monday morning before work really quick and the channels were all downloaded. When I came home after work to watch tv the MOXI system wasn’t working at all. It kept rebooting and then it would say “there is a problem with your media center that prevents it from operating properlyâ€. It wouldn’t do anything else but I could still get digital cable. I called customer support at about 7pm and spoke with someone who was probably in India. He wasn’t helpful at all and he had me reset the box and do things I already tried and answer questions I had already answered. I said so am I going to get a new box? He said the work order hadn’t been closed and I would have to wait 24 to 48 hours. So I hung up and called back and talked to a lady who must have been in India also. I explained the whole thing again and told her I wanted a new DVR. She said the next appointment for a tech to come out was Wednesday. I told her I work Monday through Friday and she said the next Saturday appointment was November 11th which was 2 weeks away. I said I’m not going to wait 2 weeks and waste another Saturday and hope a technician shows up. She said she would have a technician contact me and put urgent on the order. I got off the phone and was in tears after all this crap I’ve been through. I got on the internet to talk on the live chat that Charter has to see how I could get in touch with a supervisor in my area. She gave me a number that was disconnected but she said she would put a request in for a supervisor to contact me.
The next morning on Tuesday I got a call from a technician who said he was calling about connecting cable and internet services. I said I already have service my DVR just isn’t working. Then he said he was suppose to collect $100 from me. I said I already paid the $100 when it was hooked up, I just need a new DVR. Then he called dispatch or whoever and called me back and said I had an appointment tomorrow, on Wednesday between 8-5. I said I don’t know what good that is going to do me if I work 8-5 unless someone can give me an exact time and come during my lunch hour. He said they would call first before coming to maybe set up a time while I’m at lunch. While I was at lunch I called Charter to try and get a hold of a supervisor in my area. I had to go through this whole automated thing before I could talk to someone. Finally I got a person, I asked if I was talking to someone in my area and they said no I was talking to someone in Panama City, Panama. I told her I wanted to talk to someone in my area. She said I would have to call back. I said no I’m not going to call back cause I still won’t get someone in my area. She said she can’t transfer me. I said do you have their number or something? She put me on hold and then just gave me an address that was already in my phone book. I hung up and called Charter back again and got the automated system again and I yelled at it that I want to speak with a supervisor and it transferred me to a person. I told the girl on the phone I just want to speak to a supervisor in my area and I don’t want to explain the situation to another person on the phone, I want a supervisor. She said she would send an email requesting that a supervisor contact me. I doubt they ever will and I doubt I will get a new DVR anytime soon.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
My wife and I have had Charter on and off for a while. However, this last time will be the last time we ever use them again. Charter’s services are very competitive, but when you have a problem with them, you’ll really have a problem! We were moving from Madison, WI to Oconomowoc, WI and even though Charter was still offered in our new area, we decided to go with DSL instead, because it was a better deal. The initial call to cancel our service was made in August 2006. There was no problem disconnecting the service, but returning the internet modem was another story. The guy that I talked to said that we could have someone come to our apartment to pick up our cable modem or we could drop it off at the nearest location. He assured me that both options were free, so of course we decided to go with having them come to pick it up. The date we set to have them pick it up was our moving day and my wife was there all day. They were supposed to come between 10:00am and noon but they never did. At 12:30pm my wife called them and got someone who said that the order didn’t exist and that they don’t send anyone out for modem pick ups. She told her about my initial call and that someone was indeed supposed to stop by that morning. She said she would check on things and that someone should come by 2pm. When no one came by 2pm, my wife called again and talked to someone who said she saw the order and was not sure why no one had come by yet, she said they should be there by 3:30pm and if not to call back. When they didn’t show up again, my wife called back and was transferred to 4 different people and was on the phone for more than an hour and a half! She finally spoke with a gentleman who said they could schedule to come back another day…and she told him that we were moving that day and would no longer be at that address. He said we could mail it in and my wife said that would be fine but she refused to pay for shipping. He then said he would check into having someone come by and pick it up at our new place in Oconomowoc. He kept putting her on hold until finally he said that he would keep doing some investigating and then call her back. Of course, he never called back.
So we moved to our new home and we had still heard nothing from Charter. We got preoccupied with moving and about a month had slid by without hearing anything from Charter. We decided to renew our efforts once again to have someone come to our new address to pick up our cable modem. After all, it wasn’t our fault that we didn’t return the modem. This time I called again. I spoke with a gentleman that was not very sympathetic to our situation. He scheduled to have someone to pick up the modem and then I realized that they were probably going to send someone to our old address. So I told him that we had moved and that they should send someone to our new address. I gave him our new address and we finished the call. The day came and we got a call from the technician who said he was at our old address in Madison and no one was answering the doorbell. We explained the situation to him and he said he would see what he could do to have someone pick up the modem at our new address and then call us back. He never called us back.
A few weeks later we were sent a notice that Charter was sending us to collections for not returning our cable modem. I called once again. This time as I went through the automated system, I got to the option where it said something like, “…press 3 if you have a question regarding billing…†So I pressed 3 and it transferred me to a number that was answered by the recorded operator telling me that the number was not in service and that I should hang up and try again. I tried again just in case I had hit the wrong button and sure enough, the billing department had a wrong number. I then called sales and had them transfer me. I talked to someone who put me on hold while she tried to bring up our account. While I was on hold I got hung up on. So I called sales again and they got me to billing again. This time I talked to a man who told me we would have to be billed to have someone come and pick up our modem. I told him that we were told it would be free. Eventually he told me they would pick it up for free. I gave him our new address again and he assured me that someone would give me a call in a couple of days to set up an appointment to pick up our modem. I told him I was concerned because I didn’t think anyone would call us and he assured me they would. Well, three days passed and no one called.
It was now November. I called again and this time the billing department’s phone number was working. I talked to a lady who tried to bring up our account information. The only thing she could bring up though, was a very old account we had at a different address 3 years back. As she continued to look into it, she placed me on hold and transferred me to another department without telling me. I talked to that person about my situation and told me he would have to send me to a different department. I got transferred again, talked to another person again and they transferred me yet to another department! The next person told me I was talking to the wrong department again and transferred me while I was in mid-sentence! I then waited on hold for about 20 minutes before someone picked up the phone that claimed they could help me. I explained our situation and she seemed completely clueless to everything, as if there had been no notes in our account from the beginning. I told her we wanted someone to pick up our modem at our current address and she told me we would be charged. I told her that they weren’t going to charge us and eventually she agreed. I gave her our new address and she set up an appointment for about a week and a half in advance for someone to come to our new address to pick up our modem. She even told me the she put in her notes that we were not going to be home, but that we would leave the modem behind the screen door. The day of the pick up arrived. We got a call that morning from the technician confirming the appointment; only his notes said that he was supposed to pick up the modem at our Madison address. I informed him what we have been going through with Charter and this situation. He took our new address to see if it was serviced by Charter, but said that it wasn’t and therefore no one would be able to come by and pick it up. He mentioned that we could mail it or drop it off at the closest Charter location, which was about 30 miles away. I didn’t want to do that. Charter is the one that should be making up for its own mistakes. His final suggestion to me was to call the 800 number again and request that a pre-paid box be shipped to me to send the router back. I thanked him and let him go. He then called back a few minutes later to tell me that he would be sending me a pre-paid box to send the modem back. I thanked him many times and now we just need to sit and wait to see if that box actually comes.
November 27th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Good luck even getting these idiots out to your home. This is the most inept company I have ever had the displeasure of trying to work with. I have yet to find one single person in customer service (that is what I call anyone who answers the line when I call) that knows the slightest bit what they are talking about. Its at the point to just laughing if anyone mentions they have to call Charter for anything. I wish I had the time to list all the issues experienced with this company but I honestly cannot figure how they stay in business, it must be they operate without competition except from dish. I know its not due to their competency. I hope ATT and others do get in the cable business, if so, I am betting Charter will be gone within a year. Any choice is better than Charter. I am completely Charter free now and do feel for anyone that still has to deal with this company…and I use that term company loosely.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Hey Sheppy -
You ever figure out why Charter keeps dumping the AIM connection? I have the same problem and it persists whether or not I’m going through my router.
Charter is worthless about this. All they want me to do is to reboot the modem, yada yada yada. Or they say it is my firewall, etc.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Nope. It seems to happen less if I tell iChat to use port 80 on the AIM server instead of the usual port though.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
There is no corporation in America that has worse customer service or cares less about their customers that Charter. For the most part they have a monopoly and therefore they do not need to care. They can give whatever level of service they chose and there is nothing, not one thing, that anyone can do. The best idea os to call your local municipality and demand over and over and over that they allow cable competition in your neighborhood. Charter will not change until someone else comes along and begins to take away their customers in large numbers. I do not know if other cable companies are any better but I have Charter and I know thaT they are the worst.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Terrible, unreliable service, even worse technical “support.” In Louisiana, had Charter Internet for several years, was plagued by unreliable signal. Switched to Bellsouth DSL and no problems for two years. Yesterday, Charter Cable TV service was out and over 24 hours had to call four times (with long holds) to report outage. Every time I called, I got a different person who reported that this was the first time they’d received an outage report at my address. And this after several neighbors who also were without cable also reported the outage. And do you know what the last Charter “rep” told me? “Well, unfortunately we have people here at Charter who will take your call and just not do anything. They just tell the customer anything to get him or her off the line.” I couldn’t believe I was told this! I’m going to join the majority of my neighbors here in south Louisiana who are abandoning Charter for satellite. And my father in Asheville, NC tells me that Charter reliability and service is just as bad in that area, too. The only reason they remain in business is because of minimal competion. Thank goodeness for the alternative that satellite and DSL provide. This company deserves to go bankrupt.
January 14th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
If I had any alternative here, I would switch in a heartbeat. We live too far out from the central office to get DSL, and for the type of work I do satellite isn’t a viable option.
January 20th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Currently waiting for a technician to call me ,at 8:37 p.m.
They were suppose to be here yesterday morning to see why I don’t have a f*ing dial tone for the 9 millionth time. Yesterday a.m,the guy said there were no outtages in my area,so he would have someone call me right away….fast forward to 5 p.m when I called them back,only to have the drone on the other end of the line tell me there WAS an outtage in my area,and he didn’t know when it would be back on.
This morning I called back,where they told me there was no record of my call,and no one had been dispatched to my address.
I called back again,after they put me on hold for 18 minutes,and was told I would receive a call from a technician promptly. ( Im not holding my breath)
4p.m,I called yet again,and was told that they would be here before 8 p.m. At 8:01 p.m., I called back,got transfered 3 times,hung up on once,and put on hold for 14 minutes. I called back,and they said the technician was running late( no f*ing duh),and I will receive a call from HIM promptly! OMFG! I hate Charter.
The phone is out more than it works,not to even go into the f*ing nightmare that lasted 10 days trying to get the sonsabiches out here to hook it up in the first f*ing place.
January 27th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Had the same phone support experiences as previous posters. Decided to send an email hoping to get a response from an American who spoke English as a first language. Well, I did get a response……but it was nine days after my original email. In the interim I had called Directv and by the time Charter answered my email I had been enjoying Directv for three days.
January 28th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Every time I email Charter for help, they tell me to call instead. I’d like to know why so many companies that “offer email technical support” insist on telling you to call every time you send them email.
January 29th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
If I have to call them one more time….
It all started when we were trying to save $$$ by switching our services (CenturyTel for phone, DirectTV for TV–totalled at least $150/month). Well, we decided to just transfer our phone # from C.Tel to Charter. The Charter morons requested the incorrect # from C. Tel, but we didn’t know until the techs came to the house to do the install. As a result, we weren’t able to make the phone switch for 3 weeks. Anyway, in the meantime, our house which was on the market for a few months, finally sold–we decided to transfer our services to our new address. Now, 3 months after we moved, I’m still being billed at the old address! I called at the beginning of the month to see why I was getting a late charge, and they said that they’d take care of it and credit our account. Today, I rec’d a bill from Charter, as well as creditors! I am SOOOOOO tired of being on hold waiting for their stupid supervisors that I should probably just drive over to their offices in Chesterfield and fix things, but I have a 2 year old that wants to play at home, and anyway, why would I go out of my way to do that?
These people are complete morons…. changing back to satellite ASAP.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I concure with everyone here;Charter’s connectivity is horrible.I use a cell phone and don’t have a land line phone so I’ve stayed with them for several years;at least 3 days out of the month I loose connection all day.It’s been this way from the start;they try to pass the buck and blame it on everyone but themselves.It’s the router(which I don’t use anymore;that was never the problem)they blame my computer.When I visit my friend and bring my laptop and connect to their Comcast conection.My speed is great.I have several friends with Comcast and Time warner roadrunner;they never have connectivity problems.Their (outsourced agent)lured me into getting a package deal 3 meg internet,expanded digital cable with a added tier like movie or sports and Hbo for $69.89.I took the bait and later was told that HBO was not included.I call that “bait and switch”.They tell you they tape conversations with customers but when you ask them to look into the taped conversation you just had with their agent where you were promised a too good to be true deal they tell you they can’t produce the tape and that they don’t tape all conversations.How convenient for them.This is the most inificient scewed up company I have ever dealt with.If you can get DSL go with that.Direct TV has promotions with dsl companys that can give you a competative packaged price.I hope they go bankrupt too!
February 13th, 2007 at 1:35 am
I can not believe this company is still in business. I think the only reason for this, as others here have stated, is a lack of competition. Charter doesn’t really care about lying to their customers or having bad service because they are the only option for cable TV in the area.
My major complaint with this company has always been the same. Their TV and internet service is OK (works most of the time). What kills me is the lying and deception that the customer service reps feed to customers. If you call Charter about new service, they will offer you the best sounding deals, and tell you that the price for “this package” will remain the same for a year. Then, 3 months after signing up, your bill will suddenly jump by $30 a month. When you call to find out why your service has gone from $70 a month to $100+ per month, they tell you, “The $70 a month was a promotional package deal that was only good for 3 months”. They will deny that anyone ever told you the initial price would be good for a year, because, “We wouldn’t have told you that”. Oh, really? If you request a promised package in writing, they will NOT do it.
If you sign up for auto-pay, they will charge your bank account twice, sometimes even three times in a single month, sometimes overdrawing your bank account in the process and of course accepting no responsibility for it.
When your service *does* go out, do they offer any credit for extending outages? Of course not. This has got to be the worst company I have ever dealt with, and since looking into it more online, I have come to believe that it is company wide practice to promise whatever it takes to get people to sign up for service, and then start screwing them out of more money a few months down the road. They flat out disavow any knowledge that you were ever offered a package deal in the first place, or were told that it wasn’t a package deal but the regular price for the next year of service. Unbelieveable.
By the way, this is the 6th time between myself, my girlfriend, and my other roommates that Charter has done this EXACT SAME SHIT over the last 4 years. I’ve had it. We are contacting a different company to sign up for DSL internet, and cancelling our cable TV altogether. None of us can stand to give anymore of our hard earned money to Charter ever again. I hope the company goes under.
February 28th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
If you ever have any internet problems you can count charter’s customer service out! I recently had a problem and used a friend’s computer (cause my charter would not work) and I went through eight different reps and not one of them could fix my problem. They said they would and then I would try to get connected and could not. When I asked for a manager they kept refusing and then they thought it was cute to put my live chat on hold for, I kid you not, two hours, and then they would disconnect me. Also, they are great at refusing to give any contact information for management, I’m sure cause they don’t want to get in trouble. I’ve worked in the business world for over 30 years and I’ve never seen such disrespectful and incompetent service in my life. I have since gotten rid of all my charter services and am much happier.
February 28th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I had a serious problem with my high speed and when I called their customer service line they told me for six days in a row that their system was down so they could not help me. What happened to the customer is always right or I will take down your information, fix the problem, and call you back. They acted like I was inconveniencing them when I called and they laughed when I demanded to speak with a supervisor! Terrible!!!
March 20th, 2007 at 11:14 am
We’ve had 156 service calls in 4 years. They’ve closed my BBB complaints because “they didn’t want the paperwork”. I’ve been lied to on multiple occasions by Maurrissa Wilcox in Charter Corporate Escalation. We’ve taken off work for dozens of no shows by Charter. We’ve paid for wiring they claimed to be the problem - it was not. Now they’ve increased our bill $45 per month and are charging us $26 per service call - even though then never fix the service. I’ve contacted politicians - who are in the back pockets of Charter so that does no good. I’ve sent 6 certified letters to Charter corporate offices - none were responded to. Our house is now up for sale in the hopes that we can get away from this fraudulent, malicious company. There is not a more unethical entity on the face of the earth.
March 26th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
i used to work for charter communincations. the whole place i worked at was run by a bunch of slack jawwed yokels who never gave a shit about their customers. when i took calls for trouble calls i knew that 50 percent of the time they never showed up or came the next day. we had to tell people complete lies. i got in trouble so many times for saying to switch comapnies to customers lol
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Charter still hasn’t fixed our internet. It has been up and down for 4 years. I’ve caught their corporate office in multiple lies. Their technicians admit the company they work for is fraudulent. The technicians are only there for a pay check. You must go through your city councils to get charter out of the area. The problem is it’s easy for Charter to buy off 8 city council members when they are collecting $150 per month from millions. This company is evil from top to bottom. They do not follow standard ethical procedures and they laugh when customers have problems. If you do business with charter…you WILL get screwed and lied to. It’s only a matter of time.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Well the problem started when I signed up with Charter back in September of 2006. I have been having problems with my internet ever since. 3 to 4 days out of a week I experience either having no internet or it is extremely slow. I have called and called and called….I am sick of calling and nothing happens! A service guy has came out twice and what do you know…he found nothing! I pay $54.99 + tax per month for 5megs of internet and like I said 3-4 days out of a week I do not have internet or I run a speed test and I am barely getting 3 megs of internet. And this speed test is ran through a brand new laptop that is hooked up directly to the modem. Every time I call…the representatives try to say its my computer or its my modem or its something wrong on my end! It has all been checked and it is not! I believe they have to many customers for their server and that more than half of us are not getting the service we pay for! It is a huge rip off!!! I called last night (April 10, 2007) and spoke with Brian Hill, a supervisor for Charter and we went through the same troubleshooters as before. This time…he tried to say it was a AT&T router on the backbone of the internet that was causing me to have such a slow signal. I don’t have anything to do with AT&T…how is that effecting my internet!!?!?!?! He said it was neither my equipment setup nor was it Charters. How is this not their fault? They cannot give me the services I pay for! I am considering taking a class action lawsuit out and I have names and addresses of many people down my street who are having the same problems! I just feel that I should have a choice of a cable company in my area. Especially when Charter cannot give me my services to the extent that I pay for!
May 16th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Well… to be fair, AT&T runs several of the major “pipes” across the country through which the vast majority of Internet travels. Charter can’t control any problems or failures on AT&T’s network. However, blaming AT&T for ongoing and lasting problems doesn’t make sense because they would affect millions of people, not just one or two or even a neighborhood.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
you know, when I talk to charter on the phone they act like I’m the only person who has ever had a problem with any charter service. the internet has a 50/50 chance of working and cable tv service is always coming and going. in February they decided that by cable box was fried from all the times they tried to reset it. so a repair boy came out to the house and installed a replacement box. a used replacement box that died Saturday night. so I’ve taken the day off to wait on another repairman and what I hope is a new cable box that can last longer than 3 or 4 months.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Today is the 5th straight promised installation date that we were given. The first 4 no one showed and no one called!!! I have talked to reps in Panama, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and who knows where else. We call the morning that they are suppose to be here and were reassured that they would be here that day. Still no show and no call. This installation from what I understand is from the Athens, Al. Charter Store. The person that dispatches the installer has promised me twice that it would be done & the last one’s name was Brian. Not even a courtsey call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what makes me more upset than the fact that they didn’t show!!!
WILTON McNIEL BAILEYTON, AL.
June 29th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
charter has to many chiefs and not enough indians to do the work they screw there employees as bad as they do there customers,,,, hell they dont even have the training to do the job to exspensive lets do it the cheap way overbook work hell the guys dont have a life they will get home sometime tonight yea and lets start call centers in india and other countrys we will save a fourtune
July 1st, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Hi
I got charter Internet.
I am having trouble logging into my email.
I called tech support they are not very helpful. I would never go back to them for help. THEIR TECH SUPPORT SU#*S
July 5th, 2007 at 6:57 am
I used to work for Charter and I have to say: When I was an employee I wasn’t pleased with their service. I’m still not. Charter’s main focus is to try to sell you something every time you call in for help. They came up with this program called “Service to Sales” which means if you should call in and tell them your service is not working, they would try to get the service working again and then, they would try to sell you a package or a feature. Basically, they took advantage of people who depended on their service that is in reality completely unreliable.
If you look up Charter Communications in the Better Business Bureau’s website, you would see multiple complaints against them for their terrible business practices. As an employee of Charter Communications, you are mandated to check your morals at the door. They claim they have “World Class” customer service however, they have low class practices and products. As far as my services go, I chose to downgrade to 1.5 DSL which is more reliable than Cable 5 meg and I chose to go with Satellite.
July 10th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
charter is on its last leg , they cant compete, the employees hate them as much as there customers paul allen has run it into the ground with dedt just trying to keep up with the times they have been sued so many times by there own employees they have a hard time geting someone to work for them ,,, what ever you do dont buy the stock they screwed the investers once they will do it again ive got dish it just plain works for internet dsl no problems ….
Dont wast your time with them there service is crappy allways will be way to go charter !!!!!
July 12th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Gee, wish i had come across this before I bothered even using Charter services. I haven’t had proper service for over a month, they have changed out my equipment 3 times. I have spent over 400 minutes on the phone with these people in the past 30 days. My stuff still doesn’t work and they are refusing to give me a refund. I have never dealt with such an inept company in my life. Word to the wise don’t bother, cancel services and find other means for TV and internet.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
A little run down of whats happened since January. I was going to send this to Charter, but really, why bother?
To whom it may concern,
I’d like to give you a little run down of what I’ve had to deal with while dealing with your Customer Service.
Sometime between the 15th and 16th of June, my server went down. I called Saturday afternoon to report this.
First I was told that Marshall,NC and Asheville,NC were having trouble.Then she walked me through unplugging and restarting the computer. Then she said a program you use was down, and she could’t get my computer back in the system, she made a service call for me Tuesday, the 19th 8-12.
I called Tuesday the 19th to confirm the appointment.
The tech came around 11am, took out the Webstar, and left a Netgear. Said it was running fine, and left .At 12;30, the server was down again.
I called you at 12:35 and was walked again through unplugging, restarting, got it up, and told to call back if it went out again.
12:45, it went out again.We did the same thing. I was told to call back when it went out.
2:30,I was told when I called that the usb port was probably bad,to try switching ports, got it running, told to call back if it went down.
I made 3 more calls on the 19th, two of which were women in the Phillipines whom I could not understand very well, neither of them could get the server back on, but I did learn that if I ever wanted to visit their country, I should come between March and May! ( totally unsolicited advice).
5:20pm. I called, spoke to a lady who had me typing things in the run:box, and was told that the Netgear box I had was faulty, and I needed to call Netgear, and get a new one. I informed her that the Netgear was what your tech had installed that day, she then told me that the router/modem combo I was using wasn’t suported very well by Charter, and I needed a new modem, at a $49.99 install fee, and an extra $9.99 a month charge. I asked to speak to a supervisor who could straighten this out. She transfered me to billing.(?)
Billing transfered me to Shawn, who was fielding calls for a supervisor. He heard my mess, was sympathetic, and assured me it would be handled. He made another service call for Wednesday, the 20th.
Wednesday, 20th. I called to confirm the tech was coming, they assured me I would recieve a call from him.( He showed up with no call. )
He changed the Netgear back to a Webstar, climbed the pole outside, came in and said the server was up, but if I had any trouble to call back,but to try to “hang in there” till Saturday or Sunday, because some wires and connections on the pole were bad, and someone would be out Thursday or Friday to fix it. He left at 2:25, the server was out at 2:32.
I called back at 4 pm , to the Corperate office, and asked them to make sure someone came out Thursday or Friday.She assured me that I would get a call back from someone within 24hrs.
Thursday the 21st. 5:30, I called and asked for a supervisor, because I had received no call within 24 hours, and was told that it was too late to get ahold of the Techs, but I would get a call back on Friday.
around 6, I got that call from when I talked to Corperate, and he said that he would call back, he did, and said I would have a tech out on Tuesday.
Friday the 22nd, 9:30 am, I had a message on the machine from Steve, who said my modem looked good, and the signals were okay, and it looked like everything was running fine, and to call back if I wasnt happy. (?)
I called back at 7:30pm to let you know that NO, everything isn’t working, and please dont cancel the tech for Tuesday. The lady I spoke to didnt understand what I wanted and transfered me to a supervisor, at which point, I was hung up on.
I called back, and spoke to Jack, who told me that it was likley that the ethernet cable was bad. Then he wanted me to unplug the computer and restart it. I explained that I just wanted to make sure the tech was still coming on Tuesday, and he said no, the tech is scheduled for Wednesday, the 27th.
So far, I have been told that my computer was outdated, and recomended to buy a new one.
(when I asked her what my computer had to do with the server going down, she said my computer was like a transmission in a car, and your Webstar and router was like the engine,and it was my responsibility to keep my end maintained so that your end could do its job! This is the lovely lady who also tried to tell me I needed to pay $49 install fee for a new modem,with the $9.99 monthly fee)
That my usb ports are bad.
That the original order on my record showed incomplete.
Told twice that my computer was struck by lightning.
Told the tech must have wired it wrong
Told that there was an error on your end,and to call back later,twice!
Told that my router/modem combo wouldnt ever work properly in the future.
Told twice to take my modem in to the local office and get it fixed/switch it out.
I have been hung up on 3 times total, one of which after I had been holding for a supervisor for over 45 minutes.
Out of all the people I spoke to during this, Shawn, who gave me his email to contact him by, was the only person who didnt seem to try and put me off, or pass the buck. Your Customer Service speaks for itself. I know my opinion doenst matter, and Im less that a drop in the bucket for you, but I wanted to say, that I would recomend dial-up over Charter, because at least they are consistant.
Im sure if you pull up my records, you will see that I had a similar nightmare of equal proportions when trying to get Charter installed in the first place.
June 26,a.m. got call from a supervisor I had previously spoke with, he said everything looked good, was I happy? I told him no service, and he confirmed the appointment for wednesday the 27th.
June 27th. Wednesday 9;40 am. Tech called to say he is on his way.
He worked on the lines in the house, said he would put a amplifier on the box outside, and that he guaranteed it would keep me connected until thay could come repair whats wrong at the pole.The last tech had left ethernet and usb connected.
When he was done, he sat in the drive doing his paperwork.The server went out. I went and told him, he came in, unplugged something in the back, and it worked again.
30 minutes later, it was out again.
I called and asked for a super, was told they would be back between 1 and 5pm.
Monica called a few minutes later, and said she would call dispatch, and they would be back within the hour. That was at 1;32pm. She also said she would call me back within the hour. Neither called or showed up, so I called her back at 4pm. She called dispatch and called me back to apologize, and said dispatch wouldnt answer the phone, and she will keep me posted as the day goes on until she goes home. She assured me that things would be resolved today, considering its raining and 4:32 pm, I have my doubts.
5:25pm. Tech called to say will be out in 10-15 minutes.
Same tech who was here last Wednesday. He says he knows nothing about the connection on the pole being bad, even though *HE is the one who said last wednesday that someone would be out thursday or friday to work on the pole,and to “hang in there till the weekend. ” Why do they have no record of a connection at the pole being bad, when Monica ordered this call because OF THE CONNECTION AT THE POLE BEING BAD!!!!!!!!!!!
He changed all the connections at the pole and all the wiring at the computer. He said if it still isnt working, that the problem is probably with my computer. BUT!!!! It has been working all night and ever since he left! OMG! He did leave the amplifier hooked up though.
July 13th. Internet service still connected( a freaking mazing!) Phone did go off two days ago for no apparent reason. Got hung on 3 times before someone finally put in a order for someone to come out. The phone came back on before the appointment time, so instead of letting the Tech waste his time coming out, like I should have done, I called and canceled the appointment.
Im currently fighting with the billing department.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
soulstorms — keep us posted on how things go from here.
My service seems to be working okay now… haven’t had an outage in a while, and recently upgraded to the 10 Mbps package. I’m not getting 10 Mbps down (more like 5 Mbps), but the uplink speed is really fast (around 1 Mbps) which is really more what I upgraded for anyway. So I’m not going to jinx things by complaining.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Oh yeah, I called our local BBB, and they get so many complaints on Charter, they have their own rep. who handles nothing but Charter complaints!
July 15th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Ok, get this. I pay my bill online every month. I paid $56.81 on July
4th. On the 12th, I wondered why it hadn’t came out of my bank
account yet.I called Charter twice to see if there was a problem with
the payment. They both assured me the payment had been received AND
cleared, and if it wasn’t showing on my bank account, to call the
bank. I called the bank, and of course, it was total crap.
The 14th, I get a letter from Charter saying Im freaking overdue, due
to an invalid account #. My bank account # is stored automatically in
Charters system!
I called twice this morning to try to make a payment, and was told
both times that my balance was $89! They both tried to tell me I had
to pay for this month AND last month!
I paid the $56.81 over the phone, of course for the phone payment fee
of $1.99.
We will see how bad they(bleep) up the billing next month, because
they still owe me for the 2 weeks the crappy service was out last
month. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 16th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
All I can say is F’n DITTO to all complaints about Charter!! They are absolutely the WORST of the BOTTOM FEEDERS!
July 20th, 2007 at 12:20 am
If your a charter client do this now!
http://unsubscribe.charter.com
Then sue em if your info gets to third party.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
It took me 5 calls to Customer Service, and 3 calls to Corporate Office to get it done, but they finally took the $37.00 charge for a technician to come out , off of my bill. It’s amazing to me that they would try to charge me that after it took 4 techs 13 days to fix the problem.
BTW, Charter sent me a Hallmark card last week apologizing for the “trouble” I’ve had with their company. (snort)
July 24th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I used to have Astound internet and cable. They were great. More channels, 5 meg internet for charters price of 3meg internet. Then charter bought them….I don’t understand. The last time I had a problem, I called charter to come out and fix it. IT TOOK THEM OVER 14 DAYS….to come out and fix my internet….which completely didn’t work. This is the worst internet/cable provider on the planet….avoid at all costs!
July 24th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
This should make you smile - it has for many of us!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Eight-Charter-Champ-Shirts-going-fast_W0QQitemZ260140431458QQcmdZViewItem
Funniest thing I’ve seen on ebay in years!
November 10th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I have had charter for years and it’s always worked great with no problems. I would bet that a lot of your problems with Charter is the wiring inside your house. I was a field tech for Charter at one point and honestly i would say 90% of the trouble calls we had was because the coax wiring in customers houses was like 25yrs old. Most people think just because they have cable lines running through their house, everything should work fine. With high speed internet and telephone service now, it’s not that simple. I’m not saying all problems listed here have to do with house wiring but i would say a high percentage are. Alot of wiring in houses goes through crawl spaces and unaccessable places like attics that we cannot always replace. If you educate yourself on the wiring of your house and how a modem and router works, i seriously doubt you would have so many issues with your service. As a former tech, i know that the cable tech can only do so much when trying to fix the problem. Also maybe some of you should mention that Charter very rarely charges for coming out to fix the problem…. Very few companies will even show up to your door for less than $100 if you have issues. Believe it or not Charter is a very goood company. As far as the issues with the phone service, well in many places it is a brand new service that they are still working the kinks out of. I have heard people say they have absolutely no problems with it and others say it is nothing but problems.
November 11th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Every tech Charter has sent out here has been pretty much entirely incompetent. Apparently in my area they hire only uneducated buffoons.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Wow.. Gilroy California.. Gilroy, CA.
Charter hold the monopoly in my area. I cant find any providers for wired high speed internet.
HOWEVER… CHARTER SUCKS!
I pay for 5mg service, and starting in the beginning of November I began to receive between 1mg and 2mg’s between the hours of 6pm-11pm. PEAK TIMES!
Here’s where it gets worse. I waited for several days with slow speeds before I finally called Charter (On Nov.9th 2007) to complain about the speeds and they told me they were aware of the ongoing problem, and it would be fixed on Nov.19th. They told me I could call back after the 19th to be credited. I asked why, if charter was aware of this issue, they did not inform their customers or automatically credit affected customers. I was told that the customer had to call in first. So basically they offer a service (an expensive service at that) that they do not provide. Unless you run your own speed tests and catch them in the act, they will gladly cheat you.
I waited until the 27th before I called back. (The speeds had not changed) The rep. informed me that the problem was fixed on the 19th, and that the issue must be the wiring/modem at my house. I was credited for 10 days (between the 9th and the 19th) but the problem started before the 9th, I wanted credit for the whole month up to that point. The rep refused me and told me the issue began on the 9th when I called and was fixed on the 19th. THAT IS BULL!! When I called the first time (on the 9th) they told me it was an ONGOING PROBLEM, not an issue that I made them aware of by calling. But by not calling sooner how could I prove that now? They scheduled a tech to come out Dec.3rd.
On December 3rd the tech arrived he already knew what was wrong, He said his company was already aware of the slow speeds during peak times and there was nothing he could do about it. He said he would still run his tests to check my wiring/modem. He checked, and proceeded to tell me that my wiring and modem were fine. He assured me that they were working on the speed issue night and day, and that the problem SHOULD be resolved by the end of the year.(So basically all of November and December) He then called his dispatch center to report the problem. He told me “Between you and me, my supervisor has a huge stack of reports/complaints for the same exact issue on his desk, whenever I bring another one he says put it on the pile.” He proceeded to blame the call center for not being aware of the ongoing problem. He started to pack up and leave when I asked him to wait, I wanted to call the local office and get to the bottom of the issue before he left. I asked him for the local number to his main office, and he gave me a number with a (866) area code. That didn’t seem right, but I called the number. He suddenly became very anxious to leave, packing up his supplies in a rush while I was calling. I was connected to a rep just as he was walking out the door. The rep said they were not a local office, they were a call center based out of state (even possibly out of the country). I told the rep what was going on and what the tech had told me. At this point the tech was just frozen in place listening to my conversation. The rep on the phone put me on hold and contacted the local dispatch for my area. When she came back on the line she said the dispatch told her there were NO PROBLEMS IN MY AREA!!! I was VERY frustrated and wanted an answer to what was going to be done and when was Charter going to start being honest with me. She left my phone number for the district supervisor in my area to call me back.
It has been 2 days and I’m still waiting.
I just ran a speed test at 8:59pm 12/04/07.. and the result ??=
854.4 kbps not even 1mg.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I have had many many problems with Charter, from missed appointments, to outrageous billing, to ignorant customer service, and I finally had it when they billed me over $300 to switch my service from one apartment to my new apartment, they were supposed to INSTALL jacks in the bedrooms and in my home office, well their idea of that ( I was not home, I have a job like most people, and i had my mother sit at my house for them to show, I refused to take off work for them to miss another appointment ) was to run cable, from my ONE jack that was in my home in the living room throuout my ENTIRE APARTMENT i had cables running everywhere, it was rediculous, then they have the gull to charge me $300 for that!!?? I could have done that with $20 and a trip to the hardware store!! So after hours on the phone with “customer service” and their “web support” I just finally called to cancell all services, and finally got someone who cared, he fixed the billing issue, My next bill was only like $60, i ended up not having to pay for any of the installation, I am getting all the premium channels and I am only paying for HBO, which is fine, because it doesn’t work half the time anyways, and for the last year I have only been billed $91.60 for digital cable, all the premiums, and internet service.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I hate charter, they were terrible when I had them. I encourage everyone to boycott them whenever possible. See my website for other goals.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I recently moved to St. Louis from Chicago where I had Comcast. I really like Comcast’s service, channel lineup and broadband performance. My new condo association will not allow dish installation so I was forced to go with Charter as my cable provider. I’ve been shocked at their horrible product, customer service, billing and their technicians. I can’t imagine there is another cable provider in the country with a worse HD channel line up than Charter Communications.
I have absolutely nothing good to say about Charter Communications and cannot comprehend how they stay in business.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Charter Communications: My Second Family
After sixth months of negotiating, I am pleased to announce that on February 6th, 2008, Charter Communications completed its work order from August 24th of 1941, er, sorry 2007 regarding Charlie and Stacy’s account. Yes, they finally managed to close our account after twelve requests to shut it down and twelve requests to stop billing us for services we’ve not received for six months.
Charter Communications apparently had a communication problem as this now infamous work order failed to make it through to the next step in their network. . .twelve times. Each time, or each of the twelve times this happened created huge concerns for Charter. One customer service agent named Lee told me he would “communicate” (okay I extrapolated that word) the problem right away. This apparently did not happen the first time, or the next for that matter. It took…twelve times.
Over the past several months, through my many hours spent on the phone, I feel like I’ve gained a second family over at Charter Customer Services. There’s Ahmad, who was very determined to do something to help me, if I only I knew how or in what way (He had a little trouble communicating with me as my Arabic is a bit rusty). Juan was a lovable, jolly fellow, always worth a laugh–probably at my broken Spanish as I gave it my best shot to communicate with him. But laughter like Juan’s is contagious even if it probably was at my expense.
When my calls weren’t directed internationally, I was fortunate enough to get to know Wendy who chomps her gum and types a bit slower than the rest of her colleagues. Then there’s Earl, the lovable old codger who teems with information and helpfulness (He knows and leaks important corporate phone numbers–very helpful). I’ll never forget Robbie at corporate–so forthright and accountable with his vows to put an end to such an inexcusable problem, proudly stating, “The buck stops here.” Of course Robbie was just being modest with his estimates as, at last count, 251 of my bucks had stopped there. But what’s $250, more or less, among family? My favorite, though, had to be Alicia, who made it very clear what an ungrateful brat I was for leaving Charter. “It’s your loss; I know my company’s good! You tellin’ me you’ perfect? You think your life is a big, red, rosy perfect bubble?” (I am not making this up). “I can’t help it if you don’t know when you’re being billed” (This either).
In Alicia’s defense, I had been a little impatient with her (our) family over there at Charter. I was a bit more tired than I had been during call number eight in January when I had to be transfered to the Customer De-escalation Service where Dee (apparently the mother of my second family) asked me a series of introspective questions like, “Sir, do you think if you calm down I’ll be more likely to be of help to you or less likely to be of help to you?” (50-50 chance–Damn! I wasn’t in the mood for those odds.) I was a little less tired, though, than during call number nine in January when I requested they transfer me to the Customer Escalation Service so they could get me properly psyched up to announce to Cheryl that I didn’t appreciate $69.49 being charged to my credit card (They said they don’t have an Escalation Service–You have to motivate yourself). But back to good old Alicia. Alicia shared a lot of wisdom with me in the time I spent with her. Best of all, she also told me I’d get my check in six weeks so I should “Be happy,” a nice send off from my other “family” as we prepared to part ways.
The last person in my second family that I spoke with must have been the dad of my second family. After discussing my problems with Ron, who is also Alicia’s supervisor, he didn’t know what a big, red, rosy bubble was, and he regretted to inform me that he would not be able to send any big, red, rosy bubbles with my check. That kind of shot down my next question which was “Will they be perfect?” He didn’t even know if there was a recipe for red-tinted bubbles. I was even willing to blow them myself (the bubbles). Apparently Alicia would end up with the last laugh after all–my life isn’t, and never will be, a big, red, rosy, perfect, bubble.
I’m sure going to miss all those people. It’s kind of sad now. I feel like I’ve become Charter’s Prodigal Son. Then again, there still is the issue of that work order they just completed to “Send [my] check as soon as possible.” Of course, if they continue in their usual communication patterns and mess up this work order, maybe the prodigal son will have to return after all. Maybe my family over at Charter will even kill the fatted calf when I return! Nah, I’d never wish that on Alicia.
Posted by Chunky Bean at 7:51 PM 0 comments
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 am
the sad sad thing about it is there isnt enough people to complain to get anything done about it, I contracted for charter for ten years and it is sad how green the techs are im shocked to see them at the right address i use a sat, both kinds. if you have money to throw away go charter, if not get a sat.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
You know. I am a System Technician for Charter, before I was a Broadband Technician. I here good and bad feedback. I know that I usually always solve the problem. I know that s*** happens here just like at every one of your jobs. But at least there isn’t a blog talking about all the bad experiences. You will never hear any good news, only bad! Oh ya, mr contractor for ten years, everyone knows that installers are hacks, your half the reason Charter has a bad name at all. I work in New England in the towns of Westborough and Southborough, my customers are pretty satisfied, I have a full list of letter and calls to back me up!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am
To be fair, this isn’t a blog about Charter, it’s just a few posts related to trouble I had a while back that happens to turn up high enough in Google searches that people keep posting their problems here. And since my connection has gotten sluggish again, I’m more than happy to let people keep doing that.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Just spent close to an hour on the phone with 3 different customer service reps disputing my new monthly bill. Basically, when I called to add telephone service, I requested a TOTAL monthly rate from “Kimberly” for the package that was negotiated. That total was $94.00. So, the first bill that I get is for $133.00 - can you say, WTF, Mate???? The song and dance that I got is that the montly bill should be $117.00. Sooo, what happened to $94.00, and why a bill for $133.00????? Well, there is this tax and that fee, and by the way, a monthly charge of two bucks for this, eleven bucks for that, blah blah blah blah….rates have changed since you originally requested your service. What part of TOTAL did “Kimberly” not understand? I gladly offered to make my monthly payment of $94.00, and suggested that the rest should be taken out of Kimberly’s paycheck, Well, I guess that pig’s aren’t flying today, so too bad for me….Can’t really complain about the iternet, cable, or phone service, but the complete deception of rates and monthly fees is a complete crock of crap. Of course, they have you by the nads, so I guess that all I can do is make may monthly payment - live and learn!!
April 4th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
WE don’t have ABSOLUTELY NO CONTRACT, FYI: if you get satellite you will not have service if it’s raining or snowing. Pls don’t forget the charges/fees of your contract. In behalf of Charter, we apologive for any inconveniences…rest assured we are improving our services for the betterment of our valued customers. Honestly computers do sometimes breakdowns–just an honest fact that we have to live by…Happy Day! Put a smile on your face always…any concerns call us: 1-888-GET-CHARTER. We are delighted to be of service to you!
April 4th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I have to be frank abt this. It’s only here that i can voice out. I’m a customer service rep of charter. There are customers that DON’T OR REFUSE TO UNDERSTAND thier bill, wasn’t told completely of the charges and fees when they sign up for any service. We also bill our customers one month in advance–usually Communications cos. do this for security reasons and the customer have the option to cancell/down grade or upgrade their service one month b4. There are also those customers who want ot shop for promotions–its not BAD but just like any other biz, we also need to pay our bills from our providers and pay alot of taxes and fees that government impose which WE NEED TO EDUCATE OUR CUSTOMERS–that w/ the recent increase (Rate Adjustments) we absorbed/shoulder most of the increase. Anyway USA is a free country and WE HAVE the choice what we want–we regret anyone who discontinue their subscriptions–they dont know that satellite other providers trick them w/ contracts, hidden fees, etc. Whewww..thank God…i can voice out myself…thanks for reading!
April 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Charter - an American owned company. Just like most of the American conglomerates these days — outsourcing jobs to Panama, India, anywhere but the good ole U.S.A. I spend hours upon hours over the years on the phone dialing until I get an American on the line. They seem to be the only ones who know what they are doing and capable of correcting problems, etc. Never has anyone of the outsourced reps helped me. And, I have tried. Now I just dial and dial until I get one here in the U.S.A. I got someone in Canada once who told me she hated Americans! Wow! the future looks bleak for my children if we continue to allow these American companies to sale us out. God Bless America! God Help Us!
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
I am currently a Charter employee and have a bit of pride left to say that I can’t wait to get the hell away from that company. And to all of you customers or former customers out there with problems from this fucked up company, let me just say sorry. And I try to help everyone I talk to. Even if it meant I got less “sales” that day and didn’t transfer you to Panama. No I do not have a college degree, but I think of myself as a pretty intelligent person overall. And most importantly, I am helpful where others don’t give a shit and would rather lie to you to up their commission.
I hate that company and everything about it with a passion more and more everyday and i wish my building would burn down. Every morning i go to work hoping the building will be burning down like on the movie office space. Lol
This really is no laughing matter….Charter is a bad bad company and is run by ignorant arrogant pricks who treat their employees like peeons. And as of the first quarter of 2008, I am happy to announce that Charter is not making any head way on even the interest on all of it’s debt….so basically….the company is going down. fast. In fact, today, we were told in a team meeting that the company is doing so badly, they are basically going to start firing ppl/laying ppl off wherever they can.
Rest in turmoil, Charter. You deserve it because of the hell you’ve put everyone else through.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
How do I hate Charter? Let me count the ways:
1. Service outages and having to wait days for service, being told it’s probably something in the house since they can’t find the fault or service outage info in their systems (no duh!), only to find out it’s them doing upgrades, shotty maintenance or this is a good one - they disconnected my house from a tap to replace the tap and never bothered to re-connect me.
2. $103/month for only the a few extra channels (not the grand kahuna package).
3. No help on phone unless you’re new subscriber. No matter what you ask, you get met with “I don’t knows” and “I don’t have that information”.
4. No NBA TV - hello, basketball fans need love too.
5. Internet service in my area was a joke thru Charter. The signal kept degrading to nothing and I would be without internet for hours or days. Even when I said I telecommute as part of my job, they wouldn’t get a guy out sooner than 2 weeks later. And guess what - the problem cleared itself up when the upgrade work they were doing near my node was complete. But no communication about possible outages or service degradation and no apologies.
6. The overwhelming sense from most Charter employess that I’m lucky to have this service and their precious time (with exception to the lone voice above - thank you).
June 17th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
During a storm last week a spike/surge came thru the cable into my house and killed my modem, router, and three computer’s LAN ports (one of the computers was 3 months old another was a custom build that I had gotten through with a month ago and the other was 4 years old ). Before the storm all the computers worked perfectly. On the next day a Charter tech came out and replaced the modem and spent 30-45 minutes checking things out. He told me that what had ahppened was Charter’s fault and told me what form I need to fill out. After speaking with 5 different CSR’s and 2 supervisors, another tech came out today while I was at work and spent 5 minutes looking outside and told my wife it wasn’t Charter’s fault and basically ” Tough luck”. Now I am waiting for a call from Corp office and I am going to let them have an ear full because I am out of use on these computers and the oldest one isn’t able to be repaired due to needing a new motherboard.
So how am I going to get Charter to pay for the repairs short of taking them to court?
June 28th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Charter Communications is the lousiest cable operator in existence. I have had the worst experiences with them.
Right now my cable is out since last evening , actually my entire subdivision is out. I called them this morning and they told me that they are not aware of any outage in my area and that the problem must be with my line only, can you believe that?
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Guyys Some One Has To Sue Them. i Can’t Cuz I’m Only 16 But There Internet Service Is Crap There Cable Is Crap And They Shut Off My Phone Todayy. Those Arses Up There Don’t Know What There Doing. Were Switching Over To Vonage For Our Phone And Net Needs.
CHARTER SUCKS!
July 21st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I just canceled Charter. I don’t have another solution. I called in on a support call regarding some of my HD channels are not delivering sound.
I hate charter enough that I am going to do without movie channels. I will go with over the air. I will do without as opposed to doing with charter.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Well I got my answer from Charter and they said that it was not there fault and weren’t going to pay. Funny thing is though that my lawyer said that they admitted responsibiltiy when they changed out the modem. As soon as my power company gets the fiber thru here I am going to cancel Charter and then I am going to go on an all out blitz on every web site that I can find and tell everyone just how they did me.
Charter, you should have paid for the damage you caused.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Yes, yes indeed Charter does suck a big fat one!
I worked for the company for 3 years in many different department, and can vouch from experience no one in the call centers get communicated the same information.
The service sucks, and 75% of the market is on a constant intermittent connection binge.
We are scripted and FAIL Quality assurance if we don’t sell you something. The goal IS to sell you something, sometimes we put you on promotions for 6 months only to let your bill jump $85 when the promotion runs out.
I’ve worked for the company for 3 years (not anymore) and am proud to say it. I came home with a guilt complex every day thinking about how many customers I lied and cheated just because the company told me to, and how many other employees do the same.
Did you know that they fire you if you refuse to badger customers into buying more services? The fire people for not making a certain amount of sales per day? Agreed that this is a company that needs to make money, but isn’t that what the SALES department is for? Forgive me, but if I had to call in to complain about terrible service day in and day out I would not want to get harassed every time, and every person I talk to!
This is Charter Communications every day they come up with a new scheme for the representatives to use to try to swindle customers out of their money, every day they raise price of service without customers knowing.
September 6th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Not really surprised, by the previous post, where you guys are forced to try and shove services down everyone’s throats. It’s not like we don’t get enough reminders in the mail about how “awesome and cheap” bundling all their services together is until the initial deal period runs out and the price for their services skyrockets to their normal rates.
Probably wouldn’t expect anything different from a company who is $20 billion in debt and on the verge of filing bankruptcy…
September 8th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
There is a reason why most people in St. Tammany Parish, LA, no longer have Charter cable - they finally had enough with the lies and the incompetence. I was told by a Charter “technical support” person named “Erica in Texas” that she “guaranteed” that my service would be on tonight. The “guarantee” was her word, not mine. I even asked her if she confident in guaranteeing my service would return tonight, and she said again that it was “guaranteed.” So the company line, when the service (as expected; really, it is Charter) didn’t come back on, was “Oh, she shouldn’t have said that. We never guarantee that our service will come on.”
I believe that I will follow the other 90% of this parish who have left cable for one of the dish systems. I lived in New Orleans for 20 years and never had this trouble from Cox Cable. I wish the politicians in this parish would kick out Charter and bring in a company that could actually tell the truth and provide a decent service.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hey — I graduated high school in St. Tammany Parish.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Dear Anonymous of Course, (April 23, 2008) Thank you for your inside employee scoop. I hope you find a job you really enjoy and you’re appreciated at.
Can anyone tell me the latest financial status of Charter Comm? I don’t understand all the financial lingo, so just give me the 101 version, or where I can find a layman’s version. I need to know when to start taking the Satellite door-to-door guys seriously. I don’t want to log on one day and find out I no longer have Internet service because the company went under overnight.
Thanks, all.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
IF THE TECH IS LATE AND YOU WASTE YOUR WHOLE TIME WAITING AROUND OR HE/SHE SCREWS UP AND YOU ARE ON HOLD WITH INCOMPETENT CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS, YOU CAN CALL THE TECH LINE DIRECTLY FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU HAVE AT 1-877-877-6797!! CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN!!
October 8th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Charter does it again. I changed my autopay with them because I changed bank accounts. You guessed it–they screwed the change up and then charged me a late charge. Of course, the on-line chat person couldn’t waive the late charge and the idiot in Mexico kept telling me what I already knew and then would not waive the charge. I give up. But if one of you bozos working for Charter’s customer service ever reads this, your service stinks.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Gary,
I’ve had that problem. Charter’s online bill payment service doesn’t work. I’ve tried both auto-pay and regular one-time payments. Neither one works, and I wind up with late charges. Losers.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:23 pm
HATE THEM!
December 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I also hate charter!! Sadly where I live Charter is our only option! We have resigned to the fact that we can deal with the cable, but there internet is horrible!! We had charter internet at 15 dollars a month and had some problems. Had a service tech come out that we knew and also knew he knew nothing about computers or IT. My husband new more than he did! Also, we had our internet disconnected because of a billing error on there part, and then was charged 50 dollars a month for internet! I went in to the local office to fix that, but was told nothing could be done because we had our internet disconnected! After fighting with the lady for an hour nothing was resolved. We are currently in the market for a new ISP!
Our internet, since I told them we were going to switch, has been awful. It has stopped working every few minutes. We wont be switching until January first, and I wanted my kids to be able to participate in Santa Tracker this year. I hope everyone else has a better holiday season then I seem to be having with Charter!
December 19th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I HATE CHARTER! We have been attempting to get a digital box with HDMI connection since NOVEMBER of 2007… it is now Decemer of 2008! Despite numerous scheduled “delivery” dates and times we have yet to receive one, they are “out” of them…. yeah right.
At the moment cable has been down since 10pm yesterday after 1 full day of having 138-240 kps download and 1380 kps upload speeds…. they know there was an outage but supposedly that was cleared. Well what do you know.. someone cleared the work order but our neighborhood still doesn’t have service! Every time we call in we are told to wait a few more hours by some, and others as usual want us to tear out home network apart before sending out a tech. I’m so sick of dealing with these idiots but they are the only high speed service in our area.