Anyone here have Charter for internet?

[coronet 131]

I work 24/7. I am gone a lot. I last left home 2 1/2 days ago, cable worked perfect. I get home (now last night) and no cable, like a power outage. (I only have internet - no tv) I call Charter up to see what the problem is. Of course, it must be my fault. My wiring. Technician on the way in 4 days. (meanwhile - they had sent me a new modem, out of the goodness of their hearts, about a month ago) I got kinda ticked off a couple of hours later, and decided to call them back. Lo and behold, my old modem was "out of compliance" and when I plugged in the new modem - SHAZAM! everything worked just great. (why the first tech couldn't have just told me that - I don't know) I had problems with them for about 5 years, and threatened to sue, because they were contracted in my town to provide everyone with service, but I was on the fringes and they didn't want to spend the money to string a line to me - it wasn't "cost effective". (what a lineman told me) Long story short. After years of batteling them, and having line issues/lies/techs telling me I needed a new modem/(at my personal cost) all kinds of BS. for years. I finally had good service. Now, they sent me a modem of their own, and claim that it is the only thing that will work. Anyone else have issues like this with them? Is this new modem shit true? For some reason, I don't trust them. They lied to me for so many years and made it sound like it was my problem. Now, they are acting like the good guy. Anyone else have issues with them?

[Juggernaut 11,054]

Have had charter for years.. never had an issue..

[coronet 131]

I would get home from work, and just want to get on the internet. I had problems. I would end up hours at a time (EVERY TIME I CAME HOME - FOR YEARS!) running all kinds of tests while talking to the techs. i have 2 pages of a notebook full of tests that they would run. I finally got to the point that I would run the tests myself before I would call them. Then I would tell them all the stuff I did to cut down on diagnostic time. If there would have been any other option, I would have chosen it. EVERY time, they tried to make it sound like it was a problem with my computer or wiring inside my house. Every time, it turned out to be them/and or their wiring. it was very frustrating, to say the least. Then, the lineman tech told me that they didn't want to run new line for just 1 out of the way house in the boonies (but still in city district), because it was not cost efficient. I finally got that resolved, buy threatening to sue, and had great internet for a couple of years, now this. I wish we had competition. Competition is a good thing. Count your lucky stars that you haven't had problems. They will fuck you and lie to you anyway they can. edit(originally said 2 houses, but my neighbors right down the street are out of city limits, so it was just me)

Edited February 26, 2013 by coronet

[YOT 3,743]

Instead of threatening to sue, send them chocolates and beer.....

[busarider 23]

Charter sucks balls! My parents have them and they go up in cost and down in channels. I am going to get them dish network because charter is just a crappy service in their area. I at least feel your pain.

[coronet 131]

At least their techs speak English that I can understand. LOL. Hmmnn...chocolates and beer might be a better approach? I'm always nice. Except for that one time I told the lady that she must really hate men to treat them they way she did. She asked What? And I replied that she must really hate men to deprive them of their porn. She hung up on me. lol. She probably would have been happier with an obama phone, than chocolates.

[coronet 131]

And the biggest thing, I wouldn't care how crappy their service was, or how much they charged, if they just WOULDN'T lie. For years they kept lying. If they just would have told me the truth, it would have been easier to take. I absolutey HATE liars. It would have been better if they just would have said, "sucks to be you".

[Eric Pate 478]

They are replacing your old unlimited-speed modem with a new one that can limit your bandwidth. Lots of ISPs are doing that now.

 

Yay Charter!

[coronet 131]

Well, I knew it was something. I figured it was to track my anti barry sotoro rants, lol.No one just gives you nothing for free, without a reason. But I would have been fine with it - except THEY FUCKING LIED about it. The lady says the tech guy is going to have to come into my home and check from the computer back to see where the problem is. I told her, that ain't going to happen. No one is coming into my home, the fucking lines were good when I last left. No fucking cable asshole needs to come into my home. Ever. For no reason. I don't let strangers in, period. That's when all of a sudden they "fixed" the problem. I told them I work 24/7 and would not be home, would not have anyone here, that the shit worked fine, that there was absolutely no problem with the line inside the house. That's when they "fixed" the problem. Mother fuckers. Fucking lying mother fuckers. No fucking minimum wage asshole needs to come in my house and get the floor plan and scope out what I have. FUCK all THAT! It just ain't gonna happen. But the fuckers still lied to me. That pisses me off more than anything. It's bad enough that google earth comes around and takes pictures and posts it all up on the web, for Census bullshit. I go out of my way to make this look like redneck, backwater dirt poor dumb ass nothing in here move along. Shingles missing, weeds, freezer sitting outside the back door, hillbilly shit that says stay away. No one in thier right mind would ever want to break in. Not even ZOMBIES! lol. I don't give a shit. When I'm inside, I don't see any of that stuff. it's a run down piece of shit with trash all over outside. That's the way I like it. It's isolated and out of the way for cops. So make it look like a Piece Of Shit. Works for me.

Edited February 26, 2013 by coronet

[Spartacus 1,619]

I'm in the IT biz and I see that same behavior from many of the ISPs.

 

Tech support is very expensive for them so it's an easy place to cut costs when they want to. The bad part is, that it's not like they aren't making money, they just don't want to spend the money on support.

 

Had my own DSL keep dropping years ago and the ISP kept telling me it was my equipment. I'd tell them not so, I can see problems on their side in my router logs and they'd still want to start with the silly questions like "Have you rebooted?", "Have you reset the modem?", etc.

 

The low level people that answer the phone have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention things like "router logs". They just know what's on their little check list they read off to the customer. They usually get nervous once I start asking them tech questions they can't answer.

 

Finally got a hold of a smart US based tech here in the States, he monitored the connection and finally said, "Huh.... looks like the problem is on our side." And I said, "Gee... you don't say." He laughed. Then he said he'd just set it up on their side again as if it was a new account and it worked fine after that.

 

It took months to get that resolved.

 

I deal with the ISPs mostly on business accounts for my customers though. In general they are a little better handing problems on business accounts. Most of them still have poor to mediocre support even on the business accounts.

 

Part of the problem is lack of competition on internet and cable service. They all know your choices are limited. The few service providers make so much money with little competition, they don't even care when you threaten to cancel your service usually.

 

Bottom line is you just have to keep making noise until they fix it, or move to a different ISP.

[corbin 621]

We have Charter. It hasn't happened in a long time, but they used to go out at least once a week around here.

[kresk 10,063]

Have had Charter for ten years maybe.. No problem the past four years since I moved 3 1/2 miles from the previous location.