Charter Communications Consumer Reviews - Page 4

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI -- I finally decided to join the 21st century and get high-speed internet service. Since my prior internet provider did not have high-speed internet service in my area, I decided to go with my cable TV provider, Charter Communications. After all, they had made a major campaign in recent years about how they have improved their service.

When I called, Charter, of course pushed their Charter Bundle-providing internet, phone and TV service for a supposedly discounted price. Figuring that, although my phone service was adequate, this would simplify my life and maybe save a little money, I agreed.

The first surprise was that Charter required two visits, one for the internet/TV service and one for the phone. I should have cancelled at that time, but didn't. The first appointment was for between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM on Saturday. The service representative didn't arrive until about 6:00, but eventually got everything done.

The second Saturday (today), Charter was supposed to arrive between 10:00 AM and 12:00 noon. Of course, the representative was late again. The first surprise was that they had to connect a phone jack to an internet cable. As many of these are on opposite sides of a doorway or opposite sides of a room where people could trip on the wire, it took a while to find a relatively unused room to make the connection.

After a long search, the installer found the telephone box in my basement, then informed me that my alarm system would have to be disconnected. It would require a third visit, this time from ADT, to reconnect the alarm. This would also result in an additional service charge from ADT. Enough was enough. I told the Charter Rep that I didn't want anything to do with Charter's phone service. It won't take much to convince me to dump these bozos from my TV and internet services.

The Charter Bungle wasted two Saturdays. Their reps showed up late both times, and the phone installation would have required major rewiring and deactivation of my alarm system, things of which I had not been previously informed. Dealing with Charter was a big mistake. Their service continues to be unacceptably poor. Stay away from them.

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- If you're here, it's because you know how horrible Charter is. I'm not telling anyone anything new and that's a major part of the problem. I've had Charter's "services" for about one month now and it's bad. I walked into this knowingly. From on-site service technicians who are not knowledgeable in too many areas to telephone "assistance" that's beyond stupid, Charter is horrible.

Some of you may get an email from their service department offering help when you post a complaint on different forums. They're not helpful because once they've helped you once, you can forget about continued assistance from them.

Their cable service is awful. When I change channels through their box, my TV screen drops momentarily to the "blue screen" then picks up the broadcast. I lose service an average of two times a week for hours. On Demand disappeared last weekend completely and I'm paying for it.

Their internet service is intermittent at best. We cannot connect to the internet several times a week and usually lose service for continuous hours on end. We went to a local pet supply store recently and THEY couldn't charge a purchase because THEIR Charter internet service was down. I was called by my husband and told to quickly check email (yesterday) because service was back and we knew it would go down quickly and it did.

The phone...I'm lucky that I was only dropped once as I was placing an order. I have a cellphone and traced down the sales rep through Verizon Wireless because VZW doesn't drop calls. Service - It's reprehensible. A woman had me change my television connection despite their software requirements and she was dead wrong. The foreign help desk told me to do a number of incorrect things to get my internet service back AFTER I told him what the problem was. His English was atrocious and he was stupid.

Charter employees do not communicate among departments. You may get several different answers depending on whom you talk to. They correct each other, too. I've also heard reliable horror stories from local people that back up everything I've seen from people on the web. Verizon FiOS is not in my area yet or I would sign up for it.

I heard friends say Charter is rated poorly in a recent Consumer Reports (CR). I confirmed confirmed this and see it's the worst of all service providers in all areas mentioned. What can we do...drop it for what...satellite - maybe. FiOS...they're not everywhere yet.

ROSWELL, GEORGIA -- Had a wonderful year of trouble free internet with Charter. I was on a 2-yr contract for $34.99. I got a sales call that I could save money by signing up for cable service and canceling my DirecTV. I figured it was risk-free due to the 30-day guarantee. Big mistake.

After a week, I got fed up with the low-quality menus and lackluster cable service and cancelled the TV service. At this point I was informed I would not be able to have my previous internet rate and would be stuck at $54.99. After complaining, I was able to at least get it for the current promotional rate of $39.99.

When they came out to disconnect the TV service my internet stopped working. Called and, of course, they wanted to send a tech out. I balked at having to stay home from work again because obviously they screwed up something at the street and not in my home. I also made a request to speak to customer service to complain. This is when I found out I had still been charged for a month of TV. I apparently had to ask to get the 30-day free that was advertised.

I complained about my internet being out and not getting the previous rate. So I asked for her to give me the previous rate or a month's credit to make up for it. She came back and said, "I can't do any of that, but I was able to get you a credit for the TV service". Very nice of you to give me what was advertised. She said she would escalate the request and I'd hear back the next day. One week later I've heard nothing.

I was also told I was being charged $29.99 for the service change and there was nothing she could do about that. I checked the website for the rules on the "30-day guarantee" and nowhere does it say I would not be charged this fee or not refunded the fee when I cancelled.

To top it off when I stayed home AGAIN to babysit their technician he informs me the previous installer was a lazy sack and just disconnected me entirely. Charter sucks. Incompetent techs, lying salesmen, and customer service reps that only care about Charter.

OAKWOOD, GEORGIA -- I called into Charter to make arrangements to pay my monthly payment on Dec 7, 2012 and talked to a young man, Kassim, Badge # **. I was told I would get calls from Charter about my account but not to worry as long as I paid my balance by my arrangement date of Dec 7, 2012 then my services would not be interrupted.

Well, today is Dec 1, 2012 and I get up to find I have no services for phone, cable, or internet thinking there is an issues with service. Oh no. Charter has decided to disconnect my service because they have decided that until they run my to get my payment. Well, this is not what I was told last month but ALL of the sudden it is OK to go back on an agreement you (CHARTER) made with a customer and cut off services. And my services will stay disconnected until I pay them. Well I am not sure I am going to pay them now or ever if they can change the rules, why can't I? If they can lie and be dirty about how and what they say and do, why can't I.

I can go to another service provider and get the same degree of service I had with them and might still get lied to but between the government and CHARTER, along with a few other big named business, I AM FED UP... I PAY YOUR SALARIES. I KEEP your doors OPEN AND I FED YOUR FAMILIES AND PAY YOUR BILLS. Same as we all do each others'. It is a vicious cycle that is forever stepping on the little dog and I am sick of it. If you have CHARTER and are UNHAPPY with their lies and how they do business, let them know. If enough of us do this, they will have to start treating us with some respect and have to start earning their money for services provided...

Also, I have spoke with supervisor named Mike, Badge #** AND A SO CALLED MANAGER named Kenneth, badge # **. One more thing, Charter get ENGLISH SPEAKING CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS... Final note to add, just called back to make sure my card pre-authorization was removed from account and got a great representative named Kathy # **. She has been great and fixed all the issues I had this morning and explained a new system they are using but because my arrangement was made last month, they have to honor it. So she restored all my services. I went ahead and paid my bill.

PO BOX 742615, OHIO -- We have had Charter now since December 2011; in June, halfway through our 12-month contract they decided to remove the majority of our channel lineup. NO notice was given. We just turned on the TV one evening to find that we were missing most of our channels so we called service for repair thinking that would fix the problem. Not. We were told that those channels were moved to an upgraded package and we could have them back, if we upgraded our package. We were paying around $89 per month for a triple play, phone, internet and TV. Now they wanted $129 per month for the same services we had.

We promptly said "No thanks." This meant that they were upping our phone and internet pricing immediately if we discontinued the TV package, so we told them we only wanted the Internet portion. Sounds easy enough you'd think but since July we have been repeatedly billed for the phone service, which we disconnected at the end of June. EVERY month we get a bill that still includes the phone portion and my husband has to call and go over the whole scenario again with them, and they say that they have made the corrections, but the next month's bill there is the phone portion billed again, plus late charges!

Twice they have sent us a pending disconnection notice if we did not pay the bill entirely, meaning the portion that is for a phone service that we don't have and today the same notice came in again! We want to change providers but where we live there are few Cable companies that service our particular neighborhood. Today I had to pay the entire bill to avoid disconnection, only because we changed over to internet TV. I'm going to lodge a complaint with the BBB in our area.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- I just moved to my apartment at the end of March. Unfortunately, I could not get Direct TV or any other cable/internet service in the area. I was quoted a price of $89.99 for both cable and internet. The customer service representative said she would call me back the next day about my installation. No call whatsoever nor did she follow through on the price quote. I get my first bill and they charged me over $110. I called customer service and they didn't know what I was talking about when I told them that I was quoted $89.99 and of course there were no records of me calling.

I finally got that fixed and meanwhile, I have been getting telemarketing calls from Charter several times a day every day since I've activated my service! This is ridiculous. I called Charter Customer Service yesterday afternoon to have them take me off the calling list and they had the nerve to tell me that there was no way to contact their telemarketing department. And then hung up on me. I've been in customer service for 13 years. You're going to tell me that there is no communication between the 2 departments and pretty much I would just have to deal with it?

I got yet another call today and I picked up and told the representative to take me off the mailing list. He just kept talking and trying to sell me more services and had the audacity to ask me how long I've been a customer. If you know that I'm a customer, you should know how long I've been a customer. And then he told me that I was paying a certain amount per month and I told him I was not and he proceeded to argue with me about how much I was paying.

After I told him for the 3rd time that I wanted to be taken off the calling list he said, "just kept talking" so I hung up. I'm ready to cancel the service because I have never been harassed this much by a company that I'm paying for service from. Horrible customer service!

HOUSE SPRINGS, MISSOURI -- About 1 yr ago (May 2011), we bought a house. My options for TV were Satellite or Charter Cable, and for Internet, my option was Charter Cable or AT&T DSL. The previous owner had Dish and AT&T. I was used to Uverse speed, so I went with a package from Charter. Called them and all went smooth. The install tech showed right on time (yeah). After a few minutes, he told us that he had to contact his office to see what he can do to get us hooked up. He was concerned that we did not have a cable run to the house that he could find and the house was just over 400 ft from the road (where the service poles were).

I told the installer that I will buy 500 ft of cable and bury it myself, that was not a problem. After a few phone calls by the installer, he said that Charter cannot make runs over 300 ft and apologized then left. I called the 800 number and tried to get some explanation, but all I got was, "the install group says that we can't guarantee a quality signal over 300 ft, therefore we will not be able to offer you service." I was not happy with that answer, but let it go since I had other stuff to do. I went ahead and got Dish and AT&T DSL.

Fast forward, January/February 2012. I called Charter again, to see if I could get some different answers. I explained my previous situation, and they made an appt for a tech to come and do a site survey. Good, I thought, I can speak to a technical person that can give me the real story. During the site survey, the tech said that the signal would be okay for that distance. But Charter will not pay to run the single line service to my house because they (charter) would have to run the cable under the road to get to my house.

He said that I could go to my local office and see if their installers would be willing to run the cable or let me run it down to the road for them to hook up. I didn't like that answer either. Especially since their cable actually crosses over my road at my neighbors driveway, just 10ft from my driveway. Why can't they just hook me up at the access point, run the cable back to the other pole and cross the road and I'll take it from there? I would love for a customer service escalations or Operations executive to call me and explain why they are unwilling to provide service, to a very captive customer that has no other real options for high speed internet and reliable TV service.

MADISON, WISCONSIN -- I was told that this bundle would cost me $169. The final cost is $277. I scheduled an appointment for the weekend of Oct. 1st but unfortunately couldn't do it. After rescheduling, on Fri. 7th they came and set it up. The rate quoted shouldn't have changed right? Anyway, I had service from 8pm Fri. til 11am Sat. I called right away since I have online school. I was told that they 'check' the system from time to time by restarting the modem and it would reconnect in 3 hrs or so. NOT! This was a mis-statement.

The disconnection dept shut it off. I found that out after calling and talking to someone who actually looked - they said the 'connection' dept and 'disconnection' dept aren't related so they didn't know I was a new customer, not the old one. Turning it back on. (BS!) So finally I was turned back on on Mon at 11 or 12. Too late for my assignments due on Sun, since I thought it was a temporary problem. (Yes, no comment - should've set up my move as a hot spot sooner). That alone made me reconsider Charter. But the final straw is, getting the bill on the 12th and it's for $277!!! What a bunch of crap.

I should've been told that I was going to be charged a connection fee. What connection was needed??? The previous customer had Charter so what special thing was done to connect me? Getting connected as a new customer? WTF!! Poor business practice - bait and switch.

Oh and I forgot, the 25 Mbps isn't that fast. If I was still doing online MMOs - I'd lose a fight. Regular web pages don't even load all the time, much less load fast. I used to have Time Warner Cable in OH. While they didn't always work, the internet never failed and is 10x faster!!!

OK, so I've been having a ton of problems for the past couple of weeks. It began as short intermittent outages of the internet, phone, and on-demand (with the regular cable still working)... followed by long intermittent outages of the same nature. Now this week alone I have spent five days at home waiting on scheduled appointments for repair - one of which no one showed up and the other four got it working until a couple hours later when it would go out again. I would have to say I've spent about forty hours of my time between the phone calls and the appointments/waiting.

Here's the kicker... when I went to call Charter for the seemingly hundredth time to schedule a fifth visit, I asked for a manager. Now I used to work customer service, so it takes a lot for me to get angry enough to demand anything. But I was just about at the end of my nerves and had requested that they prorate my services for the two weeks I was having problems. I was credited only for the phone and internet (which amounted to a mere $48). I asked why I would not be credited for the cable (as I only purchased the cable for the on-demand movies) and was informed that on-demand is a 'free' feature and therefore no credit can be issued.

This was highly irritating, as I could give a darn whether or not I had regular cable and only wanted my on-demand. Now, I have been a customer of Charter for a very long time and at nearly $200 per month, I would assume that my loyalty was appreciated - that was not the case. Then asked the manager I spoke with if he could at least compensate me the cable portion for my inconvenience (due to the many hours spent dealing with them and the cellphone I had to purchase when my home phone has been out) and he said that he would not.

After explaining the MULTIPLE inconveniences I have endured several times, I decided that I was getting nowhere with him and asked him if I may speak with his supervisor... His response was this "She does not speak with customers." So I asked him, "Are you trying to tell me that she is too good to speak me?" I did not get a specific answer on that one, but she must be, because I could not for the life of me get him to put her on the phone. Shortly after, my stupid cellphone died, so in the end, I got nowhere.

I don't even know where to begin. In a ploy to save money we made the regrettable decision to dump our phone company for Charter services. Why not? You can have the cable, internet, and phone on one bill. After a ridiculous game of phone tag, needing to confirm three separate times that I was going to be home, the Charter representative finally arrives. After an hour of him installing the modem and a line, he leaves.

Upon then, I discover my portable phone, that sits not two feet from the wall phone he installed, has no dial tone. And upon further examination, I discovered it was now missing its phone jack line. I called customer service and she didn't understand what I was talking about, and seemed more concerned over the missing cord.

I was put on hold, then after a long wait told that I needed to buy a new phone jack line and plug it into the modem, both jacks should have been confirmed activated and this should fix the problem. I asked the daring 'what if' and my answer was 'it should work'. So, upon rummaging through a storage drawer, I thankfully produced another phone jack line. Upon installing it and plugging it into the modem, it of course, did not work.

On my second call to customer service, I received a less pleasant woman who had even less of an idea what my problem was. Producing no solutions, she told me she'd call back after speaking to the representative who got me into this mess.

The only thing of worth I learned was that unlike what the first woman had said, the second jack line was actually only for a second phone line and not to share the connection. During that long wait, I began fiddling around with the mess. I discovered the jack into my wall phone that the portable used to connect to had been taken away to plug the wall phone into the modem, so he clearly cared less or had no idea what connection he was disrupting.

Taking things into my own initiative, I went back to that storage drawer and was blessed with a jack splitter. Installing it myself, I plugged the portable into such and reopened my own line. Never in my life would I recommend such incompetent people as Charter Communications.