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Charter Communications Cable TV Consumer Reviews

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Charter Requires a Digital Box for Every TV Now and You Pay for Each Now Each Month
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA -- Charter sent out great news last month that they were only going to offer digital service and that your service and experience would be much better. After all, digital is better right?

Indeed it must be, because all this means is that this customer service friendly ( ha ha) company is increasing your rates. Read the fine line, folks. That's right, every TV will require a digital box for $7 a month. Do the math if you have more than one TV! All this is a rate increase pure and simple. The insulting part is they try to hide as a benefit to consumer. Total bs!

shame on this company!

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Billed for services I did not agree to
By -

After my internet service stopped working, I called Charter. The agent assured me that my modem was the source of the problem, and nothing was wrong on Charter's end. So I bought a new modem, and I still had no internet service. I called Charter a second time, and they stated that they would send a technician to my home to troubleshoot the problem. I specifically asked if there would be any monetary cost to me to send the technician to my home, and the agent on the phone assured me there would not be any cost to me.

The technician arrived and determined that nothing was wrong with my modem. He found the cause of the problem to be the port my line connected to on the telephone pole, and switched the line to a functioning port. In the process of troubleshooting the problem, the technician had replaced my modem with a modem he brought with him (I don't know why). Even though he determined that my modem was working properly, he insisted that I keep the new Charter modem.

I clearly explained that I do not rent a modem from Charter, in case that was the impression he was under. He said that was fine, and I could just keep the Charter modem for free. Uh, OK, sure. My internet service restored, the technician left. A while later I realized that he had taken my old modem with him. I didn't think much of it, as I had a working modem and functioning internet service. My bill arrived, and I'm now being charged for a monthly modem rental. I'm also now being charged for monthly wire maintenance charges for my internet and TV services.

I called Charter, and the agent explained the wire maintenance was an agreement I signed up for. I never signed up for anything of the sort, and challenge the agent to produce the contract where I signed up for wire maintenance. The agent could not, and stated that I would be charged an additional fee to be removed from the wire maintenance program. So now I'm being charged to be removed from a service that I never signed up for in the first place. In addition, I'm being charged wire maintenance for Charter TV, even though I have never had TV service through Charter.

Regarding my modem, the agent stated that I would have to pay the rental fees I had already incurred. Again I challenged the agent to produce any evidence of an agreement on my part. I also asked for my old modem back. They opened a ticket several days ago to locate and return my old modem. I called today to follow-up, and there has been no update to the ticket since it was opened, and when I asked the agent what the next steps were, we were disconnected.

Now I find myself without my perfectly good modem that Charter took, being charged for several services that I never agreed to (wire maintenance, modem rental), being charged to remove the services that I never agreed to (wire maintenance), and being charged for services that I don't even have (Charter TV). I'm not one to get mad at people on the phone (they're just doing their jobs), and I've been patient with Charter, but I'm left in a state of complete disappointment. I'm seriously contemplating cancelling my service.

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Charter has horrendous customer service
By -

We started out with charter 3 years ago very happy with the internet and not happy with the cable. The cable never really was the quality that we paid for. So 2 years into having charter we started having issues where our local cable channels were unwatchable so in DEC I dropped the cable TV portion and kept the internet. No other broadband providers in my area. I have had an ongoing problem with charter for a year now. Our internet will intermittently disconnect with no consistency. Although the last time our internet dropped it had dropped out 2 days earlier so maybe that is the only predictable about it.

On Friday when my internet dropped for the 4th time in 2 days I placed a call to customer service which was against my better judgment. I spoke with a representative who could barely speak English and asked me had I tried all the unplug, reboot the device diagnostic that they go over with you on the phone. I explained to the representative that I had already done that numerous times too many to count. He said he would schedule a tech to come out to my house and take a look. He stated to me that they would be there between 3 and 5 the same day.

I thought that was kind of strange because the quickest a tech had ever arrived would have been the next day. So I asked him 3 times and he confirmed 3 times Friday Oct 9th. I gave him 2 numbers where I could be reached and stated to call my home number 1st and my cell as the backup. By this time because this issue was a year old and not fixed I asked for a supervisor tech to come to my home. My appointment window came and went with no phone call no show. When I called back I was told that I was given the wrong day that it would be between 3 pm and 5 pm on the Oct 10th, okay no problem.

Again, I stated to please call my home 1st and could they make sure that was the 1st number listed on the work order. I was told "okay, no problem." So my appointment window came and went yet again no call and no show. I again called and was told that I had been called but since I did not answer the automated call that I was deemed not to be at home so the appointment was cancelled. I then asked for a supervisor and was told "okay, no problem, we will get a supervisor so we can get a tech out to your house today," this was 5 pm on Saturday.

The representative I spoke with states all he could do is reschedule for Monday between 10 am-12noon I explained that I would take the appointment but that it was unacceptable how this whole situation has been handled. He was very nice which I should have recognized that he would screw it up sometime. In the meantime something told me this guy was not really a supervisor so I called back and asked for a supervisor and I do mean supervisor not someone saying they are one.

I get a supervisor on the phone who not only cannot help me but in no uncertain terms calls me a liar based on the fact the automated system deemed me not at home because the first representative I spoke with Friday listed my back up number as the pre call number. So here we are on Monday Oct 12th my appointment window started at 10 am. By 11:25 no phone call and no show so two more calls to customer service result in when my appointment was rescheduled it had to be given to a different tech who would not be arriving between said window and that they would credit me $20 for the no show. Okay no problem.

When will the tech be here? I was told today that it would be 5 pm to 7 pm tonight. Okay, I informed the representative who was very helpful, that was fine but to make sure that I am called one way or another at my home number not the backup number listed on the original work order. We shall see if he shows in the corrected window of 5 to 7 pm tonight. I have since found someone within the company at the corporate level who is now assisting me with my problem and they have been nothing but wonderful at trying to keep me satisfied. Unfortunately it is too little too late to satisfy this customer.

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Crooks
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

COLUMBUS, GEORGIA -- My husband and I are renting a condo and the only Cable company in the area is Charter. Since we are not allowed to install a dish we thought we would give it a try. My husband called the number to talk to an agent about signing up, their number goes to a call center in India so we had some language barrier but my husband felt he had negotiated well, and got the triple play: Phone, TV and Internet, even though we didn't need the phone, as it was the best price and we had a decent selection of channels, and a DVR, all for one year.

Initially, the instillation was quick, easy and the installer was top notch! One evening my husband turned on the TV and for some reason we only got a handful of channels compared to what we usually got, so we went online for tech support, and quickly found out that this was not a tech support issue and we were directed to call a phone number for assistance on our package.

Well, hoping it would be American based to avoid the confusion of a language barrier, we called but again, we reached a call center on the other side of the world and we quickly found out that the channels we had now belonged to a different package and we would have to purchase the next TV package up in order to be able to view them again. At this point we were six months into our one year agreement with Charter. We were currently paying around $85 a month for the triple play and had about 120 channels. Annoyed but lacking an alternative Cable TV provider in our area, we decided to do away with the phone and get the new channels.

My husband was on the phone for over an hour, half of it on hold as he held for the guy in the call center to arrange for installation, which would be our confirmation of service changes; then after the insane period of being on hold, the call dropped. Seriously? Bad business. We went on line to the chat feature and decided to cancel all but our internet service as we were done with Charter Cable! That off our chests we ordered SkyAngel TV that would work through our internet and unplugged the phone.

Two days following I received an automated call from Charter wanting me to rate my service call experience in having the new service installed by them. I chose (completely dissatisfied) for each selection, figuring a real person would eventually contact us. None did but we did get a statement shortly thereafter stating that we owed Charter $250, we had been charged for a service call to remove old equipment, which I had returned myself to our local office, charged a service call to install our higher speed internet which was done remotely while my husband was on the chat feature with Charter. You're kidding me!! Right?

We've proceeded to be billed monthly for the phone service and at a much higher rate since we cancelled the TV, all because they have not completed their work order to cancel the phone service. Need I say more? Do yourself a HUGE favor and steer clear of CHARTER CABLE and buy yourself a cheap antenna. We did and for $10.99 we get several decent local channels to boost what we have on our Sky Angel programming.

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Charter Communications
By -

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA -- Since I got Charter service in my new apartment. I think it was November 09. I've had crappy Picture Quality. Digital Drop outs, losing picture, digital noise in Picture and Audio. Every time I call in I get a different person telling me different stories. So I started getting a tech to come out to my place. They always find nothing wrong yet they see the problem and hear the problem.

I removed my HDMI thinking it was maybe the issue as sometimes it is not 100% supported. I went to component in. Still get a crappy picture randomly. This is not a consistent issue. It's a random problem and random channels. Had the box changed twice. Had the lines looked over by 3 guys and they all say I get a good signal, very strong. So what gives? Now we have all gone through everything we can think of to eliminate if it's the TV, a cable, a connection, a setting etc etc etc... you name it we covered it.

You might think that after complaining so much and having tech guys come out so many times they might offer a discount at some point to cover all the down time and things I can't see on TV that I am paying for. Not once has this been offered yet they are very quick to ask for their money at the end of each month. So as you can see and hear I've had enough issues to fill anyone's time. (LIKE I HAVE THIS EXTRA TIME), my time is worth money. I'm dropping charter for the second time.

Now I haven't even mentioned the phone and internet. The internet and phone go out randomly with no explanations. They just turn the issue back on me like I'm doing something wrong. Typical to cover their ass. To put things into perspective I work in the film and computer industry and have for better than 20 years now. I know more about these things than the average joe and if needed I can call the smartest guys in hollywood about any tech issue on the planet and they can answer any question at the drop of a dime. Basically they have always said that the issue is not me and my brand new TV and Audio equipment and new phones and computers.

It's charter and all they ever hear are people bitching about charter never giving good service and or anything they pay for. I've had Dish Network in the past, DTV, AT&T UVerse, and by far the worst service out there is Charter Communications. Compare service. I went online tonight to compare what you get for your money. ATT U-Verse - for the full service - phone - internet - TV and All HD channels etc. 177 bucks. They also have over 300 HD channels.

Charter, same package, full service. 220 bucks a month and they have about 10 or 15 HD Channels. They are way over priced and you get little for your dollar and on top of it you get all the problems I mentioned above. Dish is also cheaper and way better all the way around. DTV, Don't know haven't looked and don't care about them. I know they are overpriced as I used them years ago and I hear my friends complain about them.

Now, One last thing. I called into charter 4 times tonight and the first two phone calls were women. Thank god they aren't using filipinos from the Philippines as an answering service anymore. I dropped charter just for that reason on top of some of these issues mentioned above last time. ANYWAY, both women were complete ** and hung up on me when I was explaining to them what was going on. All there little minds could think about was my area was reported as an outage zone. HOLY CRAP? I'm in an outage zone yet I get no discounts for loss of service or poor quality? Nice job charter.

What I was trying to get the women to understand is that there recent outage issue has nothing to do with the fact that my problems have been going on for months with no resolve. So I called back and got yet another woman. The only thing I could ask her are there any men working answering the phones. She said yes so I called back over and over till I got a guy.

I spoke to the guy. Explained everything to him and he told me a few things and that I should really call back tomorrow after the outage is over because low and behold, guess what. He could not do anything including a simple request to get a tech out to again work on this ongoing issue that has loomed for months. What that has to do with their recent outage? You tell me? Nothing... Charter just keeps batting a very low average. In short, THEY S-U-C. Thanks for nothing Charter. I'm done with you once again.

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Disgusted & Appalled by Charter Communication's Service
By -

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA -- A technician from the company arrived at my home on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at approximately 11:00 A.M. to install cable TV/high-speed internet services at my residence. According to the schedule he was due to install services within a matter of 1 hour. While trying to install cable TV svc the technician hit my wall clock with the door of my TV cabinet breaking my clock. The technician finished the installation of my TV service approximately 12 noon, went to another room in my home to install the internet service. He stated that he had about 4 more jobs to complete that day.

He got on his phone and had his dispatch dept to dispatch him to another job even though he had not finished the installation at my home. After several attempted of trying to install the internet service he became frustrated stated that the modem was a piece of junk and that he needed to go back to his office to get another modem. I told the technician that I had to run some errands and would have my son contact me when he returned.

My son called me at approximately 1:35 stating that the technician had returned to complete the internet installation. He told me that he had to drill a hole in the closet wall to run a cable, which I could not understand why he needed to do that, since no other technician has ever had to do. I was back at the house within 10 minutes of the call. I came into the room to check with the technician to see if everything was going OK with the installation. I asked him if the replacement modem was OK he looked at me with an angry face and said quote "I know what I am doing, I am the best technician in my group".

I asked him again if the modem was OK he slammed down the modem on my computer chair and said quote "I know what I am doing." At that point his rudeness had gone far enough, I started to become uncomfortable with his behavior, so I told him to get his stuff and to get out of my house, because I have never had a service person in my home speaking to me in a very hostile manner and completely disturbing me with his behavior. Unfortunately my children were in the home to witness all this, which made them very uncomfortable.

As he left my home my two children said that he stated in these exact words that "he had never had such an ignorant ass customer before." I immediately contacted Charter and asked to speak with a Manager. I was told that a manager was not available, but they would contact his immediate supervisor. I was placed on hold for approximately 15 minutes by one of the Escalation Specialist by the name of **. I asked her when would the supervisor be contacting me, she said sometime within that day. To this day I have not received a call from their company.

I did not feel very safe after the incident so I had the police to come to my home that afternoon, so that I could discuss what happened and there would be some type of documentation on record. Apparently Charter has not taken this seriously enough to contact me. I wanted to contact your organization to make you aware of the type of organization they are operating, so that others may see just how disgusting and appalling the organization is in general.

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Worst Cable Company in the UNIVERSE
By -

CARROLLTON, GEORGIA -- I have heard that Comcast is a bad cable company, but you don't know what bad is, until you've experienced Charter. This summer, when I have the time to deal with it, I'm switching to one of the satellite companies, because I have finally had enough.

First, I love the way they hide behind their 800 number. In my early years with them, I was actually able to call someone in my town. O.k., it was an answering service at night and on weekends... but at least you had the hope that if enough people called with the same problem, they might call someone in service and let them know. Not anymore. You call an 800 number on a Saturday night, and they give you an "appointment" for Monday. No matter that YOU pay your bill on time every month, and are not getting the outrageously expensive service you are paying for! That doesn't matter to them.

Meanwhile, you call that an appointment? I have to take 4 hours off from work to wait around for them to come? And, if you tell them they need to call your cell when they're on the way, because you will be at work, do they pay any attention? NO: They repeatedly call your home number, and then self-righteously leave a last message that, "since we have been unable to reach you," they have cancelled your appointment for today!

I have been having bad reception on my local channels since last November (it is now March). I had this same problem about 5 years ago, and it was something wrong at the pole. I have explained this to them many times, but they insist I have to stay home to receive their visit--which I do not have time to do. The last time this happened, I got the card of a very nice regional manager, who -- after they fixed it at the pole -- told me to call him anytime, but unfortunately I found out he no longer works for them. Not surprising, because he really cared about customer service. I imagine he got fed up with working for such a crummy business and moved on.

Anyway, after many angry calls, they did finally come out a couple weeks ago. It is improved about 60%, but still not really fixed. Nevertheless, it is good enough and I have stopped calling. Until tonight, when ALL the local channels are gone. I had switched over from Lifetime around 11:00 pm because I wanted to catch Saturday Night Live. Nothing. When I finally get through the horrendous voicemail system at their 800 number, I get the typical snippy customer service rep who couldn't give a damn.

And, can you believe this? After I finally make my report (and she gives me my Monday appointment for some time between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm), she has the nerve to expect me to stay on the phone while she tries to sell me an upgraded service! Honestly, these people are insane. I just thank God I don't have my phone or internet service through them, or I wouldn't be writing this tonight.

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Billing errors/problems, services ordered not activated & sometimes rude/most of the time unhelpful phone reps
By -

WISCONSIN -- Based upon my own experiences these past 26 days I can state without hesitation that I would (NOT!) recommend Charter for any of their services whatsoever. Even if it is at a better rate than another competitor - it simply is not worth all of the hassles and major headaches. Keep this quote in mind while you read my review/complaint.

"Charter has been criticized for poor customer support and frequent billing consistency issues, causing the Better Business Bureau to post a warning to consumers about the company." -- http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Charter_Communications. Services I Have: Charter's "Biggest Cable Package" (which includes: High Speed Internet at 5Megs, Cable Biggest TV and Telephone) all for $151.99 for a 1 year promotion price including tax.

Duration I Have Had Services: 26 days. Number of Times Having to Call to Resolve Issues: At least 10 times. Not including the fact that I still have to call to have the audio cutting out resolved for my Cable TV service. Location: Iowa County, in Wisconsin. The small town that I live within does not have many options to choose from and unfortunately Charter is one of the very few. Sample of Problems:

  1. Channels that I was supposed to have were not activated. I had to call (which was a long process) and get them activated.

  2. I signed up for a bundle package deal and they instead charged me for my services unbundled and didn't sign me up for the promotion package that I ordered.

  3. Both bills I have received thus far have been wrong, misleading, and confusing.

  4. I was overcharged for my first bill.

  5. I had a representative say, "Thanks for calling Charter" and hang up on me when he didn't know the answer to my question. Which was... What are the 10 features included with my phone service?

  6. Phone call times to Charter when problems arise take anywhere from 30-90/105 minutes.

  7. Phone reps are not adequately knowledgeable to help with issues and as a consequence you may be transferred again and again after initially spending 30 mins or more on the phone with the first rep.

  8. Each time you call a rep will give you info that is different from the last time that you talked to a different rep. No consistency whatsoever.

  9. Online billing system did not reflect the right amount that I owed. It did not correspond to the paper bill nor to the amount I was told I owed when I called to pay my balance off by phone. Even after the 72 hr max wait period it takes to fresh the correct amount.

  10. My community channels do not come in via the Digital Receiver; however, if I have the cable hooked up directly to my TV without the digital receiver I can see those community channels but then I lose tons of my other channels.

  11. Audio cuts off on Cable TV and the only way to get it back on is to turn off the Digital Receiver and the TV and turn it back on again. *Please note that this is not an issue with my TV - it never does this when I play the Wii, Play Station's or DVD's/videos it only happens with Charter Cable.

Phone services work fine thus far, internet is fairly reliable [for ex. At 11:23 AM on Monday, October 22, 2007 my speed tested out as = 4754 down & 461 up] for 512 up/5Meg down services. Charter works fine connectivity wise when you add your Wii to the network. If I had other options I would change within a heartbeat. When I read the reviews about Charter online I was hoping against odds that Wisconsin would not have the same issues as elsewhere, but guess what, we have them too. Please consider other options rather than Charter you just might be glad you took my advice and stayed away. Good Luck on your search.

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Charter Communication No-Shows (MULTIPLE) on Installation
By -

KILLEN, ALABAMA -- I am VERY UNSATISFIED with Charter Communications. So much so, that Charter Communications lost my business to the satellite carrier, Direct TV. The following relays my experience with Charter Communications:

Wednesday, August 8,2007: I placed my order via the telephone and an install time was scheduled for Thursday, August 9, 2007 between the hours of 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Thursday, August 9, 2007: I took a day off from work to be home during these hours. I called Charter at 4:50 PM because a technician had not showed up or called to let me know that he was coming for the install. Finally at 5:50 PM a technician came to the house. He told me that the install would take a few hours.

He seemed like he had had a long day and didn't want to deal with the install at that late time of day and I was due at a dinner in an hour so I suggested to him that if he promised he would come back first thing in the morning that it would be fine with me. He willingly agreed. Had I known that NO ONE would ever show up again to install my cable I would never have graciously made that offer. Friday, August 10, 2007: 10:00 AM and still no technician. I called Charter Communications. The rep tried to reach him or schedule another rep to complete my installation.

An appointment was rescheduled for later that day between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM. No one showed up for that one or called either! Monday, August13, 2007: I called Charter Communications and let the Customer Service Representative know that once again, NO ONE had showed up for my appointment for install. The customer service rep was very nice and apologetic. They tried to schedule me for later that day but didn't have any openings. Since I had to go to work the next day and couldn't take off work AGAIN to wait for the cable company, a date of Wednesday, August 15th was selected.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007: NO ONE showed up between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM. I didn't even bother to reschedule at this point. I did call to cancel the installation (as if someone would have shown up anyway – ha ha!) and got disconnected by different customer service representatives three times. I finally gave up calling to cancel - why was I so concerned about trying to be considerate to Charter Communications when Charter Communications has not cared to be considerate to me?

Friday, August 17, 2007: I called Bellsouth and ordered Direct TV. Great Customer Service Representative – great follow up. And the best part??? Friday, August 24, 2007: The Direct TV representative actually showed up on time (after calling first to let me know exactly when he would be there!) and installed my satellite TV.

I would NOT recommend Charter Communications to anyone in the Florence/Killen area. In fact, I have told my story multiple times to multiple people just to be told that others in this area have had equally bad experiences with Charter Communications (although no one I met had been “stood up” 4 times! – Everyone agreed that is a bit excessive!).

It would appear that since Charter is the only cable company that services this area (Florence is fortunate enough to also have Comcast to choose from) Charter feels like they can treat their customers and “potential” customers any way they want. I just wanted to let someone know that in doing so Charter Communications lost a customer and the revenue that would have been made from my family.

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Nothing may be certain except death, taxes, and Charter Cable TV problems
By -

Chapter 1: My deceased wife signed up for Charter service 7 years ago. She died in November of 2008. The service was in her name, but I kept paying the bills after she passed. I tried to change the service to my name and Charter would not do this unless I came to one of their offices, stood in line, and showed them her death certificate so I did this. The first “teller” who tried to help said the service could not be changed without her signature. I asked to speak with someone else and this second person took care of what needed to be done.

Chapter 2: I had a couple of service outages over the next few months culminating with a severe outage a few weeks ago. I was warned over the phone that if a technician was sent out and the problem was with interior cable I'd have to pay for the diagnosis even if I wasn't willing to pay Charter to fix it. I'm a network engineer and had already ruled this out. The Charter technician found two problems: (1) squirrels had chewed through the exterior Charter cable up by the telephone pole and (2) (unannounced to me) Charter had changed programming so the CATV converter boxes I have no longer worked. The problems were fixed.

Charter also issued a check to compensate for the loss of service time. The only problem is that the check was issued in my deceased wife's name even though the Charter account previously in her name had been closed. My bank won't allow me to cash or deposit the check since it is not in my name. I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with a Charter representative and she said they could not help me.

Both the person I spoke with and her supervisor effectively said it wasn't their responsibility. They suggested that I go back to the local Charter office with the check to see if they could do something. They didn't say whether or not I needed to bring a death certificate this time again. I plan to go back to the Charter office one last time with the check and the CATV converters in hand and cancel the service.

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Charter Communications Cable TV Rating:
Star Half star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.5 out of 5, based on 23 ratings and
60 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Charter Communications
12405 Powerscourt Drive
St. Louis, MO 63131
1-888-GetCharter (ph)
www.charter.com
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