Charter Communications Cable TV Consumer Reviews - Page 4

MORRO BAY, CALIFORNIA -- Lost cable picture and sound. Called tech service. They helped but the picture was snowy so they scheduled a repair call for the next day from 8 am to noon. They called the next day to confirm the appointment (so far so good) but then said someone with a "Government issued ID" must be present. When did we have to have a government ID to get our cable fixed? I do have a state license and a passport; this is not the issue. What about people who don't? Besides I should not have to show the cable guy my ID. He should show me his. What kind of politics is the cable company playing?

Nov. 18, 2010. I received my bill today and found 2 new surcharges. I called Charter and after navigating through 2 computer robots giving all information except how often I had sex, I finally reached a human who asked all the same questions over again (3 times in total). She was polite, spoke broken English but didn't help one bit. I asked what the surcharges were for, why I was being charged and who authorized them. After several long periods on hold she finally came back and said she had no idea what the surcharges were for and made the ludicrous statement that I should call "city hall" and ask them what they were for.

After some searching on my own, I found that the largest surcharge was one that is for a charge that Charters TV signal suppliers are assessing Charter. Instead of absorbing this charge like normal capitalistic USA businesses do, Charter passes this to the customer and tries to hide the charge or won't/can't tell you what it is for.

Thank goodness I finally have a choice to get away from Charter!! AT&T finally installed U-Verse in my neighborhood and I've switched to it. Now, I know I'll probably have problems with them at some point, but I've been stuck with Charter for 10 years and am sick of their poor service - ESPECIALLY on the internet side. Anyway, when we get changed over I contact Charter to cancel my account. I take in their equipment and get receipts. Then I get a final bill from them due September 10, 2010. I put it in my bill rotation to be paid and send it out on September 7, 2010.

Well, by Friday the 10th (the original due date) I get a call from their collections department harassing me to pay. I even got a letter from them dated September 7 informing me that they had assigned my account to collections. WHAT THE??? Three days before the final bill was due I'm turned over to collections and on the due date they're harassing me??? This after I paid for years for their top internet speed and rent for equipment that couldn't handle or deliver that speed? I'm SO GLAD to be rid of Charter!!!

The last 2 weekends in a row in my area, Charter customers have experienced problems with the picture breaking up severely to the point that the picture cannot be viewed at all... To make absolutely sure it was not an issue with my service at my house, I asked several of my neighbors that have Charter cable and they too were experiencing the same problem at the same time. And one of my neighbors called his sister who lives in an adjoining city and has Charter and she also was experiencing the same problem. So I know that it wasn't an isolated problem, but an area wide problem...

I called the 1-888-GET-CHARTER number and, timing the wait, it was 26 minutes and 30 seconds before I got a live person! And when I did get a live person, she didn't have a clue as to how to address the problem or could she provide me any information as to what the problem was, when it might be fixed, etc...

That is NOT good customer service! Surely with the volume of calls they were no doubt receiving from the 626 (area code) area, somebody should've had a clue what was going on and been putting that information out there to inform customers. That would've made for much better customer relations than some person without a clue what to tell the customer...

And they tout how great and wonderful their services are - yeah right! Also, this problem with the picture breaking up is happening more often these days, including the last 2 weekends in a row... As I write this review, the picture is just fine. But how long before it goes whacko again???

I moved in here in Glendale, CA since 2008 from NY and until now I can feel that Charter Services is a total RIP-OFF!!! We have 3 DVR from them and charging us 20 bucks for each freakin' DVR. They are the only cable services available in my area here in Glendale. I wished that U-Verse by AT & T will find their way sooner to reach us. Last year, I had some trouble with my Internet 2x in a row and it took them awhile to repair it, like 3-4 days for them to have the repair guy go to our apt and fix it. So far, Charter in all my life has the worst cable services.

Charter communications is lying to customers. I am on the phone with the Charter rep, cancelling my cable TV service. She specifically told me that I will not receive digital local channels without a cable box or special box converter. When I went to dTV.gov and read to her that her statement is not true, she argued with me that her information is correct.

Additionally I told her I currently receive 18 local channels on my digital TV. She said she is "surprised". When I told her I know of three other people in multiple counties getting local channels, she said "do you want to change your service or not". Charter is using this lie to coerce people into keeping their cable TV when they don't need it to receive local channels. Shame on you charter!

I had questions about changing from Charter to DirecTV. I call Charter to find out what deals they had so that I may compare them to DirecTV. The Charter agent (Melissa) said that DirecTV had more channels and DirecTV service was a little cheaper. She said that both companies offer a low introductory rate but both raise their rates after the contract expires. She also said that overall DirecTV was cheaper.

I asked her about the service problems I have heard about DirecTV. She said that she has never had any problems in the three years she has had DirecTV. I thought I must have called DirecTV by mistake. She confirmed my Charter account information and terminated my services without receiving any fees. Needless to say I have switch from Charter to DirecTV. Thanks Melissa!

CALIFORNIA -- I guess you don't know about a company until there is actually a problem. As long as it works, these guys seem OK. Now that I've been having a problem it's like I have entered the Twilight Zone! I have spend all day long on the phone most of which was ON HOLD, talking to several people who do not seem to have a clue. One person tells me I have an appointment, the next time I call they say they don't know what I am talking about. I call back and there it is again, but no one ever shows up - so I call back and voila! They don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm ready to start looking for someone who ACTUALLY CARES about customer service. Someone else said they are just a bunch of robots - and I think that sums it up perfectly. Good luck dealing with these people, the minute you have any kind of issue - you find out they do not care, OR have a clue what they are doing!!!

In May I had signed up for Charter's advertised internet, cable, and phone bundle for 94 dollars a month which seemed reasonable. From the start I had problems. The cable installer brought us the wrong box, it was non-HD, so the first night with our cable we couldn't watch our shows in HD, which we signed up for, so we weren't getting what we signed up for from the start.

It was corrected the next day when another installer brought us the right box. But the next thing we noticed was that we weren't getting the hundreds of channels that were advertised in the package we signed up for. We don't get Bravo, we don't get IFC, we don't get Sundance Channel etc. So almost a week later we receive our first bill, which turned out to be 122 dollars after all kinds of taxes. So I suck it up and decide to just stick with it.

Our next bill comes, which is funny, I guess their billing cycle requires being billed twice in one month? So as I was saying, our next bill comes and it is now 133 dollars??? I am just frustrated with paying 133 dollars for a very limited selection of channels. There's less than 18 channels in HD, and very few channels with their basic cable lineup. It doesn't make sense to spend so much when I get so little. Of course we're paying for internet and a phone as well. Which are fine, it's just their television lineup is horrible, or I am just getting the wrong package.

SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA -- Charter kept raising our rates. This will be the third time this year, so I have decided to cancel the subscription. But they would not let me because the bill was in my wife's name, not mine. Any other time I needed to make changes, have our cable box (junk) rebooted (for the ?? time) they were perfectly fine with my name not being on the bill. So my wife had to cancel the service - talk about being inconsistent.

As I said they kept raising our rates, while they were moving channels (which we had before) to other tiers, claiming it was because of the analog to digital conversion. After searching the internet I found this to be nothing more than a LIE. It was just their way to get people to buy into other tiers, costing the customer more money for channels they previously had.

The T.V.'s we have are all LCD 1080p & are all attached to a quad-shielded 75 ohm coax, that was installed when we built the house. Most of Charter's technicians were actually impressed with how strong our signal strength was, when connecting their ohm meters to our cable line. That being said, the picture for regular digital (the majority of channels they offer) was nothing short of horrible. Hi-Def was o.k. at best, but could have been better.

In short, I feel pretty dumb for messing around with such a horrible service, when changing took less time, than I wasted keeping Charter up and running. Anyone thinking of switching from Charter Communications, should not hesitate, because there are better alternatives.