Time Warner Cable Phone Service Consumer Reviews

NEW YORK -- Recently my husband and I had to lower some bills & shift things around. One of the first places we did this was with Time Warner Cable. When I first called the representative was very understanding, cancelled the services I requested and said that a credit would be issued to my account to cover the next bill; after that my bill would be 14.99 + fees.

Great! This was so easy, or so I thought. I was then billed the following month the amount I was paying previously. I used online chat to inquire why this was, and they said some how the credit wasn't added to my account, but that they could add it then, while we were speaking. Why should a company wait until a complaint has come in to do something they already said they would do?

After talking to multiple people, about getting a credit back to my account, no one could help me. I then reached out to the BBB with details of my complaint. A woman named ** contacted me at 4:50 and said she would be in the office until 5... This trend continued until she considered the issue "closed" because I was a "no contact" customer... Mind you, I returned many calls and left voice mails.

When this happened, I called ** multiple times a day (while at work - which I am not supposed to be doing) to deal with this. When she finally picked up the phone, I explained my situation in more detail. We've changed up our budget, and this month we budgeted 14 or so for internet, not the amount we were charged. We would like to be refunded the difference.

I was then told, because my auto debit set up on their site was using my account number, and not my card number, that there was nothing she could do. I then asked to cancel my account effective immediately, as I do not want to deal with a company that will let me talk to over 10 people, through online chat, on the phone, over social media - and have no resolution.

** continued to lecture me on how to set up auto-debit features on future accounts with other companies, and when I told her I didn't want to hear it she said she "I'm just trying to help you." No, you are obviously not. You are blaming me for the mistakes your company has made.

This company is deceptive, self-serving and greedy. It lets its customer service representatives hide behind bizarre and obviously not customer-centric policies, and NEVER is looking to make things right. They make me sick. If you have the option to deal with another provider, avoid these guys all together.

WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN -- One of the worst service providers especially when it comes to phone service. So while using landline handset there is so much of static, disconnections and time lapse while calling international. Most of the time the call won't go through at all. They DO NOT have an access number to use while calling from a mobile phone so you have to have a smartphone and their Phone 2 GO app. Another DISASTER.

This app doesn't connect and work more often than not. Once in a while when it does, the phone call will have the same issue as it would be while calling from landline handset. If you call them for help, first thing they would do is reset the modem which won't help. For the app issues they ask you to uninstall and reinstall the app. Horrible service and customer care experience. STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU TO NOT USE THEM.

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN -- It took a few weeks, but we were finally able to get a tap installed in the basement of a newly renovated multi-unit apartment building. The building was pre-wired with all telecom services home run to the basement. You might think this was going to be the biggest hurdle in acquiring TW cable services for the tenants, but guess again. The tap (essentially a junction box) was installed a month ago and most of the tenants still can't get service.

Why, you ask? According to TW Cable even though their engineers have been to the building, designed and installed equipment in the building, and even though one tenant in the building has been able to have her service successfully installed, even with all this, the remaining tenants cannot get their service installed because their apartments are not registered.

WHAT! Are you kidding me? No, I'm afraid not. In conversation with a very courteous TW employee in the apartment managers division we are repeatedly told, "this is a process and you are in the final stages of registration".

OK. Even if one of the 3 site visits made by TW Cable to the property was not enough to verify the existence of apartments, even if they need someone in a department other than the "Apartment Managers" division to verify the existence of apartments, even if this is not a new building, but a renovated building that has had TW Cable in the past, even if all these things are true, I find it unbelievable that TW Cable has been unable register the remaining apartments in the month that has passed since they installed a 500 line and tap in the basement of said building.

One more thing. Back at the beginning of November when we first called TW Cable in order to have the tap installed in the basement, I personally spoke with a very discourteous and unhelpful employee in customer service. She had no idea what to do with my call for apartment building service. After a few frustrating minutes of pointless conversation pertaining to services she new nothing about, she informed me that I needed to speak with the business department.

I asked her if she could transfer the call. She said she could not, but would give me the number. I said thank you, hung up the phone and dialed the number given to me by this TW Cable customer service employee. The phone rang, connected, and I was greeted, "Welcome to Comcast". I hope that unhelpful and discourteous TW Cable Customer Service representative is spending her holidays looking for a new job. This company is a Headless Monster!

DAYTON, OHIO -- If you are thinking of signing up for time warner digital phone to save a few bucks then think again. After 1 year I dropped my time warner digital phone. I thought I had a good deal at $19.95 a month - until the phone bills started. My area code is 937. I was being charged extra for every call I made to my same area code - they called it local long distance??? Even to a city that was just up the street with the same area code???? So figure on paying $19.95 a month and then plan on what they forget to tell you about, the charge they add on for each local call you make that they call local long distance..

my $19.95 digital phone was costing me as much as $50.00 per month for local calls I was being charged for, now here is the good part. I dropped my time warner digital phone january 2010. The phone was disconnected in january. I just received my time warner bill for march 2010 and I was billed $9.95 for long distance calls and I do not even have phone service with them anymore. Forget about talking to customer service - that's another horror story.

Do what I did - get a magic jack for $19.95 a year. I never get surprise charges from my magic jack. I paid $119 for 6 years and that was it. No more phone bill or padded or hidden charges that time warner forgets to tell you about when you sign up. Do not get the time warner digital phone service that is $19.95 per month unless you are willing to pay extra money for every call you make - even calls to your same area code!

And when you get fed up and drop the digital phone plan like I did, you may still get billed for long distance calls even if you do not have the phone anymore. Here is another thing they forget to tell you. If you sign up for a service then plan on paying for that service for 2 full years. I just found out I was under a contract and there was a $175 fee to stop my service before 2 years! Shame on you time warner. Start telling the truth about your charges up front. Don't advertise a price and leave out the fact that there will be hidden charges added. I will spread the word.

About six months ago, I switched to Time Warner Cable because I believed that I was getting a really great offer with Cable TV, Telephone service and High Speed Internet. The price was great, the product was a headache. The phone service was horrible. On a daily basis, my phone service did not have a dial tone so I could not make a phone call. I would have to use a cell phone to call my home number, make my home phone ring and then I would finally get a dial tone, but after being on the phone for one minute, the service would hang up on my call.

I called several times to have someone come out and on all occasions, they said they fixed the problem but the next day, I STILL had the problem. There are several calls on record of this problem that never got fixed. The cable service was not as bad but many times there were channels that I was supposed to have that were not accessible anyway. I finally called about that problem as well, but they failed to show up. Internet service however was good.

I finally had it when my husband became severely ill needing an ambulance, and I could not get a dial tone on my home phone. I regret wasting my money on Time Warner. I should have listened to the MANY people that kept telling me I was making a mistake by switching to Time Warner from AT&T. Never again.

To top it off, when I tried to disconnect the service, they want to charge me 35.00 for someone to come out and pick up their junk. Sorry Time Warner Cable, your TV ads are misleading. I hope an attorney can constitute false advertising. Your service is very misleading.

NORTH CAROLINA -- I have never done business with a company that works so hard to NOT sell new business. I decided I wanted digital phone service for my two home lines. I called TW and was told they could not port my phone numbers from AT&T to TW because the numbers were assigned to a neighboring town. While that may be the case (a) I have only had these numbers at my current address, no previous addresses, (b) the USPS changed my mailing city & zip since I moved to my home, and (c) several neighbors in the same situation had successfully ported their numbers from AT&T to TW.

So I decided I would try an online order. That worked great. I provided the porting information, got a confirmation number and a scheduled installation date three weeks out. The worker arrived yesterday with orders to install one line (not two as confirmed in the order) and with a new phone number (not a ported number as confirmed in the order). A nice man but he was given such insanely wrong orders from TW that I sent him away.

So I call TW to try again. I explain my situation to an agent who is quite nice. She places me on hold to find a more senior person who can help me. I wait a few minutes before I hear a ring followed by "If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and dial again." Okay. So maybe it was an accidental disconnect. But when you have my account information in front of you, including two phone numbers, it takes absolutely zero effort to return a call (I've managed call centers and call backs after disconnects are standard operating procedure for companies that care about their customers).

So thank you very much, Time Warner, for reminding me that it is great to do business with AT&T. I will stay with them and encourage everyone else to find any carrier other than Time Warner.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- I have written to you folks before about my safe storage and finally got that resolved. I have called two years ago to complain about the awful customer service and the fact I had to go almost a week with no service due to problems with the customer service here for Huntington beach, Ca.

I moved again and in the same complex again, they got that one wrong as well. I believe that was **. Finally got that resolved. I called to order digital home phone service. I asked SPECIFICALLY if I could receive collect calls from a correctional facility and as sweetly as can be was assured that was included and not a problem. I got the service and while going through the instruction booklet I spotted a statement informing me that that wasn't a possibility.

I called and talked to **, yet again. He pretended to do this and that and assured me they would unblock that for me and I would be getting those calls. Lo and behold I didn't get the call. This was an emergency situation and needless to say, I was upset. Talked to a ** who told me about a Global service and it is impossible to receive these calls.

I talked to a supervisor, sorry can't remember the name, but he assured me that they could handle that in a few days, now this was something that was assured me by ** in the first place. NO ONE HAD TOLD ME AT THIS POINT THERE WAS A HUGE CHARGE FOR THIS. In fact until I talked directly to the Global company I was not aware of a charge. To get this pre-pay service I had to come up with 50.00 upfront.

The question I have for you is, where is the training for these customer service people? If you have any at all it is poor at best. I worked at Verizon Wireless for 8 years in customer service and was trained so much better than this. What is it with asking us as a consumer to rate the call?

I think this is humiliating and a lie. First of all they are all very "nice." They just don't have the knowledge they should have and I have to put the blame on you. I wouldn't want to ask someone for a "score," that is ludicrous.
So the bottom line is, as soon as I don't need the land line anymore, I will drop it and I am thinking very seriously of going to DISH. Getting older hasn't slowed me down or shut me up.

DALLAS, TEXAS -- After signing up and waiting 2 weeks, the installer never showed (wasting my last day of vacation for the year). I was told they called, but I have my cell phone records to prove they didn't. I spoke to managers who set me up for the following week which they didn't, THEY LIED!!! Well thanks to the manager who gave me her direct line. I was able to get the corporate office for Time Warner Cable Dallas; it's 469-665-7600. I was able to speak with the Assistant to the Director of Operations. The tech was at my house that night. This # is very hard to come by, so don't lost it.

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- I don't even know where to start. Let me say this, I received Time Warner service a month ago and after a month my DSL and phone is out. I had a Saturday appointment 8am to 12noon, no one showed up. I decided to call customer service around 10pm. The representative informed me that the technician called me at 8:07am and since I didn't answer the phone he went to his next order. I told the customer service rep. that was a lie because my caller ID reads 9:38am meaning someone called me at 9:38am to confirm my appointment. They claim someone would come over in the next 60 minutes.

When the technician showed up I asked him about the lie and he told me that was his coworker and not him. Anyway the guy started doing his checks and informed me that whoever installed my equipment did not do it right and they also disabled my alarm. I almost passed out, and I was steamed after that because what gives the technician the right to disarm my alarm without my knowledge and for a whole month? I called the customer service people to complain but was disconnected. At this point I am steamed. My doorbell rings and it is another Time Warner rep. and he told me he was there to help the other rep.

A hour pass and the two guys come to me and say, "We fixed your phone but you need to make your mind up." I ask, "What are you talking about?" The techs, said, "You can't have ADT and phone service." I looked at the two clowns and said "Before Time Warner I had AT&T and ADT, so what is the problem?" The dummies claimed the alarm is making the phone dead, I said "If that is the case, if the original installer disable my alarm a month ago and the phone just stop working a week ago, how is the alarm triggering anything when it is disabled???" The two clowns just look at me for a couple of seconds, puzzled. I said "Hello can you answer the question?"

The next thing I knew they was driving off. Phone is still broke and DSL. I called customer service an hour later and the supervisor said one of the clowns said they left my home because I didn't want them to finish the job. He promise he would send someone out on Sunday between 8:00am and 10:00am. I told the guy I am busy and have plans. I waited like a fool until 10:00am and to myself "These are idiots and they will never show." I was right they never showed. Instead when I looked at my caller ID Time Warner called at 11:38am. Whatever, I will find me another phone, DSL, and cable because Time Warner switch their cable line up.

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- This product has stunk from day one. There is a constant hum on the phone line. People we call say we sound "scratchy." The volume of each call varies between being barely audible to being reasonably audible. Of course, TW says it's our phones (even though they worked just fine when we had AT&T). I was willing to live with this inconvenience until Comcast (with whom I had a very positive experience in CA for four years) takes over TW in Houston in January. Today, however, was the straw that broke the camels back. Sorry, Comcast.

TW agreed to contact me on my cell phone when the technician arrived to fix our phones (I told them I worked two blocks down the street from where I live). When they did call me they asked if I wanted to cancel my service call. The TW rep said the technician was at the house waiting and no one was home (duh!). I was home in less than 2 minutes. The technician exhibited obvious bad attitude the minute I stepped out of my car. I suspect he was mad because no one had been home when he arrived.

He came in the house and proceeded to be even more rude and continued to address me with a "Hello???" tone to his questioning. He asked me questions about the phone hookup which I had no clue as to what he was talking about. He eventually left but fixed nothing, citing that the problem was with me and/or my phones and not their cable line. The internet cable is still slow and their phone service is still unacceptable but even worse, now their "customer service" sucks equally to their products.

Today I switched the phones back to AT&T. I also dumped their internet cable service. For the first time in over 5 years I'll be using a DSL line. Nothing like taking a giant step backwards in technology. AT&T probably won't be anything to write home about but at least their staff and technicians have never treated me like TW's snot nosed, "couldn't care less about you PITA customer" telephone reps and technicians. The only "nice" people TW has representing them are the ones who answer the phones when you want to place an order. Now ain't that interesting?