Time Warner Cable TV Service Consumer Reviews - Page 3

HEMET, CA, ARIZONA -- These guys can not get anything right. We all have complaints about the packages the entire industry offers. In order to get the 10 or 15 channels you actually watch you have to buy 250 channels. But these guys just plain lie. My story is a long one and continues. So, get yourself a drink and settle in for my tale of woe that begins last summer.

Smoke em if you got em. I am always looking for a better deal for my home entertainment and a Time Warner representative showed up at my door offering what looked to be a good deal. All the channels I wanted for about $15 less a month. When the tech showed up (between 12:00 and 5:00) it turned out that on my second TV I would only get local channels and I would have to pay for additional basic cable. So I sent him away.

2 months ago another guy shows up. This time he assures me that I will get basic cable on my second TV and it was true. But, There was another problem. I had become aware that many cable companies do not have the skip feature on their DVR Remote control, requiring you to fast forward through commercials, rather than simply skipping over them. He assured me that I could request that equipment. I told him no skip button would be a deal breaker. "No problem." he says.

The tech showed up (between 12:00 and 5:00), no skip button. He tried to convince me that it was just as good, but I wasn't having any of it. A DVR without a skip button is a glorified VCR. I sent him away. The salesman calls me back and explains that it was just a misunderstanding and I would get the equipment I wanted. I agreed and another chapter begins. The tech shows up (between 12:00 and 5:00). This time he has the correct equipment. But, the second TV is not included and he wants to charge me for it. I told him to leave. He called his boss or someone and they told him to install it with basic for no charge.

He completes the installation and collects a check for the first month's service and leaves. It took me about 5 minutes to discover that I was only getting local channels and damn few basic channels. Soon after I got the follow-up call from someone wanting to know if I was pleased. I was not. He told me he would get hold of the tech and send him back. If you think he returned I have some stock I would dearly like to sell. Now I'm pissed.

Since I had not yet canceled my account with DISH, I decided that I would just Hook it back up and tell Time Warner to never darken my doorstep again. That is when I discovered that instead of unscrewing the cables from the back of my DISH DVR this clown cut them. Now if I want to Dump Time Warner I am probably going to be out cash for a DISH service call and without TV for more than a week. Because we all know they show up when they damn well please (between 12:00 and 5:00). It was Saturday night and I spent all day Sunday trying to get customer service to come out on Monday and fix it.

You know how that went, but they did assure me they would be here between 12:00 and 5:00 some day. Monday morning I finally got through to a customer service supervisor, who got hold of a tech supervisor. Shortly (about 2 hours) he showed up. He seemed to be a nice young man and very professional. He soon had everything squared away or so I thought. I mentioned to him that the television had a fluctuating whine or whistle sometimes very soft and almost unnoticeable. He told me that it was my television speakers and there wasn't anything he could do. I accepted this reluctantly and thanked him for coming.

As I continued to watch TV that day the whine got really loud. So, loud I couldn't hear what was being said on the programs. It was obvious it was not my speakers. I called the Tech supervisor and he said he would be here at the end of the day. At 7 PM on a Monday night he called and asked if he could reschedule for Wednesday and he would fit me in. I'm now really angry, but I thought it best not to get in swinging distance of a Time Warner employee at that moment, so I agreed.

It's now Wednesday 6:00 PM and I still haven't heard from him. I found the business card he gave me and I called him. He said that he would stop on his way home from work. I guess he felt I hadn't waited long enough. But, he showed up about an hour later with a second DVR. He installed the DVR and I informed him that I still wasn't getting all the programming I was promised. You guessed it, Liars lie. I was required to purchase another package to get History International. I told him to leave and I was not polite about it.

You might think this story ends here, But now another chapter begins, entitled "The Internet Fiasco". I play online poker. I have an account stuffed full of play money. It is play money, which is the only reason I didn't burn down the local Time Warner Office. My connection seemed to get dropped, always in the middle of a large pot that I was invested in. Turns out that their modem was junk. But, they would be happy to come out in a couple of days (between 12:00 and 5:00) and take care of it. To their credit they did.

You think this story is over. Remember that stock, it is still for sell. Last night around 11 PM a very loud crash emanated from my home entertainment system and the blue screen of death stared back at me from my TV. This made me so angry I could not sleep.

So, as I finish writing this the sun has risen on Sunday morning. There is a bright side to this episode my house will get cleaned since I won't be watching Face the Nation, Meet the Press or this week with George (however you spell his last name) Stephanopoulos. Now I have paid for a months programming in advance and have a bill for the 2nd month and I still haven't received a full continuous month of uninterrupted service.

Do you think I'm going to pay it? YEAH I AM GOING TO PAY IT! Because dish and direct will be out some day between 12:00 and 5:00 to install my new service. I am sure Time Warner Cares and will take care of the problem someday between 12:00 and 5:00. But, in the meantime I will be talking to nice people with thick accents all over the world, on Time Warner's nickel. What a great Monday it will be.

If these companies spent a fraction of the time trying to keep their present customers happy as they do trying to lure you away from their competitors, maybe they could build some brand loyalty and not need to give you those worthless movie channels as enticement to join them.

WURTLAND, KENTUCKY -- TWC is unfortunately the only Internet service provider available for our area, since I live in a part of the country where the phone lines are so old, they do not support DSL yet. I'd gladly use slower DSL from my current Verizon phone company versus using ANY internet provided from a cable company. But I am forced to use the dreaded cable co. I DO NOT want cable TV since I live on a hill and pick up digital broadcast signal very well, and I am happy with the choices of 18 channels I receive from free TV. Besides, TV on demand is available free through the internet anyway!

Either way, I need internet, so have decided to bear down and call TWC, roughly around November 2008. I called a "number" found on their web site.. I guess for everything, so you have to wade through menu after menu not really sure you're going to the right place since it seems this number is really for existing customers wanting to add or change something. I later found another number for new services.

I wasn't on hold for very long when an operator answered asking where I'd like to be transferred. I said I needed new service and she transferred somewhere, and another representative answered. I then told her I was interested in having internet service installed at my home and I explained my situation, about building a new house, where 4 virgin power poles were installed, and was interested in seeing if cable could be run to my house.

She explained that she would have to put in a request for a site survey to see if internet was even available in the area and scope out the demographics. I jokingly explained that we were the only ones on the street that didn't have their service, so I said that was fine and I thought all would be well. She told me that a service representative would call me probably within the next few days, no later by the end of the week with information they found on the site survey and to schedule an install if I chose to go ahead with it.

Mind you, I called Tuesday. Friday came and no call. I called the following Monday, and the new customer service representative said there was "no log found" for the service request but that this didn't mean there was not one in the system. Funny I thought, as I think MOST companies use some sort of central database to log customer requests. I agreed to wait a few days anyway.

Days went to weeks, and on Dec 30th, 2008, I called them again to set up another service request for a site survey. This time I was given a ticket number, something that wasn't given to me before. I wrote it down on a sticky note, and put it a very safe location on my desk. I again was told that I should hear from someone in the area by the end of the week.

Friday rolls around, no calls. I wait again until Monday and call again. This time the representative says there's nothing showing up in the computer. She never once asked me for any such number, and was pretty much going to let me off the phone because she couldn't help me with this request, UNTIL I suggested that she should use this "ticket number I was given during my last conversation". Of course, no good with that either, but at least the service request was in their computer this time. She then proceeded to explain that I should give it another week due to the Holiday. I agreed, and waited a week like I was told. However, again no calls.

I called again the following Monday. Nothing but the same results. "There wasn't anything back yet in the computer" was explained to me. But the service tag number was still active.. I figure either the people around here are lazy, or they have trouble finding a house, where I gave specific directions to, and my mailbox even has directions on it since my mailbox seems to be on a main road and is easy to find. The lady was nice, and told me that she would forward this to her supervisor, and that he/she would personally contact the area's service center. Who knows what will come from that.

I hate to even wonder what Customer Service would be like IF I ever decide to become a TWC customer. My family live close by and they all have TWC, and have had decent service with the internet itself. But from my experiences, it makes me shudder with the thought of possible long hold times on the phone for services that do not work properly or shoddy workmanship from the lazy contracted third-party installers.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Maybe it is a good thing I never got any service out of TWC in the first place. Herewith timeline of events that I have all but given up pursuing that lead to TWC's failure to deliver a service at all: 17 October 2008: I ordered the 3 year price lock service for cable and internet. I expressly stated that this is a new service under my name. I have a full time job as operations manager at an international investment house and cannot be away from work during the week. I made arrangements to have a friend take off time to be present at my apartment on 22 October 2008 for the scheduled installation. 22 October 2008: Service was installed as scheduled.

04 November 2008: When I received the customer copy from my friend I notice that the service was installed under the name of A **, Customer number **. I contacted the Customer Service number and was advised to go to the TWC office in 23rd Street in Manhattan and provide a copy of my lease contract after which the situation will be corrected.

I went to the TWC office in 23rd Street and was advised by the agent that they will need to collect the equipment at my apartment and re-install everything. I was not given an explanation of the cause of this error. I asked for the installation to occur on Sunday 9 November 2008 as I would be at home during this time. The agent said that I would be contacted to reconfirm the appointment. To date nobody has contacted me.

08 November 2008: A cable technician showed up unexpectedly at about 12:00 to collect equipment. This appointment was not scheduled. I contacted TWC helpdesk to inquire about the installation and was surprised to be informed that it would be 11 November 2008 between 2pm and 6pm. I told the consultant that I am at work in the week and not available.

11 November 2008: The cable installation person arrived 5 minutes before I returned from work. I contacted TWC again, this time speaking to a gentleman by the name of Sam who refused to give has last name. Sam said the earliest that this appointment could be rescheduled was Friday. Once again I am working during the week and not able to be at my apartment during the day.

My frustration is that today I have no cable or internet service and not sure how I am going to get it. I am surprised that under these tough economic conditions TWC can afford to offer bad service. This has wasted a considerable amount of my valuable time in telephone calls, a visit to your offices and writing this letter. I require a service that is reliable, prompt and delivers on promises and I am willing to pay for it. This entire mess resulted from TWC doing the initial installation incorrectly under the wrong person's name.

GOLDSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA -- All of this has transpired within the past month with Time Warner Cable. I would like to add that we haven't had any problems with the actual technicians. Our problems have always been with Customer Service. On June 25th, 2008 we had R.R. installed. The technician did not give us an email address or a password. He told us we would have to call TWC to obtain it.

On July 1st our Internet was not working so I called TWC and set up an appt. with a technician when the problem could not be resolved on the phone. I then told the lady that when you call my home phone my voice service was picking up and taking calls although I had my phone turned off at the same time I added R.R. on June 25th, 2008.

She transferred me to someone else who told me that there was some wrong codes put in and that is why my Internet was not working and my phone was still taking messages. He fixed the problem. Today (July 3rd, 2008) I woke up to find my Internet not working again. I called TWC and they gave me a work number and said my modem was bad then transferred me locally.

I waited on hold for almost an hour and a half on my cell phone (remember, I had my home phone turned off) before hanging up. I tried to call back multiple times from another cell phone while on hold and each time I would go through the automated system to the point where it was to transfer me to a technician and then it would disconnect. This happened at least 7 times throughout today.

I was finally able to get back to where I was with the technician about to transfer me again when I asked him not to because of my earlier experience. He assured me he would stay on the line for about a minute. After a minute, he came back and said our local office was experiencing unusual high amount of calls and I could either hold or take my modem in myself and exchange it. I elected to take it in myself and exchange it.

When I got to our service store I started to explain that I was on hold for an hour and a half and she didn't even look at me so I exchanged the modem and took it home to hook it up. When I tried to connect to the Internet, it took me to the installation page where I had to call yet another time to TWC. He helped me get the Internet up and running again. I decided to try to set up my email only to find out that I had to call ANOTHER time to do so.. and again the technician had to connect me to someone else cause it was showing my password on file.

After talking to the new technician and answering a ton of questions and searching for a number on my modem, I am finally to the point where I can take this survey. It is now 4:50 in the afternoon and I have spent the entire day trying to fix my Internet and get things set up. Needless to say, I am not happy that I have had to spend my entire day taking care of this matter and the amount of time on hold was extremely uncalled for!

July 22nd. We had a thunderstorm that knocked out our cable and Internet around 3:30 PM. I saw a technician working on the box across the street that controls my home cable around 8:30 PM. He left before 9:30 PM and I checked all my rooms for cable and my Internet and still wasn't getting cable or Internet. I called and was told that there was an outage in my area and it was expected to be cleared by 10:30.

I waited until 10:30 to call back when the outage should have been cleared and went through a series of steps with the lady who answered the phone who eventually said that I would need a technician out here but the soonest she could get one here would be Saturday and that she was going to expedite it and to expect a call back the following day (July 23rd) before 5PM.

July 23rd was my wedding anniversary and I called back at 4:30 when it became apparent that no one was going to call. I AGAIN went thought the series of steps of disconnecting the modem and the computer and reconnecting it so the lady could tell me what I already knew (that a technician was needed to come out here) and she transferred me to my local office in which I remained on hold for 2 hours (on my cell phone because remember I dont have a home phone anymore) before hanging up. My husband and I were late for our dinner reservation due to the extensive wait time on hold with Time Warner Cable, the kids were bored without any cable or internet at home which made the babysitters job that much more difficult.

July 24th. I am calling back at 10:30AM. My call was answered at 11AM and I was told a technician was supposed to have already been out here. I told the representative that if a technician was supposed to have been out here, nobody told me. She then put me on hold and said that a technician will be calling within the hour to tell me when he will be here and that it will be today sometime. The technician called at 2:45 to tell me that he was outside. All of this has happened within a month and we have not had even a day of compensation or apology. We are currently looking into Direct TV as we have HAD IT with Time Warner. I tried to find a place to file a complaint on their site, but conveniently had no luck.

I don't know where to begin, there is not enough GB on this website to hold my whole story, so I'll be brief. If I could save just one life from the pain of my suffering, then I need to begin by begging anyone considering Time Warner to abandon the idea immediately. I would gladly trade my, ahem, "experience" with TWC for a quick death in front of a club wielding Taliban death squad. Need to watch TV? You are better off buying a 1974 Zenith TV and poking a coat hanger out of the top of the set. Need to call someone? Get 2 Dixie cups with a string or open the window and yell. TWC took days/weeks/months off of my life!! I'll never get that time back!

I couldn't possibly tabulate the hundreds, if not thousands of hrs I spent on hold or on hold for 60 minutes, then disconnected by TWC over the past 10 yrs. Yes, I am the idiot that put up with it until I recently switched to DirecTV. It was either that or become a speed freak so I could stay up all night on hold with TWC listening to their canned "our customers are our number one priority..." as I waited, on speakerphone, dozing in and out of consciousness.

Each time, I thought, hey, maybe someone will actually talk to me and answer a question or two, because my kids want to watch that Nick program that isn't working or maybe I could find out why On Demand never worked when they switched over to their latest TV Menu Guide that takes several seconds to load each time you turn the channel or menu. Or maybe someone could help me understand why I was paying so much every month for the used receivers I had stacked throughout my home??? But no, that would be too much trouble for the 3 customer service reps that are answering the phone lines for the entire country!

But my all time favorite, though small, it was nonetheless symbolic of the whole experience, was wasting time punching my vitals into the "customer service" menu maze (i.e. home telephone number, pin, etc.) only to have the 3rd world customer service clown ask you for all that information all over again. Each time I asked why did I punch the vitals into the phone and have to repeat them verbally, the response was always the same... "I don't know, sir." Geez, do you think there is a disconnect here?

Tell the Operations and Customer Service VP's to come off the golf course and dial into their own customer service phone hell they've created, it's apparent they never have. Poetically, no one ever asked me when I returned the receivers in person or when I called in to cancel service why I was doing so... Imagine that?? Right to the bitter end, no one at TWC gives a crap. Other companies would kill to know why they are losing a customer.

Don't make my mistakes. I suffered so that you don't have to!! You will end up becoming a meaner parent, a more rude driver, a real jerk at your friends birthday party... Time Warner turned me into a monster and I can't find my way back to the guy I was!!! For the love of God, turn back now before it's too late!

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS -- We have been a Time Warner Cable customer for years now. Every year after the first of the year the expected price increases come. As they do with any subscription service. Late last year a new surprise came. They dumbed down our service. They contracted TV Guide to be their new online guide provider. This was a major dumb down. Now the online guide doesn't give you as many details. (Actor, Actresses, description and even some time year produced.) Even when you push the more info button. There is less info than the old guide often had without pushing the more info button. Sorry, TV Guide doesn't hold up to the old service!

As if that wasn't enough. We used to be able to watch a recorded show and the second channel the DVR was on would continue to run and you could go back up the DVR and watch an entire show that had been running while you were watching the recorded show. Now they have reprogrammed the DVR so that it no longer allows this. If you watch a recorded show and stop the recorded program, the DVR just picks up the channel it's on as if you didn't have a DVR.

The DVR used to also keep the info from both tuners for 1 hour, so you could pause one channel watch the other for a while, pause that channel, swap to the other one watch it for a while fast forward through the commercials and watch two programs at once.

Convenient for avoiding commercials. (Sorry Advertisers) I don't watch commercials on TV programming I pay for, I.E it's not free to air TV. with the exception some channels are re-broadcasted Free to Air Channels. But I am paying for them!!! Now this feature is gone. Advertisers take note, when your audio is twice as loud as the program audio, I will not buy your product under any circumstance.

The DVRs are unreliable. I have had at least 4 DVRs in as many years. Now I have a HDTV DVR and all too often when I try to use a DVR control, I get a message, "DVR control not available right now!" What am I paying for??? This is a service I pay for, and it's not available?

Time Warner's latest advertising claims it's better than satellite TV because it's not space based!! Excuse me? The programming originates from the same C band satellites in space regardless. The only difference is cable is using multiple C band satellite dishes and receivers and modulating the channels to the 1-17XX channel format they send to your TV.

Satellite TV such as DirecTV and Dish Network use multiple C band satellites to gather the channels. They transmit the signal to their K band satellite and retransmit it back to earth from the same satellite that the small dish mounted to your house receives. The signal is compressed some to accomplish this, but it's is unnoticeable. And the DVRs seem much nicer. And the guides have more info! So both systems use a C band and a head end system, they just distribute it differently.

Because the signal frequency the Satellite TV companies are transmitting is higher, it is more prone to degradation (snow in picture) from moister in the atmosphere. But sorry Time Warner, you are still space based. Time Warner, please don't treat us like we're stupid!!

If you call customer service at Time Warner you probably in for a real treat. Most of the customer service representatives don't really understanding of the technology used, or have any useful troubleshooting ability other than, "Bring the DVR in and we'll exchange it". It's either that or it's just a job and they don't care. I have been surprised a few times with a knowledgeable customer service reps, but it's rare. Better training is needed. The field techs are knowledgeable. But then again they are subcontractor and not employees of Time Warner.

I'm putting Time Warner on notice. Your time in my house for cable TV is about up if things don't change. Unlike most customers I understand the technology. I know when I have been screwed. Thank you so much for dumbing down my service and charging me more!

I am considering changing to DirecTV for my TV service or buying a C band dish and 4DTV receiver and decoder package, and subscribing through their service. Either way, a lot more available HDTV. Bare minimum I will probably buy a TIVO and let you have your DVR back!! I know any one customer to you is just a drop in the ocean. But I can't be alone in the way I feel!!!

I have been satisfied with Time Warner's high-speed Internet for the most part. Minor issues at times, but what service doesn't have. The customer service reps in this department have a better understanding of the technology at hand.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- I have Time Warner as my internet and tv provider since they took over my carrier. First, I use cablecards instead of a cable box so no matter what I call in for, instead of troubleshooting my issue, they immediately say they need to schedule someone to come out. What's completely frustrating is that EVEN I know it's not a problem with the cards. So either Time Warner isn't supporting its own product properly by training its technical support people properly or its representatives are simply too lazy to take the time to listen and work.

What's even worse is tonight after I called in, knowing there is an issue with certain broadcast channels and nothing on my end, no one would listen. First person sends me to 2nd person who as described reads cablecards in my profile and listens no more. So I ask for tier 2 support. I get a guy who sounds like he's under water and talking through a fuzz box. I then go through the entire description again. He puts me on hold to research the issue, and when he finally gets back on the phone he says "I couldn't find anything on ..." which was completely NOT what I had described to him.

At which point I asked for a supervisor stating "Look, I obviously can't hear you very well and you obviously are not hearing me well either". After that he became quite rude and gave me all kinds of grief over asking for one. Isn't it the golden rule of customer service when someone asks for a supervisor you get one and if you don't you get reprimanded by your managers??? So finally he went "to look for one". 5 minutes later he comes on and says "supervisor won't come on without a reason". Outrageous. The guy probably didn't even talk to one or they are really this poorly trained.

SO I INSISTED and after being on hold again for some while someone named Jessica who claims to be a floor supervisor (which as far as I know means they are not really a supervisor...they are some floor lead), she gave her operator number as **. This ugly person was the worst of the bunch. Absolutely horrid behavior to me right out of the gate. So before I can finish getting a sentence out she's talking over me and I can't get a word in edgewise to even explain the problem. Then she starts doing the same pass the buck thing with the cablecards instead of listening to what's going on which as I said is clearly a broadcast issue.

So I ask her to stop talking over me and she gets rude and makes some snide remark about how I'm not listening good enough. At which point, you know I asked for her supervisor's information. She flatly refused. Is this what Time Warner is training its SUPERVISORS and reps to do?? I asked for the number or address of where to send in a complaint. Again she flatly refused. Finally she hung up on me "claiming" she was going to transfer me to customer service. This is not a one time incident. I've had numerous instances of poor to no technical support. These technical support people do know troubleshooting.

They say reboot your box and then become schedulers for on-site techs who can't fix it either or by then it's already fixed because my call was one of the first calling in about a major incident that they hadn't received enough calls on. A double-edged sword, for if they are dismissing calls like this how would they ever know when a problem was occurring. Time Warner seems to have forgotten the #1 Golden Rule - the customer is always right (even when they aren't) and why? The other biggie rule - it's the customers who keep you in business.

This is by no means the first instance of absolutely downright rude behavior on the part of not just the reps but those claiming to be supervisors. It's absolutely outrageous behavior. Something absolutely needs to be done about it. Is anyone else up for a class action suit?? One more reason for me to call back DirecTV and go with them.

DALLAS, TEXAS -- For about 10 months now and after several service calls, Time Warner has still refused to repair their distribution line in my alley. Every call for maintenance requires an appointment for a technician to meet with someone at my house. Every time, and there have been several such inconveniences, they determine there is nothing wrong on my premises, that there are distribution signal problems in the alley such as lines eaten by squirrels and water in distribution boxes. They even strung a patch cable between two poles that are 3-4 poles west of my lot.

That temp fix restored TV, but it was a poor quality temporary fix because it would not support reliable Internet connections and the cable laid on top of the paved alley and was routinely driven over by cars and trucks. After over a month of intermittent Internet service due to poor distribution lines, I canceled that service because they refused to fix the lines. That exercise cost me over $50 for a cable modem I couldn't return.

10 months later, the temporary patch cable is STILL laying on the ground. Finally, it recently got snagged by a vehicle, the cable got pulled apart, and I lost TV services. I called for a repair, they wanted another appointment that was over a week distant, so I canceled service and will order satellite.

Apparently, complete morons designed their customer service computer system to never remember the findings of prior technician visits which were obviously a waste of my time and theirs. The customer service computer system actually completes work orders after a technician shows whether the technician solves the issue or not. The customer service computer system apparently doesn't manage or retain any information when the technician passes the problem to other areas of the company. That design flaw prevents any follow-up by the customer or management, and this problem is probably responsible for why problems don't get fixed.

On every call, they assume the prior problems have been fixed when, at least in my case, they never have been. 10+ months of gross negligence maintaining their lines, that is pretty strong evidence more than mismanagement, it demonstrates nothing less than gross negligence and incompetence don't you think? Oh yeah, by the way, I've sent written complaints in through their web page, got automated responses that someone would be in contact with me. Never happened. I called the state public utility commission who said they couldn't help, but they gave me a number for the cable association.

Complaining there eventually got my high speed internet fees reimbursed, but I'm still out the expense of the modem, and nobody has actually fixed the line problem that the first and follow-on technicians discovered or rediscovered over and over again. Frankly, there is no customer service as far as I can tell. In fact, it appears the system is intentionally designed to assure that customer service will usually fail because complaints are routinely and repeatedly closed out without the problems being fixed, and nobody seems to give a crap about it. What a disgusting company to do business with.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS -- Where do I start with TWC? Well first off I had been a happy Comcast customer for many years. I had their service at multiple addresses without any problems, I used to choose apartments based on Comcast availability because I enjoyed their high speed internet so much. I have had both high speed internet and cable with DVR at my current address since buying the house, about 1.5 years before TWC took over this area from Comcast.

Since TWC's takeover problems have been non-stop. With the TV service boxes wouldn't last more than about 2 weeks before the DVR would randomly not record scheduled programs, HDTV channels were so pixelated that they were unwatchable, and the menu system was so slow "channel surfing" was impossible. After numerous boxes and service calls I got tired of using vacation time to wait for 4 hours at home that I cancelled the TV service and got Dish network.

I am now the proud owner of a TV system that works flawlessly. Unfortunately I still have their internet service. It is sluggish, modems go out all the time (just like TV boxes). We are still having service calls on about a monthly basis requiring time off from work. The last time my service was down I sent a letter to TWC's corporate office and copied the city department that handles "utilities". No response from my email to Corp but I did get a call as a result of the copy to the city. A few of my main points were time needing to be taken off of work due to only daytime service appointments available and that that would be my LAST service call for them.

Well a lady from TWC called me and all of a sudden they had all these evening appointments. They came out, replaced the modem - service worked. Fast forward 2 weeks until now and the service is down again. We called, they said the modem was bad. We went to the office, exchanged for a new one, still no internet. I think, well maybe something happened to the cable underground so I ran a new cable from the cable box in the alley, to the modem, still doesn't work.

They are supposed to be out today, a TWC truck pulled up outside the house about 2 hours ago. The guy looked at the house, then drove off. I called, they said he was re-assigned. Well true to my word, the new DSL line will be active Friday.

When/if the guy shows back up, I'm just going to hand him the modem and say "we're done". I don't understand how a company can screw up a system that has been working well for years or how they can "kill" equipment that also worked well. Happens too often to be bad luck or coincidence, there has to be some kind of code they are running that is overworking this equipment until it dies. Anyway, TWC and myself are done. I don't care if DSL is slower, I will take slow working internet over fast non-working internet any day.

COOLVILLE, OHIO -- I thought that may be with the takeover of Adelphia's system by Time Warner, that they would take care of the maintenance that was badly needed on the system. I subscribe to Broadcast Basic, which is the minimal amount of channels on regular (non-digital) cable. In the past, I had asked the Adelphia technician about poor reception problems with certain channels on the system.

His reply made it clear he knew of the problems - he knew before I mentioned that we were having problems with channels 6 and 10, the ABC and CBS affiliates out of Columbus, OH. He made the claim that the problem was due to the distance my town is from Columbus. I knew he was just trying to appease me, as with cable that shouldn't be an issue. Besides, stations from Charleston, WV were coming in just fine, and they are just as far away.

So, I was relieved to find out that Time Warner took over and called customer service to request that someone come out and experience the problem in order to figure out where the fix should be applied. I made a service appointment for the next morning. Stuck around the house and by the phone, but no one called or showed up. When I called, they claimed the service call was canceled because it was an "area-wide problem" they were aware of. They claimed to have fixed the problem, so I just waited.

It wasn't soon after that the reception problem occurred again. This was not a constant problem, but quite erratic. It was not time-dependent, neither did temperature or weather have any affect. However, it did seem to occur more during programs that were very popular.

This canceled service call scenario occurred two or three more times, so I began to talk to supervisors. That didn't help much, though. They appeared to be sympathetic, and even promised that a technician would show up - to pick up a DVD I recorded of the problem. However, their promises were empty.

One day, while viewing channel 10, WBNS (CBS - Columbus, OH), reception became so poor that another channel appeared. I could clearly see the WILX logo, and the NBC peacock symbol. I recorded this on my DVR and burned it to DVD. I called the customer service desk, asked for a supervisor and described in detail what I saw. She said that it sounded like a "head-end" problem, and that she would put in a work order. Well, it's a good thing I didn't hold my breath.

That was a month ago, and I still am having the same problems today. The odd thing about the other station bleeding through - WILX is in Lansing, MI, more than three times farther away than Columbus, OH. I have to ask, why would a customer in southeast Ohio be getting a bleed-through of one network onto another from a station that is hundreds of miles away?

That's a good question, but I'll bet Time Warner has no idea. I really hope they come through and fix this problem. This is a service my family pays for. We have been very patient and very understanding in regards to waiting for them to fix the problem. I understand they took over a great number of systems that were badly in need of repair, but they need to get on the ball and start repairing the systems that are not functioning properly.

We only get 13 channels on our plan, but 2 of them are usually unwatchable. That's not a good percentage considering the cost of service. I hate to moan publicly about this, but what am I to do when customer service reps keep making empty promises?