Spectrum.com review: bad service 24

Charter Communications cannot claim to be a service oriented company in any way. I was without internet service FOR A MONTH and still charged for it. I called almost every day for weeks to resolve this issue, and still nothing was solved. I had to go to a local bookstore, paying $4.00 a day, to make my reports online for work, while I was still paying for internet at home.

Eventually they sent a "technician" out, and let me tell you, he did not seem like a professional. He even forgot his tools in my apartment.

Just in the last few months, three movies I rented from On Demand lost their signal in the middle of the movie. And I tried to call and only got a busy signal.

Trying to contact them for anything other than purchasing new "services" is an extremely frustrating process that will most certainly take at least 40 minutes.

I have been trying to contact them for 3 days, and I still can't get to anyone. Now someone in the new contracts department tells me that the main office was closed for 2 1/2 days, and that's why all lines go straight to a busy signal.

I received no announcement or notice they would be on vacation. They don't even have any kind of message they they are out and can't help you, or when to call back. Just a busy signal.

If I may refer to the 10 deadly plagues of God, such as the lotust swarm and the river of blood, Charter Communications would be the 11th plague. They are a monopoly, seeing as how so many people were robbed of their good service with the companies they were with before Charter came along and bought them all. Every single person who answers the customer service lines speak less english than my 6 year old sister. The lies they tell are endless, and most blood boilingly frustrating of all, is their service. My internet connection has had Intermittency (service goes on and off every few minutes) for about 2 months. Then to add to it, there is supposedly a "massive" outage in the Duluth, GA area. Of course Charter couldn't care any less. Why? Because they know that they are the only high speed cable provider in the area, and people who are accustomed to 5meg dont want to downgrade to DSL which barely hits 1.5meg. But I will warn you now, and God Bless me for the countless people I may help, that if Charter is the only provider in your area, PLEASE go for DSL or even Dialup. The stress this corporation has given me has made me a smoker again. The inexplicable happiness I will feel when this company goes bankrupt may just give me a heart attack. You have been warned folks, stay away from this cult of shady, incompetent, dung beetles. I spit on this company. If you think I'm overreacting, please pleasure yourself to the MILLIONS of complaints posted all over the internet about Charter.

We have not been able to pick up NBC on our Charter Cable. We have several channel issues but this one is the worse! We are leaving charter after being customers for years!

I am having to go to my mother in laws who has VERIZON to watch the Olympics. Is has made us very angry! They don't mind taking our money and hiking our prices but they don't provide a service that you pay for!

After watching VERIZON for the Olympics guess who we are switching too! You got it VERIZON!

To make things even worse I was talking with them on the phone and the customer service girl put me on hold and never came back. If finally went to a buzy signal after a few minutes. I was on hold forever! We are very unhappy!

For the last two months we have repeatedly been promised that our internet will be fixed. We were told by the tech, that they would be by on two different occasions to fix it. The line to our house is bad, and it continues to be slow and spotty, all we need is a new line to our house. We even stopped by the atascadero CA store and was promised a call from the manager, No call ever occured. Our next step is to switch providers, and ask for a refund. I intend to let everyone I know. online and otherwise, what poor customer service Charter provides.

In Mid November 2008 my disabled Mother lost the envelope with her Charter Cable/Phone/Internet Bill and Check/Payment. She believes that it fell out of her purse. Being someone that has NEVER paid a bill late in her life, she notified Charter at once that the Bill and Payment was lost and asked what she should do. Charter told her TO CANCEL The Check and that they would send her a copy of the BILL within One Week. After not receiving the Copy of the Bill she called Charter Again and they said that they would send out another Copy of the Bill. One Week passed and the only thing she received from Charter Cable was a notice that her Service, Phone, Cable, and Internet was going to be shut off. She Called Charter and asked what she should do now and they told her that they would take her checking account information and routing number and that she could pay them at that time to avoid this. She Did, and was given a confirmation number. Charter Also told her that they did receive the lost check that they told her to cancel. Apparently someone found the envelope and dropped it in the mailbox. Charter assured my Mother not to worry because it would all be taken care of at this point. The incident had been documented on Charter's records.

A few days later she got yet another notice that her Charter Cable was going to be turned off. My Mother called again and they said that the payment was cancelled and that she needed to pay again. So she did and they gave her yet Another Confirmation Number! (this transaction was done by a Supervisor).

On December 11th my Mother's phone service was turned off. My Mother called and was told by Charter that they were working on it and that her service was going to be turned on within 24 hours. 24 Hours passed and I finally called Charter Cable and they said that the service was turned off because of non-payment. I told them that the payment was done electronically TWO TIMES and that my Mother had the confirmation numbers. Apparently, after taking payment TWICE, Charter's Accounting department chose not to accept the electronic payments due to the cancelled check they tried to cash after They Instructed my Mother To Cancel it!

So, Charter was not only notified Before the payment was late and the service turned off, BUT Charter was the one that told my Mother to Cancel the lost check and took her payment electronically more than once and gave her Confirmation numbers!

How Sad that Charter Cable just doesn't have the capability of personal and caring customer service. I was told by Charter that they were, "Just Too Big of a Company to be able to help everyone on an individual basis". And that after paying my Mother's Charter Bill I would also have to pay a $60.00 Restoration Fee! Now after over a month of harassment and aggravation from Charter Cable, it is going to take almost two weeks to get her service back up and running, leaving my disabled Mother home alone without telephone service. How Unjust this Is to be taking advantage of a Disabled Senior Citizen only trying to do the right thing? Charter Cable had not only given my Mother the "Run Around" and took advantage of her emotionally and financially by Fining her for late fees and service restoration charges! As soon as her phone service is reactivated I will be certain to take her phone/internet and cable business to someone else! And I urge everyone else to do the same. I'm so tired of seeing poor innocent Senior Citizens being taken advantage of by "Big Business" who's only concern is their bottom line over the fairness of Elderly Consumers.

I hope I can help you. My advice for you is not to play the $60.00 restoration fee. Your mother should get phone service elsewhere. Charter did not value your mother as a customer. It's unjust to be taking advantage of adisabled customer only trying to the right thing. Your mother mailed payment for Charter services and Charter did not accept her payments. Your mother can get phone service elsewhere.

I understand you are miserable with Charter but if you don't have any monetary problems or "outstanding debts" with them I wouldn't worry. You are free to move on to another business. I hope you were able to get internet service elsewhere.

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 where moving channnels (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.

You are totally correct ! Charter is very deceptive in their billing practices !

I have been having problems with my internet connection for the last several weeks. I have been on the phone with various Charter representatives, many who could barely speak English.

A few days ago a representative told me that my internet problem was due to my McAfee Virus protection. They claimed it was blocking a port. They said I had to contact McAfee to fix this.

A McAfee representative seemed skeptical, but he helped me uninstall McAfee over the phone, and sent me a link so that I could re-download and install it.

As it turned out, this did not fix the problem whatsoever, and it left me with no virus protection (of course, I had no internet connection to worry about, though).

I decided to take it upon myself to change out my modem and modem cable, and now everything is fine. So Charter's representatives were absolutely no help at all.

However, I had to spend the next day and a half trying to download and re-install my virus protection, which turned out to be another problem, but it has now been resolved.

I was without internet services for a total of 15 days this month (January), and I want my bill to reflect this by having them credit my account for the equivalent of two weeks service. I am so very tired of speaking to automated voices and representatives who don't speak English, and who cannot solve anything. It takes so much time out of my day when I have to press so many phone buttons to get through their menu, only to have someone who I can barely understand, and who is unsympathetic and unhelpful. It's funny, but no matter what the problem seems to be, it's never Charter's fault, according to them. They try to tell you it's something with your computer or your software, etc.

Last month (December), Charter and Quest workers were digging a very large hole in the ditch right in front of our house. We lost cable internet and TV service. The phone geniuses tried to tell us that this had nothing to do with the problem. HELLO! There's an endloader digging a hole to China in front of my house, and suddenly we lose service, and they're trying to tell me the two are not related?!

Charter is a complete joke. We receive the same standard answers everytime we call. If it is TV (cable) related, we are told to unplug the box and wait a few minutes then turn back on. This never works. If it is Internet related we get told to unplug the modem and wait and then plug back in. We get told they are "checking our signals" and then if that does not work, they say they are having technical difficulties in our area, but can never give a time or day when those problems will be solved. We were told in December when the internet was out several days that we would receive a credit on our bill. Ha! That never happen.

Each time I get my bill, it has another charge on it that I did not authorize. I thought Monopolies were outlawed by the FTC? What is Charter Communications, if not that. I live in Greenville SC and there is no other cable company to even choose from. They are free to charge what they wish and are not required to provide even mediocre service. That is a shame right here in the USA!

Charter did not send a single bill for cable TV service for an entire year. Their billing consists of calling you on the phone to ask why you haven't paid, then taking your payment by credit card over the phone. Six months after I canceled service, again with no closeout invoice or bill, I get charged by a collection company. Total scam.

I agree [protected]%. They screw the payments we made all the time then refuse to admit it. Then they'll come and cut off the service even though it's their faults. Once we have proved that the payment has been made, it took them another week reconnect. Very fast to disconnect but very slow to reconnect then still want to charge late payment penalty.What a bunch of idiots! Customer service don't know anything and can't do anything. Makes you wonder how come a company who is monopolizing the business is going bankrupt. I actually wish they will go bankrupt as soon as possible

THIS IS NOT MY CABLE PROVIDER FOR MY STATE SO STOP HARRASSING ME !

yes, Caveat Emptor.
Charter.net ISP service is not very reliable and their email service is horribly unreliable. They have their SPAM filters set so high many of YOUR Personal outgoing emails will be blocked and not sent. Especially if you are sending any url links, etc. Also, when you call to ask them about if they block emails, most of the time they deny it.

I moved to Mandeville, LA in November. I already had cable, so I scheduled a technician for internet. A sub-contractor came, spent 5 hours and could not get the internet to work. In the months that followed, here is what happened:
1. 30 phone calls to Charter Customer Service
2. 27 Charter Customer Service people hanging-up the phone on me and transferring me to the Spanish line as a joke
3. 7 Charter Customer Service people calling me the "s, f, and a" words

So, I called AT&T. Within 3 hours, I had DSL service.

The worst service I've ever experienced. I'm planning on moving to Malibu and am going to make sure I have a choice. They are the worst cable vendor in the US.

By the way, did you know they are bankrupt while Paul Allen (the owner) cruises the world in one of the biggest yachts (over 400!). My deep condolences for your priorities.

I have lived in a Charter monopoly cable area now for three years, and they have provided me a great deal of insight into how a technology company can totally botch customer service, hiding behind a local monopoly contract. My experiences should illustrate what a consumer has to go through before they actually get mad enough to take action, and what they have to do to try and get rid of Charter.

It started in 2008 when the Charter installer came to install the equipment. He was unable to get service running to the apartment I was in even though I showed the apartments next door had unreliable service (implying the problem was either in the complex wiring or in Charters wiring) and told me that I could not understand the complexity of internet communication and that it was the fault of my non-standard computer. When I brought out three other computers that likewise would not connect he said, you must have done something to them and left without installing the service, requiring that I call, make a new appointment, and have a new installation made. Since the problem was in the Charter office and not in the local wiring, the next tech was able to quickly fix things, but it required me to take time off work a second time to wait for them.

The service at the apartment was bad, but Charter explained it that the Apartment's wiring was at fault and that they could not help that.

In 2009 I moved into a new house, and had Charter hooked up, expecting that the service issues from the apartment would be solved. The house was less than a mile from the apartment, but the service issues where the same. Oddly enough, they were the same at my neighbors. They were the same in the apartment complex behind my house. For all of us the Internet service was fitful and rarely worked for longer than 60 minutes. Playing an online game was frustrating because Charter would disconnect every 45 minutes or so. Video conferencing was problematic, although it usually was more graceful about a lost charter connection.

I called for service and was told that they would send a tech out to see what I was doing wrong. I accepted their offer, but also decided to run a test for myself. (The tech would later report nothing wrong and suggest it was the fault of the new Vista operating system). After the tech came out and said the problem must be in the wire to my house (and said that my neighbor who had the same problems at the same time must also have bad wires.) I started to take my test seriously. For a week, I put Charter through its paces.

Running a log, I recorded more than 40 DHCP resets in one hour during a particularly bad day. On the second week I recorded more than 7 hours of interruptions each day, and I recorded more than 50 interruptions of 30 seconds or more each day for more than a month. During the month of my tests the Internet was constricted for bandwidth on numerous occasions, unavailable many occasions, and these problems extended to my neighbors as well as my own service. Occasionally, I would run a speed test and get 15/mbs, close enough to what I was paying for, but when the system became fitful it would run at 3-7 m/bs.

I tested the service out with Macintosh and Windows computers. The Mac where a bit more graceful at handling the DHCP resets, but online communication was still fitful. My friends brought over laptops and desktops to see if the standard technician's line about nonstandard computers (or the "Window's Vista problem) was the issue. The problems remained.

One evening after cable service interruption crashed two video conferences and brought down a game I was playing three times, I called customer service for the last time, and was enlightened by their response. The CSR rep said if all I was doing was playing games then I should be ashamed to complain about a few interruptions, that it might do me good to get away from my computer. When I said that I also work in the communication industry and video conferencing (for example) was essential to that work she said that the consumer connections dont have to be reliable but that if I really want reliable Internet, I can pay for it by getting a business connection, and she could terminate my Internet contract if she discovered I was conducting business on it.

When I asked her if this was good customer service, she said if I did not like Charter, I could do business with another cable company.

A year later and I have the same poor service despite moving to a new house in a new part of town. During the installation at my most recent house the installer was the most knowledgeable and friendly to yet service my contract, but likewise he could do nothing to make the connections reliable.

Charter is a secure in its monopoly in my town and the only real high speed service provider. Meetings of angry customers, e-mail campaigns, and chat group revolts do not work. Charter is capable of ignoring the complaints of even hundreds of customers.

As a consumer, there is very little left to do, but try and bring out the big guns. In my personal life I have been able to steer around $100, 000 dollars of business from Charter, not much (drinking with a local Charter employee -- its a small town -- he says Charter wastes that must in corporate dinner parties in a single day and will never notice it, it only hurts the salespeople who loose the commissions). To fight bad customer service by charter, I have started to contemplate other actions.

1) Try an get an alternate company to come into town and provide a rival service. Comcast, Brighthouse, and Verizon have all provided excellent service to me in the past. Letters to each company so far have come up dry ("We cannot reveal our future expansion goals is the best I got, a form letter) but if I can get competition for Charter, it will offer all of the weary citizens of my town relief.

2) Contact the media. This is not as useful as it seems because with budget cuts in papers, journalists simply do not have time to report on a local monopoly who hides behind its city charter to provide poor service. Still, if enough people contact enough journalists, one will find a story and run with it, eventually.

3) Try to remove the Charter contract with the city. This is tougher than it seems. Charter pays a good bit of change to the city to run a community access television service. The city siphons off most of this money into other uses. This money is always on the mind of city council people when you bring up Charter and its contract. Break the monopoly, and the money is lost to the city.

4) Hope Charter goes out of business and is acquired by someone else. This is not as likely anymore, although it was the hope of many people at the last meeting on this subject I went to.

5) Hope a new technology comes about that allows DSL providers (our local provider Fairpoint is an excellent company with a great local reputation) to compete with cable modem in price and speed. I would pay twice my current bill to get half the bandwidth, if it was offered and came with bullet proof service.

tech was suppose to come out today to hook up my home phone at 12 noon no show its now 4pm and still no show when i spoke with there customer servive rep when placing order i did let her know that i did not have a cell phone or a home phone that i was using someone else phone to place my order she said that was ok she took my order for the bundle package and said someone would be out on friday at noon so i waited and waited and no one showed. yes there bad business all day long thinking about going back to time warner,

This is not a complaint against Charter but a warning for when you search for Charter support online. I had a problem with one of my cable boxes. So I searched for Charter Technical support. One of the search results looked like an official Charter result with a number of [protected]. The agent who came online claimed he worked for charter. When I described my cable box problem, he took me through a bunch of steps on my PC. I allowed him remote control of my computer which did not seem right to me. Fortunately I stopped the conversation before it proceeded too far and I believe my computer was not put at risk. Beware if this number comes up on a charter search result.

03/01/2016 Today someone was ringing my door bell when I didn't answer they opened the storm door and started knocking on the front door. Had no idea who these two people that is why I didn't answer the door. Was this necessary to keep knocking. I am not ever sure if Florissant, Missouri allows they cable companies to do this solicitations.

I am renovating a house. I had all three services, TV (Expanded Basic and Premiums), Internet 5 Mg and VOIP. I called to ask them to suspend my account for two months while the house was being renovated. They refused, telling me that I could only close the account. Well I don't think I will be reopening it. Charter Communications employees, collectively, have no idea what customer services is. They treat their customers like garbage. Calling them you wait on hold for at least 10 min waiting to talk to someone, and more that not it can be 20 min. Every time there has been a problem with my Internet service I call and get a stupid recorded computerized troubleshooting technician that requires you waste 10 mins going through a number of questions that relate to your equipment, and EVERYTIME it was a problem with their equipment!

If I can get 3 mg DSL I'm going with that because I am fed up with the way Charter has treated me.

I agree that Charter has the worst services that you can get. I signed up for all three services yesterday (5 mbps internet, HDTV, and phone). The HDTV box does not even work, so I can not watch TV. I have had to try to fix the internet 5 times today and it still does not work right. The person that I talked to on the phone was very nice, but he could do nothing. Now I am losing money because I now have to buy a new HDTV Box AND internet cable box. Thats a waste of money.