Spectrum.com
Reviews and Complaints

Worst customer service- customer service is all located in the Phillipines and they DO NOTHING. I have been trying to get a refund of $63.78 for about 3 months. I have talked to several of their reps. and their supervisors and still nothing. There is something wrong when this company can not even have their customer service right here in the United States where they can speak and understand English. I am trying to understand their reasoning, and the only thing I can come up with is they want to give the customer a big run-a-round trying to get them to give-up. WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE-UP!
Charter needs to be held accountable

I have been using Time Warner for over a year--the complete suite of services. When I started using Time Warner we were living in an apartment and building a home--my husband is in Iraq. I signed up for the phone services strictly for calling him in Iraq as I use my cell phone for everything else. I got a discounted calling plan for calling Internationally. Had no problems with the calling plan the entire time we were in the apartment (about 8 months). Transfer the service to the new house as it was finished and we were moving in. Get three bills within the first 3 weeks of being in the house--all sent out within a day of one another (as shown on front of envelope). All for 3 different amounts--one for $0.00, called Time Warner to find out what was going on and was informed that one of the bills was from the service we'd had at the apartment and one was from the new service--and yata, yata--it was a big run around but I paid it and went forward. Well--then I started getting outrageously high bills 300+ when my service should run 140-150.00 and had been running that, I paid two months like that and called and talked with Time Warner NUMEROUS times--went to the local office and never could catch the manager in--Timer Warner said there'd been some sort of mistake and took off about 30.00 and said my bill should be right now. Well started getting my normal bill again--then out of the blue I get a call from Time Warner saying I have an outstanding bill for International calls and requested my credit card number over the phone in order to be able to continue service. I knew I'd just paid my bill and was paid in full so I told the person that I'd paid my bill in full and they said the calls weren't on the bill--which made no sense to me and the person couldn't explain why the calls were not on the bill. He said I owed a big bill because i'd been calling a cell phone in Iraq. I told him that I had a special calling plan to Iraq and that, that was the same number I'd always called and had not gotten a big bill before and no one told me that cell phones weren't included to begin with anyway. He insisted that he needed a credit card number to continue service. So I hung up thinking it was a scam. I immediately called Time Warner and was instructed that they would NEVER call a customer and ask for their credit card info and said if I owed something it would be on my bill, that what the original caller said didn't make sense to them either. The represenative pulled my bill, told me it was paid in full and that I did not owe Time Warner anything at the time. I attempted to call my husband and found that I did not have International service on the phone. As of today, I rec'd an OUTRAGEOUS bill from Time Warner and it's showing crazy amount due for international calls. I called Time Warner as the local office is closed and spoke with a very rude represenative who informed me that it'd been turned over to collections and that dept was closed--mind you--I still have Time Warner Service and am not behind in my account--this OUTRAGEOUS bill is the first time I've ever seen such an amount for International calls--though I now think the calls had something to do with the 300. bills I'd rec'd only they weren't coded at the time as calls.
Anyways--the T.W. rep says that she can't see what type of calling plan I'd had at the apartment prior to moving into the new house as that account has been erased and she doesn't understand why it would have been erased--however she doesn't show that I have any International calling plans on my phone now. Which is the point--I'm not sure if when they did the transfer of service if they did not extend the same calling plan I had or what, but I'd never rec'd charges for the phone like that before. After doing a bit of research I've found that this seems to be an on-going problem with Time Warner and they are being accused of an International Calling Plan Scam.
A friend in town that I know was using Time Warner as well and has family in Africa and had a calling plan and had no issues with his phone service for 6 months, then out of the blue got a bill for 1500. He visited the local Time Warner business FIVE times before he was able to speak with the Manager (same experience I've had) and then when he did finally get to speak with her she didn't take him to the back to an office or anything--she briefly listened to what was going on and rather than try to get to the bottom of the situation gave him a short--"Well you've got to pay it" and was off on her way. I am going to be speaking with an Attorney this week as there is something not adding up here and Time Warner is not practicing good business for sure.

I received a letter from Time Warner, that contained their offer of Internet Connection (Road Runner) for $11/mo. However, I found out that they are charging me twice that amount, and when I mention the letter (that I still have in my possession), that does not ring a bell. Last week I had a live online chat with their representative, Randolph Williams, who assured me that the issue would be resolved in 24 - 48 hours, yet nothing is resolved. At the time of the aforementioned letter, I had AT&T as my ISP, around $20/mo with no contract and no problems. Now I am stuck with Time Warner, am under contract, can't cancel and can't get my price, either. All I can do is complain.

A major outage occurred on Monday August 17, 2009, affecting over 5 million customers at Charter. Since then, my internet connection has been intermittent, and completely useless for good parts of the day, usually between 9a-6p it is up only part of the time. I put in a call last Thur Aug 20 to support over the phone. I was scheduled for a support call 2 days after that on Sat Aug 22. In the morning a tech came out and changed my cable modem. It worked for about 15 min, then the service became unreliable again. I called support, another tech came out about 3p on Aug 22 and told me the problem was outside my home and a "first response" team would be out within 48 hours to look into. I called tech support on Monday Aug 24, 2009, they told me no one would be out to look at the problem until Tues Aug 25 between 8a and noon, but that they were allowed up to 10 days (a contractor) to finish the job. I run an art business from home. This means that in the worst case, I may be without reliable internet service for 17 days. This is unacceptable.
Rick Duim
http://duim.com

I dropped my service with Charter on 7-20-09 because I got so sick of the crap with it and the price. When I dropped it I ask about my refund on what I had paid they informed me it takes 6 or 8 weeks to get the refund.
Now this seems a bit much as they bill in advance if I waited that long to pay my bill what would happen, I feel
sure they would have disconnected it all and paid me a visit for non payment. They are always "tootin" their own horn about price and service what a JOKE! I suppose when you are in financial difficulty you don't worry
about refunds, I proably will never get that refund.

Well i called charter and order their service for 69.97 Well first bill was over 198 and second was 224.oo And every time i called they told me i was paying in advance well it 2 years later and still getting charged high bills even try to cancel took in black box. And they ask me to stay and they gave me 2 mo for 208 and something . well tis mo f total was suppose to be Io2.00 witha total of 116.58 . well the bill came and almost 143.00 again. No matter who you talk to they have fixed it but bills keep coming with late charges and higher and higher. And nothing is ever fixed. I know i am not only one complaining when man installed my service which installing was free he told me i if you get high bills you have to get at them so i have been and it says its recorded but it still doesn't help . so readers are you having same problem.

I had cable and internet service through time warner and was advised that I should add the digital phone service to "bundle". I took time off work for them to come out to install the digital phone service. They arrived promptly and spent less than 5 minutes. Upon leaving they advised I was "all set up" I asked about my security system due to the phone connection.

The service guy said "your all set". After they left I immediately went on the internet — it didn't work. I took over an hour for the "help" desk to get the internet back up and running. I then tested the alarm system (6 pm)... It didn't work. I called the "help" desk. I requested they send a tech back out to handle. I was advised they would be here before 8 pm. It is now 8:30 - no tech. I just called the "help" desk and asked of status. They "don't know when the tech will be here"... It may not be tonight. I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was advised by the help desk that the supervisor jonathan said he would not take the call! Unbelievable. This is pathetic service.

Please let me know: If you have NOT rented pron and were not home but, now you are getting charged for it. (If you can prove you were not home even better)
I am so sick of Charter. I have 1200 in pron rented and we were not even home. BBB did nothing. I am hiring a lawyer. Rather pay them.
[protected]@yahoo.com

Employee to install phone services. Improper procedure resulted in costly damage to my alarm system. Interupted TV service, cancelled my VCR connection against my wishes, did not followup on appointments to correct the installation as promised, refused to accept responsibility for alarm damage or reimbursing the $50 cost of repair to alarm syatem. Were rude when asked for explanation of charges that seemed excessive, put me on hold so they could talk to someone about the situation, left me holding the phone until I got a dial tone, and never responded adequately to my problem.

I cannot recommend them to anyone and will be cancelling my internet service with them in the very near future.

If you are considering signing on with Time-Warner, you may want to read this before you do.
We have both internet access and cable TV through Time-Warner, and we had been experiencing problems with certain cable HD channels that we watch and record programs on with the DVR. When tuning to these channels, we would sometimes get a message stating that the channel was not currently available, and thus programs scheduled to be recorded on those channels would not record. At first, we just assumed that the channels were actually off the air for whatever reason, and we didn’t report it. But there began to be more and more of the channels unavailable and it was happening with greater frequency.

Since T-W offers new movies in HD on a pay-per-view basis, and because our DVD player is in the now-obsolete HD-DVD format (only Blu-Ray HD DVD's are being produced from now on), we had canceled our Netflix account. We figured it would be cheaper to just pay $4.95 to watch a movie in HD on cable whenever we wished. One evening we rented a movie on PPV, and about 2/3 of the way through it, the movie stopped playing. We rebooted the cable box, and tried again, but got the same "channel not available" message, so we placed a call to T-W to report it. Now, any time you call their repair number, you get an automated "friendly" speech-recognition system which asks a series of questions in order to narrow down the problem. For our problem, this non-person prompted me to reboot the cable box. I had already done that, but I tried it again, just in case. (Each time the box is rebooted, the bootup sequence takes about 6 minutes). It didn’t help, so after many frustrating attempts to describe the issue to this "friendly" non-person, I was finally connected to a customer service rep, except that it went immediately to hold and not to the person. After another lengthy wait, I finally got to speak with an actual person. So again, I described the problem, and was told to reboot the cable box. I explained that I had already done that numerous times, but I did it again, anyway. It didn’t help, so the rep rebooted the box remotely. As before, it didn’t help, so they tried reprogramming the box. It didn’t help, so they scheduled a technician to come out. I explained that we work and could not be there until after 5:00, so an appointment was set for the earliest time available, which was 5 days later. So on the appointed day, the tech came out, checked some things, found that the signal strength was weak due to a bad splitter, replaced the splitter, rechecked the signal (which was now closer to specs), but there were still 2 channels that were not available. He called a co-worker who checked those channels at his location, and they were fine there. So he explained that it was probably just in our immediate neighborhood and since those were two of the channels we rarely watched, we accepted his word that the problem had been resolved and that the 2 missing channels would be available at a later date. All of the channels we have had this problem with are the so-called switched digital channels, and the way it works is when you tune to one of those channels, your cable box sends a signal to their server which responds by sending that program stream back to your box. For whatever reason (bad splitter?), the signal was not being received by their server.

Well, two days later, programs that had been set to record didn’t record, and when we checked those channels (all ones we do watch), we got the same "channel not available" message. Out of about 25 channels we checked, 17 were not available. So, another call to the T-W repair service, same frustration with the automated non-person, same delay, more frustration, finally I got through to a real person who said to reboot the cable box. As before, I had already done that, and it didn’t help, so they went through the same procedure as above. It didn’t help, so they scheduled a SENIOR tech to come out…5 days later. When he finally came, he worked for a couple of hours, and then he came in to explain what he had found and what he had done to correct the problem (supposedly). He found that the cable from the junction box, which is in the neighbor's front yard, to our house was an overhead cable, and it was bad. He wasn’t sure why we still had an overhead cable, because they were supposed to be underground. So he replaced it with a temporary cable which he ran across the neighbor’s driveway, and then up to our house just laying across the ground. He explained that this was just temporary and that within the next week to 10 days, someone would come out and bury the cable. He said that we shouldn’t even notice where it would be buried because the machine that buries it just slices a narrow groove to embed the cable less than a foot underground and there’s no trench or anything to tear up the lawn. The channels did all seem to be now available, so he proclaimed that the problem was now fixed.

After about another two weeks, the channels were missing again, just like before. And the cable had STILL not been buried. So, again, I had to go through the same nonsense with the "friendly" non-person to get through to a real person, explained that I was very upset, demanded to speak with a supervisor, was put on hold for 20 minutes (I’m sure this was deliberate), finally spoke with someone who claimed to be a supervisor, went through the entire explanation string for the umpteenth time, and was told to try rebooting the cable box. "I rebooted the damn box already!" So they said that they would schedule a SUPERVISOR technician who would come out to address the problem…in 5 days. On the appointed day, the supervisor tech came and found that there was a faulty connector. He replaced it and all of the channels seemed to be available...for now. He said that the cable really needed to be buried because the neighbor was driving over it every time they used their driveway which was going to damage it pretty soon, unless it got damaged even sooner by their mowing over it, which they had done at least once. As it had now been about 3 weeks since the "temporary" cable had been connected and it still had not been buried (they had said it would be only 7 to10 days!), he said that he would put in a rush order to have it buried. Great!

A couple of days later, a guy came with a big machine to bury the cable. Early in the afternoon, my wife went home from work for lunch, and as she was leaving to go back to the office, the guy came running out to the car to inform her that in the process of burying the cable, he had accidentally severed the water line to our house. He had shut off the water at the street, he explained, and he was going to have to go get some parts to repair the water line. He told her that he should have it repaired in about an hour. That was about 2:00 PM. My wife called me right away to tell me what happened, and I decided that I'd better swing by the house to check on the situation. So about 3:15, I left work and went by, but the guy was nowhere to be found. In the middle of the yard was a big hole about two and a half feet deep full of muddy water, under which was obviously the broken water line, and there was a shovel stuck in the ground beside it like a grave marker. I checked the faucet and there was no water. I WAS LIVID! I called the T-W repair number, and when I got the "friendly" non-person, I responded to every automated question with the foulest obscenity that I could possibly think of until it finally switched me over to a live person. I said, "Look, we've had a lot of problems with our cable service but now we have no water and it is all Time-Warner's fault and I'm not going to waste my time explaining to you why, I'm not going to reboot the damn box, and I want to speak with your supervisor right now or I'll be filing a lawsuit!" After about another five minutes on hold, someone who claimed to have some authority, but wouldn't give me his name, listened as I explained what had happened. He promised that a customer service supervisor would call me back within one hour. OK, they'd sure as hell better call me back!

Now confident that the situation would only get worse, I went back to work. After work, when I got home, Everett Gopher had returned and was frantically bailing water out of the hole with the bottom half of a plastic water bottle, and he was not having much success. I apparently spooked him when I approached because he saw my company photo ID clipped to my belt and asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm the homeowner."
"Whew! I thought you might be the city water inspector".

I asked if he was a licensed plumber, and he said that he wasn’t, but not to worry, he would get it fixed. He said that he had to go to several different places to find the plastic fittings to fix the line, and that's what took so long. I stood back and watched as he finally got most of the water bailed out. He then proceeded to over-tighten one of the clamps, which cracked the cheap plastic fitting. To test his repairs, he went down to the meter and turned the water back on, and immediately a small geyser began to erupt from the soggy pit. He went back to his truck for more fittings and somehow did manage to get it to stop resembling a whale surfacing to exhale when the shutoff was opened. He told me that we should have water now, and he filled up the hole with more mud to cover the "repaired" water line. He connected the soggy cable to the junction box and the other end to our house. However, there was one little problem: he failed to properly flush the muddy water from the lines by turning on the outside spigots. So when we turned on the water inside, a lot of mud, rocks and various bugs and water creatures came surging through the faucets and toilets. I removed the faucet aerator screens and ran the water in a vain attempt to flush the lines, but the kitchen faucet flow barely exceeded a trickle. There was dark mud in the toilet bowl and tank. We had plans for that evening, and we just didn’t have time to deal with this mess. The guy apologized profusely, making excuses like "the machine had a new blade that was too long, " and "I guess I should have checked to see where the water line was first." He finally departed about 6:30, leaving behind a muddy sink hole. It had been now been about 3 hours since I had spoken with the customer service person at T-W, and I still hadn't heard from the "supervisor" who, as promised, was to call me back "within one hour". So we now had no cold water in the kitchen and the toilet looked as if we had been panning for gold in it. We turned on the TV to see if that was at least working, and guess what, - most of the switched HD channels had that familiar "channel not available" message. And to make matters even worse (yes, it gets worse), we had NO INTERNET ACCESS AT ALL. Fuming, I called T-W customer service again, and ultimately was told that they would get someone out to fix the cable problem… in 4 days. Through clenched teeth, I told them that was not acceptable, that someone had better call me by 9:00 AM the next morning, or else! Then I hung up. My wife made me sit down and relax, and try not to have a stroke or heart attack. I calmed a little and we went out for the evening and tried to temporarily forget about it. I didn’t sleep very well that night.

The next morning, still not having heard from anyone at T-W, I called the only number that anyone would give me, which was the same one that gets you to the “friendly” non-person. Having no patience, rather than scream obscenities into the phone, I just kept hitting “0” until I got connected to a person (why didn’t I think of that before?). As calmly and briefly as possible, I explained the situation and asked to please speak with the customer service manager, if indeed they actually had someone to manage their “customer service”. After maybe 10 minutes, I actually did get the manager. After I explained the situation while making no attempt to conceal my anger, she apologized and said that when Dirk Disaster cut the water line, he should have stopped and called in a licensed plumber to fix it rather than trying to do it himself. She assured me that T-W would cover the damage and that I should go ahead and call a plumber, which I did. She told me to pay the plumber when they were done, send them a copy of the bill, and she assured me that T-W would reimburse me for the cost of repairs “in a timely manner”. She also said that she would make sure a technician would be there that afternoon to fix the problem with the cable and internet access. I had to take a vacation day so that I could be there when the plumbers arrived.

Only 30 minutes after I called them, the plumbers arrived. I explained what had happened, and they dug up the “repaired” water line and properly repaired it with brass and copper fittings. After that, they came in and repaired the faucet by replacing the cartridge and the cold supply hose. When they were done, I wrote them a check for the repairs in the amount of $482.00. As instructed, I immediately sent a copy of the paid receipt to T-W along with a letter stating the agreement with the customer service manager to fully reimburse me for the repairs. Early that afternoon, the cable tech came by and had to replace a section at the end of the cable that Karl had mangled when he connected it after digging up the yard with his slingblade. So at least now we have our internet (and e-mail) service back. The jury is still out on the cable HD channels.

Even though I was promised that Time-Warner would take care of this "in a timely manner", it has now been almost a month since I sent the copy of the plumbing bill and I’m still waiting for reimbursement of the $482.00. I have made several calls to find out when I will receive it, but each time I call, the person responsible for sending it is not in. I have asked repeatedly for someone to call me back, but no one has. We are looking into satellite and have reactivated our Netflix account.

I have two computers and whenever (daily) I need to switch computers on the internet I have to call and have Time Warner reset the modem and whenever I have to do that it is a living hell to accomplish. Every time (and specifically the last two nights) I call in I get cut off repeatedly, tonight it was NINE TIMES and every time I call back I am getting more and more angry and then I have to go through their voice prompts and then whoever finally answers I have to tell them my name, my phone number, my address, my last four of my social and my email address, at which time I start to tell them what I need and I am very upset and then (after announcing that THEY VALUE ME AS A CUSTOMER) they proceed to lecture me on not being upset and being POLITE to them when I would be perfectly POLITE if they quit cutting me off. So tonight after nine calls and nearly losing my mind I got lectured by KEN twice about how I should be polite and no one bothers TO VALUE ME
AS A CUSTOMER.

You call in and they cut you off repeatedly and then you lose it and then they hassle you about that instead of helping you get your computer connected.

I was perfectly fine and sane and polite when I first called them but how many times do they think they can cut you off and then put you through the same rote information you have to give and never getting anywhere and trying to convince them YOU JUST NEED YOUR MODEM RESET but then they yammer on about other stuff and about how I'm not POLITE.

THEY SHOULD BE FIRED, every damn one for tormenting someone who is just trying to get their service to work AT A VERY HIGH PRICE AND shouldn't have to put up with being hassled and ridiculed when THEY KEEP CUTTING YOU OFF INSTEAD OF HELPING.

THEY SHOULD HAVE TO PAY ME FOR PUTING UP WITH THEIR SUCKY ATTITUDES.

I AM SOOOOOOO CANCELLING MY SERVICE.

The Internet connection was up for a totla of one day. Since then "Standby" light on the modem has been on and of course, no connection. Exchanged modem at their suggestion after hours of being on hold. Plugged the new modem and still "Stand by" light on. Try to call again. After more that 3 hours on hold, gave up. Called next morning, same wait. Hung up and called again this time to CANCEL service and could not get it done either...!
Their customer service STINKS. So sorry to have started with them in my new house. WHAT A MISTAKE!

Time Warner states in clear, precise and unambiguos language on its website that all services are paid in advance of usage. I canceled my service after reading the FAQS on the website and communicating with an on-line TW rep under the belief that my service was paid before usage only to be hit with a $108.00 bill after I canceled.

In addition, they charged me $120.00 for a modem for internet service I never had. When I objected, they said it was for AOL internet service but their modem. I told them I never had an AOL DSL and demanded copies of all work orders and bills associated with this account.

I HAVE NEVER used AOL. Rather. I had AT&T internet. They claim I used the service for 5 years! Now, they have turned the account over to a third party collection agency.

After I contacted the Mayor's office, they told me I misunderstood the on-line rep even though the rep said the same thing as the TW FAQS.

I am still waiting for some form of proof that I ever used the internet service but am being harrassed by phone and mail for unreturned equipment, that is. The modem.

I received a notice in the mail saying that my promotional offer (as a new customer) was about to expire because the year was about to end. It said that my bill was going to increase, but that I would still be paying less than I would be next year.

Because of this notice, I decided I would call and downgrade my services. My bill had already increased ten dollars over the year, and I did not want to have to pay anymore than I was already paying for cable and internet. So I thought I would downgrade my channels or soemthing like that.

When I called and got transferred to the right department, I asked to downgrade my services because I had gotten the notice that my promotional offer was over. The man on the phone offered me a "price lock guarntee" (which is a misnomer. It wouldn't have actually locked the price I paid last month of 102.66, it would just make my bill go up ten dollars instead of twenty). I told him that I didn't want the price lock option because my bill had increased ten dollars over the past year and I wanted to keep my bill no higher than about what I was paying now, 103 dollars. so he came back and said I could get another promotional offer, which would decrease my bill to 90.07 after tax. Since a year ago I had paid 91 dollars, I thought this was a great option that would be affordable and what I had paid last year, and he said it would stay this price for a year. This was without actually having to downgrade anything. He said he put the offer in the computer, etc. and I thanked him and said goodbye.

Then when my bill came, of course, it was not for the 91 dollars. It was for 124 dollars. I called TWC and told them my story. I got transferred to another person. The lady on the phone told me that there was no way that anyone could've offered me such a low price. I had written down the before tax and after tax price I was quoted, as well as the date I called, and told her this info. She told me that the best deal she could do for me was the price lock guarantee because the offer I was quoting just didn't exist. I insisted someone had told me this price and this is the price I intended to pay, at least for this month. After denying that this could've even happened, she finally gave (after putting me on hold for a while) and told me she guessed there WAS a way I could've been offered this price, but that the employee on the phone had made a mistake and I shouldn't have been offered the deal. I told her then that that person should've called me back when they realized that the mistake had been made, so that I wouldn't have received a bill 35 dollars more than what I expected. I said that if they had called me and told me of the error, I would've again called back and actually had them downgrade my services because I was not about to pay 35 more dollars than I was told I would have to pay.

She then said that she would submit an "evaluations report" which basically lets the "higher ups" there know that this had happened and that they would call me back and see what they could do for me. She said they would call back within 5 to 7 business days. I told her that my bill was due on that seventh business day and I was not intending to pay such a high bill. She promised they would call me back and resolve the issue.

Fast forward to today, day eight. Of course, they never called me. Must be too busy playing golf. So I called TWC and told the lady on the phone what happened. OF COURSE, she said that there was no record of this on my account, the deal, the eval report, anything. She was clueless when I asked her what I should do or who I should talk to. Finally I asked her to transfer me to the "downgrade services" people and just downgrade my services and be done with it. She did so and of course the lady tried to give me the "price lock guarantee" thing again. I insisted that I did not want to pay that much and therefore would need to downgrade my services.

What do you know, she came back with an offer of me only having to pay 93 dollars for the next twelve months. I said, no offense, but are you sure? Because this happened to me about a month ago... she told me that I would in fact be paying 93 dollars after tax next month. God only knows what my bill will really be next month...

road runner from time warner is supposed to be 6 mb download speed but ever since they added their phone service to my area my internet speed has been intermittent most of the day it isnt even as fast as dial up downloading at 150-200 kb instead of the 6000kb or (6mb) its supposed to be in the ads and contract they have you sign.they are crooks getting rich off promised services they cant deliver.I should have known not to trust them after a few years back i cancelled service and they had a month anytime during the day to pick up cable box when i moved and they didnt they said i had to return it to a pay center about 20 miles away, my lawyer said they delivered it they had to pick it up i didnt have to drop it off so they charged my closed account 650.dollars for the box i filed it under bankruptcy then the bill changed from being charged 650. for the box to 650. for cable service 5 years later after filing it under bankruptcy its still on the bill well then I needed internet they seemed reasonable then they wiped the slate clean finally and i got road runner now i know why the finnally waived because they suck and now im geeting ripped off by paying for high speed thats slower than dialup!

I want to let you know that the way Tme Warner process new accounts they help the crook fraud people. What they do is take a phone call from someone that gives a name and SSN over the phone and Time warner checks that name and SSN and if that person has good credit they set up an account in that persons name. Then that person gets cable for months and does not pay. Then Time warner turns that Persons name and SSN into the credit agency and the only way the real person with that SSN finds out about it is they check their credit report and finds this unpaid collection on it. Of course all this time the real person lives somewhere else and doesn't know anything about what has happen to them and they are getting turned down for credit and credit cards are getting canceled and everything else because Time Warner helped these crooks do this by not simple checking who they are when they go out and hook up the cable in the first place. This is the same as if someone goes into your bank and gives them your name and SSN and asks for $888 and the teller gives it to them without checking who they are. Then you go to the bank and tell them you did not take out that money but the bank says yes you did and they tell you to go to the police and prove you did not take it out after a year or two has gone by. How would you prove this was not you and you should not have to do anything anyway in the first place to clear this up because Time Warner should not have ever put that account in your name anyway without first making sure it was in fact you. I am very mad about Time Warner doing this to me and I am telling every one I can about what they did to me. I am contacting the TV news channels and telling my story and telling anyone that will listen to me. All they had to do is check my address when they pulled up my credit report to see where I lived and see that I do not live at what ever address it was they installed the cable at. I just thought I would at lest tell you about this before it happens to you also. This is far from being over and as long as this is on my credit report I will tell anybody that listens what Time warner did to me. They are helping the crooks get away with fraud just to sign up more accounts and they could have done things to stop it before it happen but did not. They have cost me lots and lots of money and I'm going to do whatever I can for satisfaction over this. Be careful and check your credit reports because these guys will put anybodys cable in anybodies name and SSN as long as someone gives it to them over the phone and you could be next. If there is a lawer out there that would take this case and take this company to court please e-mail me as [protected]@fuse.net. maybe this should me a class action case for all the people they have done this to. All they needed to do is check for ID when they went out to hook up someones cable. Crooks if you didn't already know this now you do. I hope others take them to court over this.

A Letter to Time Warner Cable (Mailed on 6/24/09)

Dear Sirs,

I am reluctant to write as I don’t believe these letters get read or acted upon by your firm. It seems to me that if you have so many consumer complaints that you can’t take phone calls, you need to close your doors anyway because you are just doing consumers an injustice staying in business to give so many people reasons to complain while you hide.

I have a home in Banning, California that had your service for years, the whole bundle; phone, Internet, and television. My son moved out of the home in December of 07 and I maintained the service in an unoccupied home for nearly a year. In October of 2008 I called TWC to have services shut off. I was informed that until I could get the equipment returned I would have to pay $20 per month while I was put on “Seasonal Hold”. So I continued for another 6 months at $20 per month.

It was a big surprise when I saw a $210 transaction hit my bank account at the end of six months. I called your company’s billing department and was basically told, too bad.

It was nearly another month before I could get someone to go to the house that service was in and get the equipment for me to send back to TWC via UPS, and I received anther $134 hit to my bank account. I again called your company and this time spoke with a supervisor. She acknowledged that the equipment had been received just the day before and said she would look into the situation.

I have to say that given that I paid so long for service in an unoccupied house, that she would at least roll the two months back to $20 per month like I paid during the “Seasonal” hold period and let me off the hook in the interest of customer service if not just refund the whole $345.22 outright, but shockingly, no. Even with your company knowing the house has been unoccupied for nearly two years, she called me back the following day determined to get every cent she can, right up to the day the equipment was logged back in. No break, no refund, no consideration at all. I cannot believe that $345 is really more important than any future business your company might have gotten from me.

I can tell you that if this is the way your company treats customers I am surprised you have any.

You will never have me as a customer again. Additionally, if I can persuade anyone else to heed my warning to avoid abuse by Time Warner, I will do so.

I will be copying this letter to the PUC, and every editorial department of every publication I can locate in 14 days if I have not heard back from you, which I already assume I will not.

PGH

The Short Story:

• After putting me through over seven months of effort, more than fifteen phone calls, and a tremendous amount of aggravation, Time Warner/Saveology (subsidiary of Elephant Group, Inc.)/Private Network Communications, Inc. could not even provide the full $100 that they promised when I signed up for their Fios “Triple Play” promotion. In the end, I only received $93.50.
• Ms. Luci at Private Network Communications has not returned my calls thus far.

Comments:

• Almost all of the people that I spoke to (below) were very polite. This was such a drawn out series of lapses and inactivity that it seems unfathomable to me that overall, it was simply an issue of incompetence or indifference among staff level employees. Is Time Warner/Saveology (subsidiary of Elephant Group, Inc.)/Private Network Communications, Inc. actually making a good faith effort to honor and issue all of the “gift cards” due to Time Warner’s customers or is something else happening here?
• When Time Warner outsources, they need to take some responsibility for the actions of the organizations that they hire.
• Does Time Warner effectively have a monopoly in NYC? Personally, I have no other option for cable television services.
• On the gift card instruction sheet provided by Saveology, no mention is made anywhere of “Private Network Communications” although they perform most of the customer services and administrative functions regarding the “gift card”.
• Many of the calls that I made to Saveology have not been documented.
• I spelled the names of all employees phonetically; they may be misspelled.

The Long Story:

1. On 10/12/2008, I signed on for Time Warner Fios “Triple Play”, and was promised a $100 Mastercard gift card.

2. On 11/16/2008 I completed and mailed the “Time Warner Cable Promotion Redemption Form” in order to receive my $100 Saveology gift card. The form indicates that a card should be received 16-18 weeks after all qualifications and subscriber obligations are satisfied.

3. On 2/2/2009, I spoke to Jennifer at Saveology, requesting the status of my $100 gift card. She informed me that I did not use the proper rebate ID in completing the redemption form, and instructed me to add the proper rebate ID to my copy of the form, and fax it to Saveology.

4. On 5/8/09 I requested the status of my card from Jenel at Saveology. Jenel informed me that they did not receive my faxed, corrected, redemption form in February. When I stated that I have the successful fax confirmation, she again stated that the person who receives all faxes was not able to locate it. She asked me to fax it again, and told me that she would call me back to confirm that they had received it this time.

5. On 5/8/09, after not hearing back from Jenel for a several hours, I called Jenel myself, and she confirmed that she did receive my corrected redemption form. Upon my request, Jenel stated that since they have been delinquent in processing my card, she was willing bring my redemption form to her supervisor in order to expedite it more quickly.

6. On 5/28/09 I requested the status of my card from Deedee at Saveology. Deedee stated that my redemption form was in fact escalated to a Supervisor on 5/11/09, but that no progress had been made. Deedee stated that she did not know what the issue was or why the Supervisor had not acted since receiving the form on 5/11/09. Deedee volunteered to look in to why my card had not been processed and call me back on 5/29/09.

7. On 6/3/09, I attempted to call Saveology five times using the “Offer Redemption Center” phone number provided on the Redemption form of [protected], but each time I receive a message stating that the phone number is out of service.

8. Again on 6/3/09 I finally reached Saveology by calling a phone number on their website, once again to request the status of my card. I reached Amy (ID#191) in Customer Service, and requested to speak to Deedee. I was told that Deedee was having lunch. I explained my frustrating situation to Amy, and Amy stated that if she could put me on hold for a few minutes she would find out as much as she could about my situation from her colleagues. Within five minutes, Amy discovered that my card had indeed been mailed to me in March. When I asked why nobody else at Saveology could figure this out for me, Amy did not have an answer. Amy provided me with the name and phone number of the person at the company who is responsible for issuing the cards. Amy did not know the name of the company who had this responsibility.

9. On 6/3/09, I spoke to the Executive Vice President of Private Network Communications. He informed me that a card had been mailed to me in March, but that it did not have any charges against it. I told him that I did not receive the card. He confirmed my name and address, and said that I should have my card within 7-10 days.

10. I received the card with its instructions in the mail on 6/10/09.

11. On 6/11/09 I attempted to activate the card through the automated menu, but did not have the required PIN number to do so. The instruction sheet that the card came attached to indicated that the PIN number should be on the instruction sheet, right where the card had been attached, but there was no such number printed. I reached a customer service rep who was able to activate the card anyway.

12. On 6/12/09 I attempted to make a purchase with the card, but apparently any use of a debit card requires a PIN number, which I did not have.

13. Also on 6/15/09, I called Saveology for help, read my card number to the customer service rep, and they told me that my PIN number would be right behind where the card was attached on the instruction sheet. I told them that no such PIN number was printed, so she transferred me to “Cardholder Services”, which is part of Private Network Communications, Inc.

14. After reading my card number to Robert, at Private Network Communications, told me that my card actually did not have a PIN number, and needs to be used as a Credit Card, as opposed to a Debit Card. When I explained to Robert that my card has “Debit” printed on it, and the instruction sheet indicates that I should have a PIN number, he apologized, but offered no explanation of what may have gone wrong.

15. Also on 6/15/09, I successfully made a $79 purchase using the Saveology card as a credit card.

16. On 6/16/09 I attempted to make a purchase using the remaining balance on the card. I attempted to make the $21 purchase using the card first as a credit card, then as a debit card. Both times, the card was rejected.

17. On 6/17/09, I spoke to Jenel at Saveology and explained that the previous rep that I spoke to transferred me to Cardholder Services in an attempt to help resolve the issue of my remaining balance, but I cannot reach anyone there because the automated menu requires a PIN number, which, in my case, I do not have. Jenel told me that there was nothing that she could do because Cardholder Services is handled by an entirely different company.

18. Also on 6/17/09, I called Saveology again, and reached Casandra. I explained my dilemma about the remaining balance on my card, as well as the fact that I do not have a PIN number. Casandra was able to provide me with a different phone number for Cardholder Services which does not require a PIN number.

19. Also on 6/17/09, unable to reach anyone in person, I left a voicemail for Theresa Luci (spelling?) at Private Network Communications, using the phone number given to me by Casandra. In my message, I explained the issue about the remaining balance on my card, and asked her to call me.

20. On 6/18/09, I left a second voicemail for Theresa Luci at Private Network Communications, asking her to call me. I tried to reach Ms. Luci five different times by phone between 6/17/09 & 6/18/09.

21. Also on 6/18/09, at a store, I was able to determine that there was actually only $14.50 remaining on my card, and that was why the $21 purchase had been rejected.

22. After all this work to obtain my “gift card” and to actually get it working, Time Warner/Saveology/Private Network Communications had only given me a $93.50 “gift card”, not the $100 actually promised.