Spectrum.com
Reviews and Complaints

Charter overcharged us for an additional DVR and DVR service for 10 months. When we added Showtime the operator noted the second DVR. We told her that we only had one. She indicated we had been charged for two from the date of enrollment with Charter even though they only had us register for one of their DVR boxes. She stated I needed to stay home from 8 am to 5 pm so they could verify we only had one DVR. After 5 pm when no one had come to the home or called, I called Charter.for the third time. (I had called on Friday to schedule the appointment and then called on Monday to verify my appointment. I was told it was still scheduled and again that I would be refunded the money.) The last call I made I was told no one needed to come out, then I was told they did need to come out, and then again told they did not need to come out. The operator told me that her supervisor needed to figure out the refund and I held for the supervisor. By this time, I had been on the phone for almost an hour. The operator then told me her supervisor said their policy was they could only refund 30 days of an overcharge. I then ask to speak the supervisor. The supervisor stated that was Charter's policy since I had received the bill and knew what they were charging. She said it was my responsibility to check my bill. I told her the amount was incorrect since day one and if they knew we had only one of their DVR's (with it's serial number) why would they charge us for two. This amount was 20 dollars plus over 10 months. She offered me about half of the amount but I indicated it was their mistake and I wanted the entire amount reimbursed. How many people are they overcharging and then use this 30 day policy for keeping the overcharge? As one worker told me, you have to work for the company to understand the bill. There is a lot of writing about what they can do to you on the back of the bill but this policy is missing. This is my money and their mistake. They are profiting greatly from their mistake and telling me it was my responsibility to catch it. I ask to speak to the manager and was told she was not available. The supervisor would not give me the manager's number but said she would give her my number after I ask for the manager to call me.

Time warner digital phone offers a new "one rate" plan for international calls - $19.99 a month for 1000 minutes - sounds great, right? But for calls to cell phones, the rate is 27 cents a minutes. But here is the real kicker - if you use that phone line to access a calling card to call a cell phone at a decent rate, time warner somehow "taps into" that call, even though you are calling a local number to get access to that calling card system and they charge you for that call at their price! That means you are charged twice - by the calling card company as well at the time warner rate of 27 cents a minute! They justify this by saying "you agreed we were your long distance carrier" and they ignore the fact you called a local access number to get out of their dsystem into another system. Anyone who has been scammed by this practice should contact the national consumer league and info them about your experience. Do not use time warner to access calling cards!

1) twc took money from our bank account and charged our debit card even though I didn't give them the account information for either and even though they state it is against their policy to retain your payment information; 2) they will lie to you to get a sale; 3) the customer service reps are, in most cases, useless.

I authorized a payment via phone from our visa card. Even though twc represents that it does not retain customer's banking and credit card information, illegal withdrawals were made from our bank account and a debit card. I did not give any of that information to the representative. The only place she could have gotten it was to pull it from twc's records — the ones they say they don't keep on file.

After numerous calls throughout the next couple of weeks to various representatives (I spent a considerable amount of time speaking with a very concerned rep named jennifer who said I could call her back at ext. 4994 – an extension that I subsequently found out does not exist), I finally reached a single person in the tallmadge oh credit services office who authorized the payment of $134.00 to reimburse us for bounced check charges incurred as a result of the illegal withdrawal.

We received that payment as a “reversal" to the bank account but twc never credited my twc account for the money they took. On top of that, twc now states the $134.00 they reimbursed me for the check fees was really a bounced payment on my part and they want me to pay them that back too.

It is totally screwed up and I cannot find anyone at twc that can figure this out. I must add that most of the people are quite rude in their incompetence and/or unwillingness to help.

The second matter has to do with services. I was transferred to twc via its adelphia takeover. I had a package of services that was grandfathered in. The package included all of the cable and premium channels with bundled internet. I have had the package since I began service in 2001 and purposely did not want it changed. One day I called to make a payment and the rep told me I could pay almost $1.00 less per month if I added their new digital phone service to my cable/internet services.

Since that didn't make much sense to me, I asked her several times about it and specifically told her I did not want to change anything that would affect my services and current package. She assured me that nothing would change and that she would even include voice mail at no additional charge. We scheduled an appointment for installation.

I also questioned the installer to make sure nothing was being changed and that the only thing that was changing was the addition of the phone service. I was assured that was the case. The installer left and so did many of my channels. I began the journey of trying to find someone who cared that I could speak with. I was transferred to various people, waited for almost an hour in most cases (I am not exaggerating) and was often put on hold with the person never returning. I was repeatedly told by customer service to talk with tech support (tech support never, ever answered though I was transferred to them consistently in spite of telling the representatives that nobody answered). This occurred with staff people as well as supervisors. To add insult to injury, when I call twc and plug in my phone number, the system message says it doesn't recognize my phone number even though it is a twc phone line!

At any rate, after holding 42 minutes for yet another representative (I keep records of this junk), I finally found one who attempted to resolve the problem. I was told that I changed my package (no, I did not) and that I could only have my services restored if I paid another $15 per month.

What a rip off!

Time warner's road runner high speed cable internet servicce is awful.

I have had the service since september, 2008. Since, not a month has gone by without problems.

Today (2/26/09) marks the fourth day in a row that my service has been out or faulty.

Fed up, last night I phoned customer service. I was placed on hold for 50 minutes and 59 seconds and still had not had my issues resolved when I hung up.

Now, I have a wrestling match to look forward to when I finally reach them and demand that payment for these four days (and probably counting) be deducted from my monthly statement.

cable signal breaks up & sound drops during the oscars 2 22 09 this is not only time ! every night ! called time warner they know nothing about it ! service came out 2 2 09 & checked, everything ok . said the problem at company level. called today again & they still know nothing about it ! they want to send service out again 2 30 09 ! this has been going on for 3 months in my case ! time warner wants to give me a $20 credit i have paid $100'S for this bad signal ! theirs been a news paper ad about other people having this breakup problem in the ventura star ! and time warner still knows nothing about the problem ! WHO"S LYING !

My family has had charter communications as an internet service provider for over 4 1/2 years now. Ever since spring of 2008, we have had daily service outages.

We pay $60.00 a month for service we do not receive.

Tech support is a total nightmare! Charter outsources their technical support to a foreign country where none of the "technicians" speak nor understand the english language.

Tech support refuses to tell you when you call that the outage is charter's problem. They tried to make me uninstall hardware from my computer. When I continually refused, they finally told me that charter had the outage and that my computer was not the problem. These clowns were trying to get me to uninstall hardware and reinstall it for absolutely no reason at all! The outage was in their lousy system!

They also can never find my account when I call because I had a phone number change and charter billing is unable to keep accurate, up-to-date records. I have been told repeatedly that I have no account. Yet they manage to get the damn bill to me each month! Whenever I ask to speak to a supervisor, they refuse. They tell me they cannot transfer me to a supervisor unless they can look up my account. Last night, they asked me for my social security number. What sane person is going to give some foreigner their social security number?! I refused this as well.

We are now changing to another internet service provider. Charter is the worst company I have had to deal with in recent years, and charter will never get my business ever again!

without warning, could not access internet. Have Time Warner cable, digital phone and Roadrunner. Called and spent three hours with local techs on a thursday eve at the end of which the rep said I have to call Dell because it is a problem with their software. Called Dell on Friday eve, they tried things for an hour then said since I don't have software service agreement I had to buy that to fix the problem - they said they could defnitely fix it. Cost was approx. $150 for 24 hours service, $250 for 12 months. Dell said if it went down again it would cost another $250.
On saturday spent hours with Dell who finally said it was Roadrunner problem. Talked with various 3rd level support, also modem support in Cincinnati who said my modem was good, call the local office. Finally on Sunday I got through to someone who said "duh - they shut you down because your email was sending out spam!" Time Warner local office said if I downloaded their CA anti virus software they would reinstate my service. Would have been nice to have been told that three days and $250 earlier.
Filled out numerous customer "support" surveys after this but heard back from NO ONE at Roadrunner or Time Warner. This really sucks.
Anybody know if there is anyone at Time Warner or Roadrunner who would listen and resolve a customer's issues?

I contacted Charter Communications about their best "Charter Bundle" available and was informed that for high speed internet, digital cable tv, and unlimited telephone that $ 107.97 was the best deal available anywhere. Two weeks later I found on the internet that I could have received the same package for $ 69.97 per month for 12 months. Only to new Charter customers within a 30 day period. In other words, I am being penalized for being a faithful Charter customer for more than 18 years, never once late on a bill. If I would have ended my service 30 days ago, I would be eligible for this promotion. I find this completely deceptive and un-ethical. Never again will I count on Charter to be my cable, internet, and phone provider.

Charter Communications has recently disabled the IEEE-1394 (FireWire) ports on both of my HD cable boxes. One is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3250HD and the other an Explorer 4250HDC. These ports are used to send non-decoded video streams to devices such as some HDTVs and DVHS recorders. Numerous contacts with different members of the support staff including higher level ones has yielded nothing but as many different excuses for the problem and no answer.

Active IEEE-1394 ports are required to be provided upon request according to 76.640 Section 4 Subsections i and ii of Title 47 of the Federal Code of Regulations. Besides this legal requirement, Charter even documents the ports on their website. Regardless of this fact, none of the support personnel seem to even know what the ports are. Because of this, it has been impossible to get Charter to re-enable the ports as is legally required.

Within the past 3 years, in my area of orange county, southern california, time warner cable started bundling their services so you get phone, internet and cable for package pricing. When they started this practice they also pushed hard for new customers. From that time their service has declined dramatically, and I assume their customer base has increased. When you call for customer service you have a minimum of a 10-15 minute wait for help, today one time, I was on the phone 1hr and 15 minutes.

Today was the last straw, cable in a monopoly! My dvr box and cable channels have not been working, channels have not been coming in for a week now, and before that the dvr wasn't working for other reasons. I have called and called, been on hold for an hour+ and finally today had an appointment set up for a technician to come out between 1-3 pm. I called yesterday to confirm my appt., I called this morning to re-confirm the time as I had taken off work to be available. I was assured they would be here between 1-3 although they couldn't tell me the exact time the first time I called. When no one was here by 3:00pm I called back. I was placed on hold while they contacted the tech to see my place on his schedule and my time, I was assured the tech would be here no later than 3:30. When it got to 4:00 pm still no one was here and I called back again. This time I was told he was backed up and would "definitely" be to my home no later than 5:00 pm. I was given a $20 credit for my trouble. At 5:15 I called back again and was told I had never been on the schedule and it was all a big mistake. I told them they needed to get someone out tonight, that I had taken the afternoon off work, cancelled my evening plans and couldn't take more time off work again. Tomorrow is the presidential inauguration and that will not happen again, I will be at work and I have been paying their high prices so I can record historical events like this. At this point I can get 1 channel! They said they usually had emergency techs for this type of problem but they were all busy, I was out of luck. My current choices appear to be, I could take more time off work or wait until the following saturday to get my cable fixed (today is monday), or I get satellite tv but that will take time.

What can we do switch cable companies, I would if that were possible but we all know it's not? I really do not want satellite, but what choice do I have? I told them not to set up another appt. I was looking for service somewhere else but I do not know where to go. Where can I go to get help? This happens with time warner every time I call for help. Frequently my phone doesn't work for a full day if not more. Are there answers to these questions or anyone people like me can turn to for satisfaction?

Charter cable customer service is absolutely terrible. Over the last 4-5 years that we had Charter we have experienced several nightmares. First a tree fell across the street and brought down the power and cable lines. Charter connected the service by laying a cable in my front yard in the grass and it took me about 14 calls and several personal visits to their office over nearly a year to get them out to hang the cable.

Second our internet service never worked properly. A tech came out and ran a new cable from the house to the pole and it worked better for a while. After a year, the cable is still laying in our yard.

Third, about 8 months ago they called to ask if I wanted to upgrade to a digital package with a six month "trial rate" lower rate than we already had, so I accepted. They told me the tech would be out a few days later and we arranged a time. He never showed at the stated time and they never called to confirm or check it out. Since I was getting a better rate, I blew it off for six months until the "trial rate" was over.

Forth, and the best. At the same time our internet was still not getting good reception so I called on 11-03-08 to cancel both the digital package that I never received mentioned above and our internet service. I was told that I could not cancel my internet because I had an "outstanding balance" ($171.21) and that they "would cancel my internet once it had been paid". I immediately paid it and the 171.21 payment cleared my bank 4 days later. Guess what, my December statement STILL HAD BOTH SERVICES, NEITHER HAD BEEN CANCELED. When I called to question this and get it resolved the customer service person "Anthony" advised that when my outstanding balance was paid "I was supposed to have called them back to tell them back to remind them that I still wanted my internet service canceled". When I told him that no one had told me I had to "call back after my payment had cleared" and asked why I had to call them back he said that they couldnt cancel my service "without my authorization". I said "WHAT"?! I just told them 4 days before the payment cleared that I wanted it canceled did they have record of that? He said yes, but I was still supposed to call and tell them that "that was the way their system was set up". I told him its not my problem the way their system is set up. I lived up to my end of the agreement. I went through TWO supervisors, "Diana" and "Charline" and they all sounded like robots telling me the same thing and even adding that they would not cancel it now, nearly 2 months later because I had another "outstanding balance" ($105.65) which included the 2 services that I asked them to cancel nearly two months ago! In other words, they are now charging me money for 2 services that I have already asked them to cancel nearly two months ago and no longer use (I have had ATT internet since October) and one I never had, and STILL will not cancel because they want payment for those 2 services which I told them that I did not want nearly 2 months ago! It was absolutely incredible display of customer diservice and I feel may have even breached a few laws. I Am looking into it. I felt like I was talking to people from another planet. I have never heard of someone not being able to cancel their service anytime they wanted without a contract.

Charter Communications has had a multitude of consumer complaints filed with the BBB and is rumored to be filing chapter 11 bankrupsy (who would have thought with their questionable business practices). Look it up and see for yourself.

Bottm line...DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, YOU WILL REGRET IT!

I depend on my internet service for a small home based business. As we are all aware, every dollar adds up these days! The service has been off and on for the last 4 days. Sometimes for half an hour, sometimes for much longer. My customers are upset (not with me particularly), but with the situation. I get an email for an order and try to reply only to find the service down - again. My family depends on this extra source of income and I hate to possibly lose good customers.

I am thinking of going to Verizon Fios, however the thought of changing emails for the bank and many other places seem daunting. TW did give me a credit for 8 days, however FIOS is cheaper anyway. The customer service is usually horrendous - many times asking me to contact Apple as I have an iMac. The vast majority of problems are the fault of TW, not Apple. I'm thoroughly disgusted and WILL switch if necessary. My husband will just have to get used to a new channel lineup for the TV, lol.

I'm in Southern California - today TW blamed the *server* problems on the California fires which were quite awhile ago. Obviously just an excuse. Argh!

Last month (November), I relocated my place of residence. I called Charter Communications to cancel my service. The only equipment I had belonging to Charter was a cable modem used for internet service. I informed the rep. of this, only to be told that all billing will stop when I go to the nearest office and turn in the modem. I was also told that this is the only way that I could stop my services, and that the nearest office was 45 minutes away. Needless to say, I did not make it to the office to disconnect my service.

After my move, I called and spoke to another rep. who informed me that the service tech. would have PICKED UP the modem from my home on the scheduled day of disconnection. She then told me what day the services would stop, and gave me information regarding the credit which Charter owed me...which was 9.52 .

Several days passed, and I called back and spoke to ANOTHER representative. This time the guy told me that I could purchase the modem, which could be used with other providers, over the phone with no hassle. I obtained the necessary information from him to mail the modem back if I chose to do so.

Several days later, I received a notice in the mail from Charter threatening me with legal action if I did not turn in the modem. I then called in and spoke to another rep. who told that me I COULD NOT purchase the modem over the phone, and that I would have to wait for the bill to come through the mail. So I waited...nothing came except ANOTHER threatening letter.

I called back and spoke to yet another rep., who refused to do ANYTHING with my account. He said that I had set up a "pin" number, and that I had to recite this before continuing. I told him that I had NEVER been asked for a pin, nor did I ever set up one. I gave him a few choice words, and hung up. This was inappropriate, but I had reached my limit.

I calmed down, and called back. I pretended that I had not talked to anyone about my payment options, and told him that I wanted to pay for the modem. There was no problem. I told him that I had a Visa check card, and I proceeded to give him the number. Then he asked for my routing number. Routing Number? I was using a CHECK CARD. I was starting to get hot again, but kept my cool. He had no idea what I was talking about, so I just told him it was a credit card. Then he was able to process it, and (without too much confusion) processed my payment.

I don't know what the problem is...maybe a language barrier, or cultural differences...but it is ALL EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.

Charter communications is a franchise. They pay the areas they are in to do business there with your money, you are taxed on your bill. It is called a franchise fee. If people are so upset take action... Petition, get signatures, protest at city hall, do what you must, to get them removed and make room for a better and more reliable company.

This company is very deceitful. They put you in campaigns/promotions, and say we will e-mail you or send you a reminder when your 'special pricing' expires. I for one have never received any reminders, and when you do call, they say the pricing isn't available, or that in order to get a low price we need to bundle your services... What? I don't want any other crappy service. I already have internet service that goes out daily.

My advice to charter: keep your prices steady and your customer service reps in check, and maybe then you would have a good reputation. Oh, and your supervisors are ruder than the reps. And maybe get a service that is reliable, because I am sick of hearing... Oh there's an outage in your area.

I also have to laugh, ask for an e-mail confirming your new price and how long it will last... They will never ever e-mail this to anyone! Apparently when I asked a rep why, he said legalities. Lmao legalities cause they lie & add things to your acct. Ask to hear a previous recorded conversation, they don't exist for customers to hear. Yet they say you will be recorded. Oh the deceit grows.

I would suggest to charter communications: replace your leadership teams and trainers, because they are not doing a very good job at retaining your revenue or teaching your representatives how to be honest with a customer, not lie, because they just want their commissions. What are you 20 billion in debt? Someone needs to open their eyes there, and make some serious changes. And start regaining the clients trust.

I went to dish today, so you will not be receiving my $175.00 a month now, sorry about that.

I ordered time Warner Cable about a year ago they advertised all this great stuff on the tv about free on demand free hdtv and free movies on demand so I figured what a great deal for my family to get a bundle with all this great stuff well for the past year no on demand no free hdtv and no free movies cause it never works and i have called several times they have even came to the house but it trouble at the companies side they always say that they are upgrading even the tech that came to the house said that they really don't offer it they just say that to have you to contract with them! That is a complete rip off! They aren't honoring what they say that they will when you purchase the cable, but they are quick to send you a bill with all the free stuff on there i mean i know it is free but my whole reason to get it was because it said all this stuff came with the package. I am very unsatisfied with the company! they always have excuses and don't honor what they say! Can they get away with this?

Where to start - they say they are "competitively priced" however when they give kickbacks to an aparment complex (that they deny) they do not have to be competitive! A customer has no choice in cable service and they do this: you can have our service at a discount if you sign a 15 month contract (when they know leases are 12 months!) hey and if you choose to cancel your service after 12 months - guess what? You are charged a big termination fee and have to pay for the concessions you had been given! They say hey that doesn't work for you? You can have our service at a month to month service however you will be charged full price which is twice as much as you were charged at your last cable company (cable with internet) who you would love to continue with however your apartment complex refuses to allow competition in to there complex (remember they are getting kickbacks - but time warner says they are not paying it!). But hey wait you can sign a contract for just 10 months and if you choose to continue from there you will pay full price! Remember thats twice as much? So someone please tell me where are they competitive?

I moved to a new apartment. I called time warner cable to cancel my old account because I didn't know when I would be able to turn it back on. I called jose from a flyer that installs services for Time Warner Cable. He sent someone out to install internet and cable services. I gave my old modem to the Agent to install and with out me knowing, he took my old modem and installed a new modem. The Agent didn't add the old modem into their system so that Time Warner cable would be able to see that it was returned. Months later I recieve a collection notice with out any notices from Time Warner. I called customer services four different times and no one hepled me. I even asked to speak to a manager, he wasn't able to do anything about this situation, to make things worse he started to argue with me as if I stole the modem. This whole situation caused my credit score to be very low. I was planning on buying a home that I put an offer on. There is no way I can buy it. I don't know what to do.

I moved to Chicopee MA in April of 2007. I signed up for Charter Cable and immediately began to have problems. The billing amount was slightly different than what they told me but it was a small enough amount where it wasn't worth the time to report it. I let it slide. I paid my bill online via a method that did not require a username or password.

For months, my bill was paid without error. During a system upgrade, the option to pay without establishing a username and a password was removed. I attempted to establish a username and password but due to system difficulties, I could not. I began paying my phone utilizing their automated system. This is where the real trouble began.

Prior to a summer cruise, I paid my bill. A short time after arriving back, I received a late notice. I knew that I had paid in full, so I pulled my credit card statement up and phoned Charter. On my statement I was able to read back the account number that had been paid. I read that to the Charter agent who determined that somehow my phone lines were switched with someone who lived on the same street.

I was told the matter would be resolved without any further information needed from me. Later in the evening, I received a phone call from a supervisor demanding that I send my credit card statement via fax showing that I had paid the bill. I have previously worked in the Fraud Division of a Financial Institution and felt that fax was not a secure method to send any personal information through. I refused.

After some arguing, I agreed to take a trip to the local Charter Office and show my credit card statement to an individual woman. I did and the matter was resolved until the following month where the same thing happened once again. Again, I took the trip to my local Charter Office. I then phoned the 1 800 number and asked to be established online.

After speaking with three different individuals I was told they were unable to establish me online but did not know why. I had the account number and passcode correct but their online banking would not register me. I was frustrated but attempted not to take my anger out on the agents and instead let it go to the following month where once again, my funds were attributed to another account. During this time-frame, I had spoken to supervisors and managers in vain.

I had made every logical attempt to resolve this matter kindly. Still, because they kept attributing payments improperly, I was receiving late notices and threats to discontinue service in the mail. I pay my bills on time. I dislike threats and little yellow warnings. It just didn't stop. After dealing with the same situation yet again, I demanded being established online. The agent I spoke with had the audacity to state that I needed to go through Charter for my internet to establish a username and password to pay my cable bill online.

I knew from previous phone conversations that this was untrue so I asked to speak with his supervisor and was hung up on. I still didn't want to go haywire so I let it go until my bill was due yet again. I phoned in and asked them to take my payment over the phone with a live-agent. They would but for a $15.00 fee. I understand that $15.00 isn't much, but the principle really bothered me.

I couldn't rationalize paying them to take my money. It seemed unethical. I declined their offer and went online. Finally, a chat representative was able to establish a username and password for me. I was happy and relieved. Immediately following, my digital cable began freezing more than usual. I became dissatisfied with the quality and frankly I was still rather upset about the whole payment fiasco. I decided to cancel.

In October of this year, I brought my cable box to the local Charter location. I paid my bill in full. I received a receipt which I still have showing that my balance was zero. Sure enough, I received a late notice. I phoned Charter and informed them that I had proof I was paid in full. I faxed a copy down to their 1 800 number. They stated the case was open.

Due to the dishonest approach of the company, I filed a complaint with the BBB. I dislike this approach but found it necessary. Sure enough, they have emailed the BBB stating that they conducted their own investigation and concluded I still owe them over a hundred dollars.

This is ludicrous. I owe them nothing. I have documentation from them upon returning my cable box that I owe them nothing. I've provided this to them. It's as though they are hoping they can aggravate me enough where I will just pay them off. I've let them slide on so much. They've added programming without my go ahead. They've overcharged me. They've made promises of free items and never delivered.

I've never endured so many issues with one company. I don't believe it is a conspiracy but I also don't believe this is an isolated coincidence. I believe the company is acting in a purposefully deceitful manner to ensure that they make the most money possible from each customer. I feel cheated. It isn't the money. Part of me says, pay them to get them off of my back...but the other part of me is just DONE. I've done everything right by this company and I've received nothing but headaches in return.

It seems that there are enough decent people out there who have endured the same sort of behavior I have. If you are interested in a Class Action Lawsuit, I believe we have a case. I have all of my documentation and can back up everything I've said here.

Unathorized charge of "csw subscription renewed @ $9.99/mo" please remove any and all charges a.s. a.p.!