Spectrum.com

Time Warner strikes again... yesterday, May 19th, Time Warner came to install my new phone/cable/internet services. Really this was just an upgrade since I already have the cable service and had the internet previously. The appt. was for 8-11am and the techs (used loosely) arrived at 9am. They entered my home and were happy to find the wiring already in place so this would be an easy job for them. Upon "completion" the tech came to me for signature. I asked if the internet was setup including email and passwords, he said "no" and then proceeded to do so. Seeing that we may have an issue beginning here I checked the phones, all clear, then the cable which had been upgraded to the new digital DVR. There was no sound! I assumed the second tech must have checked this since he was working on the cable and was now sitting comfortably in the car waiting on his partner. The tech was not sure what to do, and had to call the lead tech for assistance, no luck! I live very near a Time Warner store and suggested that maybe he could swap out the box there. He advised Time Warner did not allow that anymore and that he was a 3rd party contractor. He told me they have some internal fraud which has now caused a change in this policy. He took my cell number and said he would get another box and call me to make sure I was home before he came back to install.

Guess what? He didn't call or come by and it was 3pm! I decided to call customer no-service and find out what was going on. They knew nothing about this and showed the job complete. They also told me it was too late for them to contact the installer as it was 3:30pm. I told them I knew that they worked until 7pm so they needed to find someone to come and install this box. They said this was not possible and I advised the agent to find someone who could help. (My experience with TWKC tells me that if you scream and demand to speak with a supervisor, you usually make some progress).

They found the installer and determined he was gone for the day. They said they would escalate this to his supervisor and she would call me back. Having calle3d TWKC many times, they seem to have an issue with returning calls, so I was not willing to accept this and told her I wanted to hold and have her conference us. She refused and I got her name and number and said the supervisor had one hour to call me or I would call her back.

Surprisingly, the supervisor did call back, however, during that time I had used my limited knowledge of cable boxes and it had started to work correctly. I thought I was done with TWKC, but oh was I wrong!

The next day I had watched the TV multiple times and used the DVR with no issue. I went upstairs to make dinner and came back to a flickering TV set and a dead cable box. Prior to calling I always try to reboot the box and remove th power cable. This did not work. Back to the phones...TWKC no-service.

I finally reached an agent after 5 min (short for TWKC standards) and was advised there was no outage in my area, which I knew since my 2 other TV's were working fine. I described the previous day's situation and that my box was dead. I was told someone could come out a week from Wednesday, 8 days away! I told the agent there must be something that can be done to get someone out here more quickly. He advised that no one in his Costa Rica office was able to do that. I asked to be transferred to someone in the US, preferably KC. He did so.

When I reached the KC office, I was told it was not possible to have someone out any earlier. I asked to speak to the person I had spoken with before and I had her extension but she was out of the office. She told me she would send an email to the department and I would get a call back. TWKC email and phone work the same...not very well, so I insisted that she call and not send an email while I waited on the line.

She said she was unable to call them and I asked her to have her supervisor call for her. The supervisor then came on the line and I had to explain everything again. He told me that dept. was gone for the day so I would get a call back tomorrow. I told him this was not acceptable and that with a brand new box and given all the issues, I expected some compensation for my time. I told him I was also only willing to go to the store if he credited 1 months service, which he refused. He told me he could credit 2 days but no more. I also told him I wanted a credit for the activation fee from the previous day which he agreed to.

Having spent so much time in 2 days with these people, I told him again I would only accept 1 months service credited. He said "no other utility company would do that" therefore he would not either. I told him "you are not a utility" he said "yes we are, we are the cable company" I informed him they are a bad cable company at that and thank god for AT&T now coming on the market so we have another option from TWKC. He continued to refuse to credit my account. I finally hung up and will go to the TW store tomorrow.

I am really concerned now for a few reasons:

1) How long will such poor service be allowed? Time Warner has been bad since they entered the KC market and I don't know many people who are happy with them.

2) What happens when I have phone problems in the future? Will I also have to wait one week or more for someone to come out?

SWITCH TO AT&T!