Time Warner Cable Sucks
By wfrench | March 13, 2008
I know, I know, who doesn’t already know that Time Warner Cable sucks. However, but most recent interaction with Time Warner customer server really pissed me off. It’s a cable company and I should have expected it, but I’m an optimist.
Currently, I pay about $95 a month for cable TV and Internet using Time Warner cable. My cable service is almost the most basic you can get, I don’t have any premium channels, I don’t have any cable boxes, just coax and a signal. There is no need for me to use a cable box because I aggregate all my TV signals through a SageTV server (which is great by the way). This internet is just the standard internet package offered, 10Mb downstream.
The other day I was watching TV and happened to catch a Time Warner Cable commercial the included Phone, Digital Cable, and Internet for $99 a month. I know, what the heck was I doing watching commercials, haven’t you heard of a DVR. The TV was on as background noise and I wasn’t really paying attention. Either way, I still was intrigued. Now, I really didn’t want to give Time Warner cable anymore money, but how could I turn down $5 more / month. For a couple of weeks I pondered the switch weighing all the pros and cons, analyzing the offer, and determining which account to fund this service from. OK, I was just lazy and didn’t get around to calling them. This is where the fun started. The Customer service rep got three stikes and he was out:
Strike 1:
This is a promotional price. Now kinda figured this going in and I think the website actually mentions this. However, I have NO idea what the price is after the promotion ends. If you were to buy all three services individually it would cost about $145 / month! So after the promotional period does it revert to this price? This issue, while annoying I was willing to let it go. The promotional period was 12 months so I had a while to find an alternative. Come on AT&T get U-Verse to my house!
Strike 2:
This one on was one of my favorites. I told the rep that I would like the $99 package and that I was already a subscriber. He said great, but this service would require a cable box rental in order to get this service because this is a “digital” package. I politely declined the box and told him that ALL my televisions already had digital tuners built in. Then I was told that this package REQUIRED a cable box rental for $10 a month. Why? He told me that if I didn’t get the cable box then I couldn’t have the package deal for $99, but I could get it a-la-carte for $145. This is right about the point where I started to get a little upset.
After hearing this I suggested that if a cable box was required why wasn’t the price advertised $109 and the response was, “No one is honest in advertisements.” After a few clicks and a bit of digging I did find one relevant line in the terms: “Unless stated above, prices exclude converter charge, installation fees and applicable taxes.” This doesn’t say a converter is REQUIRED!
Strike 3:
This one was my fault I guess, but it still was annoying. For this package they setup a special internet package, “Basic” which is only 1.5Mb versus the 10Mb connection that I have now. The funny thing is that you can’t even buy the basic internet package individually. If you ask me “Basic” and “Standard” service sounds the same to be. This is just another example of Time Warner Cables deceptive advertising!
Conclusion:
Currently, I still only have internet and cable service from Time Warner. I really don’t want to give any more money to Time Warner, but if the price is right I would. I just wish they could be honest with their ads and would treat their customers a little bit better.
Topics: Rant |
May 16th, 2008 at 3:21 am
I hate, and I mean HATE Time Warner Cable. They suck.
I’ve had the worst experiences with them over the past couple months it’s just been hell. I lost my job in November, and our bills fell behind. They wouldn’t work out a payment plan, and my bill was almost $200 a month!! Including some fees and other crap! I was able to pay a portion of it, and wanted to change my services so I wouldn’t have to pay so much…nope. The ass***s
said I had to be current with my bill in order to do that. Well…from what I was told, Time Warner makes you pay 1 month ahead of time. So if I only owed $200, then why can’t I change my services? So anyways, I had to keep paying for services I didn’t want, and the bill fell behind again, with more fees, probably late fees..who knows. Never shows it on the bill.
So…like a week later a guy came and said he was there to disconnect my cable…I was so mad I said fine and went back in the house. He probably wanted the 2 boxes I had, but I was so mad that TW didn’t want to work with me that I didn’t feel like bothering with moving everything around and unscrewing the cables and besides, I need my husband to move the enterainment center in order for me to unplug them. SO…that was Friday of last week.
Today I called..asked what my total due was. Some stupid chick said it was $1250!!! I totally went off. She said that since I didn’t return the equipment after my services were shut off manually by the tech, that I got CHARGED for them!!! I went off some more…..
I didn’t think to ask for a stupidvisor….I was just….so steaming I can’t tell you enough….so..1.) I couldn’t yet change my services, even tho they were disconnected..but the chick said if I returned my boxes, then my fee would only be $348…but how the hell did it get that high again?? See, this is why we couldn’t keep up..because they have stupid added fees n s**t 2.) she said I had to drive the 40 miles down to the stupid TW office and return the equipment, pay the amount owed, which by the way somehow got up to $348 in two weeks…..#$%#$^@$#$@#%^#$@! 3.) EVEN THO I WOULD RETURN THE EQUIPMENT, PAY THE FEE, I COULD NOT GET MY CABLE TURNED BACK ON INSTANTLY. I WOULD HAVE TO CALL AND MAKE AN APPT. FOR ANOTHER TECH TO COME OUT AND “CLICK” IT BACK ON AGAIN AND……GET CHARGED $50 MORE FOR THAT!!!!!!
Ya know what…that is BULLLLL S**T!!! If I’m going to do that, then I want to be treated as a NEW customer and get a SPECIAL price!! I’m going to ask to talk to a stupidvisor and so help me, they better give me a deal. I want some serious fees waved! I can’t believe they won’t work with you..not everybody makes $40,000 a year.
Oh…you have no idea how pissed off I am. And I’ve been a long time customer of theirs for over 10 years.
How dare they treat their customers this way!!! WTF!???
#$^^&@#$!@$#$&@!!^$%^*()&#$!!!!!!#%$@#!!!
So..tomorrow, I’m going to have to drag my little toddler down to friggin mayfair mall and stand in line and deal with this s**t. And my husband and I decided for a while that we just want BASIC BASIC cable because with the way prices are today with gas, food, and the rest of the economy f****d up, we don’t need this kind of S***! Especially with summer just around the corner. DAMN!!!
I wish AT&T would get their friggin’ act together, and get thier fiber-optic cable service out in OCONOMOWOC already!! We do not want a satellite, because it goes out during storms. So…it looks as tho we’re STUCK with FRIGGIN’ TIME WARNER CABLE ****** CUSTOMER SERVICE!! And the motto is “the customer is always right??” BULLS**T.
After I was done complaining…all this chick said was “is there anything else I can help you with today?” I hung up.
I just can’t believe this. THIS, is so not tolerable, and so help me God, as soon as AT&T get their act together and stop advertising for cable on TV when they don’t even HAVE it hardly ANYWHERE except for the DISH which aboslutely SUCKS….we’ll switch.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:31 am
YES! I cannot agree more.
I thought monopolies were illegal?? or are we not in the US anymore?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:03 am
SO how long have you tards been working for direct tv? I am sure no one is dumb enough to not see through your BS. What the hell is your problem. Darhh, I wanted to buy a loaf of bread but I did not want to give the bread people more money. So I called them up and they said it was $1.00. THen when I got the loaf they charged me $1.00 like they said. Strike 2, I ate the bread and now I want my dollar back. Strike 3, do you think of I shit the bread out, Time Warner will take my pile of shit and gove me my $1.00 back.
Get for real moron, you get what you pay for! If you do not like the high quality of cable, then get a dish and enjoy not watching tv when it snows out, rains or there is a small gust of wind.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Actually that’s a pretty poor analogy. My complaint was that Time Warner was misleading with their advertisements and at that point. In San Diego there are two cable companies, Time Warner serving North County where I live, and Cox Cable everywhere else. Cox cable offers more channels, has better internet, and is about 30% cheaper then Time Warner. However, I can’t get Cox because I’m in Time Warner’s area.
It doesn’t need to be that way anymore. The infrastructure is already there why shouldn’t I be able to get Cox cable in my house. That competition would be a nice change for the consumer. Dish or ATT Uverse do not compete in my book, I have no use for either of those providers.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:47 am
All I wanted to do was pay my CABLE bill online. Apparently we signed up for their payXpress (my ass) over a year ago when we had a simple peoplepc account, so now I can’t remember my payXpress user name and password when I click remind me it dosen’t recogize my current roadrunner (unfortunately) email, but if I put in my old people pc account it asks for my secret question and then says it emailed my password to my now closed inaccessible email account. So I make the poor choice of calling them. I was transfered/told to call 10 different people over 2 hours and Every Freaking one of them was conserned about my email account. I just wanted to pay my cable bill but one guy went in to my email accounts and changed my passwords even though I kept saying, it’s not my email, leave my email alone, I just want to pay my cable bill. I ask one idiot, “Can’t you just clear me out of payXpress like I never signed up, let me start over” I got “Well Mam, it may seem as simple as 1-2-3 to you but it’s not that simple, you would have to take your modem back to the office….” I have to return my modem to pay on a website? one guy wanted the number on the back on the modem, if I was using XP or Vista???????? NOONE could comprehend this wasn’t about my internet connection!
They have a cable monopoly here too. we’ve been forced to have them for cable for as long as I remember. Personally been a cable customer for over 15 years, had roadrunner internet for less than a year and THEY WOULD NOT ASSIST ME IN PAYING MY BILL. I WAS VERY CLEAR and they kept guessing my user name should be my MASTER username. I DIDN’T HAVE MY ROADRUNNER EMAIL WHEN I MISTAKENLY SIGNED UP FOR THIS SERVICE. It was totally beyond their comprehention. No kidding 10 people.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Just switched to everest because of time warner poor service and high pricing I am saving $800 a year and have one more free dvr included and voicemail on phone Iwas paying for turbo with time for years with only just above a 56k modem speed they rewired my house 3 times finally sent out a person the other day who figured out all the wires in my neighborhood were eaten up by squirels they replaced those still didn’t have a good signal was way better than before though now they blame it on my TV’s well I hooked up my dish network out of my RV and low and behold excellent picture well I am working with my neighbors to have time warners crappy wires removed from our neighborhood and they will be out next week to get them out of my house and off my property.