Time Warner Cable is the bane of my internet existence
I really hate Time Warner Cable but more specifically their internet division, RoadRunner. There's not a whole lot of things that I hate in life, but Time Warner Cable is definitely one of them. Every since they bought out Adelphia in my area, all of my services from them have been absolutely terrible. The quality of service dropped overnight, as if they said "let's find a way to gouge our customers even more... I know, let's just make the service shit and charge them more every year!"
For the first week after the acquisition my television signal was a mess. I'd get constant picture drop-outs and audio would cut out for 30 seconds at a time. This went on for at least a few months. During that time my internet service became completely unreliable, dropping out completely a few days a week. Calls to customer service always returned the "Everything looks fine on our end." deal which has started to make me throw up a bit in my mouth every time I hear it. Thankfully things got progressive better for the next 6 months and was cleared up almost completely about a year after they took over our service.
Due to cost-cutting measures on Time Warner Cable's end, I was unable to get a TiVo that I purchased working with their service since they began using a new technology that effectively removed my access to many HD channels when not using hardware that they provide. They've since fixed the issue by offering TiVo users a tuning adapter, but my troubles are well documented on a prior blog post of mine.
Recent events, however, have convinced me that Time Warner Cable has absolutely zero interest in fixing any of their problems. It seems like they're more willing to just pay their techs. whatever they get paid to come out to my house every week instead of actually investing any money in fixing the problems that I've been having. My internet slows down to unbearably slow speeds (1Mbps - 3Mbps) for hours on end every day. According to Time Warner Cable "everything is fine on our end." I've had at least 5 techs. come out to my two different apartments over the past 6 months and none of them have been able to find anything wrong. I have the direct number to Tier 3 technical support and the Office of the President (though I don't like calling the latter) and none of them have been able to ultimately resolve the ongoing issues I've been experiencing.
When I go searching online (slowly, of course) to see if I'm alone, I find that I'm not. Broadband-related forums are full of posts of other users in my area and around the country complaining about the same thing. Service just isn't reliable for anyone it seems, and Time Warner Cable appears to have zero interest in actually doing anything about it. I've spent more hours on the phone with Time Warner Cable than I do with my family or customers at work. Of the ~200 minutes on my cell phone that I use per month, easily half of those (on average) are to Time Warner Cable. Apparently it's cheaper to have nearly incompetent representatives manning the phone support lines than sending out qualified technicians to actually look into and fix a problem. You'd think that, over time, it would be cheaper to actually provide a good service rather than paying people to just tell everyone that "everything is okay" and have that be that.
I feel insulted every time I call their support number. Do they really think that I'm going to believe that "everything is okay" on their end if they just keep telling me that? Obviously everything is not okay. Contrary to apparently popular belief, I don't like spending my free time trying to get people to finally fix the service that I'm paying for. I'm also not as stupid as they think I am and just repeating the same garbage to me every time I call will not suddenly make me believe it. My personal experiences with the service contradict everything they tell me over the phone, so why would I believe them? If everything was okay, why is my internet so slow and why are so many other people in my city, my county, my state, and my country having the exact same issues?
Unfortunately I've gotten to the point where I'm going to have to call the nice lady at the Office of the President again. I'm sure she's tired of hearing from me and maybe they've even changed their number by now, but this is seriously just becoming too much. Today I called to nicely request some sort of account credit for the ongoing issues I've had. It's seriously depressive to pay about $60 a month (just for the internet) and then regularly receive well under half of the speeds that they advertise. I guess where they get you is they say that you get speeds "up to" whatever they quote so apparently anything under that is acceptable, even when that's 4-5 times slower than what's advertised. My request was denied and I was told that they would be unable to issue me a service credit because the issue sporadic. Since when do sporadic issues not matter? I guess it's easier for them to deny there's an issue at all if it doesn't happen 100% of the time. I wonder what would happen if I sporadically stopped paying my bills? I'm sure my service would be turned off quickly.
Apparently AT&T is expanding their U-verse service in my area this year, and I think that I've finally reached the point of committing to switch to it the day that it becomes available. From what I've seen at my mother's house (who has U-verse), their service is great, the internet is fast, and the DVR is reliable (in contrast to the pile of garbage that Time Warner Cable provides). That's all I care about anymore. Based on the prices listed online, I'll be paying anywhere from $30-$40 more a month for the same level of service that I'm getting now, but it's really worth it to me.
I've reached the end of the line now. I've expended an immense amount of time, effort, and money just to have my issues and concerns tossed aside as if it didn't matter. I have finally come to the realization that I don't matter to Time Warner Cable. Based on my experience it has become abundantly clear that instead of acknowledging and correcting major service issues affecting hundreds to thousands of users, Time Warner Cable would rather just ignore them and have their representatives shrug things off by patting us on the head and telling us that "everything is okay" on their end. They want us all to be mindless sheep and just accept what they give us with no effort or care on their end to ensure what they give us is worth a damn.
Time Warner Cable: You're on notice. If these issues can't be resolved or if I can't receive some sort of time frame or at least an apology or even just an acknowledgment that there are ongoing issues that are affecting me, I will have to cancel all of my services with you. It's much cheaper and easier to just stick with you and I'd much rather have things just fixed, but if this is not something that you are willing to do for me then I just can't continue throwing my money away.
Please just fix the issues with your internet service. It's easier for everyone.
For the first week after the acquisition my television signal was a mess. I'd get constant picture drop-outs and audio would cut out for 30 seconds at a time. This went on for at least a few months. During that time my internet service became completely unreliable, dropping out completely a few days a week. Calls to customer service always returned the "Everything looks fine on our end." deal which has started to make me throw up a bit in my mouth every time I hear it. Thankfully things got progressive better for the next 6 months and was cleared up almost completely about a year after they took over our service.
Due to cost-cutting measures on Time Warner Cable's end, I was unable to get a TiVo that I purchased working with their service since they began using a new technology that effectively removed my access to many HD channels when not using hardware that they provide. They've since fixed the issue by offering TiVo users a tuning adapter, but my troubles are well documented on a prior blog post of mine.
Recent events, however, have convinced me that Time Warner Cable has absolutely zero interest in fixing any of their problems. It seems like they're more willing to just pay their techs. whatever they get paid to come out to my house every week instead of actually investing any money in fixing the problems that I've been having. My internet slows down to unbearably slow speeds (1Mbps - 3Mbps) for hours on end every day. According to Time Warner Cable "everything is fine on our end." I've had at least 5 techs. come out to my two different apartments over the past 6 months and none of them have been able to find anything wrong. I have the direct number to Tier 3 technical support and the Office of the President (though I don't like calling the latter) and none of them have been able to ultimately resolve the ongoing issues I've been experiencing.
When I go searching online (slowly, of course) to see if I'm alone, I find that I'm not. Broadband-related forums are full of posts of other users in my area and around the country complaining about the same thing. Service just isn't reliable for anyone it seems, and Time Warner Cable appears to have zero interest in actually doing anything about it. I've spent more hours on the phone with Time Warner Cable than I do with my family or customers at work. Of the ~200 minutes on my cell phone that I use per month, easily half of those (on average) are to Time Warner Cable. Apparently it's cheaper to have nearly incompetent representatives manning the phone support lines than sending out qualified technicians to actually look into and fix a problem. You'd think that, over time, it would be cheaper to actually provide a good service rather than paying people to just tell everyone that "everything is okay" and have that be that.
I feel insulted every time I call their support number. Do they really think that I'm going to believe that "everything is okay" on their end if they just keep telling me that? Obviously everything is not okay. Contrary to apparently popular belief, I don't like spending my free time trying to get people to finally fix the service that I'm paying for. I'm also not as stupid as they think I am and just repeating the same garbage to me every time I call will not suddenly make me believe it. My personal experiences with the service contradict everything they tell me over the phone, so why would I believe them? If everything was okay, why is my internet so slow and why are so many other people in my city, my county, my state, and my country having the exact same issues?
Unfortunately I've gotten to the point where I'm going to have to call the nice lady at the Office of the President again. I'm sure she's tired of hearing from me and maybe they've even changed their number by now, but this is seriously just becoming too much. Today I called to nicely request some sort of account credit for the ongoing issues I've had. It's seriously depressive to pay about $60 a month (just for the internet) and then regularly receive well under half of the speeds that they advertise. I guess where they get you is they say that you get speeds "up to" whatever they quote so apparently anything under that is acceptable, even when that's 4-5 times slower than what's advertised. My request was denied and I was told that they would be unable to issue me a service credit because the issue sporadic. Since when do sporadic issues not matter? I guess it's easier for them to deny there's an issue at all if it doesn't happen 100% of the time. I wonder what would happen if I sporadically stopped paying my bills? I'm sure my service would be turned off quickly.
Apparently AT&T is expanding their U-verse service in my area this year, and I think that I've finally reached the point of committing to switch to it the day that it becomes available. From what I've seen at my mother's house (who has U-verse), their service is great, the internet is fast, and the DVR is reliable (in contrast to the pile of garbage that Time Warner Cable provides). That's all I care about anymore. Based on the prices listed online, I'll be paying anywhere from $30-$40 more a month for the same level of service that I'm getting now, but it's really worth it to me.
I've reached the end of the line now. I've expended an immense amount of time, effort, and money just to have my issues and concerns tossed aside as if it didn't matter. I have finally come to the realization that I don't matter to Time Warner Cable. Based on my experience it has become abundantly clear that instead of acknowledging and correcting major service issues affecting hundreds to thousands of users, Time Warner Cable would rather just ignore them and have their representatives shrug things off by patting us on the head and telling us that "everything is okay" on their end. They want us all to be mindless sheep and just accept what they give us with no effort or care on their end to ensure what they give us is worth a damn.
Time Warner Cable: You're on notice. If these issues can't be resolved or if I can't receive some sort of time frame or at least an apology or even just an acknowledgment that there are ongoing issues that are affecting me, I will have to cancel all of my services with you. It's much cheaper and easier to just stick with you and I'd much rather have things just fixed, but if this is not something that you are willing to do for me then I just can't continue throwing my money away.
Please just fix the issues with your internet service. It's easier for everyone.
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