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Report: #631467

Complaint Review: Charter Communications - Internet

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  • Reported By: Adam — Denton Texas United States of America
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  • Charter Communications Internet United States of America

Charter Communications Horrid Customer Service and Incompetent Tech Support Internet

*Consumer Comment: Charter is as bad as the OP claims

*UPDATE Employee: Charter Communications

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Charter has horrid customer service. When you call technical support the person on the other end is usually incompetent, sometimes you hear a television in the background, and frequently they will transfer you to the wrong department or accidentally disconnect you. Ultimately, the tech support people on the phone can only do three things: 1) see if your modem is online, 2) schedule a tech support visit, and 3) ask you to unplug your modem and plug it back in. They never ever seem to do anything else.

Usually they won't schedule a tech appointment unless you demand it, for example, my last call after the five-ten minutes of going through the automated system and then reciting all my information and stating my MAC address once again, the 'technician' told me that my signal looked good and asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you today?" So I had to point out that she hadn't fixed my internet, or done anything, and demand that a real technician be appointed to solve my problem.

Of course, when the technician comes out, you will find that he does nothing either. This is assuming he comes out at all, because some times they just don't arrive. Meanwhile, never has a technician arrived knowing what he was there for, because Charter apparently has no system for communication within its departments, and it never keeps any kinds of records about what has been done before or who has looked at the account before or what the problem has been before. Finally, there is only one thing that the technician ever does, and that is to replace the modem. It is always replaced with a used modem, and you can tell its used because the MAC address is rubbed raw, because the last person who had it kept calling Charter and now I have their modem, while they will soon have mine.

After exchanging modems, the technician will then give you a number to call if your internet goes out again, and he will lamely promise to 'look into things' and he will use cliche phrases like 'we are going to get to the bottom of this' and 'the buck stops here'. Later, when the internet goes out again, you will call that number and leaves a message, but you will never ever hear back. Eventually you will call the original tech support number, and they will have no record of your ever having called before. Then you will proceed to repeat this process until you give up. And that's how Charter saves money on tech support.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/14/2010 10:33 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/charter-communications/internet/charter-communications-horrid-customer-service-and-incompetent-tech-support-internet-631467. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#2 Consumer Comment

Charter is as bad as the OP claims

AUTHOR: jack sst - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, September 20, 2010

I feel the op's pain.  It has taken me three years, but now I have had enough of Charter Communications, my home town's monopoly cable company.


I have lived in a Charter monopoly cable area now for three years, and they have provided me a great deal of insight into how a technology company can totally botch customer service, hiding behind a local monopoly contract and a concept of the customer as ignorant cash machines.  My experiences should illustrate what a consumer has to go through before they actually get mad enough to take action, and what they have to do to try and get rid of Charter. 


It started in 2008 when the Charter installer came to install the equipment.  He was unable to get service running to the apartment I was in even though I showed the apartments next door had unreliable service (implying the problem was either in the complex wiring or in Charters wiring) and told me that I could not understand the complexity of internet communication and that it was the fault of my non-standard computer.  When I brought out three other computers that likewise would not connect he said, you must have done something to them and left without installing the service, requiring that I call, make a new appointment, and have a new installation made.  Since the problem was in the Charter office and not in the local wiring, the next tech was able to quickly fix things, but it required me to take time off work a second time to wait for them.


The service at the apartment was bad, but Charter explained it that the Apartment's wiring was at fault and that they could not help that.


In 2009 I moved into a new house, and had Charter hooked up, expecting that the service issues from the apartment would be solved.  The house was less than a mile from the apartment, but the service issues were the same.  Oddly enough, they were the same at my neighbors.  They were the same in the apartment complex behind my house.  For all of us the Internet service was fitful and rarely worked for longer than 60 minutes.  Playing an online game was frustrating because Charter would disconnect every 45 minutes or so.  Video conferencing was problematic, although it usually was more graceful about a lost charter connection.


I called for service and was told that they would send a tech out to see what I was doing wrong.  I accepted their offer, but also decided to run a test for myself. (The tech would later report nothing wrong and suggest it was the fault of the new Vista operating system).  After the tech came out and said the problem must be in the wire to my house (and said that my neighbor who had the same problems at the same time must also have bad wires.) I started to take my test seriously.  For a week, I put Charter through its paces.


Running a log, I recorded more than 40 DHCP resets in one hour during a particularly bad day.  On the second week I recorded more than 7 hours of interruptions each day, and I recorded more than 50 interruptions of 30 seconds or more each day for more than a month.  During the month of my tests the Internet was constricted for bandwidth on numerous occasions, unavailable many occasions, and these problems extended to my neighbors as well as my own service.  Occasionally, I would run a speed test and get 15/mbs, close enough to what I was paying for, but when the system became fitful it would run at 3-7 m/bs.


I tested the service out with Macintosh and Windows computers.  The Mac where a bit more graceful at handling the DHCP resets, but online communication was still fitful.  My friends brought over laptops and desktops to see if the standard technician's line about nonstandard computers (or the "Window's Vista problem) was the issue.  The problems remained.


One evening after cable service interruption crashed two video conferences and brought down a game I was playing three times, I called customer service for the last time, and was enlightened by their response.  The CSR rep said if all I was doing was playing games then I should be ashamed to complain about a few interruptions, that it might do me good to get away from my computer.  When I said that I also work in the communication industry and video conferencing (for example) was essential to that work she said that the consumer connections dont have to be reliable but that if I really want reliable Internet, I can pay for it by getting a business connection, and she could terminate my Internet contract if she discovered I was conducting business on it.


When I asked her if this was good customer service, she said if I did not like Charter, I could do business with another cable company.  In a monopoly town with no other provider, this is one of the snappiest comebacks phone support has.  They know that a monopoly need not provide good service, only service that is one step better than no service.  


A year later and I have the same poor service despite moving to a new house in a new part of town.  During the installation at my most recent house the installer was the most knowledgeable and friendly to yet service my contract, but likewise he could do nothing to make the connections reliable.  Calling into the CSR line got offers of new installers, but since the problem is in the Charter head end, that is silly.  She had no other options for me, was not allowed to let me speak to a supervisor, could not give out "confidential" contact information, or even transfer me to a new representative.  


Charter is a secure in its monopoly in my town and the only real high speed service provider.  Meetings of angry customers (my favorite was a meeting of 200 of my neighbors all with the same complaints), e-mail campaigns, and chat group revolts do not work.  Charter is capable of ignoring the complaints of even even the majority of its customer base, since fixing the problem will require someone with technical knowledge to get inside the Charter head end and put some serious connection issues to rest.


As a consumer, there is very little left to do, but try and bring out the big guns.  In my personal life I have been able to steer around $100,000 dollars of business from Charter, not much (drinking with a local Charter employee -- its a small town -- he says Charter wastes that much in corporate dinner parties in a single day and will never notice it, it only hurts the salespeople who loose the commissions).  


So what am I doing now that 3 years of fighting for Customer service is over?  I am taking it to my state senator (to get a state law allowing cities to dump underperforming Cable companies) holding meetings in my town, publishing a flyer of customer problems, and in general getting everyone thinking about closing Charter down and getting a new provider.  It is the only thing a consumer can do.

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#1 UPDATE Employee

Charter Communications

AUTHOR: Umatter2charter - (USA)

POSTED: Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I apologize for the trouble you have had with Charter repair personnel. I work for Charter Communications to resolve exactly  these sorts of issues. Please send me an email at Umatter2Charter@chartercom.com with  the address you are interested in receiving service at,  and I will be happy to research this issue and help straighten things out. In your e-mail, please put CharterWitten in the subject line, so I can keep an eye out for it.


Thank you,

Witten Henderson

Charter

Social Media Communications Specialist

http://www.charter.com/Umatter2Charter



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