Charter Cable TV

I was in the service for a long time, so of course I've lived in a lot of different places. I've dealt with, literally, at least a dozen cable companies over the years. (I'm 47 years old) I've had some good cable providers, some not so good but not so terrible either, and some bad ones. But Charter is BEYOND bad. They are abysmal. Incompetent. Expensive. Unreliable. Matter of fact, the only thing that's reliable about Charter Cable is that you can RELY on them to be incompetent, expensive, and unreliable. It's a vicious circle. Or in their case, a circle-jerk.

#1: Pixellation and/or 'tiling': This happens almost on a daily basis, good weather, bad weather, so-so weather, doesn't matter.

#2: Trying to access on-demand and getting an error message: This happens to me at least 2 or 3 times a week, and I always have to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone waiting for tech support (wait, what tech support?) before I'll finally be able to talk to an honest-to-God person, who then sends a 'boost signal' to my box. Oh..wait a minute..now I know why I always have to wait so long, they're probably SWAMPED with complaints day-in and day-out, 24 hours a day! Doh!!!

#3: Ok, this one really takes the cake. I have one of their 'premium' packages, so I have things like the History Channel, Investigation Discovery, etc, on on-demand. (Well, when on-demand is actually working, that is..) But I digress. As I was saying, I've had this 'premium' package for almost a year now, and of course I'm paying for it every month. But the thing is...I'm NOT GETTING WHAT I PAY FOR!!!!! What that means is, as of a month ago, half the shows on any given channel that I click on to watch, I get a message telling me I'll have to subscribe to the channel! aaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I don't know if it's a glitch, or if they really do expect me to pay again for what I'm ALREADY paying for, but I do know this, I don't feel like spending 5 hours on the phone with some person in India who barely speaks english to try to sort it out. I'm just fed up with this company, and the clock is ticking. They're the only cable company in town, and I'm getting satellite Tv at some point in the very near future.

#4: They can't even stay on the same page with their incompetence. What that means is, their in-company communications are totally non-existant. The tech 'in the field' never knows what the folks in their office knows, and vice-versa. The results of this? Missed appointments. Service-call appointments made sometimes that they deny ever having made in the first place. (when I call them up and I'm upset about it. I'm not verbally abusive, so it's not that)

I can sum up Charter as a whole with one word: FAIL

And it's fitting too, because as far as I'm concerned, if they ever go out of business, they probably won't be able to fail HARD ENOUGH. They'll surely fail at failing!


Everything bad that has been written about Charter Cable is 100% accurate, so if you're a person who has never dealt with them before and are thinking about signing up, DON"T!!! If there's any justice in the world (and there isn't..) Charter should tank faster than Charlie Sheen's career.

Terrible services, terrible speaking with the billing in India (I'm ok with outsourcing, but they should hire people that can speak the language not read a script), and terrible prices. I have been a Charter member for 1 year now and they have managed to raise my basic cable and basic internet from $83.50/month to $108/month (that's WITH a promotion, would be $118). If there was any other cable company in the area I would use them. I'm starting to look into getting direct tv, given there will be a hideous looking dish in my yard, but maybe I wont feel such anger every time one of their terribly priced services stops working (my cable hasn't worked numerous times, on demand hasn't worked numerous times, and cable is either too slow to work or is not connecting about an hour of the day). Their slogan "Watch TV Weather or Not" makes me want to throw a flaming torch at every billboard I see. haha! I'm not a violent person, I just really really hate Charter.

Charter is, by far, the very worst.

I changed to ATT Uverse about a year ago. When I called to cancel with Charter, they were super rude. Would not answer my questions about return of equipment, etc. but did tell me it would take 8 WEEKS to get my refund.

ACTUALLY, it took 8 MONTHS! almost to the day. When I complained, they were not apologetic and had the attitude...."so what?"

Incidentally, I love ATT. I have telephone, internet and TV. Their service is great and the bundle is cheaper than Charter.

We moved to MO three months ago and we originally wanted to get ATT Uverse for cable and internet. Unfortunately, they had a full installation schedule and going with them would have meant no service for us for 2 weeks. We went with Charter instead. BAD IDEA!!!!!

We've had nothing but problems with our cable! The problems we had during installation should have given me ample warning of how terrible Charter will be, but my husband and I have been too busy that we've continually convinced ourselves to give Charter another chance. To begin with, we had neighbors knock on our door to complain that they lost their service because a technician unplugged their cable to put in ours. We also had a letter threatening us that our bill will be forwarded to a collections agency because of late payment, and this was after about two weeks of service when we haven't even received a bill yet! Our OnDemand service is so spotty that I don't even know why we have to pay for it. I keep getting error messages whenever I try to access it, or it will let me start a show or movie only to stop in the middle of it only to give me another error message. SO FRUSTRATING!!! In the 3 months that we've had Charter, we've probably had to call for service at least 6 times. During the last service call we had, the technician went outside to check on something and never returned! My front door was left wide open for almost an hour because I didn't realize he just left without saying anything. Today I had to call for service again because, surprise surprise, our OnDemand is not working, and our service appointment window was between 3 and 5pm. I called them back at 6:40 pm because the technician still hasn't arrived!

This is the final straw for us. I really regret the day we decided to sign up with Charter. We would probably have been a lot happier if we sacrificed internet and cable service for two weeks, rather than waste the past 3 months putting up with HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE service. We are definitely discontinuing our Charter account and transferring our business to ATT. Hopefully, they'll give us much better service.

Their service is horrible and they don't want to give us the NFL network. A half a star...


3 stars




Sent from my iPhone.

Just call to cancel services and they will, veeery quickly fix the pixelation problem. It will work for one or two months. then repeat above.

0 stars

Thank the FCC for not labeling the Internet a telecommunications network in 2002. That's why we have the dualopoly that is charter and comcast, whereas countries like Korea are kicking our ass with Internet speeds with lower prices because they have competition. I hate you FCC and Charter..

Charter Cable sucks really bad. Because they have a monopoly and there are few other options in my area they can treat customers as poorly as they like. Our cable box went out last week and I disconnected it and had my wife take it to their office to swap out.

She said she got terrible customer service there and the people acted like she was a big impostion for interrupting their gossip. The guy at the counter took her box and gave her a different kind of box. After I hooked it up we decided that we hated the new box. The menus were all different and non-intuitive and didn't offer the features of the old box. I called and asked if she could come and swap it out for the other type. She was told we could only get that box if a service guy came out to install it.

So we scheduled it and they said that somebody had to be there from 8 to 5. I said that was ridiculous and then they said from 1 to 5. I had my father-in-law take off work and sit there all afternoon. No one ever came or called.

I called and they said that we missed the 8am confirmation call to my wife's cellphone. I checked her phone and there were no missed calls or messages. We rescheduled for the next day.

My wife took off work and a guy did come out, but had the same kind of box we already had. He left and someone came that afternoon with the right box. I got home that evening and we found out they had given us a defective box and most of what it taped or what we tried to watch was unviewable, lines, garbled, message that we didn't subscribe to that channel, etc.

My son took off work today and somebody is supposed to come today with a new box.

THREE MISSED DAYS OF WORK AND STILL NO FREAKIN WORKING CABLE!!!! They suck, I wish to God that I had other options.

Charter is the ONLY option for high speed internet where I live, so I've suffered with it for almost 8 years. Here's what to hate about them:
(1) Used to have very frequent outages, now down to not-too-frequent
(2) Always hiking the prices by extreme amounts (currently $130 /mo for 5Mbps internet + digital cable, no premium channels, no dvr, no hd in that amount...if I were really stupid, I could get phone in there for the same price, but a 5 day non-comp'd outage two years back convinced me not to go that route)
(3) Non-existent customer support (the solution is always "Unplug it, wait 30 secs, plug it back in, does it work now? No? We need to schedule a service appointment. We have Tuesday from 8:00-5:00 open. No, you don't get to choose a time. Your time slot IS 8:00-5:00.")
(4) No show on about 50% of all appointments.
(5) When the DO show, if they send outside people and you need inside people or vice versa, that's another appointment.
(6) I've had to have repair people fix what was done by other repair people less than 30 days prior.

If there were ANY other choice in my area, Charter would have gone Chapter 7 bankruptcy (the good one, NO return) years ago.


-------------------------------------
Update 10-4-2010
Still no competition in the area. Still stuck with Charter. To make things more interesting, my mother died last Thursday and the family communicates and coordinates with extended family via the Internet. So, the next morning, my $130 a month service decides to cut me down to 200kbps DOWNLOAD and about the same for upload. Any idea how long it takes for Facebook to load??? Try about 30 minutes. Called Charter and due to events at my end (funeral), it'll require a technician to visit and that will be next Friday...I'm just waiting for these Bozos to charge me for a service call due to either THEIR line failure or THEIR modem failing.
Clearwire, PLEASE HURRY TO THIS AREA!!! Or, municipal WIMAX would be fine, too. THIS SUCKS (as it always has).

I'll start by saying that I live in a certain county in NC that starts Cata where charter has the county commissioners in their hip pocket. Charter has NO competition here so they are basically free to do what they please. Anyway, I would just like to say that I have lived in the same home for 30+ years so it isn't like I'm new to the area. I have had their so called internet and cable tv service for some 15 years now. The tv portion tends to work ok until you get to the HDTV channels, where there is constant interruptions. The internet service SUCKS! I have had problems with it since day one! In the summer time when temperatures rise, it drops out. Then when it gets colder, it drops out. This leads right into their constantly overloaded and overworked equipment. During the day when everyone is home or on the weekends service it almost non-existent. I pay for 10mbps service but tend to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 30kbps during these times! I know that cable service is a game of averages but that my friend is ridiculous. Now I'm not speaking as a normal everyday computer user, I'm a computer engineer and network specialist. I actually applied to charter for a job in my younger and more stupid years, but quickly came to my senses when I realized what morons their hire! I actually had a "engineer" for charter come to my house once that did not know you could pick up a wireless network outside someone's home! Moron is the only word I can safely use here. My fellow techies, and all those searching for internet service seek elsewhere for charter truly and wholly sucks!

Moved here from out of state and ordered cable - 1st bad sign of too many to count- 4 day wait - WHAT?
- had to schedule two (2) separate "technicians" because 1 handles phone, 1 handles cable.
Installation day- 1st tech shows up- spends 1 1/2 hours and tells me he has to have a construction crew out to dig a trench from the garage to cable box. I ask- when? He assures me they will be back 1st thing tomorrow to dig the trench- (by the way, the phone "tech" never showed up) - Next day- at 12pm (no longer "1st thing in the morning") I call Charter which is always a nightmare in itself... The very unknowledgeable customer service person advised me that I had cancelled my order - WHAT? Okay, really? I explain the scenario re: the trench, yada yada. CR advised she will place an order in for me- and lucky me!! It would only be three (3) days until the techs (both #1 cable, and #2 phone) can come out for installation- I asked about the trench issue and was assured it would all be handled by the cable tech. Three days and a different cable guy arrives- he doesn’t want to hear about the trench issue insisting he needed to see where cables/TV etc were to be connected- he wasted a little over an hour and he determined a trench needed to be dug by there construction crew (wow- what a surprise-not)
Okay, I told him either get the trench and cable etc done today, or freaking forget it. He promised me the crew would be by later in the afternoon. Next day- no crew, still no cable. I call Charter again, and waste time explaining ... They said they have no record of my new order. CLICK. DONE. 3pm, knock-knock- who's there? Cable crew here to run the cable from the garage. OH NO you don't- your office said there is no order, this is day nine (9) from original order placed- still no TV - no phone - no internet and I am not going to have Charter if it can't be done TODAY. He said he would "try"... BUT I would still need to call Charter and put another freaking order in for the cable/phone techs to come out and install but tells me they will come out tomorrow - that he would put a rush on it--- WHY do I keep going--- I call Charter and tell them construction crew was out, dug the trench, ran the cable, and please have techs out to complete installation. CR said she could have someone out next Tuesday (FIVE) more days.. Tuesday comes, cable installer comes, spends six (6) hours (I am NOT exaggerating) and then couldn't get the cable to work. Okay, I am having a major meltdown, not because of anything other than the entire company's total lack of knowledge, customer service and obviously each department runs entirely without communicating with the other. Okay, cable guy apologizes (for being a high-school dropout who probably can't even tie his own shoes) for not being able to get the TV’s working / communicating with cable service and he absolutely promises he will stop by our house 1st thing in the AM before he goes on his 1st appt for tomorrow... okay, sure. Get up early waiting for this dumber than dirt dude to show up at 7-8am--- okay, 12pm is not am anymore, so I call my friends at Charter, and explain a zillionth time and I state that I am upset, disappointed and in disbelief that having phone/phone and internet can take over 14 days. CR tells me she will see if they can find out which cable guy was at my home yesterday and promises to call back--- she actually called back and told me the cable guy (that promised to fix my cable 1st thing in the am) didn't even come into work today (was he fired-quit?) Okay, now what? She will set up to have a cable guy come out in a couple of days- NO- either today or forget it- done- Bye- I got a call later that day from the dirt-dumb cable guy's supervisor who said the dumb dude came to my house several times today and I was not available- okay, because I haven't left this house so whatever- supervisor said she will have one of them come out. NO ONE CAME. (by the way, the phone installer still hasn't showed up from any of the scheduled appts--hmmnn) Next day a knock on my door, and what? Its two (2) cable dudes, wow, one is the cable guy, one for the phone, and there must have been one hiding in the bushes looking for their brains, they looked shocked to see each other and neither one of them had any idea why it would take separate techs to do the phone and the cable when all their techs do both (see what I mean about Charter? their right hand doesn't know what their left or right hand is doing) One of the cable guys left, the other remained and got the TV’s to work stating he didn't understand why Dumber than Dirt wasn't able to? Who cares, get out.
WHY does cable cost over $150 a month for digital view plus? and the cable channels other companies consider basic ( Bio, ID, DISC, Golf) you would have to pay EXTRA for?
WHY is it that 35% of the time all of the TV’s are TILING/distorted audio ?
I call Charter - waited on hold last night 31 minutes prior to speaking with a REAL person who said it was an outage and they were working on it.
IS it always an OUTAGE 35% of the time? WILL they credit me any of the outrageous charges? HELL no.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - DO NOT - I REPEAT: DO NOT GET CHARTER - GET DIRECT TV, GET DISH, GET VERIZON BUT DO NOT GET CHARTER

I have compared Charter prices with the above and Charter is definitely a RIP-OFF, plus their customer service, from placing the order, to the actual quality, is the worst of the worst...

I do not post EVER to complain but I hope someone reads this and the other posts and goes with another cable/internet provider.

Wow I sat here and read a lot of reviews about Charter Cable. The reoccurring theme is that EVERYONE hates Charter. Out of three hundred or so, about four people had something good to say, Definitely Charter employees. Even one person said he liked Charter and still gave them two stars, how pathetic. This is hands down the worst so called cable company ever. The only reason they are still in business, is the fact that most of there customers have no alternative. I've had there pitiful service for two years. The first year, I had 16 service calls. There service techs and customer support are totally incompetent. You call them with an obvious reoccurring problem and they have the nerve to try and sell you more of there useless service. I'm actually considering having no cable at all, they are just that bad. I'll wait for Verizon.

I recently cancelled my Charter service but did not do so in time before my next bill posted. I cancelled my service, and was told my forwarding balance would be 1 cent. Two weeks later, about at the time the bill was due, my balance still said $125. I like having good credit, so I paid it.

A week later I looked at my account and it said I had a balance of -$125, meaning they owe me that amount. I could not access the account features online, so I went to the online chat, because calling Charter gets you nowhere. I spoke to someone who said their name was Jenny.

I asked her if they could put it back in my checking account that paid that bill. She said they would have to send me a check and asked for my new address. This was our conversation, verbatim.

Me: When should I expect the check to arrive?
Jenny: Six to eight weeks
Me: Wow, thats a long time.
Jenny: Yes, it is. Do not worry, you will get it.
Me: I'm not worried that I wont get it, why does it take so long? I don't think you would like it if I was 6-8 weeks late paying my bill.

At that point, she ended the conversation without saying a word. She could have given me a completely bullshit answer and I would have accepted it. Going to try again today. I want to get my money back faster but I also want an explanation as to why it takes so long. I'm not holding my breath for either.

Charter is definitely incapable of fixing the pixilation / sound problem. The problem has been occurring for many, many months without resolution. Their support people "sympathize", but that is just tech support speak. Then, if you have them come out they charge you for the service call. Their HD Moxi boxes have been "blowing up" and they do not have replacements available. They do provide Scientific American boxes, but these are significantly inferior in features and performance and are not competitive with other boxes, HD, or otherwise on the market. You have to constantly call them for support and nothing is ever really resolved. It seems that they have some kind of hardware, or software problem with their tv service since the network performance seems to be fine. Given that they have a monopoly in the glendale, ca area, there are really no other cable choices....only satellite. If there were any way to register how extremely dissatisfied we are with the cable tv we would do it. Performance and response from Charter is terrible. One star rating is too high. Should be lower

Once again - total tiling and pixelization on a Saturday night with Charter Cable. Call them and they mysteriously can find no reason for it. Yeah right... I've heard this song before. No they will not credit me - of course what I really want is for the stupid cable to work, but that's too much to ask when it comes to Charter CABLE. If you have ANY other choice than Charter, I recommend you take it.

Ah... if only zero stars was possible.


Edited 7/18
Well... now it's Sunday and still not fixed. Complete tiling/pixelation with distorted sound to go with it! I just want to watch my program and in desperation tried to see if I could sort of "see it" through the pixelation and at least "hear" what was going on. Not possible! I called several times today and naturally they have their standard recording that they are aware of the problem and "technicians are at this moment working to fix it" Ha ha. I, of course absolutely believe them! Why wouldn't I? Just because I've heard the same message umpteen times over the last year doesn't mean that this time they're not being truthful (eye roll). The agent I talked to eventually did credit me for the last two days - small consolation. She also argued with me saying I had never called in to complain prior to this. This is completely false - I have unfortunately had to call at least every two months or so. I am finally going to switch to Dish even though I don't want that dumb thing on my roof. I just don't want to put up with Charter anymore. I never post on forums like this - I feel I'm doing a public service and perhaps saving someone from choosing to go with them if they have another option.

Also, forgot to mention, I'm in Whittier California.

Edited 7/23

Well here we are at the weekend again and the pixelation begins. I HATE CHARTER. I pay around $150 for this? !!!!! Please if you are reading this and you have ANY OTHER choice DO NOT get Charter or you will inevitably be very sorry.

For the most shamless of billing practices, pathetic internet speed and more aggravation than you can handle DAY AFTER DAY, all one needs do is get Charter 'High'speed Internet services. I live in Kingsport TN and the tech JUST left. 30 min before he got here I had internet again and my ps3 speed was around 7.5 mbps So I was happy, since it been down 5 days (which they refuse to pro-rate by the way). He comes in hooks his lil gadget to my modem and now the best I get is 2.7mbps but mostly stays around 1.3mbps. For 60.00 per month I think I can get DSL up to 10mbps so guess what! Im calling them to tellem to shove watever they did because this customer is GONE. Bankruptcy is the BEST thing to happen to Charter and I hope they get taken over by ANYBODY else. Charter has monopoly here and theres knowone else here so they charge whatever they want.

I have had charter for 5 years and since the beginning I have had problems. They were all minor like the DVR getting fried or loosing internet. But now there seems to be more and more problems. In the last three months alone 5 new HDdvr boxes. Now for the one that just really got under my skin. About 2 weeks ago(I live in Wisconsin) I woke up in the morning and all three of my services were out, cable, internet and phone. I got on my cell and called, and oh how surprising another brain dead help desk employee reading through his or her script. After telling them to stop with the talking and send a tech out immediately cause I`m done talking. About 6 hours later the tech comes, which by the way was a very nice guy. As soon as I told him about all three services not working went directly to the outside box, I live in a condo eight units side by side. He found that my line was capped! What the &^%$ I have never been late with my payments in 5 years. after he took the cap off everything was good. Once he left grabbed my keys and went straight to the local office and to be honest I was not calm and did have a major attitude. Time to release my frustration on the first person that asks can I help you. So this old decrepit fat pig of a woman slowly waddles her way up and asks how can I help you. They always say to get what you need with faster and better results be calm and considerate. Well to hell with that. That is what I said " I just had a tech at my residence because all three of my services were out and found that you fucking capped my line! now I don`t want to here sir please do not cuss and calm down because if you something that fuckin stupid to me I will go home grab the DVR, Cable Modem and the fuckin phone and through them through your goddamn window". After that was said some douche manager comes from some little office from the back, well other things were said. I returned 20min. later with all three things and dropped them on the counter very loudly I might add and them told that fat McDonald`s eating pig of a woman (she was eating McDonald's) that I was glad Charter was going bankrupt and some of the reasons were because of people like her. I absolutely can not stress enough how people who have charter should switch to AT&TUverse. Charter is 4 years behind Time Warner and even though Uverse is a newer service AT&T is ahead of Time Warner by 2 years with there technology. For all that is holy please switch you get what you pay for.

Charter Cable TV is terrible. They have very few HD channels, the picture "tiles" out all the time and the DVR they gave me was a factory refurbished which skipped, paused and muted out all the time. I had them for two weeks and then went to Directv. I am much happier. Their customer service is poor and they try and upsell you with another product every tIme you call them. Avoid them at all costs. You'll save money, time and patience by doing business elesewhere.

We use charter for our motel business and have had tremendous difficulty getting HBO working for 2 months which we pay extra for. They still had the nerve to charge us for it when no one would come out to fix it. Even one of the technicians that finally came out to fix it said charter is terrible when it comes to customer service. AN EMPLOYEE THAT WORKS FOR YOU SAID YOU HAVE HORRIBLE SERVICE, there is something wrong there!!! Finally HBO started working for a week, then what do you know its not working again!!! A technician comes out and says they need a part to fix it and they'll have to order it. Finally, HBO works for a couple days and then suddenly the whole channel blacks out displays that not authorized to view it. When we called to see why this happened.. charter had the nerve to tell us we didnt pay the bill for it.........NOW HOW CAN WE PAY FOR SOMETHING WE NEVER RECIEVED A BILL FOR FIRST OF ALL.....SECOND SHOULDNT THEY SEND A NOTICE BEFORE THEY CUT IT OFF!! we have called and emailed and called and emailed. We are constantly talking to different people thinking they can help solve our issues when they can't and have to constantly have to ask to speak to a supervisor. We are so frustrated with Charter and it hasnt been that long. No one has returned our calls or email for a few days now. NOW it is 9:45pm on March 28, 2010 all the cable channels are fozen. Ive never written a bad review in my life until now. I specifically joined rateitall to write this comment.

I am tired of charter I just want this matter resolved so i dont ever have to talk to customer service again. I want the charges fixed on our bill, and i want HBO working again.

We have a bundle plan. I will say that The internet and phone works fine, but the cable TV service does not live up to the other two in comparison. 99% of our guests that come here watch TV, hardly anyone uses the internet and phones except the staff. Now since our business needs CABLE that should be the best service of the bunch. Then again its all the same customer service so if anything...CHARTER NEEDS TO REDO THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING.

We switched over from verizon to charter thinking it was going to save us a bundle. I should have read the comments on line before doing so. Now i am thinking is it really worth the money, plus i question if it will really save us that much money from the sudden increased fees other customers have had to pay. Very disappointed and I write this comment hoping someone from charter reads it...this is way I will get a faster response versus constantly leaving voicemails and emails stating we need to resolve this issue.

Take it from here charter prove my impression of your company wrong.

The picture and sound break up on a regular basis, at least weekly in the Whittier, CA area. It's a big hassle when you call and finally you get a response that technicians are working on it. The Internet service is OK.

Charter is really stupid. They are going to lose my business because their business model is built around offering reasonable rates if you do not have all your services with them and screwing you once you do have all your services with them. My bill has increased steadily month after month since signing up for a 1 year triple play deal awhile back. Now, when I am looking for the next deal, I am told those offers are only for new or customers without all 3 services. With all three, my only option is to leave Charter completely for at least 30 days and then come back. Well, I guess I'll take AT&T's 1 year promotion and then when its up, switch back and forth a year at a time!! SUCKS!

Charter has the worst product bar none.
I have been lied to so many time by them I can't tell whats the truth any more.

Here I am again a 3mb connection when they promise 10.
They came out a month ago and said I had a bad modem.
In a week that modem went belly up. Then they wanted to charge me
come out and replace the defective one. WHAT ????
Let me explain before its misunderstood as they installed the modem not me,
so if it broke or was installed wrong it was their doing. Yet now the charge for fixing the
bad part.

I wish I could gather up the Charter Executives in one room, and close the door and give me
just ten minutes, with a bat.
These guys do not get services , I think they think good service, is when we service them with our cash.

I hate Charter, they are all Nimrods when you call them.
Most morons under one roof.
And the tech guys are as bad.

Now charter wants me to buy a modem/router combo from them because wow for some reason now this new modem they replaced can only work on two channels on my router.
I smell a setup for sure.

Anyways , if you by Charter you are a fool.

Charter raised my basic cable from $8.50/month to $24.99/month - around a 193% increase per month.

I only watch a couple of stations. Charter got us over a barrel. We cannot get ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS clear, even with an antenna.

I do not wish to pay to get Charter out of bankruptcy and I do not wish to pay for "additions" to the basic rate of which I had no choice. When Charter gives me the argument that programs cost more, I think it in is a lot of Buncome!

Because of Charter's poor history of customer service and inaccessibility [in speaking to a real person] added to this rate hike, I will go for satellite television even out of spite, even though I will pay a little more.

I have dealt with your customer service for the past 9 years and I am still surprised at the rate at which your understanding of the customer continues to degrade.

Your rates for a monopoly go unchecked unless you want a dish, which I now have an appointment scheduled to finally install.

Your customer service personnel have no ability to resolve a billing problem. Your technical support people want to simply waste time by unplugging and rebooting your unreliable equipment. My problems have only been resolved by returning your equipment.

You do not list your local office phone numbers for customers to call forcing calls into your inept call centers filled with lack of empathy.

Upon my last visit to your local office in Cleveland, TN your desk clerk actually asked me why I didn't just call the office. I asked her to pull out a local phone book and show me the local office phone number. I then asked her to pull up the internet and show me a search where I could find a local office number. To your own employees surprise, they don't understand how your company is set up or how to service customers. Your staff at every level I've interfaced with think their jobs are to be serviced by the customer.

Furthermore when I can't watch the TV that you charge me for, I discover that you've been charging me since April last year for equipment that I don't have. When I asked if I could receive a copy of the paperwork/forms used to identify how this process was going to be resolved, your CSR said she had no ability to provide me with any documentation that I complained about being overbilled but that I might be notified in 30 days.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Worst company I have ever dealt with. They raise your prices every 6 months. You have to call and complain about it and haggle with them about your price. I recently got a coupon for a free On-Demand movie and when I tried to redeem it, it wouldn't work. I went onto the online chat service to try and get help and they tried to redeem it, just as I had done and said they couldn't do any more. They gave me a number to call to try to sit on hold and get it straightened out.

This was a $4.98 coupon and they probably figure you will give up trying that it is not worth the hassle. I'm sure alot of people do because they make you sit on hold for at least 30 min. After complaining to the online chat support on how they can't help me, he said he would try and "conveniently" got disconnected.

I can not WAIT for AT&T to come to my area. I will drop Charter so fast. Unfortunately, this is the only cable company in my area and because I live in a condo, I can't get satellite. I have no other choice and Charter knows that so they don't try to work with me.

Charter is abominable. Different people say different things and they can’t keep their prices or their services straight from one person to another.

Their support representatives are obviously overseas and fight with scripts and English. They don’t listen or don’t understand well enough when the customer needs their attention on something other than their script.

I talked to their billing department AND can’t get information on my first bill because I refuse to give them my social security number. I know they will invariably overcharge me for something because nothing else has occurred correctly from signing up for their services (I know, that was my first mistake) to installation to working through obvious problems with their poor customer unservice.

FIOS isn’t in my area yet and when they are, I’m jumping to them. You all should do the same. Umatter2Charter when you're researching them only. U guys should be fixing the rampant problems at this horrible company.

Too bad I can't give NO stars or negative stars. I cancelled my cable on 9/18/2009 because I got the new Verizon FIOS, which is great by the way. Brought the equipment down to their Irwindale location because I wanted to get rid of them once and for all. Got a receipt stamped all equipment returned and service cancelled. I had a remaining balance of $110.85 which I was told would take 6-8 Weeks. On 12/18/2009 (90 days later), I received a check for $38.38, I of course called and was transferred left and right, finally they said, you did not cancelled until October, I was furious and said I am looking at my receipt here. The lady on the phone said "well I can't see it so all I have to go by is what's in our system. You will have to go down to one of the offices and show them.
OKAY FINE, take 1/2 day off work to go and show the receipt, waited in line for 20 mins because all their customer service reps are incompetent. Everyone in line was disgusted on all long it took. Finally get to the counter, and speak with a Michelle. I told her my story and she gave me a hmmmm let me see, she begans to type and type and type. After about 12-15 mins, the lady next to her, probably the supervisor came over to help her....told her to do some stuff and she then told me that yes, there was some transfer of payment or billing in their system that's why the refund was messed up. Okay fine, Michelle says okay, you should get your check in 2-3 days. That was on 12/19/2009.
Today is 1/23/2010, I give them a call and speak with a Kita. She said oh, yeah, let me see......yes it shows that there was an order to process a refund check in the system but don't understand why, let me transfer you. I get transferred to a Jennifer who was the nicest and most professional person there. She takes another look, and says okay.....let me process this refund. She types and types and types. Okay, you should get your check in 30 days....BUT it can take up to 6-8 weeks. WTF!!!!!! So from 9/18/2009 to 1/23/2010 + 6-8 weeks ---3/23/2010
UP TO 6 MONTHS after cancelling to get my refund check?????? That's if I ever receive it!

Contrary to what the add here prays, obviously , there is no "Customer Satisfaction Program". My 3 months experience as a a new Charter customer who just moved to S. Louis, MO from NJ was at least the worst I got in 25 years as a cable TV customer.
Starting with a u$s 9.- /mo for the very basic service of 70 and some channels promotion who was never honored and that made me pay u$s 79.- /mo instead. When I complaint about this, they told me that I ask for a package increase which took from 9 to 79 which is not true. The representative over the phone , instead of following the "Customer is allways right" rule, he choose to argue with me like if I were lying to try to take an advantage. Worst thing was I never received 79 basic channels or the imaginative upgrade package....I only received 33 channels from the beggining. When I went to the local office to express my frustrations with the "written" promotion on hand, they only told me to go and talk to the person who made the offer who is also the local cable technician (apparently he was the only one able to take the pricing back and solve my problems). Trying to contact this person over the phone was a nightmare... and more important a waste of my time which is more important, left several voice messages which were never answered. The calls that were answered (2) I was promised that this will be taken care, which never happened. Finally , I call Charter customer service to cancel the service. Instead of trying to go over the issue with me to put everything back and knowing that the local technician was not reachable, they just limit to say "You will receive a 79 dollar , final statement". If Charter communications thinks that all this is a good customer experience, they´d better think twice. The real good customer experience is an experience provided by the provider that surfaces when there is a problem hard to solve, or an unsatisfied customer and the only goal is keeping the customer free of problems and "at home"

Charter's service is actually pretty decent: I rarely have internet or TV outages, but they get major black marks for playing the pricing shuffle game, as well as harassing current customers for unwanted service expansion.

I have had their basic cable + internet service in the St. Louis area for about a year and a half now, and in that time I have had my bill get jacked up an extra $20 to $30 (as much as $90) three times, and had to call customer service to complain. They offer the usual "you were on a limited time promo rate" excuse, then drop it to my regular rate. I have to believe that from Charter's perspective, there are plenty of suckers who will just pay their bill without noticing the increase... "if no one complains, have we done anything wrong?"

I moved a couple of weeks ago and had to have my service switched, so I called for an appointment. I received follow-up calls with an operator calling to "confirm" the appointment, while using the opportunity to try to sell me on additional service, which I roundly rejected on three occasions. These borderline harassment calls continued daily for a couple of weeks - sometimes twice a day, and I eventually quit answering my phone.

Today, I'm looking at my new bill and guess what - the price for my basic cable (which has been $10 for a year and a half) has jumped up to $25. Yet again... I am forced to call Charter Cable and make them explain why they jacked up my rates. I'm fed up. I think I'm just going to dump my basic cable. And if Charter wants to keep playing games with my broadband rate, I'll be dumping that, too.

We're new to Asheville. We're settling down in North Asheville. Our friends just got the Feb. 2010 issue of Consumer Reports. We come from NY where we had Cablevision/Optimum. It was fabulous and reliable and customer service was great. We had it for about nine years after giving up on VZ DSL and just cable for t.v.. We're now here where we've heard bad things and laughs about Charter. I had trepidations after looking at their website then calling customer service... Now CR rates Internet as below average on Value, Reliability, ave on Speed, below ave on Phone/Online and In-home Support.

Two of our friends here refuse to get their television service. Other people, in our house-hunting adventures, laughed at the thought of our getting Charter. I don't think it's funny. Where's the competition here, ESPECIALLY when you're at the bottom of the various lists and your company gets laughed at.

TV is at the bottom (16 out of 16) and indicates everything is close to the worst.

I'd look at satellite but my partner is concerned about health-related issues. We'll go with the worst - Charter - for a short-term contract. If that doesn't work, we'll get rid of it. I heard they don't even support HD tvs... but they sell the service for more than regular t.v.

No wonder they're open on New Years Day - they want the business?

* * * *
As I read through all the negative reviews here, one thing is standard - the manager replies with the same verbiage. Instead of replying and having Consumer Reports out them as the worst communication company or close to it, it's time for a change at Charter. Let's see them build patronage instead of destroy it. Let's see them write a letter to Consumer Report and tell them exactly how they're going to resolve their low ratings. This is ludicrous.

"
Hello RealityCheck100,

My name is Eric Ketzer, and I am a Manager at Charter Communications. We are aware of negative sentiment about Charter, and we are working diligently to improve our product and service. We are motivated to provide the best Customer Experience possible. If you ever have any questions or concerns about our Products, Rates, Service, or Customer Service, please contact me directly @[email protected].

Thanks for your time, Eric"

Thought Charter could use a good review, it's been a while.

Actually I have Comcast at Wiseguy HQ, but I have Charter at my place in northern Michigan. The basic cable runs really well, but I only get up there a couple times a year now. So maybe there are times when it isn't running good and I just don't know about it?

I'm giving a 4 anyway.

I have had cable with Charter as long as it has been in this area, when they acquired Falcon Cable . I have had high speed internet for a number of years. Their products are not the problem, the service is. I have never dealt with Charter on a matter of service that did not take endless amounts of time to get settled. Their policies often border on being unethical. Case in point, I recently received a letter stating I had been receiving high speed internet and they had not been charging me rental for the modem. I contacted the number on the letter and shared with them that I purchased the modem through Charter when I first requested internet service. The young lady checked and said yes she could see the date of the purchase and would make sure that I was not charged the rental. I asked why I got this letter if they had in the information that I purchased the modem. She said they sent one to everyone. I asked, so if you purchased the modem you had to call and get it corrected, to which she responded "yes that is right." I told the young lady that Charter had figured out another way to overcharge customers. They had the correct information in their database but did not want to take the time to check it, or they assumed that many would not read the letter and they could tack on five dollars every month, you decide. One month and two days later when I received my statement the five dollar charge for the modem rental was on the statement. I called again and got the answer that I need to take a copy of the work order to the local Charter office. I asked if you were guilty until proven innocent. I gave the customer service agent the number on the work order that showed I had purchased the modem and she said that would not help her that I need to take it to a Charter office . I asked to speak to a supervisor, was put on hold for a period of time and then disconnected. I called another number listed as customer service where I got an agent who was more helpful. He assured me that he could see that the modem was purchased and gave me the date along with a credit for the five dollars. He gave me the same answer that everyone was sent a letter and the customer was expected to clear it up. I told him that Charter was stealing if someone bought their modem and they were still charged the rental fee.
If this was the first problem of this nature I had with Charter I might be willing to give them benefit of the doubt but unfortunately this seems to be par for the course.

I have lived in several states and have had numerous cable companies. I rate Charter as one of the worst in Customer Service. For several months I have had problems with billing - I cancelled some services and continue to be billed for it. I call every month trying to resolve this these issues, and every month I am told it has been corrected and given the new balance due. Every month I pay what I am told over the phone to pay and every month I have a balance brought forward. Today when I called I was basically told I was a liar and that I never called several months ago to cancel this service. When I asked to speak with a supervisor I was told my account will be credited for the discrepancy for 3 months (not the 4 that should be credited) and that I would be charged $1.99 for a service correction fee. Are you kidding me? Charter makes a mistake and I'm to pay for it? Did I mention that I was told I still had premium channels even though I haven't for several months? I insisted to the supervisor that I didn't have premium channels and offered her to visit my home to see for herself. I wish there were other cable companies in my area, I would drop Charter in a second! Thank you Charter for continuously increasing your rates and decreasing Customer Service. It's what all customers wish to experience.

I don't know what happened with this company. Do the employees hate working there or what?
Why lie to me TWICE about scheduling someone to come out to my house and they never show? why? I lost time AND money from work waiting for someone.
Why tell me I need to get a new modem when I probably didn't need too.
Why give me the wrong address AND phone # to go pick up a new modem?
All I did was call to see if there was a problem because I couldn't get internet service. And I've spent
2 days of my time trying to deal with this. Charter is a big disappointment.
And if I get charged for ANYTHING related to the modem or the appointment (that is now scheduled for this friday), I will definitely be writing the Attorney General of CA.

Old, worn out equipment, almost non-existant customer service, revolving automated telephone system, what's not to love?

Did I mention frequent increases in prices and decreases in service quality?

If you have a comparable alternative, take it. Charter really does suck!

Charter needs to hire people who speak english, a phone tree where actual customer service is accessible, tv service without lines running through it, internet that doesn't drop constantly. Heck , why not boycott them completely. They are, by far, the WORST internet - phone and TV company I've ever come across in my life. I've used tons of other cable, internet and satellite companies without problems. I will be dropping Charter and spreading the word all over as many sites on this internet as possible that they are the worst service in the universe.

I called there tech support about the Weather Channel on there cable TV. Advised them they have a problem and read the info from the Weather Channel on how to correct the problem at there Charter end.
I was informed they would send a tech support person to my house to check it out. I asked the woman if she under stood what I had just read to her and where to get the info on line about the trouble. Yes she stated but we need to send a tech support person to your house?
My reply forget the whole thing I hoipe to move and when I do no more CRAPPY CHARTER CABLE for me it will be out of the St. Loiuis MO area.

I would rate them a 1/2 not even a whole star but could not get it.

I have lived in many states and have dealt with many cable companies. Charter Cable is the absolute worst I've ever had the displeasure of being a customer.

They take two to three visits to fix common, simple problems and instillations can never be done in one visit as they never get it right the first time.

Communication between the offices and technicians is poor to non existant and work orders are most often relayed incorrectly. I've actually had a neighbor who moved in and called in an order to hook up their service. When the technician arrived, he disconnected my service. Getting them to straighten that out was a whole new battle. And don't even consider transferring your service unless you like undue stress and aggrivation.

You also have to watch their bills VERY closely. I have not known anyone yet who has Charter and has not received HUGE bills that were in error. Getting Charter to correct their mistakes can cause the calmest person to scream in frustration.

All in all, Charter Cable has the worst customer service of any company I've dealt with, and that is saying a lot.

I highly recommend that if there are any other cable options in your area you consder them over Charter Cable. You've been warned.

We have Charter Cable much to my chagrin.

Charter has taken TWO AND THREE VISITS to fix common problems - then proceeds to BILL THE CUSTOMER for extra service calls. They use the most motley crew of subcontractors, most of whom do not speak English and some of whom don't shower. Under normal conditions, I'd call the police if one of these guys showed up at my door. The are not knowledgeable, as the ones who have come here have spent the entire visit on the phone polling their friends on how to fix the problem.

Charter says in its advertising "we don't have the weather related problems of DirecTV" like the heavy pixelating. However, I have TWO HOURS of recorded, supposedly HD Monday Night TV that are unwatchable as they are so heavily pixelated, you can't tell what show you're watching.

No matter how bad things get with Charter's service, they see no reason to expedite a service call and appointments are frequently two to three days out - if they come at all. I recently arranged a service call, clearly furious over the horrible service, which was set at TWO DAYS HENCE. Then, when I realized I had not received the automated confirmation call, I called Charter. THEY NEVER SCHEDULED THE SERVICE CALL. I even had the name of the operator who took my request - still nothing was done to keep the original service call appointment they had made with me. They expected me to block out ANOTHER two hours THE NEXT DAY, though the scheduling mistake was theirs.

Charter is run worse than a five year old's lemonade stand.

I just called Charter at 3a.m.. While watching tv tonight,the show I was watching,"froze" on the screen. All but 3 stations were either froze or blackened. The guy said the node was broke in most of Michigan and they were trying to repair it. I live in a very small town,and you either have Charter or nothing. They have a monopoly on all the televisions in town. And not one roof has an antenna . You,d plug your tv in,all fuzz ,call Charter and say you want Cable. Now of course they have the boxes,but with charter you don't need them. But you know what charter advertizes on our stations. For $5.00 more a month,they will give you a better picture. The same picture that everyone else is getting with the box or from their own company for $0 what we're suppose to get for free,we have to pay $5,isn't that cheating the public,ripping us off?
Charter should be reported to the authorities

Charter is the worst!



I moved to my current house almost two years ago and called Charter to have cable connected (they are/were the only cable company available). When I called I spoke with a guy and asked what channels I would receive. I was particularly intrested in 5 seperate channels and was told "Oh yeah you get them but you'll have to upgrade to digital expanded basic." I asked how much it would be and he said $40 a mo. I said okay thinking that I was getting these channels and a lot of others that I really wanted. I was also told that I would get free installation. The day comes for the tech to come and install and wouldn't you know it he doesn't show. I call they say he'll be out the next day. I was getting agitated but what could I do? He comes and installs the thing then comes over to me and says "That'll be $160. You're going to have to pay me before I leave." I won't write my reply to his saying this but you can probably get the gist. I call Charter as soon as the guy pulls out of my driveway and was needless to say livid. The person I spoke with said well you spoke with someone on the east coast(in Conn.)when you set this up and back there the installation is free but not on the west coast (I'm in Oregon). I told them to come take it out because I couldn't afford the install price. (That was part of my rent money)the woman on the phone was sympathetic (I guess) and said well since the guy told you it was free I'll knock off half. I took it (and shouldn't have). After this whole thing on the phone I decide to check out all my new channels and "ooh happy day". I turn on my tv sit down and run up the stations to my new ones. Guess what? only one of them are there! I call Charter again this time wanting to draw blood on the first person to pick up but no I don't get a person just a recording saying that I'll be called back in the morning. I was not a happy camper but I had to wait. Next morning no call (of course) so I called them. I spoke to another woman who says "I'm sorry miss but your area doesn't get the channels you're talking about." I really though my head would explode at that point. So I was stuck with Charter doing all their nasty, back-handed, crooked, shady, beyond un-ethical "business". My cable bill has increased to almost $60 and I STILL don't have the channels I wanted and have to deal with them continually since my cable goes out every time it rains or if windy and then sometimes channels will disappear for days and then come back and i never quite know why.

Then the billing..... Why oh why???? If I send in my payment (which goes to Phoenix Arizona) within a week and a half of due date it somehow doesn't post (I've never been late on paying)until after my due date so I have to call in payment almost every month to make sure I don't have a "late payment" notice on my account and/or a late fee!









For all of these reasons I loathe Charter Communications and cannot wait until I can go with a different cable company.

THERE IS NOT A WAY TO GIVE MINUS STARS SO THIS RATING DO NOT APPLY.

THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE AROUND!!!!!!!!

WHO KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON ????

TRYING TO SIGN UP WITH CHARTER LIVE IT LIVE , IT WILL NOT ACCEPT PASSWORD HAVE CALLED MUTIPLE TIMES AND E MAILED ALSO PHONE EITHER HANGS UP ON YOU OR TRANSFERS YOU TO A LIVE OPERATOR THAT IS NOT WITH CHARTER ( SHE WAS VERY NICE AND OFFERED TO SEND INFORMATION TO CHARTER THAT I HAD GOT THRU TO HER BUT DID NOT OFFER ANY OTHER SOLUTION)

LETS SAY 5 MONTHS AND HERE COMES DIRECT TV I WAS WITH THEM 6 YEARS AND NEVER HAD A SINGLE ISSUE WISH I HAD STAYED.

how could i put this in a few words..

its so despicable, i don't even know where to begin here.

aside from appreciate their good, constant-quality(no cut offs) service, but at a pricey rate.
creeping-up rates at every chance they get.

running your own TV commercials on your own service programs, what for?
every time i see their TV commercials, i just wanna shove my foot up their mouths.
they're such faking morons. " hi, I'm Porscha."
it gets really annoying after seeing it like 20 times/day for no reason at all.

keep sending Spam letters once a month or so, saying you can get a great deal for blah blah blah, but in fact thats the hiked-up rate already.
BTW, I'm paying $80/mo for Internet & Cable.

just lost my trains lf thought lol
but I'm quite sure, this is some every day matter to many Charter customers out there.
not to mention those corporate bastards are prancing around their little cubicle with thier cute little cup of coffee, chitty chatty away, enjoying it off with their buddies, and just sucking in ppls hard-earn-money every single second with their over-priced service.
its out of control. sadly nobody can do anything about it.
great example of free world monopoly dirty dog.

trickling down the huge profits to their groupies and TV networks, the cycle just goes around and around in a good, constant state.
coz its cable contract deal, meaning auto payments for them, as long as you're in the networks.

i know we're just a bunch of screaming fleas here, but the matter lies.
funny they don't have a suggestion box on their website.. wonder why :)

this is no different than those Insurance companies, years and years ago until a decade ago or so.
now those bastards had to lower their premium rates as Gieco came into town.
dint take a genius scientist to figure out that one.
so its all good and done now.

i know any stupid cow can just say... so if u don't like them why have them
we have them coz we don't have other choice.
but i know their time will come in a few years or so.
when we can just switch over to some Wireless Internet Services and stuff.
hopefully they'll go sink down like AOL, coz of their stubbornness.

i seriously think that one of those bastards should die or injure in some manner regards to the Charter service, so they will see and realize that ppl are really not happy with them.
you can bet your bottom dollar, i know exactly what I'm saying here.
otherwise they wouldn't care shit how we screaming fleas are taking in every single day here.
i know, we can just live like a bunch of cowards, just see and take whatever there is.
thats too simple and not America.

their marketing strategies are quite brilliant though, we have to give them that.
saying its all good and nice, mother F_fer, anybody can just say that, F_fing no brainer.
but don't mention rates, keep on hiking more prices..
not to mentions paying extra for the stupid cable box, instead can just plug into the tv set.
I'll tel you, stupidity limits many aspects in life.


i really cant say enough here. but the fact is, they're running some dirty business.

godless America, we shall live for a better tomorrow. ttfn.

Wow where do I start, I don't know if there is anything I hate more than Charter! First off their prices after the introductry rate are astranomical. I am paying 165ish a month (it always fluctuates by 10 or so dollars a month for some unknown reason) since my special bundle ran out, so I called to see what just the expanded basic cable and regular internet would cost me. I got quoted 135.00 WTF are you kidding me? Second, their customer service reps are very rude when your not buying what they want to sell you. I have had many phone conversations with them and have never actually had a pleasent conversation. Third, the on demand is out about half the time I try to use it, along with the service as a whole going down way more often than I feel is reasonable. Also they will not credit you even a dollar for any of these inconviences. Other companies I have gone through in the past actually cared (or at least made it seem like they did) about their customers and would credit the account for service outages instead of just giving you attitude. I am sure at the prices they charge they are making a killing but show the customer zero savings even if they have been with them for a few years( where I live there really is no other choice for internet so I am stuck for now), in fact they just keep raising prices. I don't know about anyone else but when cable, phone, and internet are nearing 200$ a month thats is insane! And no I don't have a bunch of extras no pay channels just one HD converter box and the rest is frills free. So in closing if you have a choice do not get ropped into Charters BS initial pricing because you will innevitably be paying with an arm and leg 6 or 12 months later!

Their customer service representative was on the phone with very little wait time and answered my questions very well. He knew what he was talking about and was able to explain things in a way that made sense. Their service has been nothing but stellar so far.

when I called charter I wanted the $144.00 package,phone,internet,cable.I was told my bill would be around $165.00 a month after taxes. My first bill was $297.47,which I was told that was for a month and one half of service. I talked to a mananger for charter and he assured me my bill the next month would be around 165.00. When I got my bill
it was $185.24. they tell you your conversations are taped, so if they would go back and check they would see what i was promised. I asked specifically if there were any hidden fees,which they assured me that is what my bill would be.on my bill if you add up
phone,internet,cable it comes to $162.87 I tought this was a package deal,then I would like charter to explain to me why does it add up to $18 more dollars.If I hadn'd been promised this it would be different.In the 2 months I've had charter my phone has been out twice,as high as 4 days once,the data on my tv also.So if anyone out there
should get charter be prepared for hidden fees that they say are not there and most important of all be prepared to be lied to.

I understand that I have a six-month introductory lower fee--that's real clear up front. What I don't understand is why, when I use my bank's bill-paying feature, and pay my Charter bill the day I get their bill--I don't wait until payday--my bank's bill-pay check arrives too late to be credited in that bill cycle. So they tack on a $4.99 late fee, send me a new bill, and tell me that my service is in danger of being cut off. This has been going on for four months now, ever since I started service. I called them to find out where the payment was--they said, oops, must have gotten lost in the mail. Oops, it showed up and got credited after I put the amount back into my checkbook. This month, I called them and demanded they credit back the $4.99 late fee. No, the money wasn't there by the end of the billing cycle, the supervisor said, so no refund, too bad, so sad. He said I could get out of this cycle by paying the late fee. I sent it in that very day. I'm waiting to find out if they get it (or the other, mysteriously late check). Why is Charter the only company I have this kind of trouble with when I use the bank's bill-pay for all my bills? Not one single company--and I deal with many--has ever complained about a late payment, including credit card companies. Not one. Believe me, if I didn't live in a rental and having a satellite dish attached to the house might cause a problem for the landlord, I'd get satellite. Charter sucks. Of course, what they want is to deduct the money from your credit card, and then take forever to stop the payment if you stop service. Nothing doing--I want control.

Amended July 2009: What finally happened is I went to the local Charter office. Someone I vaguely knew recognized me. He knocked off the latest late fee. Neither of us understood why it was taking up to SIX WEEKS for the bill pay checks to be credited to my account. At some point in there, Charter reorganized their website so that they could be paid directly through their website, which is what I started doing from my checking account, one month at a time.

I had another adventure with setting up internet service. I did it at the local office, but somehow the counter person (who readily admitted she worked in the warehouse and was just at the counter to help out) put my 24-month special discount for internet on a six-month proviso. Also, when the service tech came out to install it, he charged me for two installations--for what? One on the inside of the house and one on the outside? I kept the brochure and eventually went back to the office. The guy who vaguely knew me took off one of the installation charges, changed the six-month to the 24-month plan and we were okay--because I'd kept the brochure to show I'd signed up for the plan at the right time. Sometimes it just takes following through and contacting someone who knows what in the heck they're doing.

Charter, the worst customer service I have ever had to deal with. We have had Charter for the last 6 years, personal and business. Phone, (3 lines) cable, and Internet. There customer has always been bad, but yesterday they took it too a new level. We received a letter day before yesterday (7/16) from Charter saying that we had until 7/21 to pay the our business phone bill (one month only) or we would be cut off. Yesterday morning we discovered that our business phone had been disconnected (7/17). When we called they told us that the notifications were only approximate (????) so we paid the bill, and 4 hours later still had not been turned on, we were told that they showed no record of the payment (even though my wife had a confirmation number) and that we had been disconnected, and it would take 5 days and $400 to be reconnected. Five days where our clients have no way to get in touch with us!!

After multiple calls to charter, and no help I have canceled all services with them and will make it my mission to let everyone I know that I they should not use Charter as they are awful!!!!!!!!

The reason that I use Charter is because there is no other cable tv service available. Their service is not good, Charter uses contract servicemen who appear to be paid based on the number of service calls that they make as opposed to an hourly rate or more pay for complex jobs. The serviceman who came to my house cut the wiring to my dvd player and sound system because he could not get them to work (they worked fine until he worked on installing a digital box), he then lied and said that the cables were cut when he arrived and that was why he could not get them to work........ Charter is in bankruptcy, they stretch a point and say "It is not bankruptcy, it is reorganization".... It is a filing under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy act, the reason for chapter 11 filings is that the debtor cannot pay its bills, so the debtor files a plan to eliminate some of its debts, most likely the Charter bondholders will not be paid by this company that is in "reorganization"... There is a reason for a bankruptcy filing, it is because the poor service offered by Charter will not generate enough cash flow to pay its bills. Users in my area are circulating a petition to have the county commissioners change cable franchise carriers when the Charter contract expires.