#&@#%!$ Time Warner. What can I get for free?

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

About three weeks ago we got digital cable and internet from them. Since then the shit has been working for less than half of the time. It got installed on a Saturday (the tech was 4 hours late BTW), and then went out four days later. It took a week for them to get a repair guy to us, who informed us that the cable was cut in four different places by the groundskeepers because the installer didn't bury it deep enough. He patches it and sets us up for a new line to be installed on Tuesday. Easjer stayed home and their guy was a no show. Didn't just miss his five hour window, missed a 24 hour window. The only contact we got during that time was a call at 1:30 saying they'd be there shortly. Every attempt to reach anyone after that was met with being on hold forever.

Wednesday someone was kind enough to call us and tell us that a technician would be in our area on Thursday between 12 and 5 if we could have someone home. My wife informs them that we can't do that because she already took a day off of work and no one bothered to show up for the first work order. They apologize and assure us that someone from customer service would call tomorrow to re-schedule. Not only did they not call, but we went home and discovered a freshly mowed lawn and the cable being out again. We know it's not the groundskeepers fault because half the houses in this complex have TW and don't have cut wires sticking up in the grass in front of their house. We called the bastards and they offered us a whopping $25 service credit for our troubles. Rather than scream into the phone at someone who is only trying to help, I figured it's better to maybe send some angry letters or e-mails to someone who can help.

Has anyone else gone through this? I figure we should be able to score some free stuff for this but I don't know what to expect. Has anyone had any kind of luck getting more than just a service credit for the outages, and if so how much more? I'm seriously considering contacting Manu and telling him that he's pimping an unsatifactory product.

[johnsmith]

About three weeks ago we got digital cable and internet from them. Since then the shit has been working for less than half of the time. It got installed on a Saturday (the tech was 4 hours late BTW), and then went out four days later. It took a week for them to get a repair guy to us, who informed us that the cable was cut in four different places by the groundskeepers because the installer didn't bury it deep enough. He patches it and sets us up for a new line to be installed on Tuesday. Easjer stayed home and their guy was a no show. Didn't just miss his five hour window, missed a 24 hour window. The only contact we got during that time was a call at 1:30 saying they'd be there shortly. Every attempt to reach anyone after that was met with being on hold forever.

Wednesday someone was kind enough to call us and tell us that a technician would be in our area on Thursday between 12 and 5 if we could have someone home. My wife informs them that we can't do that because she already took a day off of work and no one bothered to show up for the first work order. They apologize and assure us that someone from customer service would call tomorrow to re-schedule. Not only did they not call, but we went home and discovered a freshly mowed lawn and the cable being out again. We know it's not the groundskeepers fault because half the houses in this complex have TW and don't have cut wires sticking up in the grass in front of their house. We called the bastards and they offered us a whopping $25 service credit for our troubles. Rather than scream into the phone at someone who is only trying to help, I figured it's better to maybe send some angry letters or e-mails to someone who can help.

Has anyone else gone through this? I figure we should be able to score some free stuff for this but I don't know what to expect. Has anyone had any kind of luck getting more than just a service credit for the outages, and if so how much more? I'm seriously considering contacting Manu and telling him that he's pimping an unsatifactory product.

First, the installers aren't Time Warner employees, TW subs out that work to local contractors, so they won't take the blame. Second, the same kind of stuff happened to me, when they built my house TW forgot to have someone bury cable lines intially, they came out and trenched a line underneath the neighbors driveway from the box, then they discovered that they actually had buried a line and just didn't notice it.......blah blah blah, three weeks later I had cable, internet, and phone that only worked half the time. Anyway, I yelled at them and threatened to cancel my service and they gave me two months of free cable, but cable only, they still billed full price on phone and internet, but it has worked fine since. In retrospect though, once I get tired of paying inflated prices to TW I'm switching to Directv, it's cheaper and does the same damn thing.

[j-6]

http://www.planetfeedback.com/

Use the 'write a letter' feature on the right side of the page. When it's completed, copy and paste it somewhere, and send copies to:

[email protected].
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Also, here are the email addresses for the executive management team members in Houston.
Ron McMillan - Division President, Houston
[email protected]
Keith Coogan - Vice President, Operations
[email protected]
Marie Grumbles - Vice President & General Manager, Customer Care
[email protected]
Ray Purser - Vice President, Public Affairs
[email protected]
Ed Crawford - Vice President, Information Technology
[email protected]
Fritz Fryer - Vice President, Finance
[email protected]
Marla Barnard - Vice President, Human Resources
[email protected]
Chuck Sweeney - Vice President, Business Solutions
[email protected]
Jim Taylor - Vice President, Digital Phone
[email protected]
Darrel Hegar - Vice President, Marketing & Sales
[email protected]


Hope some of this helps.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Damn j-6! Thanks a bunch. I hope it helps as well.

[Marklar MM]

My uncle has some good luck with this stuff. He just says he is going to switch cable providers, and they offer him a good package to keep him. :)

[jman3000]

^^^ that's pretty much what they're all about ... once you threaten them with giving your money to somebody else... they shit their pants and the ball gets rolling.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

This just keeps getting better. My wife just got a call from an irate installation guy telling her that they were at our place as per their work order and wanted to know when someone would be there to let them in. How the hell can any business stay afloat with service like this? I said to tell him to look around to see if any of our neighbors didn't clean up after their dogs, because right now they can go eat a pile of shit for all I care. My wife I expect is being a little more diplomatic.

[jman3000]

that's why you get your shady uncle to install that shit for free :sombrero:

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

that's why you get your shady uncle to install that shit for free :sombrero:

Sadly I come from one of those upstanding families. The shadiest any of my uncles get is that one is a used car salesman in Louisiana. I should ask some of my coworkers. Lord only knows what kind of illegal things they can hook me up with.

[leemajors]

Sadly I come from one of those upstanding families. The shadiest any of my uncles get is that one is a used car salesman in Louisiana. I should ask some of my coworkers. Lord only knows what kind of illegal things they can hook me up with.

not to mention that shit doesn't work with digi cable.

[RandomGuy]

Any service you get will have *some* problems.

This is not to excuse TW in the least, but for the most part I have found the service ok, aside from an occasional outage.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Any service you get will have *some* problems.

This is not to excuse TW in the least, but for the most part I have found the service ok, aside from an occasional outage.

In all honesty the actual TW employees that I've dealt with were extremely polite (both on the phone and the guy that came the patched the line) and when the line's been intact the cable and the internet have been top notch. It's the damn contractors that can't get their shit straight that are driving me up the wall, but if it's TW that's signing their checks for laying that cable it's TW's responsibility to make sure they do their damn jobs right.

[phyzik]

In all honesty the actual TW employees that I've dealt with were extremely polite (both on the phone and the guy that came the patched the line) and when the line's been intact the cable and the internet have been top notch. It's the damn contractors that can't get their shit straight that are driving me up the wall, but if it's TW that's signing their checks for laying that cable it's TW's responsibility to make sure they do their damn jobs right.

Its situations like this that made me quit working for TWC. I was one of the guys on the phone that got bitched at because some stupid fucking contractor didnt do what he was paid to do.... trust me when I say most of the phone techs want to shoot those bastards. Nevermind the fack that TWC wont hire more phone techs and we where stuck with like 80 calls in queue everyday, every single one of them wanting to bitch about something.

Next time you talk to them tell them you want a TIME WARNER installer, and not a contractor.... they CAN do that for you, dont let them tell you they cant because I've done it before for customers... It just might take a little while for them to fit you in, depending how busy they are.

[PM5K]

I haven't read the whole thread, but what shocks me the most is them not showing up for appointments, that's something they make a big deal about at least here in SA, and I've never had that problem with them...

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Its situations like this that made me quit working for TWC. I was one of the guys on the phone that got bitched at because some stupid fucking contractor didnt do what he was paid to do.... trust me when I say most of the phone techs want to shoot those bastards. Nevermind the fack that TWC wont hire more phone techs and we where stuck with like 80 calls in queue everyday, every single one of them wanting to bitch about something.

Next time you talk to them tell them you want a TIME WARNER installer, and not a contractor.... they CAN do that for you, dont let them tell you they cant because I've done it before for customers... It just might take a little while for them to fit you in, depending how busy they are.

Thank you! I had no idea I that I could specifically request someone who didn't suck.

And I feel for you on the phone issue. I usually try to be as polite as possible to the customer service reps (as long as they return the favor) because I know it's not their fault. Plus I know the feeling of getting bitched at by students and parents because other offices at UH employ nothing but nitwits.

[TheTruth]

That totally sucks, and I feel for you. We didn't have anything as bad as that happen but TW did cause us some stress.

We just moved into our apartment and had put in an order for installation for cable online. We put it in a week ahead of time just so that when we did move in on Friday Sept.1 , we would have cable that first day. Well apparently they "lost" our order because no one ever called to confirm. So when I did call them to see what was up the lady on the phone apologized for it and all that, but also said they wouldn't be able to get us installed until the following Thursday (Sept 7).

And even then we both work and they had scheduled a time at which we would both be unable to be home most of the time window. She said we could make a note for the installers to come at that time, but that it wasn't garanteed because they usually just come when they are in the area. And we wouldn't be able get another installation scheduled until Monday (Sept 11).

We didn't really know what we were going to do, I personally couldn't handle another week with absolutely no TV. So the deal was I was just going to try to haul ass home to meet them there, and hope that they hadn't already come.

Well everything just worked out and Matthew had ended up having to stay home from work that day due to an injury. The funny part is that the installation guys were supposed to come between 12-5 pm and the guy calls Matthew at 11am asking if anyone is home to let him in. Seriously I know not everyone at TW sucks or anything but it just really stressed me out and were very inconvenient.

SFIE, good luck with everything. I'd personally try to go with DirecTV...cheaper, no cable wire to worry about, and they offer internet.

-Ginofan-

[PM5K]

That totally sucks, and I feel for you. We didn't have anything as bad as that happen but TW did cause us some stress.

We just moved into our apartment and had put in an order for installation for cable online. We put it in a week ahead of time just so that when we did move in on Friday Sept.1 , we would have cable that first day. Well apparently they "lost" our order because no one ever called to confirm. So when I did call them to see what was up the lady on the phone apologized for it and all that, but also said they wouldn't be able to get us installed until the following Thursday (Sept 7).

And even then we both work and they had scheduled a time at which we would both be unable to be home most of the time window. She said we could make a note for the installers to come at that time, but that it wasn't garanteed because they usually just come when they are in the area. And we wouldn't be able get another installation scheduled until Monday (Sept 11).

We didn't really know what we were going to do, I personally couldn't handle another week with absolutely no TV. So the deal was I was just going to try to haul ass home to meet them there, and hope that they hadn't already come.

Well everything just worked out and Matthew had ended up having to stay home from work that day due to an injury. The funny part is that the installation guys were supposed to come between 12-5 pm and the guy calls Matthew at 11am asking if anyone is home to let him in. Seriously I know not everyone at TW sucks or anything but it just really stressed me out and were very inconvenient.

SFIE, good luck with everything. I'd personally try to go with DirecTV...cheaper, no cable wire to worry about, and they offer internet.

-Ginofan-

Um yeah, how horrible.....

:rolleyes

[ZStomp]

DirecTV baby...

[CharlieMac]

Time-Warner lost me when they asked me to be home between 8.A.M. and 9. P.M. on a Saturday to wait for a repair technician. Up until then, I thought it was okay to pay 45 bucks for wireless internet.

[Mijo]

Ever notice when they tell you that they'll be at your home between the hours of 12:00 and 5:00 and you show up at 12:00? I swear they show up right before 5:00 if at all. If you try to gamble and give them some time to show up, they're there at 11:55? :lol I had that happen and the tech left before the scheduled time. Suffice to say I had them back within 10 minutes after threatening to cancel my bundled package and go back to at&t.
If you call in and question the quality of your service, TW will always offer you free limited premium service such as HBO or Showtime. You just have to remember to call in and cancel it after the trial 3 month period. At that point they offer me the next promotion. I've been doing it for 2 years now.

[Mijo]

Up until then, I thought it was okay to pay 45 bucks for wireless internet. What do you pay now? Or do you mooch off some else's WiFi connection? :smokin

[PM5K]

Does crying about shit run in your family or do you have really fucking shitty luck?

[Kori Ellis]

TimeWarner just doesn't show up sometimes.

When we first got TW, we signed up for internet/TV/Phone. They never (to this day) showed up for the phone installation time. They gave us a five hour window, then didn't come and when I called they gave me a 12-hour window the next day. Oh well .. we just didn't get the phone service (and no, I'm not paying for it).

Then we called one time because our PPV/On Demand doesn't work. When you push the button to order something, half the time you get an error message. So they said they were going to send a tech. That was 2 months ago :drunk

[Marklar MM]

Then we called one time because our PPV/On Demand doesn't work. When you push the button to order something, half the time you get an error message. So they said they were going to send a tech. That was 2 months ago :drunk


The internet is for porn...not your tv. Sheesh.

[Guru of Nothing]

Based upon my personal observation, 3 out of 4 of the techs Time Warner dispatches are hygienically-challenged.

[CharlieMac]

What do you pay now? Or do you mooch off some else's WiFi connection? :smokin

I switched to ATT. Time Warner held my prorated refund for 5 months because they insisted that I had a wireless card of thiers even though I explained to them repeatedly that my laptop came with an internal card, so there would be no reason to use one of theirs.

I switched to ATT and they gave me problems with the phone installation. I went Good Will Hunting on their asses and lit them up in an email that was forwarded to every corporate office I could find. I explained to them that it took a lot of convincing to get my wife to switch over and that I would never, ever consider ATT again. I also let them know that we order every single cable station there is, DVR service, the works, so it's not like we were switching over for basic phone service. They had a technician out and apologizing in 30 minutes.

[Kori Ellis]

The internet is for porn...not your tv. Sheesh.

Sometimes it's difficult to balance the laptop at the right angle.

[Marklar MM]

Sometimes it's difficult to balance the laptop at the right angle.

That explains it. Get the proper cables and hook it up to the tv. Then it is like looking at porn on your computer, but through your tv.

[Kori Ellis]

I was just kidding. I use On Demand for CourTV and A&E On Demand. I don't really use PPV.

[MannyIsGod]

I personally honestly like AT&T (SBC) DSL more than Road Runner. I had TW years back and it was constantly going out during rainstorms. I'm sure they've improved their coverage out in the area I was living in (1604/151) but at the time it was horrible and anytime it rained I was liable to lose my connection.

I had Dish Network at the time so the only reason I used TW was for internet so I can't speak for their tv service.

Currently we have Grande cable and I'm not really in love with their lineup or anything else, but we get it for free so I can't complain much. For internet we have ATT&T and its been great. We got a free wireless router with it and we've only had one short outage in the time that we've had it. The speed is no worse than anything I ever had with cable, so I guess for us it works out better.

Its also cheaper! :)

[CharlieMac]

Yeah, the free router and 12.99 DSL rate for a year makes sense. I think the high speed of Roadrunner is of no use to people on laptops either way considering the max on mbps.

[PM5K]

Yeah, the free router and 12.99 DSL rate for a year makes sense. I think the high speed of Roadrunner is of no use to people on laptops either way considering the max on mbps.

802.11B gets about 4-5 Mbps, I get almost 5Mbps on my Road Runner connection, and you can always upgrade to G which does about 25Mbps....

My laptops all already have G cards, I just need to upgrade my router....

[CharlieMac]

I thought it was 54.

[Nbadan]

Super G goes 108 Mbps, G goes 54 Mbps. Cable modems can go as fast as 500Mbps, most DSL lines not even a quarter of that. Also, it's not easy to network multiple PCs on DSL.

[dougp]

I personally honestly like AT&T (SBC) DSL more than Road Runner. I had TW years back and it was constantly going out during rainstorms. I'm sure they've improved their coverage out in the area I was living in (1604/151) but at the time it was horrible and anytime it rained I was liable to lose my connection.

I had Dish Network at the time so the only reason I used TW was for internet so I can't speak for their tv service.

Currently we have Grande cable and I'm not really in love with their lineup or anything else, but we get it for free so I can't complain much. For internet we have ATT&T and its been great. We got a free wireless router with it and we've only had one short outage in the time that we've had it. The speed is no worse than anything I ever had with cable, so I guess for us it works out better.

Its also cheaper! :)
Grande is the best in SA, due to the fact that where they provide service, has just had brand new fiber optics laid in front of your house.

Time Warner is the second, due to the fact they normally will run you at 600kb/sec on a maxed download ... the line problems that you're talking about, with rain, were due to old piping that the cable is run through. Easily fixable by calling them and complaining, took about 6 months of doing it at my dad's old house before they finally repaired it.

ATT/SBC ... sucks. Period. Shitty techs (worse than the TW stories here,) crappy connection speed, and it's all relative to the distance from the area "hub."

As stated above, tell TW that you will go to ATT cause they have the deal for like $12.99/mo for a year, and they'll give you a discount. I threatened to cancel my DVR & such because I got one for $80, but they just discounted me down to $40/mo for all the digi channels + free dvr service/box.

[Melmart1]

My wireless dsl is 54.0 mbps and it's perfectly good. I know I could get faster with a cable modem, but what's the point of having a laptop then? I used to have it connected to a cable modem and it kinda seemed like I was defeating the purpose in a way. I will gladly give up the extra speed for the portability. It still seems pretty damn fast to me, but perhaps I am just not all that picky. I had dialup for years so no complaining from me.

[MannyIsGod]

Super G goes 108 Mbps, G goes 54 Mbps. Cable modems can go as fast as 500Mbps, most DSL lines not even a quarter of that. Also, it's not easy to network multiple PCs on DSL.Um, say what? We have the 2 destops plugged into the router, and at times there have been as many as 8 laptops hooked up to the network via the wifi connection. Its been easy as pie.

I'm sure that RR has a higher celing than DSL does, but I doubt it'd ever reach it on a regular basis nor would I need it.

[CuckingFunt]

After stubbornly hanging onto my free dial up for years, DSL feels lightning quick to me. I can't imagine needing anything faster.

[Melmart1]

After stubbornly hanging onto my free dial up for years, DSL feels lightning quick to me. I can't imagine needing anything faster.
While I am sure there are some people who need the higher download rate, for most I think it's about having the biggest/best/fastest etc. I know people who buy a whole new computer simply so they can have a larger hard drive. Seriously, if you have to replace your entire system to jump from 140gb's to 180, then you simply need to start buying your porn on dvd.

Oh, and give me your old desktop :lol

[MannyIsGod]

We finally broke down and got DSL because I was getting disconnected on the neighbors wifi all the time. And for me, getting disconnected at the wrong time means losing a lot of money. It was stupid not to pay 30 bucks a month because I was losing far more than that because of disconnects.

Stupid Wifi.

[Leetonidas]

My box broke last week and they sent a guy Saturday. They said he'd be here between 8 and 9 but he didn't get here until 3:30...he gave me a free new box, though.

[Nbadan]

Um, say what? We have the 2 destops plugged into the router, and at times there have been as many as 8 laptops hooked up to the network via the wifi connection. Its been easy as pie.

Hummm...do your two hard connections have unique IP's or are they sharing an IP?

[MannyIsGod]

Sharing the same IP. Its just like a cable setup with the router exept the signal comes from the phone line as opposed to the cable line.

[Nbadan]

Yes, it's just that with routers cable modems assign each computer a unique IPs so that networked systems aren't stepping all over each other. What you have is more like just a network-switch. I've heard that you can 'rent' an additional IP from some DSL providers.

[MannyIsGod]

Yes, it's just that with routers cable modems assign each computer a unique IPs so that networked systems aren't stepping all over each other. What you have is more like just a network-switch. I've heard that you can 'rent' an additional IP from some DSL providers.No, its a router. The DSL assigns an IP to the router just like anyother router. It has the DSL modem built in.

[Clandestino]

anyone heard of AT&T uverse??? it is bad ass... lots of channels. cable connection, dvr, wireless internet, VOD, etc..the works.. all for 89 bucks! with timewarner i would have been paying $150 a month. the TW person i called, was like, "are you serious?" i will see what i can do, but i doubt we can beat that!" they couldn't.

http://www.sbc.com/gen/u-verse?pid=7871&cdvn=custom

[leemajors]

My box broke last week and they sent a guy Saturday. They said he'd be here between 8 and 9 but he didn't get here until 3:30...he gave me a free new box, though.

if it's time warner, you can always take your old cable box in and switch it out. no need to wait on a tech. tw increased speeds here in austin 9 months to a year ago - i regularly get 600k/s off the news servers and a steady 50k up, which is invaluable. upload on DSL really sucks unless you start paying for a decent upload. it's more important for games and file sharing than anything else though.

[spurschick]

anyone heard of AT&T uverse??? it is bad ass... lots of channels. cable connection, dvr, wireless internet, VOD, etc..the works.. all for 89 bucks!

I'm ready to make the switch, but they don't have NBA TV yet. :madrun

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I was looking for that (U-verse)...It seems like it'd be a lot cheaper than TW, so I want to look into it.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Damnit. Not available.