The why i switched cable/internet providers thread

Ultramafia · 12-09-2008, 10:27 AM

So...

After two long weeks of dealing with all sorts of internet/cable providers customer service etc etc i'm ready to share my experiences. First lets start with some backstory.

Since i was 15 years old i've had ONE cable and internet provider in all of my residences (5 different locations in 2 different cities). That company is charter communications. They provide decent cable internet for cheap and there digital cable isn't bad (around 80 bucks a month for all the movie chanels, hd channels, and fox soccer channel). However its always been a running joke that a) there customer service blows, b)they really have no desire to please the customer as they are sort of a monopoly here (for cable). Well they hit a new low last week.

I live in an apartment building and my cable and internet has been hooked up here for over a year. My internet goes out very often. (3 - 5 times a week for various times 5 min shortest 2 hours longest). Well some girl and her hippy boyfriend just moved in above me and well they were having internet installed. About the time there install man was leaving, i lost both internet and cable. After calling charter SIX times (the 5 previous to the last they told me "theres an outage just be patient"). they told me i needed to make an service request and it would be 4 days before a charter tech could be there. Four days with no service and the charter rep comes out. He finally tells me, your line isn't strong enough and when the other install man installed hers above you he just disconnected yours..... WTF.... anyway he told me it would be another 72 hours before they could fix the internet but he could give me cable tv again... so i'm with out internet for a whole week because the install guy decided instead of fixing the problem he'd just dc mine and let someone else take care of it.

well i've switched to directtv and att dsl, both are amazing, and the price is believe it or not cheaper for 6 months and will be comparable after that. I do understandt hat these companies probably have awful customer service as well, but i just couldn't take it any longer. And btw, charter still hasn't been out and its been 5 days since he told me 72 hours.

what providers are yall using? any interesting stories? i think alot of these companies believe they are like the dmv and can just tell you how it is.

Blasterpez · 12-09-2008, 10:48 PM

so....
i wanted faster then dsl. so i switched to cable, it's about 3 times faster then what i had. but it sure fluctuates a lot. not steady at all. i'll download at 300+ k then suddenly drop to 175k, then back up to 300. but it's the same price, so it's all good i guess.

rabbitc · 13-09-2008, 04:26 AM

i threatened to switch and ended up getting 30% off - stupid.

Quote:

i'll download at 300+ k then suddenly drop to 175k, then back up to 300.

That's because of contention on your line. You'll have to upgrade to a priority service to get rid of that - it won't matter who your provider is unless you're physically changing to a different line. It's the wholesaler that controls that.

Cable companies are notorious for bad contention though - whereas telecoms have multiple exchanges, smaller loops.

Ultramafia · 13-09-2008, 04:12 PM

was downloading 680 kbps last night... i'm liking the dsl.