02/12/09

Beware! Just because TWC was reliable in a different city, it's not here. Don't make the same mistake we did.

by alohagal

The only reason I'm giving TWC one star is because I don't have the option to give it 0 stars. We signed up with them for internet, phone and cable almost two years ago after have a good experience with them in another city, before moving to Charlotte. For some reason, the Charlotte TWC is much different. The reception on my cell phone is usually clearer than on my land line, the picture on the TV regularly locks up and we have to change the channel and come back to what we were watching for the picture to unlock. And, On Demand works about every other time we try to open it. We have had so much trouble with our service being completely out (no TV, no phone and no internet) and every time it takes them at least 3 tries before they get the problem fixed. I have been fighting with them this week and we definitely are going to switch to another service provider. The only reason we haven't done it yet is because they have provided incentives in the past to stay. At this point, we wouldn't stay with them even if they offered free cable for life.

• Pros: convenient to package services.
• Cons: unreliable service of phone, internet and cable.

03/14/08

Worst possible service

by films128

We moved to Charlotte in September and went with Time Warner for cable, internet, and phone. The only thing that works right is the phone. The TV service has been a constant problem, and we've had to have people out here to fix it more than 10 times in the past 6 months. Every few weeks the picture quality drops out to a fuzzy mess and we have to have it looked at again. The audio for the past month has been scratchy on all the channels, sounding like an old record player with treble turned all the way up (and this is on every tv in the house). But with this problem, they've offered no help what so ever. On a good day, when the picture is clear, you'll have the picture freeze for about 2 seconds every 10-15 minutes (and this happens on all the tvs, not just the one with the digital box. It's like you're watching a scratched DVD that can't quite play smoothly. How this happens without a digital box, I don't know. Complete nonsense, and they plan to go completely digital... that should be funny.

Now... Internet... This has been a battle from the start. Firstly let me say that their basic speed offered is 5mbps upgradable to 8mbps. When I lived up north we had Cablevision and their basic speed was 15mbps upgradable to 30mbps; that's just to give some guidelines to the quality of service being offered.

So... Service drops out all the time. Every night our internet speed drops from 5 mbps down to 1mbps. You can test this online, ping their servers, print things out, make them diagrams and posters, yet still they tell you its fine. Meanwhile it takes 30 seconds to open google but to them, this is totally fine. They deny the speed is slowed to sometimes only 300Kbps (not even a full mbps), despite being able to test your speed using their own speed test page.

Bottom line, it's like living in the dark ages. It's just terrible from start to finish (although I'm glad they can make a phone work).

• Pros: They figured out how to make phones work
• Cons: Horrible TV and Internet service. Support is a joke, rude and NO HELP!

01/24/08

Sadly, stuck with these clowns.

by wolfpackjay

I've had Time Warner since '05 - the cable and roadrunner package. Never really considered posting anything on citysearch before, but maybe I'll help out someone new to the area.

Really, the best thing they have going for them is price. I don't have a landline phone, my cell has always been all I need, so all I needed from TWC was internet and TV. Many times, I've just wanted to be done with Time Warner, but whenever I look elsewhere (Dish Network, Direct TV, etc) if I want TV and Internet, I have to get a phone line for DSL, which would cost me undeeded $$. So I stay with Time Warner to save a few bucks. And you get what you pay for....

1. Roadrunner has been excellent. Best thing they have going for them

2. The cable is usually reliable, only have had a few problems. But that brings us to

3. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. They seriously go out of their way to try and not help you. I'll give a few examples:

A) Recently got a high-def. TV, so I called to upgrade my box from a regular DVR to an HD-DVR. The "appointment time" available for the next day (Tuesday) was 4pm to 7pm. So I scheduled the appointment and told the customer service rep that I work until 5, so 5:00 would be the earliest I'd be home. She said it shouldn't be a problem and made a note of it.

On Tuesday, I was called at 4:49pm and told that "There warehouse is out of boxes. We'll have to reschedule for Thursday, 4pm-7pm" I was amazed that in a city like Charlotte that boxes could just "run out" but I rescheduled, Thursday I'm called at 3:30 and told by Curtis the service guy that "I'm done for the day, can you be home by 4?" I couldn't and he tried to tell me that I should have tried a 6pm-9pm appointment. So now I'm waiting another 4 days.

Another example - scheduled a 6pm-9pm appointment once for an issue with the TV, Reps were at my house from 8:45pm until about 11:30pm. At least they stayed to fix it, but still, they need to revamp their home service issues....

• Pros: Value, especially if you don't want a landline phone, just internet and TV
• Cons: Terrible, terrible, terrible service. Stuck with a monopoly cable co. who doesn't care.