Topic: Charter tv,internet & phone service
started by: usmcr
Posted by usmcr on Sep. 01 2010,6:58 pm
if i remember correctly the city is now in negotiations with charter for a new contract. according to the February , 2010 issue of Consumer Reports. charter was 25th out of a field of 27 rating of internet service. they were also 16th out of a field of 16 for television service. finally they were 20th out of a field of 23 for their phone service. according to these figures there must be a better choice out there. verizon was rated in the upper three of all three categories!who is in charge of this endeavor as the city manager is in limbo? 
Posted by Grinning_Dragon on Sep. 01 2010,10:32 pm
Well as you have surmised, Charter sucks, and is considered a joke in the internet realm, sub-par anything they have to offer, they are only a tad bit better than a dial up service.I live in an area that offers many different cable providers, but the top dog around here is COX, I have my issues with them, but they offer the highest speed in the area, and is always upgrading their network, and have been in the works to lay fiber optics.
Posted by the unc on Sep. 04 2010,1:49 am
Would be nice if the city investigated some of the other cable companies to sign up with, but, I'm sure someone on the higher up level has their pocket filled just right to keep us in Charter country. Having been without television for two Friday nights in a row now, I'm tempted to tell them where to put their cable. I then think about having just changed over to Qwest at work and remember they are no better than Charter. There must be some service out there that is at least honest with their customers. We called Charter to ask if there was a problem in Albert Lea Friday night and were told there wasn't a problem...then were told we'd have to schedule a service call...we had a very nice Charter employee the Friday before replace our cable box three times and still not get a signal to the sets. He called his supervisor who told him that if he'd tried everything he could try then maybe he'd better start rewiring the entire house. I was amazed that the supervisor called him back about 10 minutes later and told him that the supervisor himself was having the same problem wherever he was working. Cable was the put on hold in the house 'til Monday and when everything cleared up about an hour later on that Friday....I WAS AMAZED! I have no argument with their phone or internet service, but...damn I thought this was supposed to be a step up from an antenna. As far as digital television goes, GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY....AND HE WON'T TELL. The only time the digital signal "tiles" for some reason is when you're recording....then try to get help from someone in India you can barely understand. Isn't cable wonderful. Bet the guy with the city, who gets that little "special package of funds" for his support has great cable. OH WELL WHY COMPLAIN...NOTHINGS GONNA CHANGE HERE ANYWAY....ALBERT LEA IS ALBERT LEA.
Posted by MADDOG on Sep. 04 2010,7:01 am
I'm one of the lucky ones in the area to not have Charter. I have WCTA out of Lake Mills. Nearly no complaints about their internet. My cable has gone down 4 times in the last three weeks. Of course working all day I don't know it's down until after I'm done with work. Of course they are too. So far, re-booting their system has worked all but once. I really enjoy going from set to set having to do that. It takes 7-8 minutes for each one. Had to do one this morning again after they were just here. They tell me it's normal??? NORMAL?
Top that off, I can be watching a movie in one room and not be able to watch it on a different set occasionally. I've been talking to Qwest, but they can only provide me with 1.5M for internet at this time which isn't even close to the 5M WCTA is providing. I told Qwest that when they get even close to the speed, I'm all theirs.
You just burst my bubble in that hope. I don't think I had nearly all these problems before digital.
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Sep. 08 2010,7:51 pm
For wha it is worth, Jaguar offers all three...usually bundled...with equal channes to Charter, for cheaper! they have. the fiberoptics. here in townalready...up to the area of the web room. they told me they cant offer the cable because city said no...maybe now is the time to let them have a shot at it?
Posted by nphilbro on Sep. 08 2010,9:25 pm
Even while I live in the 14th largest media market in America, we have had our similar "least responsive provider"issues. Seattle and Tacoma started their own triple play companies as a co-op.It forced Comcast and Verizon to really step up their service offerings in surrounding communities.
I get 16mb download on internet and pay for 3mb.
Posted by Geek Squad on Sep. 09 2010,1:01 am
I have Charter TV and internet. No problems yet. I have the highest speed internet you can get for the home. The next upgrade would be buisness speed. It's probaly alittle more expensive than others , but I'm happy so far with the goods and the service.
Posted by Whiskero on Sep. 14 2010,4:48 pm
We have had Charter for about 3 years now; before that, Dish Network.We have not lost our t.v. viewing in any storm (with Dish, if you sneezed it went out), the internet is great and the telephone is nice for long distance (even tho we could use our cell phones).
If I have had an issue of any kind, someone was there, right away, on the phone, to answer my question.
We will stick with Charter.
Posted by the unc on Sep. 15 2010,7:26 am
I guess my comment on the "Charter sucks" is you don't know that until you have it...so, if they suck and we know it because we have it....does it make sense to say that if we get something different that they too, may in the long run, suck equally? I don't see what the big deal is...you get cable, you get what you get. There's nothing on the box worth watching except for maybe a couple of hours a week anyway. The Charter internet is fine with me...better than the Jaguar I suffered through at work....and I have no complaints about Charter phone service...except when there's no power. Then I lose my phone, but, we all know there aren't any power outages ever are there? 
Posted by Geek Squad on Sep. 15 2010,8:33 am
I don't use charter for phone. You need to get a cell phone and keep it fully charged for the power outages. I did hear that charter phone service SUCKS.
Posted by OEF_Soldier on Sep. 15 2010,2:55 pm
We use Charter for internet and phone and thats it. Personally if I could dump them totally I would but I am not a fan of DSL or Qwests phone service. The only good thing I can say about Charter is that the cable is up and running in storms versus Dish but we have had few problems with Dish in regards to that problem. We would lose cable as well once in a blue moon so losing the satellite is no big deal.Dish Network offers a comparable package for nearly $50 less than what Charter cost us. We get as many or more channels with the package we have thru Dish when compared to Charter. When we had problems with Charter we had to call and wait for someone to come out and some times it could be a day or two depending on the problem. With Dish we have had 1 problem in the 12+ months we have had it and they came out within 24 hours and fixed the problem. (That'll teach me to mow over the Satellite cables
)With Charter we would watch our bill go up almost every month. It did not matter that we had a bundle plan that should have been a set amount every month they would find some other way to screw us with some kind of fee or what not. When you call Charter (unless you call Austin's office) you almost always get some person who is not accustomed to speaking English as a native language. I don't know how many times we would call and wind up having to speak to the supervisor who did speak and understand English since it was his or her first language.
Personally if the city was smart they would not sign a contract to allow any company to be the sole provider of cable television inside the city limits. Competition is good for business and if they would allow some competition in this town in regards to cable companies perhaps things would change.