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Charter Communications consumer fraud, poor service and dishonest sales tactics Fort Worth Texas
Last year a friend of mine mentioned that he had expanded basic cable AND Silver level Cable internet installed by Charter Cable as part of a promotional deal for only $39.95/month. As I had tried unsuccessfully to get DSL installed for months this sounded like a great deal. I called Charter Communications local office and asked if the same promotion was available to my residence. They said yes, asked if I'd like to sign up, I agreed, verbal contract entered, cable installed the following week. Cable installer says to me,"Oh good, you got Silver Service, the bronze service is slow as dirt". Everyone happy:)
Charter was supposed to send out a crew to bury my cable lines the week after installation, never showed, rescheduled, and finally buried the cable 3 weeks later. Two days after that I was in my yard, noticed that only half of the cable was buried, called Charter, they sent someone else out, on an "all day" appointment. Meaning, they can show up anytime between 8am and 8pm....they showed at 6pm, reburied the cable. Slightly less happy, but still ok.
A week or so later I had noticed that my speeds(I do alot of download/upload of large files) were going kinda slow. A day later, the friend that referred me mentioned that his service seemed to have slowed also. I went to Charters tech support site and looked at my service level and it said,"Bronze Service", where it had previously said,"Silver Service".
I called Charter, they said that their hands were tied, you never paid for that, the dog ate that page, we suck, lalala. They said they'd look into it and call me back. Two weeks later, they finished "researching" my account and claimed that I should have never gotten that level of service for that price. Two weeks to research? Isn't this the computer age? What kind of retards are these people? Anyways, I let it go for a few months as I was tired of sitting on my phone for hours listenning to Charters prerecorded "your call is valuable to us, please stay on the line".
So three weeks ago I leave for a trip, came back yesterday, and now I have no channels above 32. So I called Charter again, listenned to their recordings, waited on hold, finally got a person. Person tells me the same thing about my Cable TV as they told me about my internet service a few months ago,"Sorry, you never paid for that". So I ask,"What about the verbal agreement I entered into with Charter when we agreed to sign up for their service?". The tech person says,"You have no contract, you have a work order". I say,"Huh? No contract? What did the cable installer just magically end up in my backyard one day and install cable into my house?". "I had a contract, before I ever had a work order".
So then this lady says,"There's no such thing as a verbal contract". I asked her where she went to law school, then decide to be nice and just ask to speak with her manager. So she puts me on hold for another 25 minutes, then comes back on the line to tell me that she can't find her supervisor. I'm thinking, "You can't find your supervisor?"...whatever. So she says that her supervisor will call me back when available. Another half a day goes by, the supervisor calls, basically saying the same thing because, as I know, she's not a supervisor either, she's level2 customer support.
I get tired after being put on hold a few more times, after being told that it will take them another 14 days to research my account again(real paper file cabinets buried with Jimmy Hoffa perhaps?). So I ask to talk to her supervisor....she can't find him either,"He'll call you back". So this time, most the day has gone by, he calls me back, he's another customer support rep...."Can I PLEASE talk to your supervisor?". "Uhm, sir, he's not in today, but he'll be in tomorrow.
I'll forward you to his voicemail so you can leave him a message". Now I'm angry, really pissed. I say,"No, no you wont forward me to someones voicemail, you'll get your dumb a*s a pen, you'll write him a note, you'll stick it to his forehead with superglue, so that all he sees tomorrow morning is my phone number.". Hehe, then he says,"Is there anything else I can help you with today Sir?". I say,"Yes, you can send your people out here again to bury the cable in the ground that they have unsuccessfully tried to bury twice now, half of it is laying across my lawn in my backyard." He says,"Okay Sir, I'll have someone out SOMETIME on thursday". "SOMETIME?"
After all of that, I haveto say that Charter Communications, at least here in Fort Worth has got to have the poorest customer support of ANY company I've ever dealt with. If you can get something other than Charter Cable in your area, i.e.DSL, do yourself a favor and get it and avoid Charter Cable.
I've also been reading that other people have had alot of the same problems in my area recently, and if anyone is interested I'd like to possibly get together with other dissatisfied Charter customers to see what we can do about this little "monopoly" they have in our area.
Dan
Fort Worth, Texas
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Charter Communications
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Mrs
DFW Area,Texas,
U.S.A.
Same problems, different address
#5Consumer Comment
Tue, July 22, 2003
I am experiecing the EXACT same problems! We have had the high speed silver package for about a year, and it seems to be down about once per week. In addition, it took them 8 months to burry the cable, in my neighbors yard (that's where the box is). I am really angry that Charter REQUIRES us to have basic service in addition to the Internet.
When we originally subscribed, we had DirectTV, and we still had to have the basic cable service, which added $15 to the monthly bill. Last week we reeived a call that our cable service would be reduced and that we will be losing ALL channels after 32. That happened this weekend. Now we have basic local TV, that we are paying $15 per month for, plus $40 for the service. There are no other cable vendors in our city. There has to be a law regarding this monopoly! They just fixed the TXU electric problem... you would think the cable companies would be next!!
As soon as we can find an alternative for our Internet service, we will be leaving Charter!
Susan
Slidell,Louisiana,
U.S.A.
This behavior is also typical of Charter in Slidell, LA
#5Consumer Comment
Fri, July 18, 2003
I am not surprised to see all of the reports concerning Charter Communications. I had service in the Slidell, LA area. I had a line in my front yard that was not buried for almost 5 months. I made numerous telephone calls to this company to no avail. I was finally able to get through to a plant manager after leaving numerous messages on his voice mail. After speaking with the plant manager it still took 5 weeks to get my line buried.
As far as their cable modem service it is a bit slow and their technical support is the worst. It seems their staff is underqualified and are unable to troubleshoot computer problems. I finally gave up and had their cable and internet disconnected after a Charter employee who was sent to my residence to repair my system solicited me for money for "personal" technical support. I threw him out and immediately called Charter to have their service disconnected. I now have Direct TV and DSL.
Dan
Fort Worth,Texas,
U.S.A.
Charter Communications still not returning calls
#5Author of original report
Tue, June 24, 2003
Well, not exactly as the title states. Charter did finally call me yesterday, listen to my problems and agree to research my problem and call me back TODAY. It's 5p.m. now, their office closes at 5:30p.m. so there's little chance of them returning my call today. I called about an hour ago and left another voicemail asking for the status of my complaint, still no word. I suppose the only thing left to do is file a claim with the BB and my State Attorney General. Wish that I could have solved this without bringing in any third parties, but Charter Communications is obviously not concerned with their consumers. If for some reason they manage to solve this for me I will be back to write a rebuttal against myself, I only say that because I know they wont get things together without legal action. C'mon Charter, make me eat these words!
Dan
Fort Worth,Texas,
U.S.A.
Calls not returned
#5Author of original report
Mon, June 23, 2003
After waiting around this morning for the "manager" from Charter Communications to call be back, as the CSR said he would yesterday, I still haven't recieved a phone call from anyone at Charter. My return call was supposed to be around 10a.m., it's almost 2pm now.
At 1pm I started looking to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and came across this page:
http://www.fortworth.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=81040004
It gave an alternate phone number which Charter has requested customers call first before filing a complaint. I called, got a voicemail saying that they would call me back. I gave my full name, address and phone number. It's almost 2pm now, still no return call.
So I guess I've really tried all of Charters avenues for customer support and am still totally dissatisfied. I'd really like to fix this problem, but it's totally impossible without Charters help.
I plan to call the same number one more time after writing this followup. I'll give them another hour of my day waiting for their return call, then go ahead and file my complaint with The Better Business Bureau as I'm almost positive no one will ever call back as long as I pay my bill ontime.
Still looking for other Fort Worth Texas Charter Cable subscribers to team up with in possibly filing a class action lawsuit against Charter Communications for using "Bait and Switch" sales techniques. I know I'm not the only one as I have two other friends, including the one that recommended Charters cable service to me in the first place, that are more than happy to jump on the bandwagon with me.