Complaint Review: Time Warner Cable - Nationwide

Hello all. I’m sure the message in this post is common knowledge, but I feel that it has to be repeated time and time again until these cable companies take us seriously.

I use Time Warner Cable. Not by choice. I used to use Insight Communications, but TWC bought them. The service I received from Insight was almost flawless. The service I’ve been receiving from Time Warner Cable is less than desirable, to say the least. TWC’s service is as efficient as a lawn mower without gas.

I had problems with the “first” TV remote TWC gave me for my DVR (the box that comes with the cable service) within just a few months after they bought Insight. Regardless of where I was in the room, I would press the buttons 3 to 7 times before anything would happen on the TV. I’m a very busy guy who doesn’t have time to deal with insignificant annoyances such as this, so I put up with the inoperable remote for almost a year until I couldn’t take it anymore. So I called customer service for a new remote. It took them a few days, but they sent a tech to replace the remote.

In less than a month, I was experiencing the same problem. The remote just wouldn’t do its job. I again put up with this for an intolerable amount of time before I called them again to replace the remote for the second time. This would have been the third remote I’ve had to deal with.

When I informed the CSR of that fact, she suggested that it might not be the remotes. It could be the DVR.

So she scheduled a “senior” repair technician to come out and inspect my equipment. In less than 10 minutes after he showed up, he decided to replace all my equipment because, in his own words, they were “old and outdated.”

The equipment swap was scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, 2015, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. TWC called me Tuesday to verify Wednesday’s appointment. At 8:10 a.m. Wednesday, TWC called to tell me they didn’t have a technician available at 8 a.m. The earliest they could send anybody was 10 a.m. The tech got there about 10:40 a.m., and didn’t leave until around 1:15 p.m. Now here comes the payoff: He worked on 5 TVs, and left my house with one TV not working. He said someone would call me later to see if it was getting a signal. Anybody else who pulled a stunt like that – leaving the client without fixing the probblem, or at least arranging for someone more advanced then he to show up and fix the problem – they would have been fired.

I called TWC around 2:30ish to talk to a manager, and she tried to send signals to the adapter on the TV to get it working, but none of them worked. She said she was going to investigate and get back to me before she leaves for the day at 6:30 p.m. I’m still waiting for her call.

So now I’m loaded for bear. Not because the TV isn’t working, but because of the inconvenience TWC caused me. I had to make special arrangements for someone to cover me at work. I was expecting to resume work at noon or shortly before. But because the TWC customer service department doesn’t know when its own people work, and the TWC tech was almost 40 minutes late, and he spent almost three hours at my house trying to do a job the customer service department estimated would take a little over an hour, I ended up losing a whole day of work, and my TV still doesn’t work!

So, Thursday, July 9, I called again, explained the situation to the CSR, and asked if I could speak to her boss’ boss. My initial conversation was with a CSR, and I got nowhere. My next conversation was with a CSR’s manager, and I got nowhere. Naturally, at this point I wanted to talk to the CSR’s manager’s manager. She transferred me to someone who identified himself as a CSR lead.

That’s not a manager. That’s a sergeant. I’ve already talked to his level, and got nowhere. I’ve already talked to first level management, and got nowhere. Now I wanted to speak to second level management. He put me on hold for a few minutes and came back to tell me there are no managers around.

Funny, that. This guy must think I’m an idiot. This is an inbound call center open 24/7 with hundreds of people on the phones per shift. Whom is he trying to kid? There are dozens of second level managers in the building, probably playing computer games in their offices. He just didn’t want to bother them.

He insisted I let him help me. I told him I’ve already tried his level, and the level above him, and my problem is still not fixed. He replied that he was trying to help me but I wouldn’t let him, so the only other option I have is to write a letter to the president of the corporation. Can you believe that? What kind of corporation treats its customers that way? What kind of a CEO allows such an anti-customer culture in his company?

Why didn’t TWC contact all of its customers to make sure they were using the new equipment instead of the old and outdated equipment the minute they became old and outdated? Would the TWC 50-year-old CEO Robert D. Marcus be satisfied on a 40-year-old cruise ship while other CEOs were sailing on a 5-year-old ship? Does he think he is above his customers? The answer has to be yes, given the fact that according to Bloomberg.com (http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=754928&ticker=TWC) Mr. Marcus earned a grand total of $34,615,597 as of fiscal year 2014. Not bad for a man who doesn’t know how to schedule appointments. (Remember, a fish rots from the head first.) What’s a few dissatisfied customers to him?

Around the end of 2015, TWC will be purchased by Charter Communications, the fourth largest cable operator in the U.S. The new company will be called New Charter. I hope they did their homework and realize what they’re stepping into.

Moral of the story: if you’re thinking about getting cable or switching cable companies, avoid Time Warner Cable or New Charter AT ANY COST, unless there is no one else you can use in your area.