Good Service and Helpful Office Staff
Written: Nov 13 '06
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Pros: Great cable service, good picture quality
Cons: Excess phone hold time.
The Bottom Line: Other than horrible phone service/hold times, The service with charter is great
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| philephool's Full Review: Charter |
I have had the “pleasure” of charter service for just over a year and a half, and I can safely say, that for the most part, I’m 99.9% satisfied with the service.
I made the switch to Charter from a local telephone company, for the 2 main reasons of cheaper price and faster internet speed. I stopped in at my local charter office to discuss pricing for an internet and cable television package. I spoke with the first available receptionist, and she was extremely helpful. She helped to get set up with 3 meg internet and the big package, which is basic and expanded digital channels, and a couple premium movie packages for a very cheap 6 month introductory rate.
Installation was scheduled for a week later, and the installation crew was only about 15 minutes late. How it happened when I was the first appointment in the morning is beyond me, but I digress. They were prompt and courteous, even taking the time to wipe their shoes off. We had a small snow storm the night before and it was nice not having to clean up muddy footprints that weren’t mine. I live in a duplex, and because I am a renter, Charter said that they would need written permission to put in any additional cable outlets. The only reason I mention this is because they had a problem getting any signal to come thru the wiring that was already in place. Luckily, the installers were able to find an external cable put in place by the previous tenant that they could use.
All in all, it took about 2 hours to get everything setup and running with a quick run-thru of the digital receiver. I had asked if it was possible to put a digital receiver box on my computer PVR, but was told that this was not possible due to the proximity of the digital box and the cable modem. They would cause interference and the internet would not work or work extremely slowly at best. (After visiting a friend and playing with his setup, I came to realize that this was true. There is some signal put out by the cable box that totally messes up the cable modem)
That night I was happily surfing and watching the best I could find.
The promotional price of ~60.00 was only suppose to last for 6 months, but for me it lasted an incredible 9 months. I called to ask why my bill had gone up, and the representative told me that it was because they were rolling out a new billing model and Charter had decided to give me a break rather than mess with my bill twice in such a short period. I thanked her and was on my merry way. I really only watch about 5 channels, but to get a smaller package that would work just as well would actually cost more than I’m paying for a bigger package at my current price of around 85.00 a month.
I have had to call charter customer service a total of 3 times in my past year and a half, and have dreaded it each time. This is the worst part of the service by far. Hold times of 15 minutes during “normal business hours” to over half an hour on weekends when trying to authorize a pay per view movie seem to be the norm for charter. The last time I called to get my account info updated, I was on hold for at least 10 minutes, then took 2 minutes to get my information updated, and finally another 5 minutes of hard sale to upgrade my services.
I use the e-pay billing system on charter.net, and am very pleased with it. It gives you an electronic copy of your bill, and allows you to pay by either credit or debit card and EFT. It works wonderfully, and saves you the price of a stamp, and a potential late fee (which happened one time when I mailed my payment in and it supposedly didn’t get there in time). The e-pay system also allows you to manage email addresses, web hosting information, and also allows you to download the Charter security suite with anti-virus, anti-spyware and a fire wall. (as a computer tech, my personal recommendation is to spend the few bucks at best buy or download AVG, as Charter’s software turns any computer into molasses)
Overall, I have been very pleased with the actual Charter service. They recently upgraded the on-screen program guide so you can surf thru all the listings, and when you find something interesting, you can check it. If you don’t like it, you can go back to the guide and pick up where you left off. (I know, doesn’t sound like a big deal, but with the old charter on-screen guide, every time you started back at channel 2, even if you stopped at channel 101.)
The price is good, and apparently, due to the competition in my area, I get digital service for free. Great picture quality and plenty of content. They even send little on-screen messages regarding sun spot activity which apparently can degrade picture quality.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 85.00
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Epinions.com ID:
philephool
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Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 0 members
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