Skylander7
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Basically, they've dicked me around for 4 weeks. I was pissed last night before I went to bed, so I'm going to paste the email I sent them. Afterwards.. I'll paste their reply, as it's typical customer service bullshit. Anybody else had Charter for cable? I'm starting to hate the bastards severely.. but as cable TV isn't really an industry with a high level of competition in individual markets, this level of service can be expected I suppose. Please, feel free to post your opinions or advice. It's sad when your HD DVR box tells you that "you can add this channel by calling Charter to subscribe" from poor signal when you turn to channel 2, the local Fox affiliate.
Here's the email:
I desperately need assistance with my cable service, and would like an explanation for the extremely poor quality of service that I have been rendered by Charter Communications.
This began over three weeks ago, when I contacted Charter concerning poor signal quality in my home. My cable modem has lost connection numerous times, and my television signals frequently drop or display poor picture quality in both low channels, high channels, and HDTV channels. During my call, the call center representative tested the signal statistics through my MOXI box. He concluded that I was receiving approximately 1/10 of the optimal signal that I should receive. An appointment was scheduled 2 weeks in advance, for which my girlfriend (Megan Quarles, also on our account) had to take off from work to meet the appointment.
The night before our appointment, cable completely died in our home. We called 888-GetCharter again for assistance, and were told that an outage had been reported in the area.
The day of the appointment (8/15), three calls were made to customer service. The first was to verify that the problem would still be addressed due to the outage. A representative assured me that someone would meet our appointment or contact us if it was not possible (forgive me, but in my month of experience with Charter, we have already had problems and needed assurance). The technician did call at about 10:45 a.m., and arrive around 11 a.m. The tech never looked at our television or asked exactly what the problem was, but went outside. He returned about 45 minutes later and told my girlfriend that there was a short somewhere between the outside box and the box on our home, and that he would need to call his supervisor. The tech. then left at around noon.
We placed a second call at around 3:45 that day, as nobody had arrived at that point and no call had been received in regards to the supervisor's arrival. I spoke to a customer associate who assured me that someone would arrive by 5:30 p.m., and was rudely blown off by the individual as I explained that we had to have the problem resolved due our availability to reschedule another appointment. She told me that she would page a form to the technician supervisor in the area to arrive by 5:30 p.m., and assured me that some contact would be made. The call was ended.
At around 6 p.m. that evening, a third call was placed as no one had arrived or contacted us to solve the problem. The service associate told me that the problem ticket had been closed out. To us, this meant that our technician walked off of the job, and the supervisor never arrived. I asked if some sort of compensation would be offered for this poor level of service, and was told that nothing could be done but schedule another appointment for Saturday the 19th. I stayed on the phone with the associate for approximately an hour and a half. He obtained all of my contact information for both work and home, and assured me that it would be escalated to possibly have a tech contact me at work. The appointment was set in stone for Saturday the 19th between 1 and 3. I was told that I would receive a phone call to confirm the appointment that day.
Saturday the 19th, I remained at home the entire day. I awoke early, had my home phone near my side the entire day. No technician arrived at my home, and no call was received. Past the point of infuriation, I once again called 888-GetCharter.
I spoke with another associate, who told me that the ticket was closed after the technician had arrived and found no problem. Nobody had called me, no technician had been in or at my home, and nobody had knocked at my door. I do not know if the technician falsified the information or arrived at the wrong home, but not once the entire day did I receive a call for the technician to confirm the appointment (after being told that I would receive a call from numerous previous conversations with customer service agents throughout the history of the problem).
The agent advised that I should speak to a supervisor, and transferred me. A supervisor came to the phone after a 2 minute wait, and asked for a description of the events that had transpired. I began speaking, and was cut off. It appeared that I had been hung up on. After being exhausted from this long time fiasco, I waited 24 hours before trying again.
Today is August 20th. I have called 888-GetCharter 4 times this evening. The first call, I waited 45 minutes and gave up. The second attempt, I waited 30 minutes and gave up. The third attempt, I waited 18 minutes and spoke to an Indian man who was difficult to understand. I asked to speak to a supervisor after being advised to do so yesterday. I told the agent to look at my account notes for descriptions on the problem and reasons for needing to speak to a supervisor. His response was that he agreed that I needed to speak to one, and asked if it would be okay to have one call me 30 minutes later. I requested assurance that this would transpire, as I have not been met with success throughout my efforts with customer care. He assured me that I would receive a call.
Three hours afterwards, my girlfriend called 888-GetCharter out of frustration. As usual, she had been trying to watch TV in our living room and getting an error message displaying the message "To subscribe to this channel, please contact Charter or check your television's signal." We often get this signal on many channels, although this particular message was displayed on our local Fox affiliate (channel 2). During the fourth call, we were once again greeted by an Indian man who was difficult to understand. He asked for a description of the problem, and we asked him to review our account notations as repeating the same story three times a day is becoming cumbersome. He refused, and wanted an explanation of the problem. We requested to speak to a supervisor, and said that he would transfer us. We had been on hold for 19 minutes for this particular call, and firmly requested to not be placed on hold and requested to speak to a supervisor. He assured us that we would speak with one, and that we would have a technician on site in two days to resolve the issue. We were then transferred, and told that we would be waiting over 15 minutes by an automated message. After waiting 8 minutes, the connection ceased and we were met with dead air.
I am writing this email in a final attempt to get some sort of response from our issues. Our channels often are very static, our HD channels often have background static or odd pixilation. We try to watch many channels and are met with an error message of "please contact Charter to subscribe to this channel or check your signal" regardless of if it is a local channel, basic channel, premium channel, or HD channel. Our menus hang up, our internet connection frequently dies. I pay for service that I do not receive, and feel as if my subscription to Charter services is one that is payment for serviced that provide stress, anguish, unethical treatment, and exposure to extremely poor business practices.
If this email reaches someone that can assist us in our problems, I urge them to either give it to one in a supervisory capacity that can assist us in a resolution to our problems. I also feel as if I should be refunded for all or part of my services, as we have received sub-par quality and had to miss days of work for appointments that are not kept, met, or rendered.
If we are not contacted within 48 hours, I will seek action from the Better Business Bureau and seek service from a competitor. I have tried and tried to get a resolution to our problem, but have yet to see results. If you wish to contact us, here is our best contact info:
Work (edited out)
Home (edited out)
email: (edited out)
I look forward to hearing from someone. We desperately seek a resolution to this problem. We are once again watching a DVD this evening, as we cannot access channels 2-300, have tested our internet connection of being 256 Kbps down (which is very sub par to our supposed 3 meg per second connection), and cannot spare any more time holding for some response via 1-888-GetCharter option 3. Thank you for your time
Here's their response:
Thank you for writing to Charter Communications. My name is Neil and I would be glad to assist you.
I understand that you are not happy with Charter policies and customer service.
We apologize for the inconvenience you may have experienced. We also appreciate the email you have sent. As we are striving to improve our customer service efforts, your input is very valuable to us here at Charter. This demonstrates us the areas in which we need to improve upon. We are continually adding to our number of Customer Service Representatives, and are implementing new customer service standards to improve Charter, and to make you a more satisfied customer.
I have again escalated this issue to our local office and our one of supervisor will call you. Escal0146105 is the request number for your reference. I also scheduled an appointment on 8/25/2006 between 8 AM to 5 PM to your issue. I would like to inform you that this is earliest available date. We request your time and cooperation in this regard.
We have made a careful note of your comments so that they can be passed on to the relevant departments and employees.
We thank you for your feedback.
Sincerely,
Neil
Charter Communications
Here's the email:
I desperately need assistance with my cable service, and would like an explanation for the extremely poor quality of service that I have been rendered by Charter Communications.
This began over three weeks ago, when I contacted Charter concerning poor signal quality in my home. My cable modem has lost connection numerous times, and my television signals frequently drop or display poor picture quality in both low channels, high channels, and HDTV channels. During my call, the call center representative tested the signal statistics through my MOXI box. He concluded that I was receiving approximately 1/10 of the optimal signal that I should receive. An appointment was scheduled 2 weeks in advance, for which my girlfriend (Megan Quarles, also on our account) had to take off from work to meet the appointment.
The night before our appointment, cable completely died in our home. We called 888-GetCharter again for assistance, and were told that an outage had been reported in the area.
The day of the appointment (8/15), three calls were made to customer service. The first was to verify that the problem would still be addressed due to the outage. A representative assured me that someone would meet our appointment or contact us if it was not possible (forgive me, but in my month of experience with Charter, we have already had problems and needed assurance). The technician did call at about 10:45 a.m., and arrive around 11 a.m. The tech never looked at our television or asked exactly what the problem was, but went outside. He returned about 45 minutes later and told my girlfriend that there was a short somewhere between the outside box and the box on our home, and that he would need to call his supervisor. The tech. then left at around noon.
We placed a second call at around 3:45 that day, as nobody had arrived at that point and no call had been received in regards to the supervisor's arrival. I spoke to a customer associate who assured me that someone would arrive by 5:30 p.m., and was rudely blown off by the individual as I explained that we had to have the problem resolved due our availability to reschedule another appointment. She told me that she would page a form to the technician supervisor in the area to arrive by 5:30 p.m., and assured me that some contact would be made. The call was ended.
At around 6 p.m. that evening, a third call was placed as no one had arrived or contacted us to solve the problem. The service associate told me that the problem ticket had been closed out. To us, this meant that our technician walked off of the job, and the supervisor never arrived. I asked if some sort of compensation would be offered for this poor level of service, and was told that nothing could be done but schedule another appointment for Saturday the 19th. I stayed on the phone with the associate for approximately an hour and a half. He obtained all of my contact information for both work and home, and assured me that it would be escalated to possibly have a tech contact me at work. The appointment was set in stone for Saturday the 19th between 1 and 3. I was told that I would receive a phone call to confirm the appointment that day.
Saturday the 19th, I remained at home the entire day. I awoke early, had my home phone near my side the entire day. No technician arrived at my home, and no call was received. Past the point of infuriation, I once again called 888-GetCharter.
I spoke with another associate, who told me that the ticket was closed after the technician had arrived and found no problem. Nobody had called me, no technician had been in or at my home, and nobody had knocked at my door. I do not know if the technician falsified the information or arrived at the wrong home, but not once the entire day did I receive a call for the technician to confirm the appointment (after being told that I would receive a call from numerous previous conversations with customer service agents throughout the history of the problem).
The agent advised that I should speak to a supervisor, and transferred me. A supervisor came to the phone after a 2 minute wait, and asked for a description of the events that had transpired. I began speaking, and was cut off. It appeared that I had been hung up on. After being exhausted from this long time fiasco, I waited 24 hours before trying again.
Today is August 20th. I have called 888-GetCharter 4 times this evening. The first call, I waited 45 minutes and gave up. The second attempt, I waited 30 minutes and gave up. The third attempt, I waited 18 minutes and spoke to an Indian man who was difficult to understand. I asked to speak to a supervisor after being advised to do so yesterday. I told the agent to look at my account notes for descriptions on the problem and reasons for needing to speak to a supervisor. His response was that he agreed that I needed to speak to one, and asked if it would be okay to have one call me 30 minutes later. I requested assurance that this would transpire, as I have not been met with success throughout my efforts with customer care. He assured me that I would receive a call.
Three hours afterwards, my girlfriend called 888-GetCharter out of frustration. As usual, she had been trying to watch TV in our living room and getting an error message displaying the message "To subscribe to this channel, please contact Charter or check your television's signal." We often get this signal on many channels, although this particular message was displayed on our local Fox affiliate (channel 2). During the fourth call, we were once again greeted by an Indian man who was difficult to understand. He asked for a description of the problem, and we asked him to review our account notations as repeating the same story three times a day is becoming cumbersome. He refused, and wanted an explanation of the problem. We requested to speak to a supervisor, and said that he would transfer us. We had been on hold for 19 minutes for this particular call, and firmly requested to not be placed on hold and requested to speak to a supervisor. He assured us that we would speak with one, and that we would have a technician on site in two days to resolve the issue. We were then transferred, and told that we would be waiting over 15 minutes by an automated message. After waiting 8 minutes, the connection ceased and we were met with dead air.
I am writing this email in a final attempt to get some sort of response from our issues. Our channels often are very static, our HD channels often have background static or odd pixilation. We try to watch many channels and are met with an error message of "please contact Charter to subscribe to this channel or check your signal" regardless of if it is a local channel, basic channel, premium channel, or HD channel. Our menus hang up, our internet connection frequently dies. I pay for service that I do not receive, and feel as if my subscription to Charter services is one that is payment for serviced that provide stress, anguish, unethical treatment, and exposure to extremely poor business practices.
If this email reaches someone that can assist us in our problems, I urge them to either give it to one in a supervisory capacity that can assist us in a resolution to our problems. I also feel as if I should be refunded for all or part of my services, as we have received sub-par quality and had to miss days of work for appointments that are not kept, met, or rendered.
If we are not contacted within 48 hours, I will seek action from the Better Business Bureau and seek service from a competitor. I have tried and tried to get a resolution to our problem, but have yet to see results. If you wish to contact us, here is our best contact info:
Work (edited out)
Home (edited out)
email: (edited out)
I look forward to hearing from someone. We desperately seek a resolution to this problem. We are once again watching a DVD this evening, as we cannot access channels 2-300, have tested our internet connection of being 256 Kbps down (which is very sub par to our supposed 3 meg per second connection), and cannot spare any more time holding for some response via 1-888-GetCharter option 3. Thank you for your time
Here's their response:
Thank you for writing to Charter Communications. My name is Neil and I would be glad to assist you.
I understand that you are not happy with Charter policies and customer service.
We apologize for the inconvenience you may have experienced. We also appreciate the email you have sent. As we are striving to improve our customer service efforts, your input is very valuable to us here at Charter. This demonstrates us the areas in which we need to improve upon. We are continually adding to our number of Customer Service Representatives, and are implementing new customer service standards to improve Charter, and to make you a more satisfied customer.
I have again escalated this issue to our local office and our one of supervisor will call you. Escal0146105 is the request number for your reference. I also scheduled an appointment on 8/25/2006 between 8 AM to 5 PM to your issue. I would like to inform you that this is earliest available date. We request your time and cooperation in this regard.
We have made a careful note of your comments so that they can be passed on to the relevant departments and employees.
We thank you for your feedback.
Sincerely,
Neil
Charter Communications
