So let's talk Grande Networks VS Time Warner Cable

[nwcubsfan]

Personally, my issue with TWC has little to do with price and basically is all about bad customer service

Now Jenbar, you're from Seattle so I know you remember the craptastic juggernaut that was TCI Cable. Those jokers make TWC look like Nordstrom.

FWIW, my TWC has been rock solid with only two outages in 8 months. I am getting my HDTV OTA and I am just getting basic cable through TWC and using my TiVo (hacked to record an obscene amount of programming).

Once my new house is done in RR, it will be one of the first communities in the Austin area to feature fibre optics to the home from AT&T. I'll be interested in seeing the speeds/packages for that, but I'm sure I'll just end up using cable like I always have.

[kare893969]

HI
I just moved here 2 weeks ago and have had to call Time warner several times for internet and cable tv problems. For a new customer, they are not impressing me. I had comcast in PA and never had problems like TW.

[darkfluid]

Having used Time warner for several years at their highest tier going to Grande and then back to time warner...I have to say Grande wins hands down.

Time warner offer 10mb, but it goes down with frequency and is rarely delivering more than 8mb. Grande 8mb however was constantly pegged at 8mb for me. (I lived in a fiber to the home area so keep in mind this may make a difference). The lack of a modem with grande was great as well. Just a Cat5 drop to plug into.

Also the ridiculous pricing structure with time warner is a pain. They charge a ridiculous amount for 10 mb cable modems on Time Warner if you don't want cable tv and phone. I prefer vonage and still use them because TW ip phone service doesn't have the features or convenience of Vonage. Despite that I am currently paying for a triple play combo because it's cheaper than just getting what I want (cable and internet). I am paying for services that I shouldn't have to.

On the other hand grande is much better priced if you don't want all three.

Finally as stated above customer service with Grande was EXCELLENT!! Every billing or technical call was extremely polite, quickly answered and very personable.

As a minor complaint we really liked the channel layout of Grande better than time warner as well.

We were so happy with Grande, it's too bad they aren't available in my new neighborhood. We went in to time warner with an open mind hoping that they weren't as bad as we remembered. Our install went as followed:

1. Took a week to get an install date scheduled (not terribly unexpected).
2. The install took 4 hours. Cable box problems, Cable modem wouldn't sync. Finally done and they even programed to remote to use my tv as well as an apology. (Grande installer programmed the remote to work with our stereo, dvd player, tv and said if I wasn't at home and the gf had trouble/bought new tv, they would come to the house for free to program the remote for the new device for her)
3. The next day the cable box displayed a message stating that our box wasn't authorized...no cable. After 2 hours approx waiting for an associate the cable tv is back on.
4. Never got more than 5 mb on the cable modem despite paying for 10mb for 5 days after install. Started mysteriously working one hour before the on site tech showed up. The sub contractor admitted to me that they have problems like this all the time on various nodes. He didn't know how bad mine was as he normally didn't work my area.
5. Explorer 8000 dvr we have is horrible. Dumb programming repeats recordings, fast forward and rewind are buggy and constantly make strange jumps straight to the beginning of the program or just hang all together.


Over all we had much better service and pricing for my needs with Grande. I'm looking at going to dish now. I probably will stay with the 10 Mb cable modem but the price will go up for internet only because of TW's wacky pricing structure, but I guess I'll have to live with it because DSL doesn't have a fast enough tier for me.

FYI if you are moving out of a Grande area, give them your info when you place the shutoff request and they can notifiy you when they have built out to your area...I'm hoping it's soon for us.

Please remember, YMMV. This is only my personal experience.