Time Warner Cable

[he's so hott]

Originally Posted by RDSLOTS

Anyone familiar with what the AT&T fellow was telling me would soon be in the offering? Better choice from an a la carte menu of channels really appeals to me.

Isn't this what Embarq is advertising now?

It's called U-Verse which is their answer to Verizon's FIOS. I've never tried FIOS or U-Verse so I can't comment on the services.

[pjc0715]

Dish Network has an HD only package for $30 a month. Gives you 43 channels all in HD, basically like standard cable. You have to spend another 5 or 6 bucks a month for local channels but you can pull those in over the air for free. The DVR is $6 a month which is $2 cheaper than TWC. Only problem is with that setup of course you can't DVR your local stations.

[Sayantsi]

You can always just buy a DVR and eventually save on that, plus you can record OTA or cable channels.

[cectarheel]

The options in Chapel Hill are poor. We moved from Richmond, VA, which has had Verizon's Fios for close to two years. It was cheaper than anything you can get around here. The internet was blazing fast, the phone service was excellent and included all of the features for no extra charge, the TV picture was much clearer than dish or cable. That's just the beginning. The installers are professionals who treat customers with respect. Our installer spent time showing my wife all of the features and writing down all of the help numbers. When we called Verizon customer service I never had a problem getting a person to help me. The Fios TV service was excellent... a much more user-friendly interface than TWC and a far, far superior DVR. I am not kidding; Verizon Fios makes TWC look like a total joke.

Now regarding my poor experiences here: We signed up for Dish Network because we really needed (wanted) Bravo. The earliest they could install was three weeks after my order. We waited. They did not show up. I took a day off from work and waited for them. I called customer service and they said that somebody would get right out. I cancelled our dinner plans. They still didn't show up. I called again and they said the earliest they could get someone back out was another three weeks.

I cancelled dish and ordered Direct TV. It took two weeks to get an installer out. He arrived and said that the big trees are blocking the view so we cannot get service without cutting them down. Now I've waited 2 months to get cable service. I finally gave in and ordered Time/Warner.

Two weeks later TWC shows up. The installer was very unhelpful and acted like he wasn't expecting to have to do some wiring. I indicated on my order that he would have to do some wiring. He left without setting up the remotes and without offering any help to my wife. He did not give us a DVR like we asked. I had to call and setup another appointment to get the DVR. Regarding the service, the picture is fine but I don't notice much difference between regular channels and HD. Also I hate the interface. You can't browse the On-Demand in one place. When you press the "on-demand" button on the remote it only gives you the pay-per-view stuff. You have to go to a specific chanel and you only get to browse that one category of on-demand programming. The DVR is difficult to use. It's hard to find your saved programs. You have to navigate through your setting menu to get there. Why not just have a button on the remote? I need it to be easy so that I can record a program for my kids and they can find it. I can't seem to find an indicator to tell me how much space I have available. The TWC also requires that you set up the dimensions and zoom level on your tv. It seems to vary from chanel to chanel. I never had that problem with Verizon. The box always formatted the chanel to fit my screen. Sometimes I get some scrambling at the top of the screen on HD programming. Whenever I call TWC it takes forever to get a person.

I'm just unhappy with the level of service that we have here. Especially knowing how great the Verizon Fios service is and at a lower price. I will be the first to switch the minute they come to town.

[wguru]

TWC in Hermosa-Manhattan Beach (CA) in my opinion, sucks just like the previous owners (same building and likely hardware as well). Biggest issue w/TWC is they (I beileve) have their heads up their butts because when I went online and inquired about their DSL and Cable plan, they told me they offered cable and DSL in my area, butt then after I went in and paid them to install (because they are still in the cave-man and snail-mail era) , they come out, install the cable and then the installer could't figure out why the DSL didn't work. Only after about two months did I get a refund as TWC wasn't actually ready to do the DSL thing and couldn't even realize it. What a cluster duck. Secondly and worse yet, their cable signal was only good for about a month and then I began noticing the lower channels are always now grainy and speckily, plus now a lot of their movie channels are the same, but oddly and outrageously "the commercials" (during these grainy movies) are crystal clear. That tells me TWC might be using my old vcr tapes (scavenged from my trash can), that and/or maybe they're using speaker wiring vs coaxial cable where they shouldn't be in their facility, not changing their own filter, whatever. Cetainly not worth the headach, let alone the expense (in my opinion). I recall UHF being as good or better than cable (and I've used cable from coast to coast). For over 10 yrs now, here in Redondo, I've on and off tried cable here and all three companies (all housed in the building after one buys out the other) and they all in myopinion have the same awful signal quality (pretty good only for about a month, then they claim they can't improve it). All the profits must be channeled into golden parachutes and secret swiss accts as far as I'm concerned, that and advertising to suck in new subscribers (suckers). What's being done with commerical advertising money is beynd me, it sure doesn't seem to be going into ffiber optics and DSL to subscribers, not to mention providing legitimate quality signals and movies newer than 10 to 40 yrs old). Retail DVD's at least fill in when evenings get really boring. Revolt, cancel and go DVD. They're at least worth the money. Besides, TV's not TV anymore, it's commercials mixed w/tv that's splattered with banner ads, annoying animated previews, humongous channel logos and endless other crapola (all during the movie we're paying for). Try surfing your channels a "any" given time and your lucky to see actual movies running on maybe but 2 or 3 channels out of 60 or so, the rest you will find are commercials and paid advertising. I'm not for Communism, but there ought to be a laws for how much companies can steal and get away with it. But that'd take enforcing them to the extent that the bribe-ees, I mean lobbiests are thrown in jail. I'm fed up with it all, dumped Verizon, went o VoIP, buying and trading DVDs'.

[BayVillage]

"The DVR is difficult to use? Hard to find your saved shows?" My remote has a green button....push it once and there are all your saved shows.

[livesintriangle]

I had a very strange experience with TWC during my last move. The cable and internet are fine, but a contracted installer came out. He was supposed to be here at noon but called me at 8 a.m. to say he was on his way. I wasn't even in my new place yet. I told him to come at the original time. Then he told me to set it up myself and he'd check it to see if it was working. I did only because by now the guy was really pissing me off and I just wanted him out as soon as possible.

I called TWC customer service and told them about all of this and they not only lowered my rate, but they deducted my installation charge, so I can't complain. Beware of TWC contractors.

[saturnfan]

We had great TWC installs for cable and Roadrunner.

Only issue was the buggy DVR software. We returned the DVR for analog service and get free HD for the locals using the HDTV set's tuner.

Never goes down.