Time Warner, I've had it! (Raleigh: how much, contractor, live in)

[aldamon]

Originally Posted by Dire Wolf

I've been thinking about dropping TWC for Dish's new TurboHD offering.

The "TurboHD" package isn't that great. It's kind of a gimmick.

[CarolinaCowboy]

The company is driven to recruit new customers. It seems like a bait, hook and then leave you holding the bag scheme. They need to slow down on trying to grow their base and attend to their lacking service needs, then go back to growing their local customer base.

I mean we are talking about a basic phone line not working! That is rediculous. A phone is a crucial utility and when it goes down daily, there is something majorly wrong there!

[Bartman]

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a huge fan of TW, as I would love to see some competition.

However, I've been pleasantly surprised with the digital phone service. After 14 months now, the phone has never been out of service. Cable TV never goes out and the internet service has always been superb. On occasion, the internet service will go down and I'll have to restart the modem (usually following a power surge or lights flickering), but that's about it.

Granted, they laid new fiber optic cables around our area (near downtown) a couple years ago. Before that, things would "spurt out" on occasion. So, it may be wise to try to find out if new fiber optic cables have been installed in your area going with TW. I doubt the customer service reps will even know, so it may be best to ask the neighbors.

[gastric]

Welcome to internet telephony! Even if you have Vonage and your internet goes down, so will Vonage. Additionally, if you're a heavy P2P or file download user your router may not be able to handle that traffic AND Vonage at the same time. I had to resort to using 3rd party firmware on my household router to provide quality-of-service features to let me force the Vonage device to receive good feeds regardless of the rest of the activity.

It's all technology. Which sounds great, but isn't always easy to use. But I still prefer it all over landlines and cable TV.

[seattlenextyear]

They put me on hold for 3 hours last time we had a service outage. All they had to do is send a guy out to plug the cable into another splitter. It took him 5 minutes. It wasted 10 of my time.

We canceled cable tv specifically so we wouldn't be giving them any more money. We're dependent on cable internet though, so we have no other choice.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

I've had TW for 3+ years and have never had a single outage. I also have their cable internet service (through earthlink) and use an internet phone (through vongage) and have had zero problems.

The best thing is I only pay 11 clams for cable and get a sweet HD signal.

[ALT-X]

I didn't have too many problems with Time Warner. My major complaint was their HD-DVR boxes were kind of buggy. They'd freeze up and you'd have to reset them pretty often. I went with DIRECTV about a month ago and have been very happy (NFL Sunday Ticket/Superfan). I kept Time Warner for my internet as I have never experienced problems with it's service.

[suncat]

In October, I'm moving into an apartment that comes with Time Warner cable TV and internet. The place where I'm currently staying has a TW phone landline, and the reception is not good when I talk long-distance. It's fine with local calls. I am told that is normal. Phooey.

In my new place, I am undecided about the phone. Should I add a TW landline? Go with Vonage? Bell South? I considered going to cell-only, but Verizon has dismal coverage around the Triangle. Their commercials brag about their great network. Double phooey.

[Dire Wolf]

Originally Posted by aldamon

The "TurboHD" package isn't that great. It's kind of a gimmick.

How so?

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by suncat

I considered going to cell-only, but Verizon has dismal coverage around the Triangle. Their commercials brag about their great network. Double phooey.

Are you being serious? I get excellent signal coverage in the Triangle on my Verizon cell phone. I'm in downtown Raleigh right now with 4 Bars baby! I also get a great signal out in the burbs.