Which company is best for both home phone & internet service (buy, school)

[moved]

Originally Posted by PollyGlott

I thought one didn't get to choose between Time-Warner and Cox, that any specific area was covered by one or the other, not both. Am I completely off here?

Yes, that's right. Areas are served by one or the other, and AT&T serves all areas. That's what I stated in my first post. You have to go to each website and enter your address. That will tell you whether your area is served by Cox or Time Warner. And you won't get a choice.

[vahnessuh]

We had internet and cable... cable was fine except that it didn't have much free stuff in it. Internet... ugh! We kept getting no service at different hours of the day. Since we had Vonage at that time for home phone, we didn't have phone access as well... which was annoying and inconvenient.

If you're wondering why we cared about home phone if we have cellphones... we used to live in Coronado Ranch complex of townhouses where we barely had cell service inside the house. It was really bad when we moved in... we had to go out to the street if we wanted to use our cellphones to get service. At the end of our stay there, it got better... we can use our cellphones as long as we go up to the 3rd floor.

But... for our area, we had a choice of AT&T, Cox and Time Warner if that helps.

[Oerdin]

Why even have a home phone these days? For internet Cable has the highest max speed but if there are a lot of people on your block with it then the average speed you actually get slows to a crawl. DSL has a lower theoretical max speed but no matter how many other houses are on the switch on your block your speed is always the same so defacto AT&T DSL is actually faster for me on my block then Time Warner's Road Runner (unless I login at 4am or something).

[moved]

I was forced to get a landline due to the fact that everyone uses my cell phone, and I kept going over my minutes. I originally ordered a number through AT&T, and their customer service is less than desirable. It turned out that the one phone jack I have doesn't work, and to ask the landlord to fix it would be a waste of time. It took a over a week to establish the number through AT&T, and when I called to request that it be disconnected, they didn't do it and sent me a bill. I raised hell about it, and didn't have to pay it.

I then called Cox. What a difference! I was on the phone with customer service for all of 10 minutes and received my number. The tech was out the next morning at 9:00, went out on the pole, then came back and gave me a new cable modem that belongs to them. He said that way, if it goes out, it won't cost me anything to replace it. They paid me $100 for having a bundle, and I pay $7.00 per month for the phone.

Would I switch to AT&T? Never!

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by moved

I was forced to get a landline due to the fact that everyone uses my cell phone, and I kept going over my minutes. I originally ordered a number through AT&T, and their customer service is less than desirable. It turned out that the one phone jack I have doesn't work, and to ask the landlord to fix it would be a waste of time. It took a over a week to establish the number through AT&T, and when I called to request that it be disconnected, they didn't do it and sent me a bill. I raised hell about it, and didn't have to pay it.

I then called Cox. What a difference! I was on the phone with customer service for all of 10 minutes and received my number. The tech was out the next morning at 9:00, went out on the pole, then came back and gave me a new cable modem that belongs to them. He said that way, if it goes out, it won't cost me anything to replace it. They paid me $100 for having a bundle, and I pay $7.00 per month for the phone.

Would I switch to AT&T? Never!

We had a semi (not supposed to be on this street) rip out phone lines up and down the street and ATT was going to make me and my neighbors pay some joke amount to hook us back up. The next day TW was installing my new phone.

[lostfan13]

I've had positive experiences with both Road Runner (TW) and Cox. TW sent out techs consistently to help out when we had problems with latency and connectivity (for free!). Cox, in my experience, was generally very reliable and I never had to call them in the first place. I had less internet downtime with Cox than with TW.

I haven't had the best customer service experiences with ATT, so I don't do internet with them even though I have phone service with them. Again, these experiences are anecdotal, and yours may vary.

[bber4life]

In my opinion, this one isn't even close.....like everyone has said, you don't really have a choice between Time Warner and Cox, but if you can get ATT, GO FOR IT!!

I have had ATT for 2 years before I moved out here and was forced to go with Time Warner. I work for a major IT company and have a home office and rely heavily on the internet, that being said, Time Warner is aweful, I hate their service and drop off the internet multiple times throughout the day. On top of all that, I require the fastest internet possible, even then, it is nowhere near the speed and capabilities I had with ATT. The cable is aweful with limited abilities....

All in all, since I REFUSE to sign a contract, I am paying over 200 dollars a month right now for just internet and Cable, if the service was good, I wouldn't really care, but knowing the service sucks and I would pay far less with ATT and wouldn't have to commit to a contract makes it 10 times worse!!

Stay away from Time Warner!!!

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by bber4life

In my opinion, this one isn't even close.....like everyone has said, you don't really have a choice between Time Warner and Cox, but if you can get ATT, GO FOR IT!!

I have had ATT for 2 years before I moved out here and was forced to go with Time Warner. I work for a major IT company and have a home office and rely heavily on the internet, that being said, Time Warner is aweful, I hate their service and drop off the internet multiple times throughout the day. On top of all that, I require the fastest internet possible, even then, it is nowhere near the speed and capabilities I had with ATT. The cable is aweful with limited abilities....

All in all, since I REFUSE to sign a contract, I am paying over 200 dollars a month right now for just internet and Cable, if the service was good, I wouldn't really care, but knowing the service sucks and I would pay far less with ATT and wouldn't have to commit to a contract makes it 10 times worse!!

Stay away from Time Warner!!!

I was allowed to have any business suite offered by any Company with the contract I have at my job. ATT didn't have anything close to the business packages TW or Cox offer. You need to look at the Cox packages for small businesses. ATT wasn't even an option for the building I set up as they didn't offer anything in scope.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by moved

I was forced to get a landline due to the fact that everyone uses my cell phone, and I kept going over my minutes.

I go through Verizon and get unlimited minutes for just $59.95 per month.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

I go through Verizon and get unlimited minutes for just $59.95 per month.

I've got Sprint for the same deal plus unlimited data so I can tether my laptop