Charter Communications-- (Asheville, Weaverville: townhouse, live in, price)

[fredda]

It seems that all I read is bad news and horror stories about this company's practices. Has anyone anything good to say about this company and the way it does business?
I sure would like to hear it.
Thanks, fredda

[Asheville Native]

The bill always comes on time.
They usually get a new "fee" rolled in every couple of months or so, but not quite as bad as the phone company.
If you have a problem, you can usually talk to a human being in less than an hour after calling.
That person may even be in the US, or Canada.
If it requires they come to your house to resolve the issue, it is can almost always scheduled sometime in the next 30 days.

[roxors]

Here's one of the horror stories. I live in Asheville in a townhouse complex. I have had DirecTV since 2003, since I dumped Charter due to their lousy service here (they couldn't keep my internet service running). About a year ago, the new next door neighbors had Charter come out to hook up their cable. While doing that, the Charter technician disconnected my DirecTV by unhooking the wrong cable in a switchbox. This was on a Friday evening. I don't think he did it maliciously, just stupidly. After an hour or so of messing around, I was able to figure out what happened. The switchbox was locked however.

I called Charter customer service to get them out here, and they confirmed the fact that they were out here and they were probably responsible. They wouldn't come out here to fix it that night and told me it would be at least three or four days before they'd come out to fix it. The girl I talked to was sympathetic, but there was nothing she could do. My wife and I finally were able to pry open the switchbox and fix it ourselves. Charter called me back a full week later ready to send someone out here. Pathetic, worthless customer service and I would never pay them a dime again. If I had to move somewhere where they were the only option, I wouldn't move...plain and simple. Avoid them at all costs.

[Asheville Native]

Guess you're lucky they didn't bring charges for breaking into their box.

[Father John]

Charter and Comcast are the absolute worst cable companies (as far as reputation and service goes) in the country. That is the biggest downside of me moving there because I love my internet. But you get what you get, I guess. We have Cox here in Arizona and while they can have bad periods, they are about 95% on the scale.\

From what my friends and relatives in Michigan, Massachusetts, Maine, and elsewhere tell me, Charter gets about a 60% and Comcast 65% - barely passing. I dread having to choose...

[a2zmom]

Shortly before we moved to NC, our Time Warner service was purchased by Comcast....HORRIBLE!!! They told us we would have 6 months to change our se.rr.com email addresses over and less than 2 months into the buyout, we could suddenly not use our TW email addresses and NO ONE at Comcast could tell us why, nor could they get us new Comcast addresses! We went to generic gmail addresses knowing we would be in NC soon enough and it wasn't worth sitting on hold for hours on end to get the issue resolved. Here in H-ville, we have Mediacom and we are very pleased with them.

[cowboy_wilhelm]

Originally Posted by roxors

I dumped Charter due to their lousy service here (they couldn't keep my internet service running).

Same here and for my sister when she was in Asheville. It seemed it was fairly fast when it was connected, but it would disconnect at least once a day. It became very frustrating, so it was dropped and replaced with Windstream (formerly Alltel) DSL, which I've had for over a year now. It seems on the slow side for broadband, but it at least stays connected.

Also dropped the digital cable service since they kept going up on the price and there was still nothing to watch. . . .

[Father John]

We may very well go with NetFlix and no cable (or satellite), too. Who needs the "idiot box" in such beautiful country, anyways?

[gypsychic]

I, too, have nothing good to say about Charter! Worst customer service on the planet and OUTRAGEOUS FEES for an inferior product! Since we don't live in Asheville full time, I have put the services on "vacation" for awhile, paying a minimal charge each month, but come spring, I think I am going to have it all disconnected and look for alternatives, especially since our plans changed and we don't get up there as much as we thought we would initially.

Bottom line, if you have ANY other choices but Charter, I would go with it.

[djc1949]

All I can say is W O W

Coming from NY, I had Charlie Dolans "IO" cablevision. We were very happy with the service and reliability. Coming to Weaverville. I wanted Charter. I was told they are not in this area. So I had to 'settle' for Direct TV. Thank God. After reading and hearing the horror stories about Charter. I am so happy with Direct TV. In the 2 years we have had it. We have lost service 3, maybe 4 times. And for no longer than 2 hours in total. Only because of very bad weather.
We will never switch to cable.