Need advice, moving to austin (Lakeway, West: home, neighborhood, buyer)

[thekid3600]

Hello,
I am moving to Falconhead in July and was wondering if anyone had experice/advice concerning:
1. Cable (satellite, cable, etc)
2. Electricity vendors in this neighborhood.

Thanks

[cwl1994]

Most people will have Time Warner Cable but I do know a few with AT&T

[FalconheadWest]

I have AT&T U-verse for internet and Directv for TV. Electric is Austin Energy, no choice there.

[TonyG5003]

You will see horrible reviews online for Time Warner... BUT, in Falconhead (and the area's newer developments), Time Warner is the one to go with, in my opinion. I lived in Falconhead for 5 years, and only had one inexplicable outage for cable & internet. The other few were all weather related.

I'm convinced that most of those bad reviews for Time Warner are due to their infrastructure in older areas of town. For example, when I lived in Lakeway, Time Warner was abysmal due to them not upgrading what they bought from the previous cable provider there. It was so bad, that I switched to DirecTV (before moving out of state.)

I personally don't like dealing with AT&T - though I did have my phone service through them, rather than cable.

Oh... and one more thing... if you're in the original part of Falconhead, watch your propane bill like a hawk. I can't speak for the propane provider in the "new" section of Falconhead.

[CarnivalGal]

I'm one that will give you horrible reviews for Time Warner. We have them for internet, but only because my husband's company pays for it. And I have still considered getting rid of them. To what Tonyg5003 said, one of the Time Warner folks who came out here to fix a problem one time (I'm in Steiner) told me that the outlying, high growth areas (like Falconhead and Steiner) have horrible service because rather than actually creating new infrastructure like they should, Time Warner just keeps tying in to the old, existing one it has out here. And the old existing one was never intended to handle that kind of traffic. He said it was like overloading an electrical circuit - if you do that, the breaker is going to keep getting tripped. He said it was the technicians' biggest frustration. Now if a Time Warner person is telling me it's bad, then it must not be too great. Also, every time I call, I stay on hold FOREVER. It's ridiculous. Oh, and they were supposed to come out here and bury a cable for us 3 months ago and still haven't shown up. Critters keep chewing it, and their solution in the past has been to put electrical tape over the chewed parts. I guess after getting called out here all the time by us and our neighbors, they decided to bury it (after only a few years). Now just to get them to show up.

We have DirecTV for television and have been happy with them. We have also had Dish Network and been happy as well.

And you don't have a choice about electricity (unfortunately).

[TonyG5003]

Originally Posted by mm57553

Now if a Time Warner person is telling me it's bad, then it must not be too great. Also, every time I call, I stay on hold FOREVER. It's ridiculous. Oh, and they were supposed to come out here and bury a cable for us 3 months ago and still haven't shown up.

Yes... I agree with THAT. While I never experienced any problems in Falconhead, I did have major cable issues in Flintrock Falls. There too, as with older Lakeway, the Time Warner tech guys complained about the network - so I can confirm similar conversations. (My main issue was the internet speeds varying wildly.) And at my last Austin home in Flintrock, I had 7 visits from techs - within only a 4.5 month span - that was last winter/spring. It was frustrating that none of the techs were aware of the recurring problems - that is until I had connected with a "good" one who took the problem to management. But, even with my "direct line" to those folks, they still couldn't cure the problem - and then I moved to Seattle.

Unfortunately, AT&T U-Verse wasn't an option in Flintrock Falls. All I know, is I hate dealing with AT&T - other than for wireless.

In any event, I think Falconhead is on a different (and newer) "node" than Lakeway and Flintrock. But perhaps with the addition of Falconhead West, it's gotten worse. I haven't lived in Falconhead since Aug. 2010.

LOL... and as far as burying the cable (new construction) - after numerous calls over a year, I finally just buried the thing myself. Unfortunately, the buyer of my home immediately chopped right into it doing basic yard work.