The crooks at Charter Communications (St. Louis: rental, new house, transfer)

[AJohnston_STL]

I'm just curious, what issues have YOU had with Charter Communications?

1. After 1 month of service, we sent in a check to pay our bill. 3 weeks and 11 phone calls to Charter's 800 number and the St. Louis corporate office and a technician coming to pick up all of our equipment later, they suddenly cash the check that they "never received." When I called to scream because I was FURIOUS that they had been HARASSING us over a check that was sitting under some fat guy's chair for 3 weeks, the Indian on the line had no clue what I was even saying. His response was basically "yes ok sir." No clue at all.

2. We then had 2 cable boxes go bad within days of each other, after being a customer for about 2 months.

3. We found a better deal on service, so we had them remove our service. They sent a technician to our house to pick up the equipment. He grabbed it off of the porch and left. 4 months later, we start receiving collection notices and phone calls for un-returned equipment. Every time we call (we always called directly to the St Louis office to avoid the foreign support who had no idea what we were saying and are given no empowerment to help us) we are told that they will "check the warehosue and call you back." The first guy in early November said he would call back "by Thursday" (this was on Monday)....3 weeks later when he hadn't called, I called someone else. He said he would check the warehouse and get back to me "no later than Thursday (again on a Monday). Guess what? No call. SO I call the following Tuesday and talk to a woman. She'll find this Robert guy and have him call. He finally calls a couple days later and says it wasn't in the warehouse. I gave up. I filed with the Better Business Bureau (I would suggest EVERYONE do this). I was contacted by the BBB, and subsequently by someone from Charter. She continues to say she is going to contact the warehouse. Wow, really? After all of this trouble you cause a customer, you are still hassling me over equipment that is ABSOLUTELY USELESS to ANYONE because of the way they are set up? I have ZILCH to gain by keeping their crap equipment. I keep getting asked if I got a receipt. NO. YOU DO NOT EXPECT TO HAVE TO KEEP A RECEIPT FOR EQUIPMENT BEING PICKED UP BY YOUR OWN IDIOT TECHNICIAN..
I then ask the rep from Charter, "Well, can we check on who the technician was for this particular work order?" She does it. Guess what? The work order HAS BEEN CLOSED. MEANING THE WORK HAS BEEN COMPLETED. So, now what's the excuse, Charter? "Uh, well, we have to see what that means..because like...the dispatch office might have closed it and...well...let me talk to my manager and I'll get back to you." I simply told her "It sounds to me like you are charging the wrong guy. This is some pretty damning evidence don't you think?"

I'm interested to hear some other wonderful customer service stories from Charter. Kind of takes the mystery out of their stock being worth less than 20 cents per share.

No, seriously;
CHTR - Yahoo! Search Results

[aragx6]

For years I've been trying to figure out if Charter is purposefully running a scam operation of if they're just so painfully mismanaged that it's laughable.

I have heard this story and others like it dozens of times over the years.

In fact, I would go out on a limb and say you'll have a much harder time finding people who've had NO trouble with Charter.

[loki03xlh]

I used to be a perfectly happy Charter customer until last year. I had digital cable, shotime, and their high speed internet for about 70 bucks a month. Last summer I purchased ahouse and called to have my service moved form my old rental to my new house a couple miles down the road. The service transfer went fine, no problems.
I expected a service transfer fee somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 bucks as per quote at the time. The first bill I received after moving was over double what I was used to paying. When I called to complain, I was told that they closed my old account and set up a new one, cancelling my previous special package and replacing it with the highest price they offer the service at. I then told them that I would like their new supscriber package, but was told that I don't qualify since I am not a new customer. So, basically I don't get my current customer price or the new customer price, only the "bend over and take it price".
Since then I have cancelled all premium content, and transferred over my internet service to AT&T naked dsl. Come springtime I will be putting up a dish and getting rid of charter completely.

[MoNative34]

I was talking to my dad a few days ago. He lives out in far west county on one of those private subdivsions in the woods. For all these years, there was no cable service available. Most in the neighborhood have satellite dishes as an alternative. Well, charter is finally installing a line in the neighborhood. He chatted with the crew and found out that they were only going half way down the road and not even servicing the entire neighborhood. Why would Charter do that? That's what my dad asked the crew and the response was... "That's Charter for ya".... Even the employees seem to think the company is a joke.

If they send letters, simply write REFUSED on the unopened envelope and out it back in the mail. If they call, hang up.

AJohnston... I completely understand your frustration.

[AJohnston_STL]

Thanks guys. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this. I was supposed to get a message from them today, but my phone has been dead all day and I don't have a charger here...and I don't have a password set on my VM so I have to dial it from my phone.

So, I look forward to giving you all an update tomorrow. Maybe. I might be steaming.

*warming up the caps lock key*

[Azalea City Man]

Charter sucks ... we use them.

[sjp1]

Don't get me started on this one!

[djkkt6]

Charter customer service is the absolute worst. EVERY TIME I call... which is often, unfortunately... I talk to someone, give them all my info, then they tell me that I'm in the other billing system. So they transfer me, I wait on hold for another 10-15 minutes, and then give the next idiot the exact same info. How does this happen? Seriously, how on earth are they so dumb?

[marmac]

I'm glad I got Dish.

We had 2 problems last week and a customer Service rep walked us through the problems and fixed them while communicating on the phone.

They did it while speaking perfect English, also.

[AJohnston_STL]

Even the people who handle BBB complaints suck, apparently. She still hasn't called yet.