I have been a Charter Communications customer since January 2010 and have been paying for 5mbs Internet service ever since; however, the company has sent out not one, not two, not three, but four technicians who cannot seem to diagnose or troubleshoot a line if thier life depended on it.

Here's the problem. It appears that my modem (Motorola Surfboard 6120 w/0 firmware upgrade), has to boost the upstream signal so much, the dropped packets become intolerable. They (customer service/tech support) say that running 47-50 dBmV upstream is acceptable; however, that drops my effective bandwith to 1 mbs up and 1 mbs down. This is 20% of what I am paying for. Do you think they would charge 20% of the cost? Nope.

Now I have to take a day off of work to meet the 5th technician on Friday. It is amazing that not one of the technicians could figure out that you either need to put a filter on it, or if the signal is running so hot downstream that getting anything upstream has to be amplified so much that it is interfering with the line quality, that it might need a little tweaking to get the signal right. Maybe an attenuator or two could solve it, but isn't that what the technicians are paid to do? And when I asked for a credit on the account, they offered what would have been equal to the difference in quality of service for two months. This didn't even include the amount that I am going to lose by taking a day off of work to meet a technician for the third time myself.

Resolution requested: The level of Internet service that I am paying for and getting it done on Friday once and for all. I would also like to be compensated for the loss of work for the second time, since they cannot seem to get anyone to schedule service calls after bankers hours or on the weekends, but the most important thing is to get the level of service that I am currently paying for, but they are not delivering all because they might have to send someone out who can put the right combination of parts (attenuators and/or filters).

Thomas Mullen

Charter has failed to refund billed amount (482.08$) which was billed post disconnection. I was a Charter Communications customer for Cable TV + Internet from Sep 07 - Oct 08 in Monona, WI. I had called Charter to disconnect Cable 1st week of Oct 08 and also asked them to disconnect Internet end of the month of Oct 08 and I was verbally confirmed the request was under effect. I again called on 31 Oct 08 to confirm the disconnection and to ask about the equipment return center's address and hours. I was unable to return the equipment and had to leave the City and State as I was shifting to Chicago. I had not noticed until August 09 that I was charged by Charter until March 09 for varying amounts in the tune of 482.08$ post disconnection. I called Charter customer care number and got the rep Mike Cruz who looked at the account and advised me that a probable error in the billing might have happened and told me he'd put in a case of escalation. I should hear back about the refund in 6-8 weeks. I called 6 weeks later to reach another rep who said the request was still under way. In Oct 09, I was advised by a different rep that the escalation had not happened and she would put in a fresh request again. I was stalled for 6-8 weeks again and told earlier in the year that I should return the equipment first to facilitate any of the refunds. I was also asked to submit my bank records to the same facility which depicted the over-payment post disconnection. I finally managed to go to Madison, WI back and returned the equipment in April 10. I faxed the copies of the bank statements to the facility in Madison, WI later the same week. There is no phone numnber to the facility and the Charter reps kept on saying they couldn't reach the Madison office themselves! I received a check for 99$ for the returned equipment in May. I again called the Charter call center about the over payments and all the reps kept on telling that since it was a new year (2010) they could not verify anything about the last year!! I tried 5-6 times to convince someone and also spoke to Managers who ended the call saying there was absolutely nothing they could do. I was completely helpless with no information on how to proceed. Finally I was able to search internet for similar cases and write about my experiences in a couple of sites where in I was contacted by the 'UMatter2Charter' team via email asking me for my info to start the case again. I exhanged emails with 3 guys George, Robert Little and WItten Henderson. The latter finally replied after a month or 2 saying he wasnt able top dig up the account and referred me to this 'Customer Care Advocacy Team' on theirs housed in Town and Country, MO. They tried to call me and weren't able to (?) and sent me a mail to my address saying so. It has been a couple of months I have been trying to advance the case in their books (the person assigned to my case is Kim). I have provided all the relevent documents upon their request (usually its a week or more of delay before they respond and usually never call me with any updates). I am utterly exhausted and frustrated with the quality of service I have been receiving from Charter; Its been more than 2 years since my disconnection with Charter and more than a year for me trying to get a refund from them

Customer service rep, said her name was Aja, did not understand her companie's promotions, would not slow down her speech, (Very poor English, difficult to understand) Would not give me any employee identification number. Would not answer questions About wire service.

I told her for 30 minutes "Do not make changes to my account, Connect me to a supervisor"

She refused, and then hung up on me.

I have lived in a Charter monopoly cable area now for three years, and they have provided me a great deal of insight into how a technology company can totally botch customer service, hiding behind a local monopoly contract. My experiences should illustrate what a consumer has to go through before they actually get mad enough to take action, and what they have to do to try and get rid of Charter.

It started in 2008 when the Charter installer came to install the equipment. He was unable to get service running to the apartment I was in even though I showed the apartments next door had unreliable service (implying the problem was either in the complex wiring or in Charters wiring) and told me that I could not understand the complexity of internet communication and that it was the fault of my non-standard computer. When I brought out three other computers that likewise would not connect he said, you must have done something to them and left without installing the service, requiring that I call, make a new appointment, and have a new installation made. Since the problem was in the Charter office and not in the local wiring, the next tech was able to quickly fix things, but it required me to take time off work a second time to wait for them.

The service at the apartment was bad, but Charter explained it that the Apartment's wiring was at fault and that they could not help that.

In 2009 I moved into a new house, and had Charter hooked up, expecting that the service issues from the apartment would be solved. The house was less than a mile from the apartment, but the service issues where the same. Oddly enough, they were the same at my neighbors. They were the same in the apartment complex behind my house. For all of us the Internet service was fitful and rarely worked for longer than 60 minutes. Playing an online game was frustrating because Charter would disconnect every 45 minutes or so. Video conferencing was problematic, although it usually was more graceful about a lost charter connection.

I called for service and was told that they would send a tech out to see what I was doing wrong. I accepted their offer, but also decided to run a test for myself. (The tech would later report nothing wrong and suggest it was the fault of the new Vista operating system). After the tech came out and said the problem must be in the wire to my house (and said that my neighbor who had the same problems at the same time must also have bad wires.) I started to take my test seriously. For a week, I put Charter through its paces.

Running a log, I recorded more than 40 DHCP resets in one hour during a particularly bad day. On the second week I recorded more than 7 hours of interruptions each day, and I recorded more than 50 interruptions of 30 seconds or more each day for more than a month. During the month of my tests the Internet was constricted for bandwidth on numerous occasions, unavailable many occasions, and these problems extended to my neighbors as well as my own service. Occasionally, I would run a speed test and get 15/mbs, close enough to what I was paying for, but when the system became fitful it would run at 3-7 m/bs.

I tested the service out with Macintosh and Windows computers. The Mac where a bit more graceful at handling the DHCP resets, but online communication was still fitful. My friends brought over laptops and desktops to see if the standard technician's line about nonstandard computers (or the "Window's Vista problem) was the issue. The problems remained.

One evening after cable service interruption crashed two video conferences and brought down a game I was playing three times, I called customer service for the last time, and was enlightened by their response. The CSR rep said if all I was doing was playing games then I should be ashamed to complain about a few interruptions, that it might do me good to get away from my computer. When I said that I also work in the communication industry and video conferencing (for example) was essential to that work she said that the consumer connections dont have to be reliable but that if I really want reliable Internet, I can pay for it by getting a business connection, and she could terminate my Internet contract if she discovered I was conducting business on it.

When I asked her if this was good customer service, she said if I did not like Charter, I could do business with another cable company.

A year later and I have the same poor service despite moving to a new house in a new part of town. During the installation at my most recent house the installer was the most knowledgeable and friendly to yet service my contract, but likewise he could do nothing to make the connections reliable.

Charter is a secure in its monopoly in my town and the only real high speed service provider. Meetings of angry customers, e-mail campaigns, and chat group revolts do not work. Charter is capable of ignoring the complaints of even hundreds of customers.

As a consumer, there is very little left to do, but try and bring out the big guns. In my personal life I have been able to steer around $100, 000 dollars of business from Charter, not much (drinking with a local Charter employee -- its a small town -- he says Charter wastes that must in corporate dinner parties in a single day and will never notice it, it only hurts the salespeople who loose the commissions). To fight bad customer service by charter, I have started to contemplate other actions.

1) Try an get an alternate company to come into town and provide a rival service. Comcast, Brighthouse, and Verizon have all provided excellent service to me in the past. Letters to each company so far have come up dry ("We cannot reveal our future expansion goals is the best I got, a form letter) but if I can get competition for Charter, it will offer all of the weary citizens of my town relief.

2) Contact the media. This is not as useful as it seems because with budget cuts in papers, journalists simply do not have time to report on a local monopoly who hides behind its city charter to provide poor service. Still, if enough people contact enough journalists, one will find a story and run with it, eventually.

3) Try to remove the Charter contract with the city. This is tougher than it seems. Charter pays a good bit of change to the city to run a community access television service. The city siphons off most of this money into other uses. This money is always on the mind of city council people when you bring up Charter and its contract. Break the monopoly, and the money is lost to the city.

4) Hope Charter goes out of business and is acquired by someone else. This is not as likely anymore, although it was the hope of many people at the last meeting on this subject I went to.

5) Hope a new technology comes about that allows DSL providers (our local provider Fairpoint is an excellent company with a great local reputation) to compete with cable modem in price and speed. I would pay twice my current bill to get half the bandwidth, if it was offered and came with bullet proof service.

I am very dissatisfied with this company's customer service and business practices. I normally am a patient and laid back person, but this company has pushed my buttons! I have more than once had to call regarding additional charges to my bill and when I call about them, it takes forever for them to explain the charge, which they almost always end up dropping! It almost seems shady to me. The latest (and last straw) was when I received a $36.99 additional charge to my bill under Charter TV services. I called and after being directed through the phone maze for 30 minutes, the representative did not seem to fully understand the billing process or services which made it more frustrating to say the least. I was first told that my "deal" had ended .. and when I said why does it say "service visit", they said it was for the internet tech that came out to repair our internet modem. We pay extra money for their modem because it covers service calls. Well I was told that since I didn't pay the "wire fee", that this is why I was charged. But then when she looked at the bill, she said she really couln't tell what the fee was for and that I had to DRIVE 20 minutes to the local branch (she actually told me they don't have a phone) to resolve this! I am so discouraged and frustrated with this company -- unfortunately, it is the only provider in this area for cable/internet. Very frustrated!