Time Warner Cable, you're the best.

We have tried not to use the blog for personal rants, but we have not always succeeded. This morning we are not succeeding.  We're filing from a Starbucks -- for the second morning in a row -- because our Internet service, provided by Time Warner Cable, is down. Off. Kaput. Not working. No cable either.

They fixed the problem yesterday, but there is a new problem today.

We mention this because, well, it seems to happen often. If you added up all the problems we have had with all the other services and products in our home -- the two cars, the electricity, the Apple laptops, the two cellphones, the land line phone, the heat, the water -- the total inconvenience wouldn't come anywhere close to the problems we've had with good old Time Warner Cable.  We rarely had problems with Adelphia, by the way.

So -- anybody out there care to weigh in on the quality of cable service? Just wondering.

Comments

[Joe B.]

From some recent research of my own, it seems that the Adelphia and Comcast neighborhoods taken over by TWC are problematic, but the areas that have been natively covered by TWC since day one are rock solid.

I live in the South Bay (native TWC coverage) and, yes, it's rock solid.

[pablo]

I can't agree with you more. Time Warner cable and internet service suck. I say let the Regas's out of jail and give them back their cable company. Even while stealing millions from their investors and building themselves 18 hole golf course back yards they did a better job of running a cable company than these Time Warner morons do. Bush should pardon Regas not "Scooter". Gimme my cable back.

[www.BetterVillage.com, XYZ, PDq.]

Why cable/internet service might be down:

a) You don't pay enough as a home user to justify them fixing the problem on a more permanent basis?

b) The all-powerful right wing (or is it left wing, or central... I'm confused) conspiracy had their "insider" type a little code that shuts off your service every time you're about to publish something adverse to their cause?

c) You don't download enough porn or gamble online to justify the cost of them keeping your connection wide open and reliable 24/7?

Adelphia... no problems with service, huh? Was this before or after bankruptcy?

[Don Hosek]

We haven't had any problems with our T-W cable. SBC/AT&T whatever they call themselves, on the other hand, gave us dial-up speeds during our brief experiment with DSL.

About 15 years ago, I remember an exchange on the internet:
Why do people put up with the service from PacBell?
Because some of us have had GTE.

[Bill]

Somehow or another, the cable guys just don't get the picture when it comes to reliability. Cable systems go off the air routinely, whereas your wired phone service stays on unless a fallen tree rips the wires loose. Big reason is the phone switch has a basement full of batteries and a backup generator.

[mark]

I just got off the phone with sbc global now (at&t) internet services 3 hours today and 2 hours yesterday trying to find why my internet service didnt work!!-they had a local area system failure and know one was notified- and i was thinking i should switch to cable !!!!

[Fred]

same here - Time Warner sucks. I called and complained and they told me to use another service (nasty, foul woman)

[Jerry]

Three years ago, the West Valley area of Time Warner Cable had the Animal Planet, ESPN Classics, Turner Classic Movies, The Hallmark Channel, and Zap-to-it was the channel guide (which was nice because all you got was a FULL SCREEN of channel listings). Now, three years later, Animal Planet, ESPN Classics, Turner Classic Movies, Hallmark are gone, and Zap-to-it was replaced by the TV Guide Channel, where one third of the screen is devoted to channel listings, and the other two-thirds of the viewing area is taken up by either inane TV Guide promotions or mindless infomercials (from which I'm sure Time Warner Cable gets a kick back from the infomercial companies. Oh yes, I'm now paying $5.00 more per month. The incompetence of Time Warner Cable is exceeded only by its arrogance.

[Dirk]

I have noticed in my area ( west valley) that over the past 12 years,
TW service has gotten worst every year.
Cable speed as far as the internet goes used to be really realy fast.
There was no comparason to DSL. All my friends used to be jealous. Nowdays, I think they dropped the speed down across the board. You have to purchase the premium service to get the speed they used to offer for the base price. Total BS.

[keith bewick]

can't believe they are still in business. Worst organization from top to bottom. Cant wait to get direct tv!

[RacerManTodd]

I think Joe B. has it right. I moved to Santa Clarita and Time Warner about a year ago after years in Burbank and Charter. Time Warner has been nearly 100% reliable for us here, nad the picture quality on both the High Def and standard channels is far superior to Charter. My brother in law in Woodland Hills (formerly Adelphia) however has a much worse experience than I.

I think that over time, as Time Warner takes over the equipment that Adelphia and/or Comcast left... those areas will come around to a better product.

[think peter think]

TW sucks. this much is obvious though. what isn't obvious is why people continue to pay for things they hate. if you don't like TW, then don't patronize TW. cancel it and find an alternative. simple isn't it? there are alternatives to cable tv (directtv, etc) and to your ISP. stop whinging about something you have complete control over and start doing something to actually solve the problem.

[lioness]

Possibly the worst service provider I've ever encountered. I've had two cable boxes that have broken down in the last 2 years and have had to wait a minimum of one full week before a service technician came around to replace them. It is really inexcusable that such a huge company should have such a terrible shortage of technicians to fix customer problems, especially when the problem lies with its own equipment. When the internet service goes down, which is not rare, the phone is useless as well. It's 2007, guys; clean up your act!!

I am currently renting, but when I buy a home in the next several months, Time Warner will be out in the cold.

[Kathy]

After going almost a month without cable tv from Adelphia because of a windstorm that knocked out some of their connections, I switched to Directv and have had only one brief outage, last December, the result of a West side power outage. I can't imagine going back to cable, and I use Verizon for DSL, with no problems.

[Marijo]

To thinkpeterthink: You're obviously not thinking at all if you suggest getting rid of TW cable is SIMPLE. I live in an apartment that doesn't allow satellite dishes - so much for your "Just get Direct TV" advice. As for going the DSL route, I tried & found there is something worse than TW and that's ATT. I asked ATT for a phone & DSL. After a week I still didn't have a phone. I call customer service, they can't find my order at all. I had to do a whole new order. Two days later I had a phone, still no DSL. After 2 wks of 1/2 hr long phone calls to ATT, finally find out the moron who took my first order took down a wrong address despite my repeating it 3 times as I'm on Beverly Drive & it's frequently confused with Beverly Blvd. She also spelled my name wrong. You'd think that'd be the end of it but no. Another 2 wks of phone calls and no once can figure "where's my DSL". To add insult to injury, I then got a bill for $400!! That call to ATT resulted in the rep telling this was all MY fault because I probably spelled my name wrong and mixed up my correct address!! I went ballastic. 7 more 45 minute apiece phone calls I finally got everything canceled and all but 40 bucks in charges deleted from my account. Never did get that damn DSL, not for even 1 minute. SIMPLE?????? HAH! I'm stuck with TW, crap service is better than no service - isn't that Southern California's motto?

[Ken]

Peter, just two words for you on this one: Verizon FiOS

[Inland Empire]

I suspect that Charter Cable is the worst. It took over a year to get all the "bugs" worked out with our service and problems happened every single time I have had to deal with them. From failing to install at all when they said they would, to saying they had called us when they hadn't, to installing in the wrong area even when shown the right spot for equipment, sloppy installation, getting my name wrong, surprise billing changes, to having my fax machine go automatically to their service number no matter what number was actually entered - there have been lots and lots of excuses.
Also experienced problems with other providers in another state so I think its just "industry" standards (bad ones!).

[Kate]

I didn't like Time Warner when I had them in my last apartment (out of state, BTW), and I don't like them now. We've switched our internet to AT&T, and it's significantly faster than the cable internet we had from TW and Comcast. The only thing we get from Time Warner now is cable TV, and we're switching to dish when we get our own place.

[Chris]

We're also a former Adelphia (yay) to Time Warner (@*&^@#) convert.

Our internet was out this morning for a while. In general internet service has degraded to the point where I have to use proxy servers to load some sites on the web reliably. It's pretty much a complete nightmare for my wife and I -- we are both in the tech biz and work from home frequently.

They will lose our business the instant I can get FIOS in Santa Monica. I'd already be back on ADSL is we weren't so far away from the CO.

Bah.

[Nancy]

I'm about 2 months too late, but let me add my two cents. A year ago I moved into my current place while it was still run by Comcast. 4 months later it had been officially converted to Time Warner and a TW technician cut off my cable internet by accident. I was on hold for 3 months before I could talk to a CSR to get the problem switched. I switched to AT&T DSL and it has been nothing but wonderful. Maybe a few outages lasting no more than 2 minutes. I am looking forward to AT&T U-Verse service whenever it comes to this neighborhood.

[Jessica]

To the person who said why do we keep paying for TW if we hate it so much? cause i have to idiot. my apt building is older and all the apts have to be on the same cable and in our block it happens to be TW. believe me if we could NOT use them we WOULD. and yes, they suck.

[Martin]

First, like you Peter, most of the time I use my home TW (formerly Adelphia) cable internet service for business purposes. The service here has gone from pretty good (during Adelphia days) to increasingly bad.

Between television cable and internet service, I have service interruptions at least a few times a week. One department never seems to know what the other is doing so there really is no way for them to identify an areawide or single home problem.

Stuff happens. But TW mismanagement complicates the process. When I complain about this plus slower connection speeed and longer than acceptable repair wait times, they suggest I spend more money for a speedier connection and faster, commercial-level repair turnaround. Yeah. Right. My monthy TW bill is already $200-plus a month.

There's something uncomfortable about TW that I did not experience with Adelphia. The company is more corporate in identity, expensive and increasingly mismanaged. I'm sparing you more silly stories about the inept communication systems.

I would love to cancel their service, but -- truthfully -- when my service is up it sill runs faster than any DSL line I use elsewhere. If anyone has any ideas about an alternate service, however, please let me know. There's gotta be something better than these guys.

[714-585-3388]

Today many Southern California subcribers discovered they cannot connect to the email servers to get the email sent them. And they will never receive them according to technical support that I turned to.I cancelled my cable TV and Road Runner service because it happened to me. Cost of Time Warner service to me is now priceless (it costs me nothing now). The cost to the balance sheet and valuation of th company, ask the bean counters. If there are many like me, someone's head will roll. Save yourself a headache and realize that TW does not care about you, but only about your money. Go elsewhere if you are like me and like to send a powerful message.

[David]

I am now on my fifth hour on hold with TWC as I write this. In those four hours across 5 days I have spoke to only one rep and that was a misroute of their system. I have had Dish Network [TV], PacBell ISDN [Internet], AT&T (old version) [Internet Cable], MediaOne [Internet Cable ] Comcast [Internet Cable], Charter Cable [TV & Internet], and now TWC [Internet & TV Cable]. Also, I have TWC business Class. TWC BC is now what I am on hold with. It seems all of these company execs went golfing together and decided that they reduce costs by reducing tech support and call center staff. As we get farther from the year 2000 service seems to get worse.

I would actually like to see the revival of satellite Internet, even with the higher equipment costs and the higher latency, it would help with the choices available and maybe with competition. For most people cable is the only option for fast enough Internet speeds.

In Washington State our apartment complex had two coax connections for two differnt cable company options. This should be the norm to allow us to switch based on service quality not just what is the only option on my block.

[PMacBee]

Months and months later, and Time Warner Cable STILL sucks. When we first got cable internet with Adelphia, there were outages, but things stabilized after about 4 months and we never had another problem, and my access ran at a reliable 56bps. With Time Warner, my email is being delivered two hours to TWO WEEKS late in the last three weeks, and my internet access never gets above 24bps. And they LIE. When we have outages they tell us it's because we have a router and nothing is wrong with the system (Um, I DO have a phone, guys, so I can talk to my friends who also used to have Comcast or Adelphia when our email is down). When I complained about email delays I went through two suctomer service reps who claimed there was no problem until I got a supervisor who wanted (and received) proof of the delays, saying no one else had complained (again, I do KNOW a couple of people who are unfortunate enough to be saddled with this service, and they complain plenty --even to customer service). For the person who said "you have other alternatives so stop whinging" -- that sounds reasonable, but no, actually, I don't. Time Warner now has a monopoly on cable service, and you can't get satellite--which has its own unique problems--in my neighborhood.