Cable TV: Arrgghhh!

[galaxee]

Since we signed up with Time Warner a year ago, we've had nothing but trouble from them.

-3 weeks of nonfunctional internet service, no reason
-Sound 15 seconds off image (30% of the time)
-Cable box replaced 4 times
-Image quality horrible (and we have a brand new Sony WEGA TV)
-Constant service interruptions
-6 billing errors in 11 months (we ended up giving in and paying late fees even though the error was on their part)
-Cable guy has been here 15 times in 11 months
-Appointments cancelled on me for no reason without my knowledge 4 times
-Hours of my time on the phone with them
-Outlets just randomly decide to quit working
-There are now 3 outlets in my home, one of which works

My source of irritation is that there is NO COMPETITION to keep these guys' standards even reasonably high... or their prices anything less than insanely high.

The last cable company we dealt with was Charter. In almost 4 years we had only one problem and it was taken care of the same day, within an hour of me calling to complain.

Anyone else have so much trouble with Time Warner Cable? Sheesh. If we didn't live in an apartment complex we'd get a sattelite dish. But there are strict rules against that.

[dbarry]

"can't get a satellite dish?" ... if you have a patio area with a southern exposure, you can get a dish.

See the FCC rules at:
FCC Dish Rules FAQ

We've used dish network for the past 6 years and love the dickens out of it, we'll never go back to cable again.

Don

[galaxee]

-no southern exposure, only west or northwest
-they do not allow dish installation at our complex

So we're stuck with really bad cable.

We're planning to move in march to a duplex. Maybe then we can get a dish. Until then... no luck.

[galaxee]

Again, we face north and to complicate things we're on the first floor, with 2 floors above us. No balcony or anything, just a patio that's blocked by a whole lot of building.

Sigh.

I suppose we could run a wire around to the other side of the building... but that would be vulnerable to the little animals that run around and like to chew on things. And I imagine it would be kind of costly to bury 1000 feet of wire. And the management is already mad at us for having 2 more cable outlets installed in the apartment.

I keep telling myself, only 8 months till we get out of this stupid apartment... this is our first and last apartment complex experience.

[jayman]

Galaxee:

I fully understand and sympathize with you. I was a poor college student too, a long time ago.

I have Shaw cable here in Winnipeg and they're great. Last year they upgraded the internet service to Extreme, which is average 5 Mbps, so my downloads are usually never lower than 350-450 KB/s.

They use Motorola digital boxes. I have one on the TV in the living room and another in the bedroom and they work perfectly.

Pricing: depending on what bundle you pick, they compete or are within 5% of what Bell ExpressVu or StarChoice offer, and the only way Bell can offer internet is with a clunky DirecPC thing.

Hope it works out.

Jay

[jkash]

I can sympathize with you about Time Warner. Believe it or not, their service has gotten better over the years. They have been our cable company for 15 years. When we moved into our and had them install cable, they drilled a hole in our bedroom wall which we had to demand they fix. The fix was really shoddy at that. We can still see the bump in the wall.

When we had the installation of our cable line for the Internet done the installer had no idea what he was doing. Fortunately, I had done my homework and understood how to get connected. The problem is the Time Warner contracts out a lot of their service, especially installation. If you can get passed them and get a senior tech out, your problems will get resolved much quicker.

[DaveinOlyWA]

gee gal, sorry to hear about your TV woes. i have had a few problems with cable...Comcast here. got rid of them and use DirecTv. im in an apartment, and here you cant block installation of satellite. even had a court case won by someone because some housing association thought they marred the look of the neighborhood... an 18" disk?? oh please!!

but anyway... hate to burst your bubble, but DirecTv doesnt approve a run of more than 100' because of signal loss. (that can be stretched to about 175') so 1000 feet is out of the question

keep your chin up and remember... TV rots the brain, so maybe someone is actually looking out for you by trying to reduce your usage.

[Bill Merchant]

[font=Comic Sans MS:1295cf01db]While it probably won't do much good, you can always complain to the local government entitiy (city or county) which permits TWC to operate in your area. If the franchise board, or whatever the entity is called, is strong, they may help intercede to get you better service. Look in the government pages in your phone book for Cable TV.

Good luck![/font:1295cf01db]

[Mystery Squid]

What is a grad student going for a PhD doing watching TV....?

:mrgreen:

[galaxee]

haha, mystery squid. i have an allotted 30 minutes per day for TV...

the rest of my time is spent on the internet, namely the NCBI website...

but the internet service sucks too.

Bill, i'll give that a shot next time i have a little time to deal with the cable company. maybe when the cable guy comes (again) on wednesday? ha