Time Warner Cable - Company Review

Overall 2.25 of 5 view all 102 reviews

Doeie
Carrollton, TX

If I could, I'd switch cable providers in a heartbeat.

Every day computer user, Budget-Conscious, value conscious, computer literate, I believe in honesty

Pros

Has Cable Internet, Reliable

Cons

bad service, Poorly informed phone customer service r, No other cable companies to choose from, They are a monopoly, Poor service, Poor customer service, No other choices, terrible customer service & technicians

APR

2008

Ever since Time Warner bought out Comcast in the Dallas area, we've had nothing but terrible customer service experiences. The service guys are never there when they are supposed to be, they almost never have the equipment they need to have, and if they DO happen to show up, well...sometimes they're drunk. And the switch from Comcast to TWC pricing was a beating, too.

First things first. We own a Tivo Series 3, which is a dual tuner HD Tivo. When we got it, the Comcast folks came out, installed the two tuners, and it worked like a champ. When we had to replace the Tivo 3 for Tivo issues, we called TWC. First, for a company that works in the cable industry, it appears that they've never heard of Tivo. Not sure how, Tivo has been around for MANY years, but everyone we talked to was like, "What? Your TV takes cable cards?" Then, after talking to 2 or 3 people and making SOMEONE understand what the issue was, we tell them we need TWO cable cards. Not one. TWO. Schedule service, and the guy shows up with one. "No one told me I needed two." This happened to us multiple times.

Oh, and on the matter of scheduled service - no one ever managed to be there during the scheduled four hour window. And you would think the service guy would know before, say, the last 5 minutes of the window that he was running 2-3 hours late. But they never would call before the end of the window to tell you that, so you were left waiting for hours on end. One night, the guy never showed. Another night, the guy who DID show up was drunk. I kid you not.

After dealing with the wrong number of Tivo cards, late or missed appts, and incapable service guys for nearly two months, we finally managed to get someone out who could get the cable cards to work. Unfortunately, he only brought one. "I'll be back tomorrow with another, and I'll call you to make sure it works."

We never heard from him again. We ended up giving up for about 6 months - the hassle involved with dealing with the cable company finally beat us down. Last month, we called back again because the frustration of NOT getting all the channels we were paying for (and not being able to record on half the stations Tivo wanted to record on) finally tipped us over the edge again. Apparently we were not the only ones with cable card issues. This time, after 3 failed attempts, someone mentioned the magical cable card specialist. After another 3 weeks of dealing with incompetent TWC customer service, we FINALLY got the one person (apparently) employed by TWC who understands cable cards to correctly install the two cable cards in our Tivo. Six months and endless stress and hassle later. What a waste of time.

In addition to which, when TWC finally switched over from the Comcast pricing to their pricing, did they tell anyone? Nope. The switch unbundled everything (we receive cable and internet from them), and the only reason I noticed was because I do actually review my bill every month. Calling up, they were happy to rebundle my services (for a $25 savings over the unbundled), but why wouldn't you automatically switch people to the new bundle? Why did I have to call up and complain about my bill? Because TWC doesn't care about its customers.

It's not all bad. The cable and internet is very reliable. The HD channel selection is really really limited (especially compared to satellite), but I think they're working on it. We almost never have outages in our service, even during storms. But the customer service is such a whip, that if we ever have problems again, we probably WILL switch to satellite, just to not have to deal with TWC's customer service for months on end. Again.

Time Warner Cable - Company is not recommended by Doeie

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Comments about Doeie’s Review

We have Time Warner in Ohio. Luckily, I am able to be home to wait for these turkeys and it does not involve losing work pay, etc. Believe me, I keep track of the time. Don't know if it is universal
Time Warner policy, but here they have an on time guarantee. Around the holidays, I got $60 off our bill, since we had 3 appointments scheduled, and the guys never showed. As soon as the appointment window was over (I usually try to allow an extra 5-10 minutes before I call) I was on the phone. They gave us a $20 credit for each missed appointment. If they are late, you get a credit - but only if you call. I also keep after them for credits for interrupted service - we have phone, internet and cable from them - since there have been times when the "earliest" appointment they could give me for a problem was a week or more later. Keep after them - it is frustrating, but eventually they may get the idea.