I've never been a big fan of Charter. After moving into a new home where Charter was the only service available, I was forced to switch to them after being with AT&T for many, many years.
I had phone service with AT&T for 12 years, and DSL service for 8 years. It was always priced fairly, and the price had even DROPPED since I started using it. It was $40 for 1.5 Mbps, then $40 for 3.0 Mbps, then $40 for 6.0 Mbps. Things dropped even lower after a while. $35 for 6.0, $25 for 3.0, and $20 for 1.5. They even had a 786kbps plan for $15.
Charter? They offered 3.0 Mbps for $50 a month. Twice what AT&T charged. Now they have 5.0 Mbps for $60. Not only did it cost more, but it was shared bandwidth. If your neighbor was downloading tons of horse porn or whatever, it would cause your game downloads to slow down. Nothing better than paying more and getting less. Why would someone choose Charter?
Well, Charter hasn't been in the best shape recently. Their iron-clad business plan of OFFER LESS, CHARGE MORE just wasn't working out for them.
I checked DSLRports today and saw some more Charter news regarding their forth-quarter earnings report. It, of course, wasn't good.
Why doesn't anyone at Charter seem to care? Here's a list of things I've noticed with the company recently. Maybe if someone there takes a look at how the public views them, they may be able to start making some changes.
* Charter posted their forth-quarter earnings report for 2008. They had a LOSS of $1,500,000,000.00. Ever lose a $20 in a pair of pants before? Well, imagine Charter losing 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS in their pants.
* They reported to their creditor that they will be failing to make yet another scheduled debt payment.
* Mark your calendar, Charter files for Bankruptcy protection on April 1st.
* Because of recently announced retarded bandwidth caps and low speeds of Cable internet they have been lying about (5mbp Cable vs 6 mbps DSL?), lots of people with DSL or U-verse available keep switching to that.
(Of course anyone who has noticed satellite dishes on every roof already knows people have been dropping cable TV by the millions for YEARS).
* Charter's monthly caps are low enough to be hit in a SINGLE day. Charter's "fine print" then gives them the right to disconnect your service or further throttle your speed down even slower.
* After 10+ years of working on their network infrastructure, users of cable internet STILL complain about slow-down during the evening (check DSLreports.com).
* Apparently Charter stopped offering all local channels several years ago. You can't pay more to get them, they simply aren't offered.
My sister asked me how to get her Charter-connected TV to show the same channels her rabbit-ears TV gets in the other room. There are around 5 or more channels she gets over the air that Charter doesn't offer. I loaded up charter.net to check TV listings, and I didn't see the channels listed. And that is just the St. Louis area. How many channels are they missing in bigger markets??
Didn't the cable companies use to boast that they offered local channels when satellite didn't?
One of my daughter's favorite channels isn't even available on Charter, but is over the air. Why would I pay for their over-priced TV servive to NOT get the channels we want?
* How is their phone service working out for them? They are still charging $40+ (not counting all the taxes and fees added on top of that) when competitors like Vonage offer similar services that are UNDER $20 *including* all the taxes and federal fees. Many cell phone users are opting to not even have a house-line any more. How does Charter expect to compete with the $0-$20 services people get at home by offering their $40+ service??
* Do I even need to talk about Charter installers? I was given a 6-hour window for install. "Between Noon and 6PM" I was told. Well, after waiting at home all day, I called at 6:30PM asking where the guy was. He got there around 7:30 to install the service.
* DSL installation? You give them a call and they priority-mail you a free modem. You plug it in and you're online.
Cable installation? You call them, someone HAS to come out, you get the all-day install window, and then they try to CHARGE you for a modem. How much do they charge you? Their monthly charges are enough to cover the cost of several modems. They had been charging customers $5 a month ($60 a year) for a modem that costs $25. That is $60 a year, every year. They've since reduced the price to $3 a month ($36 a year). That is still $36 every year for a modem that costs $25.