nice try, Charter

I just got some retarded sales call from Charter.
They "thanked" me for being a good customer.

First, I'm not a customer of theirs by choice. Charter is the ONLY provider of high speed Internet service where I'm at. I'm a customer of Charter because I have to be, not because I want to be. Second, I know I'm not a special customer, it's just some generic line they say to all their customers. If he had started the conversation with a line like "I'm sorry you have to use Charter, but perhaps I can offer some services to you to make us seem like we don't SUCK so much."

He said I could get Charter Phone service with like a million features and unlimited minutes for $29.99 for 6 months, and then $39.99 after that (plus like $10 in taxes and fees). I explained that I pay less than $20 (*including* taxes and fees) with Vonage. And that isn't some promotional price, it's their all-the-time regular price. Plus I get WAY more features than I use, with way more minutes than I ever could use, so it's already virtually unlimited for me. I even mentioned how copies of my voice mail go to my Email, and asked if Charter even provided that feature.

He then went on to tell me how VoIP services like Vonage were very INSECURE and anyone could just just listen in. He didn't explain how the encryption used with Vonage was different than with Charter's VoIP service, just that Charter's was "better" and "more secure". Vonage has worked perfectly for me for over half a year. I've had ZERO issues with it.

Even with some stupid scare-tactic, he realized he wasn't going to sell me on Phone service ...

So then he said he had a GREAT deal for me for TV service. I said I don't want Charter TV, especially when they don't even offer all the local channels. Channels that we actually watch. My sister has Charter TV, and she has to tune in some channels over-the-air since Charter has never offered them. She asked me how to find the channels on her TV that was hooked up to Charter cable. Channel 5.2, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, the all-new "Green Channel" 24.2? Charter doesn't have them as far as I know.
The guy on the phone checked some list, and couldn't find any information on the local channels, but said I could get lots of new channels.
I said I didn't want new channels. I already have plenty of channels I get for free, and I don't want to PAY MONEY TO LOSE THEM.

The guy told me that if I didn't subscribe to Charter's TV service, I would LOSE access to those over-the-air channels when the Digital Transition occurs. I explained to him that those are Digital-only channels, they aren't going anywhere, that I have been watching digital TV for years, I only watch digital TV, and that the digital TV standard came out back in the 1990s. I'm not worried about any transition. We have like 11 Digital tuners now. 4 of them support HD even.

He then asked me if I have an HDTV. I said yes, 4 of them. He mentioned their great (insanely-overpriced) HD service. I said I get all my HDTV over the air for free. That I watch my favorite shows in 1080i like CSI, Heroes, and all those "Late Night" shows. I asked him why would I pay for HDTV service when I get HDTV service over the air for free?

I don't know if he was unahppy that he didn't make his sales quota for today, but he thanked me for educating him on the types of service out there. Who knows, maybe I convinced HIM to drop Charter Phone service and tune into some over-the-air free HDTV.

He tried to offer two services to me, phone and TV, and then tried to *scare* me into switching to Character when I didn't express interest in them. How ... what's the word? Unprofessional? Desperate? Retarded?

Minor update:
It looks like Charter does provide access to channels 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, and 5.2. They are channels 107, 108, 109, and 127 on their Digital St. Louis package. If the Charter person I spoke with on the phone knew what the hell he was talking about, he would have come a little closer to making a sale. Putting people on the phone that have no idea what they are talking about is pretty dumb. No equivalent to channel 24.2 though.

nice try, Charter Read More »

Pls die, Charter

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.

Pls die, Charter Read More »