I'm done with TWC

[festivus]

My latest gripe with this totally inept company:

My roadrunner had been going in and out over the last few days. I would reset the modem and restart my router and it would be ok for a few hours. Then it would go out again.

I called TWC yesterday to see if there have been network issues in my area. I was told by the CSR that my modem is now obsolete and that I need to exchange it for a new one. So I think to myself, cool, they're upgrading equipment. I ask her when someone can come out to do the swap. "Oh, you have to bring it in yourself."

I reply that I live fairly close to Delaware. "Oh, they're open 8:30-4:30, M-F." That does me no good since my wife and I both work for a living.

So today my wife has to make an out of the way lunch hour trek to the Dublin Rd location to do the swap. To me, this is crap. Why can't they send out a rep to do a quick swap at the house?

So I then got into an argument with the csr about the nfl network and abc/fox HD. Of course, she thought that I knew nothing about the negotiations and fed me a load of crap about the nfl network "not allowing TWC to air the channel."

In the past, I've blamed Sinclair for the spat with TWC. Now, I'm wondering. TWC seems to never want to negotiate with anyone.

How I wish that I could get WOW in my neighborhood. But since I can't, I"m definitely moving to Dish network. I just have the fear of poor reception in bad weather. But, I'll probably make the call today. Not sure yet whether I'll keep RR or not. Depends how they treat my wife today, how long she waits to swap the modem, etc. I won't hold my breath expecting good customer service from these bozos.

[ja5477]

Twc is getting on my last nerve as well, not picking up the nfl network is totally on them, they don't want to pay what the network wants. Too bad for the consumer who would gladly pay for these extras(fox and wsyx hd as well).
I had direct tv for 10 years, after talking with a outsourced rep about various concerns she had the nerve to say to me if you are not satisfied with directv, good luck getting the sunday ticket anywhere else. No s##t, she said that to me! I dropped them right then and there on principal. I don't know if I will go back(I know I'll miss the sunday ticket). may I ask why you are considering Dish instead of Directv?

[festivus]

Dish has an HD DVR package for $199 up front. Direct TV doesn't have an HD DVR, do they? I like Dish's HD lineup a little better too, although I honestly haven't looked at direct tv lately. I've heard that unless you really want the nfl ticket, most seem to recommend dish. I can get by without the NFL ticket. I can't believe the cost for that thing anyway.

[ja5477]

The only reason I subscribed to Sunday ticket was for the browns games. In this town they will put on the team who is winning(cincy and cleveland). I don't want to be forced to go to a bar to watch. You are right, the cost is getting out of hand.
Directv has the tivo hd dvr, but it is horrible. I don't like tivo to begin with, but the thing that they pass off as a tivo is a joke. it is a shell of a tivo, they refuse to turn on most of the features. Again, I had one, paid 800 for it when they came out, then sold it at the advise of directv as they were rolling out the new hd dvr's. Well, almost a year later they still haven't got them right, so again, mis informed outsourced customer service reps screwed me. And there is no way i will pay for another tivo from them.

[zelig2]

The Dish HD-DVR has a rebate that credits you $20 a month for 10 months making the DVR free. I don't know if you can get AT&T dsl up there but I think nakedeye on here mentioned that he got verizon dsl up north. My parents are moving from cable to Dish soon once they cut down a tree in their yard that blocks the view to the satellite.

[festivus]

I have a clear shot to the dish satellite. Couldn't be more clear.

And zelig2, didn't you mention something in another post about the need to buy locals from dish? Was it a dvr thing? Something about the guide? I get locals without issue OTA so I'm wavering on purchasing them from dish.

[nakedeye]

festivus you had the same problem I had with them. My modme seemed to have gone tits up so I called after a week or so of issues. They told me the same thing. I asked them why they did not tell people of this. I got no response. I told them that dublin Rd was just too damn far. I asked to have someone come to my house with a new one. I was told I would be placed "on the list." I asked what that ment and she said we are not yet scheduling for those "on the list." I said fine cancel my service. She said okay we can have someone there the next day at 8:00 AM to pick up my old modem............ REDICULOUS


So I told her "I'm sorry I'm going to have to place you on the list. I'm not currently scheduling right now, but I'll let you know when I am" and promptly hung up.

After 2 months they just got thier modem back.....

[zelig2]

You have to sign up for the local channel service on Dish to get the programming guide data to show up. Otherwise it will just say Digital Service for all times on those channels. You could still record those channel, but you won't have the nice and easy to see guide. I figure for only $5 it'll be worth it. For me I don't get WWHO very well/at all so having the backup version from Dish is also nice.

[ja5477]

Zelig,
am I right that you recently dumped cable for dish? Did you consider Directv and if so what got you to choose dish other than the rebates. Just curious as I am a former directv customer wanting to know how dish compares. I know about all of the fluff hdtv, I am more interested in the hardware as well as pq and how commited to hdtv they are compared to everyone else whether its cable or d*. Are they set up for the future kind of stuff.

[festivus]

Great line, nakedeye! I wish that I could think of something like that to say to them sometimes.

Amazing how they can't do a swap at your house, but the can be there the next day to pick up a cancelled subscriber's modem. Typical TWC.

[festivus]

My saga continues...

The wife swapped out the old RR modem for the new. I hooked it up and it worked, for about 10 minutes. I called TW and the csr rebooted it from her side. It got worse. I set up a tech call for saturday.

But I decided to do some tinkering. My old setup has worked for over a year without issue but there is tremendous growth in my area just north of Powell. I figured that TW is probably trying to squeeze out more customers with the same bandwidth. So I re-installed that stupid tap splitter at the point where the cable enters my house. So now something like 75% of the signal goes directly to the RR modem while my 6 tv's need to share the remaining 25% through my amplified splitter. Of course, my analog channels are now more grainy. But, the modem has been up for an hour straight.

I'm no network engineer, but it seems that TWC recently did something to the network in my area and degraded my signal.

I'll keep my appt for saturday just in case. Oh well, I only have to deal with this graininess until I can get dish up and running. I can't wait!

[TheCableGuy]

My saga continues...

So I re-installed that stupid tap splitter at the point where the cable enters my house. So now something like 75% of the signal goes directly to the RR modem while my 6 tv's need to share the remaining 25% through my amplified splitter. Of course, my analog channels are now more grainy. But, the modem has been up for an hour straight.

I'm no network engineer, but it seems that TWC recently did something to the network in my area and degraded my signal.

I'll keep my appt for saturday just in case. Oh well, I only have to deal with this graininess until I can get dish up and running. I can't wait!

First thing is you need to better understand what the DC "tap" splitter is doing for you. The DC "tap" leg of the splitter pads down the signal to isolate your RR modem from non-essential CATV signals. The through leg only loses 1 dBmV compared to a normal 2 way splitter which loses 4.5 per leg, so in effect your modem is getting less signal then a TV connected straight off the through leg of a DC. If your analog pictures look grainy it is not because TWC did something to network in your area, I'd more readily believe that you have a bad connection or wire feeding your house instead of what you believe is going on. However you look at it TWC has done nothing to degrade the signal. I'd be interested to know what the tech has to say during your service call this weekend, and if you don' t feel you are being treated properly, ask him to have his supervisor call you while he is there. I'd rather you be taken care of, there are people that work here that do care about your problems.

[zelig2]

I did what you did a while ago due to cable modem problem. I first put a 1x2 splitter to get the maximum signal to the cable modem. Then on the other leg I put a 1x3 to distribute the CATV signal to the rest of the house. It seemed to work out for me. My "older version" cable modem had the same issues you and nakedeye had. Though when I switched mine for the new version I didn't have any problems. So it sounds like it's more than too many subscribers on your network. I agree with TheCableGuy, sounds like some kind of wiring problem that's causing a loss in signal which would translate into collisions/packet loss on the cable modem side.

ja5477,
I chose Dish over D* for the HDTV package. They had more channels. Sure the Voom stuff is fluff filler, but I actually enjoy the Kung-Fu, Ultra & Rave channel. I've never done a side by side comparison but from what I've read Dish had a better picture quality over D*. That lead may not be very large anymore, but I don't know. The general consensus online is that if you don't need the SuperFan (ie, Sunday Ticket NFL thingy), then go with Dish. The HD-DVR was another selling point. Being able to have one DVR that can serve multiple tvs was a nice feature. This way if I record something I can watch it on my main tv or on my spare in the basement.

[tenja]

I see the time ending very soon for anyone that still uses TWC. Their decision making has caused a lot of anger and grief for people here in Columbus. They routinely make promises and never fulfill them. I will gladly welcome WOW when it becomes available in my area. Actually I may welcome dish or directv before then.

TWC (and TheCableGuy if you are an employee of TWC), you do not have the success and # of subscribers you do in Columbus because you offer a good service, you have them because you have a monopoly, simple as that. Good luck staying in business with your crappy business model.....

[festivus]

Yeah, I guess that I really don't uderstand what that tap splitter does for me. All I can tell you is the fact that with it some of my analog channels are fuzzy. Without it, they're more clear.

And why did the modem work for over a year without it? Then all of a sudden it needs it. Cable guy, are you saying that the modem should be using the "tap" (bottom output) of the regal splitter? When the TWC tech installed it, he had the tap going to the TV's and the through signal to the modem.

After Saturday it's all moot. I'm getting Dish installed. Keeping RR for now. Straight line to the modem, shouldn't fail at all.

Zelig2, do you get locals in HD from Dish?

[zelig2]

tenja, easy on TheCableGuy. What makes this forum work so well is that we actually get input from employees at the companies from town. He's a tech at one of the local companies. Also remember that the people that post on here never make any policy decisions for the company. Didn't we scare a guy from ABC/FOX away because people hate Sinclair so much? TWC succeeds in town because they have a larger network that they installed but also people tend to like their SD lineup.

festivus, Columbus locals are not availible in HD on Dish right now. I don't know if I've heard when that will happen. It'd be nice but it would also eat up a lot of bandwidth for the satellite companies to put all the locals across america in HD.

[TheCableGuy]

And why did the modem work for over a year without it? Then all of a sudden it needs it. Cable guy, are you saying that the modem should be using the "tap" (bottom output) of the regal splitter? When the TWC tech installed it, he had the tap going to the TV's and the through signal to the modem.

After Saturday it's all moot. I'm getting Dish installed. Keeping RR for now. Straight line to the modem, shouldn't fail at all.



The reason it worked fine for over a year coincides with my original speculation that you have a bad connection or a wiring problem. I can tell you that the "tap" output of the splitter should only be used to feed the modem. It sounds to me like there might have been a signal problem all along and it's just gotten worse. Either way it should be properly investigated instead of speculating what the problem might be. If there is a bad connection, over time with moisture getting into that connection it corrodes and causes problems across the board, and that's why you see picture quality and reliability going down hill.

Zelig, thanks for the kind words, always nice to have an alli (even if you jumped ships lol)

Tenja, I'll take the critism as I have learned over the years people don't complain without just cause. I hope you understand that contrary to popular belief TWC in Columbus regularly is in the top of customer service satisfaction amongst cable providers throughout the U.S. If somebody is not happy with our service they have options, and more are on the way. When it's all said and done, and all of the promotional "perks" are gone, bottom line is what type of support do you get for your services. As I mentioned previously there are people that care about the customer, and if you'd ever come across one you'd know the difference between a good tech and a bad tech right away. TWC has been in business a long time and you don't stay in business by making the wrong decisions. In a perfect world I wish people didn't feel they were getting the short end of the stick when mentioning the business I work in. You are entitled to your opinion and I'll respect yours if you'll respect mine as well. There is no ill will intended between anybody that post in here, I don't post often but there are two sides to every story.

There are a lot of things I'd like to comment on, but I value my job too much and worry if I say the wrong thing it will come back to haunt me. If you're having problems pm me and I'll see if I can get some help in your direction. We can't fix what we don't know is broken.

going back into the shadows :cool:

[festivus]

zelig2, Ouch re the HD locals. The HD DVR will have an OTA input, right? I can get by with that. Still not the optimal solution though. We just can't win with HD locals it seems. The OSU/Texas ABCHD game will be OTA at my house. If Sinclair remembers to flip the HD switch!

Cable Guy, so it seems that my wiring was wrong from the start. I'm 100% positive that the tech wired the tap output to my tv's. You sound like you know a heckuva lot more than the tech that wired my roadrunner with this tap. And actually, the first tech installed a cheapo splitter, not the tap splitter. I'm not trying to bash anyone, it's the truth.

Thanks to both of you for the advice.

[festivus]

I changed the splitter so that the tap output goes to the modem. Modem still kicking, analog channels better. Thanks CableGuy! Heck, if you guys at TWC could have worked out a deal with the NFL network, I probably wouldn't have jumped ship. The NFL network was really big for me.

zelig2, one more ? about Hd locals. Check this out:

http://www.allsat.com/programming/locals.php

Looks like Dish does HD Locals in some cities, just not Columbus. And I called Dish about this. They told me that in Columbus we can get HD locals. Was I talking to yet another misinformed CSR?

Remember the old days of satellite when network feeds were from NY, DC, etc.? Do they still do that? I'm really having a tough time figuring out why the only way that we can get HD major networks in CMH is OTA.

[zelig2]

It is true, they do offer HD locals to some cities as you can see on that web page. Unfortuntately Columbus is not on the HD list. I've not seen a list of "future" cities. Hopefully they'll start adding more but D* seems to be pushing out more local HD channels than E*.

The CSR was clueless. You can get the local channels with the HD package but that doesn't mean the locals will be HD from the satellite.

What I really want is to pay for the locals but then also have the option of paying/receiving the East/West feeds for all the networks in HD. That way they'd fufill their agreement that they carry the local network channels.

[tenja]

Cableguy, Thanks for the post. I respect what you do, don't get me wrong. I am only stating facts on a public forum dealing with HDTV channels in Columbus. The fact is TWC is the bottom of the list currently and as far as I can tell are making no steps in order to improve their HDTV service. The website has remained static for the past 12 months except for the "oh-so-helpful - if you want local HD channels, go back to the dark ages and use an antenna" message.

There are many channels that are missing namely NFL Network HD, ESPN2 HD, FOX/ABC HD, National Geo HD, Food Network HD, Universal HD that can and should be picked up by TWC. Many of your competitors carry these channels and have very similar pricing each month.

The service per dollar is getting worse and worse when compared to your competitors. Simple as that. It's nothing personal against you, just stating facts.

[festivus]

I kinda agree with you, Tenja. I'll add that TWC seems to target the folks with a couple of 4:3 analog sets in the household. When you start getting into multiple sets and HD, Dish seems to be the better choice.

I may end up paying a little more in the long run for Dish HD Gold, but to me it was worth it. The Dish HD DVR is ranked #1 by CNET. Being able to input OTA to it is a big advantage over the SA 8300. Especially here in Columbus where HD Locals are so difficult for some reason.

And I keep mentioning the NFL Network and ESPN2HD. And how long we had to wait for ESPNHD. And still no integrated fox or abc hd. TWC seems to want to keep costs low to the basic subscribers by doing hard line negotiating with networks and broadcasters. But in turn that is alienating the HD customers. It's simply their business model it appears.

[Shufflefield]

CableGuy - Is there anything you can tell us about Fox/ABC, is there any hope left?

I am seriously considering going to WOW, but changing over (Phone, Internet, Cable) is such a hassle. But I have to get my 24/Lost fix in HD or I will go nuts.

My problem with TW has nothing to do with support. I have had 0 problems with any of the services I have, my only complaint is with the HD selection. If it were anything other than locals, I could see keeping it off the menu, but this is ridiculous!!!

[mfletcher1]

To make a point I have made before on this forum...for those of us outside of the Columbus area, there are no HD alternatives than TWC. I can not see ABC/Fox on an OTA; I can not get HD locals on Dish or DirectTV, because they think we are in the Huntington area. I am stuck with TWC, and get frustrated because I want to see ESPN2 HD, Fox HD, ABC HC. I would even be willing to pay more to see them but do not have that option. I mainly watch sports and enjoy what I have but would like more options that others have.
I wonder why TWC does not conduct a poll to see if people would be willing to pay extra for other services? Are they afraid that if Sinclair can get money from them, then other broadcasters will try the same deal?

[ja5477]

I agree on everything that you all are saying about twc, dish is coming friday. Do you think TWC cares that they are losing yet another customer due to the lack of effort on their part to get these channels out to the customer? Not a chance. We may see a change in attitude in 2009, but not before. They are still raking in the loot from all of the sd customers, they will worry about us when it is mandated. I had directv for 10 years, had a problem with equipment, when I mentioned going elsewhere for service the rep stated "good luck finding the sunday ticket elsewhere", hence the switch to twc just for spite. Well, twc doesn't cut it when it comes to hdtv, so on to Dish. As long as I can deal without the ticket, I think I will be happy.

[nakedeye]

tenja, easy on TheCableGuy. What makes this forum work so well is that we actually get input from employees at the companies from town. Didn't we scare a guy from ABC/FOX away because people hate Sinclair so much?


OUI i cant even tell oyu the amount of sbc sux crap iv read on here, but to my knowledge no one has bashed me personaly in public. One person did on the old board through pms though...

as far as scaring away the sinclair guy, I'm pretty shure I single handaly did that. But he was an ASS HOLE. It had nothing to do with sinclair at that point it was about thier SEVERLY underpowerd transmiters, jumping pictuer on abc, Dan Carpenters TOTAL lack of communitacaion that did that. the twc/sinclair was just icing on the cake

[ja5477]

zelig,
got had dish installed, where is the dash button on the remote so that I can directly tune into over the air digital broadcasts? I cannot find it anywhere.