Rant Cable and Internet Services - Annoyed and Frustrated!

[vanscootin]

I'm so annoyed... my internet and cable have been going out for a few weeks. They have come and replaced the cable box but it didn't work. DH swears it's the same box and the guy just took it out to the truck and pretended to swap it out and brought the same box back in. Every channel is pixely and the premium channels we pay for (my husband's G4 and Speed Channel) never work.

I was ok with hearing him gripe about those not working... but now it's the internet. It goes out everytime I try to load a new page. Like if I'm checking my email and then try to come to CS, it goes out. It's like an every ten minute thing. Even when I try to submit shows it goes out.

Last night was the last straw. I was working in my email on my July Newsletter, had it all done, and the internet went out before I could either save or send. I lost everything in my newsletter that took me an hour to get the way I want.

So I made my hubby call again, even though he called over the weekend and set up an appointment for them to come out. They said the internet has been working steady for 11 days. Huh? Really, because I'm here and I watch the little lights go out and reset themselves. And if it's been working for 11 days, what about before those past 11 days?

Cable and internet service is so expensive and I feel like I'm paying way too much already, especially for a service that isn't really working properly.

Argh, my cookies are frosted. They are supposed to be sending a person out tomorrow, but the Hubby will be at work. I hate dealing with repair people because I'm naive and too nice.

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I hate, loathe and despise Time Warner.That said, they do give you credit for a day without cable. Never had them for Internet.

 

[chefsteph07]

I"m w/ Di, I hate TW as well!

This could be a problem w/ your modem. And I would PHYSICALLY TAKE your cable box to the nearest TW office and make them swap it out.

Do you have DVR? I told my mom all the glories of the DVR, how awesome it was, after her hanging on to the VCR for all these years. Finally, she gave in. My mom is the queen of the Lifetime movies, she tapes movies constantly...she watches them at night when there's nothing else on...well, she only had her DVR for about 10 days and it was defective. They had her swap it out and you know that you lose everything when you do this, she was so mad and I was embarrassed that I had glorified the DVR all this time. She told them at TW that when you have to get a new cable box there should be a feature that backs up what you have so you can transfer it to the new box, like when you get new cell phones and you can retain your info. She said the rep at TW acted like he had never heard of that idea before. Morons!!!!

I also bundled to get digital phone, so I am tied to TW for everything...so far, the phone has given me no problems. SO FAR.

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I agree w/Steph ... take it to the Time Warner office. At least they have those for Time Warner.AT&T is working my last nerve too ... We've been having intermittent static on our line. Best thing we can think of is that it's related to the rain and when it dries up it's OK ... so the guys keep coming out, say there's nothing wrong or do repairs that don't fix it next time it rains. Then it's 45 minutes on hold, for their bad customer service reps to set up a time and then their guys don't show up at the correct time frame, calling me on my cel to tell me they're coming on a Saturday when I'm at a family picnic or in the morning when I scheduled an evening shift due to an appointment.Last time they came out and said there is a short in my DirecTV DVR. Of course DirecTV would not replace it unless a) I start experiencing problems w/it or b) my phone gets staticky again.

 

[tys1031]

I have Comcast and we have been having "Interference Issues" with our service for about a month. A tech came out today and she said a maintenance team will have to come out because it has to do with the buried lines. She said it seems like they weren't burrie deep enough. My subdivision is only 3 years old so she said if people walk a lot on the lines, they are wearing down and reducing the signal strength. Not sure I believe it, but we'll see if someone comes out today to "work on the lines."

 

[Jennie4PC]

I hate dealing with people like that. There was one time I was having such trouble with internet going out that I called them and asked them how much it was to cancel my contract, they told me it was $400. I told them I was cancelling my contract BUT I would not pay the cancellation fee, because they werent keeping thier end of the contact. Low and Behold they had it fixed within 1 day.

 

[lesliec]

I know it is stressful, but it could be worse. I long for the days we lived in town and had highspeed internet. For about 6 months last year there were no companies at all that served our area!!!!! We don't have a home phone, so dial up wasn't even an option. Satelite would've cost $400 just to install (and about $100/month). Finally another company came into our area (after the last one took down their towers). We have decent internet again, but not highspeed. It is one of those wireless things, and when the weather is bad, or in the evening when lots of people are on, we tend to lose signal a lot. Oh, and we still pay over $60/month, but it is better than nothing. I'll take it.

 

[esavvymom]

If it's your internet and your TV- they are usually two different boxes. You'll have the TV box, and then the modem for the internet. That leads me to believe it's at the JUNCTION Box outside of your house somewhere. If it was just ONE side, then yes, the boxes would be the start, but both- that's the incoming service most likely.At my previous home, every 1-2 years, they had to come out and replace some junction or joint/switch in the box because we had our serve cut in and out. It was a pain in the you-know-what....but it worked. (Plus, this sort of is in our area of "expertise" in my house. My DH works in computer networking and that stuff- so these sort of problems are usually easily diagnosed.)
Don't always trust the techs who come out- they usually don't have a freaking clue- they swap out hardware and just keep going. We one time had a tech come in to bundle our service and give us TWC Digital Phone to go with our PREMIUM Internet and our TV service- to save money. The tech said that we could ONLy get the phone service with the Road Runner LITE service. We told him he could leave. Dummy.Anyway- hope that helps and you can give them heck on the phone until you get someone who knows what they are doing (good luck with that by the way!)

 

[Sheila]

(((hugs))) Sorry that you guys are all having issues. We do too here on the military base in Japan, but we have Mediatti. My husband was on direct pay from his paycheck to the company and every few months they would cut us off for non-payment. He'd have to go show his Leave & Earnings Statement, showing that it was deducted & they would turn it back on. He finally just told them to forget it & started doing the monthly on-line payments himself. That's worked MUCH better than leaving it up to someone to transcribe from a list that's given to them by the military who paid & who didn't. LOLI have to admit though, I'd have never gone with Time Warner anyway. I'm still mad at them over the whole Ice T & Cop Killer song from years ago. I don't buy any of their products and for years wouldn't even walk into one of their movies even if someone else was paying. Hubby got frustrated, so I'll go with him now, but I still won't go on my own & give them MY money. I'm stubborn that way.