submitted by Barton McLean
Some of us subscribing to Charter Cable in our Eastwick area have suffered through a series of frustrating intermittent problems over the past month. Due to the inability of Charter Cable to resolve, or apparently to even understand the nature of the problems, an informal group has been formed with the sole purpose of coordinating and facilitating cable complaints and, if necessary, approaching the supervisors of the towns involved to solicit their help.
The Problem
During the past month, cable subscribers in Petersburgh (and perhaps the other towns as well) have had daily problems where the cable signal would be weak, be subject to a pulsing where the signal would go in and out, snow noise, static and the impression that another channel is imposing itself on the selected one. A small group in Petersburgh have gone through the complaint process via the Charter complaint line, to no avail.
The basic problem is that Charter has a widespread, systemic problem that they fail to recognize as such. This is combined with a trouble reporting approach that treats every call as if the problem is in the individual home, not in the system.
A typical situation will go like this: When having a problem you call the Charter hotline at 1-800-827-8288 and go through the various prompts. Be careful here, because you will be automatically channeled into an auto hell where you will be required to answer dozens of completely irrelevant questions. To bypass that, when you get to the technical help prompt, push “0” and you will be asked if you want to speak to an agent. Say “yes” and an agent will be available 24/7 hours per day.
When I talk to the agent and tell her that this exact same problem is being experienced by three other people in Petersburgh, she nevertheless insists that if my complaint is to be sent to the problem people, I have to schedule a visit to my house by the service technician. This appointment is typically 1-2 weeks away!
So, I make the appointment and tell the others to do the same. The Charter people tell me that if at least three people make a complaint like this, they will send someone out to investigate it as a system problem rather than a home problem. A couple of weeks ago, a number of people in Petersburgh did this, and Charter actually did send a system call out. Someone from Charter called to tell me that they had finally found the problem and fixed it and cancelled all the individual appointments. Over the next week, the problem gradually returned.
Charter customers should not have to go through this hell every time the cable goes out, which has been at least once per day recently. Charter needs to revise its system to accommodate situations where the problem is with Charter, and to quickly inform the caller if others have complained recently. As it is now, the phone tech assistants don’t have a clue as to what is going on system-wide. They should take a cue from NYSEG, which has an extremely efficient trouble reporting protocol in this regard.
The Solution
And so, out of complete frustration and a determination to get something done about this, I am offering the formation of an informal complaint group where we can compare notes and coordinate complaints. We need a critical mass of angry subscribers in order to get Charter’s attention. The first action is to find out how widespread this problem is. Communication from those living in the other Eastwick towns via email would be particularly welcome. My email is mclmix@cisbec.net. My phone is 658-3595. Email is preferred.
The critical information to pass along is where you reside (town and address), problems you are having, steps taken to resolve the problem with Charter and their response. I will coordinate all these and from the responses, suggest steps we can all take together to get this mess cleared up. Unless you say otherwise, I would keep your email address strictly confidential and send all group emails via the blind carbon copy (BCC) protocol to ensure this. Let’s unite to help each other.