Time Warner does it again

For the second time in a span of two months, I had a service problem, called them, booked an appointment, tech no showed. I called them, and now for the second time, they insist the appointment was for the following week. Last time they said I messed up, this time they said they must have input the date incorrectly. Then they said they could come out Oct. 5th! Now I am on hold with a supervisor for 20 minutes, because they hope I hang up....AMAZING...I edit a website, and need internet access...tough luck, huh?

How do they get away with this? WOW. Why do they do this? Ineptitude? Or is this the devil at work? I am able to keep perspective on this somewhat but we need an alternative, because they don't care about customers... FIOS, please!

Now on hold, 30 mins and counting.

Supervisor came on after thirty minutes, said that her records showed appt was always for Oct. 5. Can we get a ex employee to blow whistle on this practice?? They just set an appt, reset it without telling you, and blatantly lie about it. Why does this benefit them?

45 minutes on the phone. Re-booked appt for Friday, Oct. , between 8-11 AM. Supervisor maintained it was always set for Oct. 5th. Time for me gobble a pretend valium. FIOS, heeelllppppp!

I feel your pain. I too used to get screwed over by Time Warner. One day it was the last straw when they told me I would be without cable and Internet for a week simply because that's the soonest a technician could come out. I work from home and rely on constant Internet access - I simply could not take a week off work for the cable guy.

So I switched to DirecTV and I pay a fraction of what I was paying Time Warner. And it does surprisingly well in bad weather. That tornado took out a tree in my backyard, but I didn't lose my signal at all.

Oh, and here's another beautiful part. I still owe Time Warner some money. I'm going to pay them - I'm no scofflaw. But they're going to have to wait patiently and can expect my check some time between the months of September and December.

Piano wrote:

So I switched to DirecTV and I pay a fraction of what I was paying Time Warner. And it does surprisingly well in bad weather. That tornado took out a tree in my backyard, but I didn't lose my signal at all.

could you tell me a little more about your experiences w. DirectTV? i am also in the disgruntled TW category, but worry about signal issues and have no idea about the upfront costs for DirectTV (and any other issues - running new cable lines or whatever). . .

Before you drop TW to go to Direct TV - check to see if you can get Direct TV in your building - in my building (coop) they won't allow it.

I have Direct TV and they are great. They always come on time for the appointments. Signal issues are a problem only when it rains heavily. No upfront costs. The problem is most apartment buildings won't allow them. Check with your building first.

I've had no problems with DirecTV, and there were no upfront costs. You just have to check with your landlord first if you don't own. You'll likely have to get Internet from somewhere else. But even with that it's still a lot cheaper than TW. I'm very pleased I switched. But if you call DirecTV someone will answer all your questions. I was wary at first too, but I asked about a million questions until I was satisfied it was at least worth a try.

The only downside is you don't get NY1. But it's just not worth the extra $40 to $50 a month and unreliable service.

not sure if it's in effect yet, but the city just renegotiated the contract with Time Warner and one of the new rules is that if they miss an appointment you get a credit for a month's worth of service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/nyregion/15cable.html

I have Direct TV and it rarely works. We've had it only 6 weeks and it has worked for only about 2 weeks out of the 6. The service people are very friendly and I haven't had to wait on hold a long time, but no one can figure out why it isn't working.

On the plus side, they've rebated most of our payment without any hassle.

(sorry to OP if i'm hijackign this discussion) DirectTV folks: regarding the signal issues on bad weather days: are we talking just a momentary flickering of the screen, or is the signal pretty much lost for a long time on those days? would you say that it happens only with really bad storms, or other times as well?