Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
(As copied from my facebook)
Long rant ahead...
it's a sad day when I need to pray that I can have XFINITY / Comcast internet at my house. They have taken the brunt of the complaining when it comes to Customer Service and I've seen first hand what that can lead to when there is a problem. Large amounts of frustration. The sad thing is that after dealing with Charter Communications for the last 3 months on a problem that I would rather deal with Comcast than this. let me go into detail the problems that I've had including plenty of pictures representing the exact problem.
About 3-4 months ago there was a work team in my neighborhood. They were putting in some kind of cable work and the breadth of it involved all the main road areas of my neighborhood. Shortly after that work was done I started having issues with my interenet where the speeds would become inconsistent, my ping would be high (over 100ms), I'd drop packets, and my network would literally come to a screeching halt.
As most people know, I'm an IT guy. Granted I'm in management now I'm still pretty darn technical. I can do enough troubleshooting to get past a companies first and likely second tier support and would understand completely their third tier. At this time, I knew the first thing they would do is blame my personal equipment. i went out and bought a brand new modem ($150). i then purchased a new router ($250). I installed these (Using the help of their support to provision the modem) and waited to see if the problem happened again. it did. It still was inconsistent where I would go a day or two with no problems, then a couple days where my internet was useless on a consistent basis. I called back in. Went through all the normal tier 1 support (unplug your modem sir...) without complaining. I explained that there was recent work in my neighborhood and that since that work, the problem had started. I explained that I was dropping packets and my ping was inconsistent. The rep told me that Charter only guarantees 70% of the advertised speed. It's obvious they need to train their tier 1 support better as a dropped packet is 0 speed which isn't close to the 60 mbs I was supposed to be getting. Finally the agent agreed to send someone to my house.
The first agent arrived (albeit late) told me my modem was to blame and swapped mine out with one of theirs. Ran a speed test and didn't see a problem. I explained it was inconsistent and one speed test wasn't proof anything was fixed. His counter was that the cold was likely shrinking the cables in the ground and was restricting the flow of the network. Physically speaking this is a possible situation, BUT very very very unlikely that the 'shrinkage' was substantial enough to affect the bandwidth. He said thanks and goodbye.
We went on a long vacation and came back a few weeks later. Within 2 days the problem was back. I called back. Again going through the useless tier 1 support options. Was told they would send someone else out who was more senior than the last guy. That sounded promising. He came out, looked at my screen shots of speed tests and said he thought maybe my modem was bad again. This would be the 3rd modem I am trying. I again explained about the recent work in the neighborhood and he brushed it off as likely not the cause. He assured me that he thought the modem would fix it and gave me his supervisors phone number to call if the problem came back so I wouldn't have to deal with Tier 1 again. That night the problem happened again. i called the supervisor and left a voice message. 3 days later I had received no callback.
I called in and as soon as I got tier 1 I demanded to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor I spoke to apologized and informed me he would reach out to the supervisor whose phone number I had. He also informed me that he would be crediting me back for the months of bad service I had experienced (At this point we were in month 3). A few days later, someone called and asked to schedule an appointment. I set the appointment for a Wed evening. The tech showed up on time, was very helpful and essentially disproved anything anyone had said to me up to that point. I felt like we were actually finally making headway. his tech even said after I told him about the work that ATT was laying Fiber and likely nicked a line which would cause the inconsistent problems I was seeing. he went out to the tap in the front yard and experienced the problem first hand. It went from 140+mbs with no dropped packets to very low speeds and dropping 80% of packets. He came back in explained it and said he was going to put in a work order to have someone come re-run my line in the house as well as do a survey of the area to see where the problem may be happening. Mind you, I spent a good 3 hours working on this issue on this night alone. In all I've likely spent 15 hours working this issue over several months and for the first time I felt like someone was finally listening to me and we were going to be making headway. Jon gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to text him when I had a problem pop up.
My joy was quickly crushed though it was no fault of the techs (Jon). About 2 weeks later, Jon came back out to my house to re-run my line in the house. While doing this, he inadvertently damaged my hardy-plank on the outside. He was apologetic and told me in the next couple days I would hear from someone to schedule someone to come out and repair the broken plank. He also reassured me someone would be getting back with me to do a survey to try to find the problem with the line in the neighborhood. He also informed me another customer had started complaining about the same thing, so now there was verification it wasn't just my line that was a problem.
Since that visit, I've texted him almost daily (For the last week and a half) with screenshots of my crappy speed tests. Most texts get a response back with something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I'm trying to get something done. My supervisor was supposed to order all this work to be done". I've yet to receive a single call from anyone at Charter about any of this. They have left Jon out on a limb and a customer swinging in the wind.
Why would they do this? well, checking lines and replacing them is not exactly a cheap problem to fix. It's not cheap if they know exactly where the problem is. you can imagine how expensive it is if they have no idea where in a couple mile subdivision a line could be nicked and causing problem. To me this is a legitimate excuse to explain why a job is taking a long time. What isn't legitimate is the complete failure to communicate with me and the complete failure of seeing any work at all being done in the neighborhood. You can see from the pictures, the problem is very real. Both hardlined and wireless.
On top of all this, I just checked my account and there has been no credit applied. My normal bill will be withdrawn automatically on February. So another supervisor who apparently doesn't do his job. I did get a letter in the mail saying "Sorry we didn't fix it that one time we came out, here's $20". That's not a credit. that's a pathetic apology at best and doesn't even begin to cover the time, effort, work from home days I've had to schedule around, Meetings I've had to postpone, and complete lack of service that I've dealt with. In 3 months I've spent $120 on internet that has not been delivered consistently or as promised. I've spent quite a bit of personal time dealing with this.
Why am I on here then? Because calling obviously gets me nowhere. I don't have any other option (though if ATT is running Fiber, that may be changing). I'm hoping that by blasting this on facebook and any forums I can I can get someone at Charter to pay attention and call me. This is beyond ridiculous. Again, it's sad when Comcast, once voted as the most evil corporation in America, is preferred as to the service and treatment I'm currently receiving. Let's see if Charter Communications is paying attention and cares or if I'm just another monthly bill to digest.
Long rant ahead...
it's a sad day when I need to pray that I can have XFINITY / Comcast internet at my house. They have taken the brunt of the complaining when it comes to Customer Service and I've seen first hand what that can lead to when there is a problem. Large amounts of frustration. The sad thing is that after dealing with Charter Communications for the last 3 months on a problem that I would rather deal with Comcast than this. let me go into detail the problems that I've had including plenty of pictures representing the exact problem.
About 3-4 months ago there was a work team in my neighborhood. They were putting in some kind of cable work and the breadth of it involved all the main road areas of my neighborhood. Shortly after that work was done I started having issues with my interenet where the speeds would become inconsistent, my ping would be high (over 100ms), I'd drop packets, and my network would literally come to a screeching halt.
As most people know, I'm an IT guy. Granted I'm in management now I'm still pretty darn technical. I can do enough troubleshooting to get past a companies first and likely second tier support and would understand completely their third tier. At this time, I knew the first thing they would do is blame my personal equipment. i went out and bought a brand new modem ($150). i then purchased a new router ($250). I installed these (Using the help of their support to provision the modem) and waited to see if the problem happened again. it did. It still was inconsistent where I would go a day or two with no problems, then a couple days where my internet was useless on a consistent basis. I called back in. Went through all the normal tier 1 support (unplug your modem sir...) without complaining. I explained that there was recent work in my neighborhood and that since that work, the problem had started. I explained that I was dropping packets and my ping was inconsistent. The rep told me that Charter only guarantees 70% of the advertised speed. It's obvious they need to train their tier 1 support better as a dropped packet is 0 speed which isn't close to the 60 mbs I was supposed to be getting. Finally the agent agreed to send someone to my house.
The first agent arrived (albeit late) told me my modem was to blame and swapped mine out with one of theirs. Ran a speed test and didn't see a problem. I explained it was inconsistent and one speed test wasn't proof anything was fixed. His counter was that the cold was likely shrinking the cables in the ground and was restricting the flow of the network. Physically speaking this is a possible situation, BUT very very very unlikely that the 'shrinkage' was substantial enough to affect the bandwidth. He said thanks and goodbye.
We went on a long vacation and came back a few weeks later. Within 2 days the problem was back. I called back. Again going through the useless tier 1 support options. Was told they would send someone else out who was more senior than the last guy. That sounded promising. He came out, looked at my screen shots of speed tests and said he thought maybe my modem was bad again. This would be the 3rd modem I am trying. I again explained about the recent work in the neighborhood and he brushed it off as likely not the cause. He assured me that he thought the modem would fix it and gave me his supervisors phone number to call if the problem came back so I wouldn't have to deal with Tier 1 again. That night the problem happened again. i called the supervisor and left a voice message. 3 days later I had received no callback.
I called in and as soon as I got tier 1 I demanded to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor I spoke to apologized and informed me he would reach out to the supervisor whose phone number I had. He also informed me that he would be crediting me back for the months of bad service I had experienced (At this point we were in month 3). A few days later, someone called and asked to schedule an appointment. I set the appointment for a Wed evening. The tech showed up on time, was very helpful and essentially disproved anything anyone had said to me up to that point. I felt like we were actually finally making headway. his tech even said after I told him about the work that ATT was laying Fiber and likely nicked a line which would cause the inconsistent problems I was seeing. he went out to the tap in the front yard and experienced the problem first hand. It went from 140+mbs with no dropped packets to very low speeds and dropping 80% of packets. He came back in explained it and said he was going to put in a work order to have someone come re-run my line in the house as well as do a survey of the area to see where the problem may be happening. Mind you, I spent a good 3 hours working on this issue on this night alone. In all I've likely spent 15 hours working this issue over several months and for the first time I felt like someone was finally listening to me and we were going to be making headway. Jon gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to text him when I had a problem pop up.
My joy was quickly crushed though it was no fault of the techs (Jon). About 2 weeks later, Jon came back out to my house to re-run my line in the house. While doing this, he inadvertently damaged my hardy-plank on the outside. He was apologetic and told me in the next couple days I would hear from someone to schedule someone to come out and repair the broken plank. He also reassured me someone would be getting back with me to do a survey to try to find the problem with the line in the neighborhood. He also informed me another customer had started complaining about the same thing, so now there was verification it wasn't just my line that was a problem.
Since that visit, I've texted him almost daily (For the last week and a half) with screenshots of my crappy speed tests. Most texts get a response back with something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I'm trying to get something done. My supervisor was supposed to order all this work to be done". I've yet to receive a single call from anyone at Charter about any of this. They have left Jon out on a limb and a customer swinging in the wind.
Why would they do this? well, checking lines and replacing them is not exactly a cheap problem to fix. It's not cheap if they know exactly where the problem is. you can imagine how expensive it is if they have no idea where in a couple mile subdivision a line could be nicked and causing problem. To me this is a legitimate excuse to explain why a job is taking a long time. What isn't legitimate is the complete failure to communicate with me and the complete failure of seeing any work at all being done in the neighborhood. You can see from the pictures, the problem is very real. Both hardlined and wireless.
On top of all this, I just checked my account and there has been no credit applied. My normal bill will be withdrawn automatically on February. So another supervisor who apparently doesn't do his job. I did get a letter in the mail saying "Sorry we didn't fix it that one time we came out, here's $20". That's not a credit. that's a pathetic apology at best and doesn't even begin to cover the time, effort, work from home days I've had to schedule around, Meetings I've had to postpone, and complete lack of service that I've dealt with. In 3 months I've spent $120 on internet that has not been delivered consistently or as promised. I've spent quite a bit of personal time dealing with this.
Why am I on here then? Because calling obviously gets me nowhere. I don't have any other option (though if ATT is running Fiber, that may be changing). I'm hoping that by blasting this on facebook and any forums I can I can get someone at Charter to pay attention and call me. This is beyond ridiculous. Again, it's sad when Comcast, once voted as the most evil corporation in America, is preferred as to the service and treatment I'm currently receiving. Let's see if Charter Communications is paying attention and cares or if I'm just another monthly bill to digest.
