Fun With Obtaining Time Warner Cable High-Speed Internet
Bear in mind that every time I had to call the Time Warner Cable hotline, the automated guide-lady assured me "We're committed to being the best!"
They tell you that the technician is going to show up anytime within a four-hour period, and there is no way they can give you anything more approximate. So I chose the 12pm-4pm time frame. Each time, they showed up at about 10 minutes to 4. That's four beautiful summer days I spent sitting around my studio.
The first technician scowled upon surveying my building's backyard. "This is a fucking bitch job," he stated, with no trace of humility. He continued to sulk and curse under his breath the entire time. I was taken aback at his liberal use of expletives, but then I figured: I'm a young-looking male with my own apartment, he isn't dealing with a mom or family or whatever, so I guess that means he's allowed to reveal his innermost bitterness. Anyway, this guy left with the internet still not working. "The problem's on their end. You need to call Time Warner, OK?" I called, and the operator told me "There's nothing wrong here, he left you without a connection," and the earliest appointment I could reschedule was for a week and a half later.
This one's my favorite. At about 3pm, I look out my window and notice a Time Warner van parked right in front of my building. A different guy than last time. Dude is *sleeping* in the front seat, not twenty feet away from my face! I let him dream for a half hour before stepping outside, pretending to be checking the mail, but making noise to see if he wakes up. Here's the best part. My coming outside startles him; he starts the engine of his van. I look at him, waving, beckoning, making sure he's the one scheduled to hook up my internet. He shifts into gear and DRIVES AWAY. Down the street. Gone. I call Time Warner again and explain exactly what happened. "I saw the guy asleep outside my building, and I came outside and he drove away, it was kind of weird actually. Why did he do that? Is he coming back?" Do you think I got any kind of coherent explanation? They completely changed the subject. The operator just apologized and told me I had to reschedule.
Well, the third time, I get a call from Time Warner at 1pm saying that the technician did not get a response from me, so he "closed out the order". Never mind that I was awake since 10am, with the windows open, my phone on, and a sign in my window reading "Internet: Please Knock ->". It's no use arguing with them. If you're there, but they say you aren't, you're obviously hallucinating. By this point I am too delirious to even get angry at this.
The fourth person had a soul, and thus the rest is history. He did get a good chuckle out of my recounting the above for him.
Thought this might amuse some out there. On 9th street the other day I saw the guy who I caught dozing off. I guess my feedback never got to him. Anyone else have issues with these dudes?
They tell you that the technician is going to show up anytime within a four-hour period, and there is no way they can give you anything more approximate. So I chose the 12pm-4pm time frame. Each time, they showed up at about 10 minutes to 4. That's four beautiful summer days I spent sitting around my studio.
The first technician scowled upon surveying my building's backyard. "This is a fucking bitch job," he stated, with no trace of humility. He continued to sulk and curse under his breath the entire time. I was taken aback at his liberal use of expletives, but then I figured: I'm a young-looking male with my own apartment, he isn't dealing with a mom or family or whatever, so I guess that means he's allowed to reveal his innermost bitterness. Anyway, this guy left with the internet still not working. "The problem's on their end. You need to call Time Warner, OK?" I called, and the operator told me "There's nothing wrong here, he left you without a connection," and the earliest appointment I could reschedule was for a week and a half later.
This one's my favorite. At about 3pm, I look out my window and notice a Time Warner van parked right in front of my building. A different guy than last time. Dude is *sleeping* in the front seat, not twenty feet away from my face! I let him dream for a half hour before stepping outside, pretending to be checking the mail, but making noise to see if he wakes up. Here's the best part. My coming outside startles him; he starts the engine of his van. I look at him, waving, beckoning, making sure he's the one scheduled to hook up my internet. He shifts into gear and DRIVES AWAY. Down the street. Gone. I call Time Warner again and explain exactly what happened. "I saw the guy asleep outside my building, and I came outside and he drove away, it was kind of weird actually. Why did he do that? Is he coming back?" Do you think I got any kind of coherent explanation? They completely changed the subject. The operator just apologized and told me I had to reschedule.
Well, the third time, I get a call from Time Warner at 1pm saying that the technician did not get a response from me, so he "closed out the order". Never mind that I was awake since 10am, with the windows open, my phone on, and a sign in my window reading "Internet: Please Knock ->". It's no use arguing with them. If you're there, but they say you aren't, you're obviously hallucinating. By this point I am too delirious to even get angry at this.
The fourth person had a soul, and thus the rest is history. He did get a good chuckle out of my recounting the above for him.
Thought this might amuse some out there. On 9th street the other day I saw the guy who I caught dozing off. I guess my feedback never got to him. Anyone else have issues with these dudes?
Comments
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Time Warner is the Evil Empire. That said, when I read this post, their advertisement was at the top AND side of the board. Thought Police!
Anytime they miss an appointment you are entitled to a month of free service. This has happened to me more times than I can count - at one point I didn't pay cable for FOUR MONTHS.
I seriously wish RCN or somebody else would compete with them here.
I've already reported them several times to the DOITT and to BBB. I also called directly to the President's office and that's the only way I had resolution to one of my on-going problems -
That's hysterical. I mean, I'm sure it sucked, but as it went on, I'm sure you started wondering "alright...where's the camera?"
When my guy showed up, two things happened that seemed out of the ordinary.
1. He asked for glass of water - I didn't take offense at this, but it was odd. Being a gracious host, I obliged and got him some, from the Brita no less.
2. He asked to use my bathroom - No. 1, not no. 2. I would have declined were he attempting to install brown cable as opposed to the white cable I had ordered from TW. Regardless, I was really uncomfortable with this. I'd certainly never do this were I an installation dude. I was all uncomfortable cause I knew I was gonna have to clean up dude's pee-spray from all around my toilet bowl. I'm throwing up in my mouth just thinking about it.
Anyway, so I've had a number of problems since then and they've fixed them. But, I did make it a point on one of the many, many calls that in all of the years I've had cable, in major metropolitan areas by the way (San Francisco, Washington DC), I've had more problems with Time Warner in 6 months than I did in the 5 previous years preceeding TW. What up with that?
Along those lines. I don't claim to be a lawyer, or fully understand the anti-trust laws, but how is that you only have one option in cable? I mean, it seems like whichever cable company owns the area, that's who you deal with/buy from, no if's, and's or but's. How is that not a monopoly? Sure you can get dish, but that's still not a choice within cable...that's another product altogether. Can anyone shed light on this? I've always been curious. Or do we have options and I've just missed 'em. -
I don't really see anything wrong with a worker asking for a glass of water or to use the bathroom. Sometimes people need the bathroom. Do you not let guests use the bathroom? I sympathize with not liking to have other people use your toilet, but sometimes you have to let other people use your toilet -- that's what Lysol is for, right?
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I had similar problems getting Time Warner to work in my new apartment, the same four appointments, but my story isn't even funny. Just dull.
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I can't believe I'm losing karma points for saying the cable guy should be allowed to use the toilet if he needs to go -- you guys are harsh! But -- you know what -- I have great cable karma -- I've never had a problem with Time Warner. So there. :P
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When I lived in Manhattan we had both time Warner and RCN inthe building. I ordered TW cable internet as RCN's was only 1 way at the time. It took 3 technichian visits from TW, 1 technichian visit from RCN, 2 telephone calls to TW general counsel office in Stamford CT, 3 calls to the director of Real Estate in Manhattan to get my firggen cable modem installed. It did get installed and I kept my cable TV service from RCN, all that to say, I feel your pain
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I don't really see anything wrong with a worker asking for a glass of water or to use the bathroom. Sometimes people need the bathroom. Do you not let guests use the bathroom?
Well, justs to clear things up, two things. First, a guest is just that...a guest. Someone who I am familiar with that I have willingly invited into my home b/c I want them there. The cable guy, whom I will never see again, does not fit this description. I'd let a guest of mine wear a shirt of mine, or borrow $50 bucks from me. Not so much with random cable guy. See the difference?
Second, I never said there was anything wrong. If you reread the post, what I typed wastwo things happened that seemed out of the ordinary
. "Out of the ordinary" doesn't necessarily imply "wrong" does it?
Oh, and just so it's out there...I don't even know or understand how to work this karma thing. So, the negative was not given by me...I wouldn't even know how to do so. I happen to enjoy good debate. -
this is why i have direct tv. cheaper, easier, and best thing: no time warner cable.
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the_dude wrote:
It's easy -- I just gave you a karma point, even though I still disagree with you. Though, it's a little too much like being in high school, which sucks, actually.
Oh, and just so it's out there...I don't even know or understand how to work this karma thing. So, the negative was not given by me...I wouldn't even know how to do so. I happen to enjoy good debate.
But I don't want to derail Z's thread any further. :P -
When we got TW installed, it didn't work the first time. So they sent out techs weekly to troubleshoot (in the end they had to rewire my whole block). The oddest time though was when one tech was working on the wiring in my backyard and I end up helping him. Like climbing things and helping him string the new cable from the pole to my house. It didn't occur to me later that that was really rather strange. TW knew they were rewiring a section of block and they sent ONE guy. So I ended up working for TW for an hour. It got done though, better then sending him back for help.
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TWC was my last and only choice for broadband internet. I tried calling Verizon and some others, and they all said they didn't serve 11215. Interesting? Though it might be possible that I could have had DSL if I had a home phone line, which I don't (cell only).
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You don't need a landline to get DSL, they charge you like $5 more a month, but they do it (i've done it twice, though not in PS, I did it in Clinton Hill and Kensington).
You can check your address for availibilty at: http://www22.verizon.com/forhomedsl/channels/dsl/addressqual/ -
Z wrote: TWC was my last and only choice for broadband internet. I tried calling Verizon and some others, and they all said they didn't serve 11215. Interesting? Though it might be possible that I could have had DSL if I had a home phone line, which I don't (cell only).
verizon has internet. sometimes they lie about it so you need to ask for supervisors. a lot.
(when i moved here from jersey i was thrilled to be able to get verizon for everything, because in jersey verizon rocks. really, they're amazing. then i found out the ny verizon is totally separate, and we all know how much we love them here...) -
If I'm not mistaken, and I may be because I studied this over 10 years ago and the law may have changed.... It isn't that Time Warner or any other telecom giant have monopolies in violation of antitrust law, it's that they are governed by an antitrust exemption which basically means that they must allow competiton to use the communications infrastructure at a competive price. MCI handling local phone service over Verizon's lines and RCN in Manhattan are examples of this I believe.
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the_dude wrote:
The guy asked for a glass of water and you were gracious enough to give it to him from the Brita? You have got to be kidding me. What possible reason would you have to deny someone a glass of water? That's hysterical. I mean, I'm sure it sucked, but as it went on, I'm sure you started wondering "alright...where's the camera?"
When my guy showed up, two things happened that seemed out of the ordinary.
1. He asked for glass of water - I didn't take offense at this, but it was odd. Being a gracious host, I obliged and got him some, from the Brita no less.
2. He asked to use my bathroom - No. 1, not no. 2. I would have declined were he attempting to install brown cable as opposed to the white cable I had ordered from TW. Regardless, I was really uncomfortable with this. I'd certainly never do this were I an installation dude. I was all uncomfortable cause I knew I was gonna have to clean up dude's pee-spray from all around my toilet bowl. I'm throwing up in my mouth just thinking about it.
As for the bathroom thing, I think you need to purchase a pair or rubber gloves and get over your positively undudelike self. -
steve wrote: If I'm not mistaken, and I may be because I studied this over 10 years ago and the law may have changed.... It isn't that Time Warner or any other telecom giant
TW and Telecom giants are 2 different things. You are right that Verizon has to share its telecom infrastructure. But TW is cable, not telecom, and I don't think they are governed the same. In my old building we had both TW and RCN and there were 2 sepperate sets of cablels throughout the building.
Of course NOT sharing the the infrastructure leads to another whole set of problems like when TW need to rip up the streetws to lay new calbe and then 2 wekks later the other cable company wants to do the same thing and it the peple that live and work there that suffer.
best and cheapest utilities I've ever had was when I lived in Palo Alto California and the city owned everyting, electricity, gas, garbage the whole shibang.
Funny thing is that by allowing competition you dissalow economies of scale, though you might get rid of some of the problems of monopolies -
BrooklynJack wrote: [quote=steve]If I'm not mistaken, and I may be because I studied this over 10 years ago and the law may have changed.... It isn't that Time Warner or any other telecom giant
TW and Telecom giants are 2 different things. You are right that Verizon has to share its telecom infrastructure. But TW is cable, not telecom, and I don't think they are governed the same. In my old building we had both TW and RCN and there were 2 sepperate sets of cablels throughout the building.
Of course NOT sharing the the infrastructure leads to another whole set of problems like when TW need to rip up the streetws to lay new calbe and then 2 wekks later the other cable company wants to do the same thing and it the peple that live and work there that suffer.
best and cheapest utilities I've ever had was when I lived in Palo Alto California and the city owned everyting, electricity, gas, garbage the whole shibang.
Funny thing is that by allowing competition you dissalow economies of scale, though you might get rid of some of the problems of monopolies
I think they are both governed by the FCC right? You would think that with all the cross competion the FCC made in the last 5 years, they would be governed similarly, but you may well be right. -
The guy asked for a glass of water and you were gracious enough to give it to him from the Brita? You have got to be kidding me. What possible reason would you have to deny someone a glass of water?
Wow. Such snarkiness.
As for the bathroom thing, I think you need to purchase a pair or rubber gloves and get over your positively undudelike self.
I guess my lighthearted tone was completely over your head. The entire post was supposed to be tongue in cheek. Again, as I said before, I wasn't bashing the guy. Nor did I ever say I thought about denying him water. Refer to the title of the OP: "Fun obtaining TW cable." So, I shared a fun story. Not a rip on the guy. Relax. Come on over to my place, have a glass of Brita water, relieve yourself and calm your nerves. Sheesh. This is pretty absurd having to defend/explain my post. :?
Telling me to get over myself was particularly nice. Kudos. -
if you guys just want boardband. check your number on this site
. has more options than just the ones you know hehe.
http://www.dslreports.com/ -
the_dude wrote:
I think the problem might be that your writing did not convey what you wanted it to. There is nothing in your tone or content to indicate that you were being lighthearted. In fact, your followup post underscores the fact that you were not joking.
Wow. Such snarkiness.
I guess my lighthearted tone was completely over your head. The entire post was supposed to be tongue in cheek. Again, as I said before, I wasn't bashing the guy. Nor did I ever say I thought about denying him water. Refer to the title of the OP: "Fun obtaining TW cable." So, I shared a fun story. Not a rip on the guy. Relax. Come on over to my place, have a glass of Brita water, relieve yourself and calm your nerves. Sheesh. This is pretty absurd having to defend/explain my post. :?
Telling me to get over myself was particularly nice. Kudos.
Reversing yourself now reeks of dishonesty, or at best disingenuity.
Many things are over my head "dude" but not your writing. Not hardly. -
C'mon guys. Surely a misunderstanding about tone (easy to happen on a message board, which is why I use emoticons so liberally) doesn't warrant this kind of argument.
Leave it off here and I promise to buy each of you a drink at the next happy hour. -
Carnivore wrote: C'mon guys. Surely a misunderstanding about tone (easy to happen on a message board, which is why I use emoticons so liberally) doesn't warrant this kind of argument.
You're just trying to get more Karma Carnivore...
Leave it off here and I promise to buy each of you a drink at the next happy hour. -
steve wrote: [quote=Carnivore]C'mon guys. Surely a misunderstanding about tone (easy to happen on a message board, which is why I use emoticons so liberally) doesn't warrant this kind of argument.
You're just trying to get more Karma Carnivore...
Leave it off here and I promise to buy each of you a drink at the next happy hour. -
I've had both Time Warner and Verizon Internet service before -- both were great when they were working, but whenever there was a problem, they were REALLY lacking in the customer service department. Much more so with Time Warner. I spent four hours on the phone once trying to get someone who knew how to deal with Macs to help me out. Ugh.
I have Cablevision now -- while I don't like their channel offerings and menu interface for t.v. that much, I haven't yet had so much as a blip in my Internet service. -
Subject: Re: Fun With Obtaining Time Warner Cable High-Speed Internet
Z wrote: They tell you that the technician is going to show up anytime within a four-hour period, and there is no way they can give you anything more approximate. So I chose the 12pm-4pm time frame. Each time, they showed up at about 10 minutes to 4. That's four beautiful summer days I spent sitting around my studio.
FYI - In both Manhattan and Brooklyn, I've had much better luck with the 8:30am to noon time slot. Both times they've shown up btw 8:30-9am and been competent and pleasant! They actually showed up before we were really ready for them to be there--we were both still wandering around in our underwear when they showed up. :oops:
The guy hooked up two tvs and the internet in less than half an hour! AND everything works!
I guess the early-bird workers are a little more likely to be responsible. -
I've been dealing with trying to get TW to keep the appointments for 3 weeks now to deal with my downed internet cable connection. Each time they say no one was home when there was. I would then call them again to ask why they didn't come and the rep would make me go through all the hoops and I'd have to speak with 3 levels of service reps.
The first time I called they explained the signal was too high. When they didn't come the 2nd time and I called to reschedule, they wouldn't discuss it because I didn't call them from my home number. The 3rd time I called, the level 3 rep told me my modem was broken. Instead of rescheduling a tech visit, we went to a payment center, stood in line for 1 1/2 hours and turned in our modem for a new one. Went home, still didn't work. The 4th time I called and rescheduled a tech visit. The tech turned out again to be a no show and said no one was home. WE WERE HOME!!! The 5th time I called I think I might have started cyring out of frustration and finally got a manager after 30 minutes on hold. We rescheduled a tech visit. FINALLY this Saturday we had a visit. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. He had me call in to customer service. They walked him through additional trouble shooting procedures only to then say, "Sorry it isn't us, it is your computer." He did apologize to us for the horrible lack of customer support and let them know it too when he was on the phone with them. Apparently had they gone through the steps with me 3 weeks ago we could have bypassed all of our wasted time at home and waiting in line! We'll see if it is really our computer. If it isn't I'm cancelling our service. -
I had TW install cable a year and a half ago and it never worked. Had the guy come and remove it. Thought it might have to do with my MAC.
Tried to get Verizon DSL after switching my phone to Verizon. They then said it was not available, (they didn't tell me before I switched). I told them my parents have DSL in the same house but they said it goes by phone number and none is available. -
eggcream wrote: I had TW install cable a year and a half ago and it never worked. Had the guy come and remove it. Thought it might have to do with my MAC.
keep calling, and ask for supervisors. half the people don't know what's available.
Tried to get Verizon DSL after switching my phone to Verizon. They then said it was not available, (they didn't tell me before I switched). I told them my parents have DSL in the same house but they said it goes by phone number and none is available.
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