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Post by Clipper on Apr 14, 2021 9:58:19 GMT -5
A young man stopped by last night to offer a special introductory offer to get us to move back to Charter for our landline phone, cable tv, and high speed internet. We changed to our local utility for those services a year or so ago. It was a good deal at the time, but just as was the case with Spectrum in the past, the service has degraded over time and the price has increased also. Ever since the onset of the pandemic their customer service has been ridiculously impossible to access. I waited on the phone for over 20 minutes two days in a row to speak with someone in the tech support dept. about and internet problem, left a phone number and message, and waited a week for a call back. I went to their office only to find that they have ONE customer service rep in a little drive-by tent, who after waiting in a long line, told me that she would have someone call me. Haven't called yet and it has been over a month. In recent months I have a strong suspicion that they are either throttling their internet speeds or there are too many people using the service with all the virtual working from home and virtual school work. It is a fiber optic system and the internet speed was always instantaneous and picture quality of the tv was awesome. Lately things have been moving much slower and the picture quality on the tv is not has bright and vivid.
We changed to the local utility because it saved us about 50 bucks a month for the bundle at the time. Now we are switching back to Spectrum for a 35 dollar savings and no charge for two boxes and a DVR. We can try out their service for a month before shutting off our other carrier's service, at no charge. The boxes and equipment will be here tomorrow and the installer will be here on Friday.
Wish us luck. We will probably find that after the year is up the price will rise to a ridiculous rate again, but Kathy doesn't use the computer so we don't want to use an antenna and streaming services. Spectrum is touting many improvements and upgrades to their system. I guess we will soon see. At least the present fiber system hookup will still be in place so if we want to switch back in a year they can simply turn us back on and hook into the cable junction box on the side of the house again.
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Post by artsyone on Apr 14, 2021 13:10:13 GMT -5
Spectrum has more problems here in NY than monkeys have bananas.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 14, 2021 14:49:58 GMT -5
We are currently with Spectrum but have cut way back on our service. We probably use more WiFi than most. When the grandkids are here there are a lot of devices connected to the internet. They all have phones, have been doing remote learning and even the Xbox games connect to other players around the world. I may be the worst offender, home alone with a laptop, a phone and two tablets all active. Of course I only use one at a time.
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Post by BHU on Apr 14, 2021 15:57:28 GMT -5
We switched to HULU live back in January. We have a Smart TV so we also get ROKU. We're saving about $80/month, don't miss Spectrum & have no plans on switching back. That $80/month is $80/month that we don't have to hand over to Spectrum.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 14, 2021 16:17:10 GMT -5
The TV in the kitchen came with a built in Roku. I think it was about $89 with the Roku. I don't watch it much but Barb likes to watch while she is cooking and the grandkids also use it. They control it and cast to it with a tablet or phone. The one in the basement is mostly used by the kids and their Xbox. That connects to Wifi also. The only times I can remember watching it in the last year is when we have family movie nights.
That leaves Barb's TV in our bedroom. I think that connects to Wifi with Google. When I go to bed I close my eyes and go to sleep. Barb likes to watch TV for an hour or so. An extravagance but the Chromecast was $39 and we don't pay Spectrum for that anymore.
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Post by Clipper on Apr 15, 2021 17:04:13 GMT -5
Spectrum just arrived. He has his work cut out for him. The coax runs through the woods across the road, across the creek and about another 100 yards to the pole where the connection originates. He check the signal on the old coax and it was weak so he is trouble shooting it. Poor guy just toted his extension ladder through the woods and forded the creek. They said when they made the appointment that the installation can take anywhere from one to three hours. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be closer to 3 hrs than 1.  Yup, now we are waiting for a second technician to help the first one pull a new wire all the way from the pole to the house. I guess they splice the old wire onto the new and pull it back through the woods. Nothing is ever easy. I feel sorry for the guy. He has forded the creek twice so far. (actually bridged it with his ladder but every time he needs to cross it he has to take the ladder down from the pole and carry it to the creek.) He probably has at least two more trips. He has this large roll of heavy coaxial cable on a rack to take over and back. |
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Post by BHU on Apr 15, 2021 17:38:15 GMT -5
Leave it to Spectrum to send one tech to do a job that probably takes 3. They're the only game in town around here for internet & if there was a competitor I'd dump them just so I wouldn't have to hand over any money to that outfit. Their customer service is lousy, their product is overpriced & their equipment such as cable modems is garbage. But I can't blame you for switching over to save a few bucks. Nothing wrong with that.
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Post by Clipper on Apr 16, 2021 7:16:55 GMT -5
The technician finally left last night shortly at almost 9pm. We were loving the quality of the picture and enjoying watching one of the free movies on demand. This morning we woke up to an on-screen notice that there is no signal. I called and they are working on a local service problem. WTH!
Oh dear, welcome to Charter, haha!
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 16, 2021 11:38:25 GMT -5
Our Gov. just announced a plan to require all internet providers to supply high speed internet to low income people for $5 per month. Since we do not meet any of the listed qualifiers for "low income" my question is how much will it cost me?
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Post by Clipper on Apr 16, 2021 15:00:17 GMT -5
It was a system problem that had it down. It was about an hour and I was able to reboot the boxes and get it back on. Hopefully things will run smooth for a while but I don't have a lot of faith in ANY of the cable and internet providers. They all offer a great introductory offer and at the end of a year you can bend over and hold your ankles because here it comes.
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Post by BHU on Apr 16, 2021 17:40:39 GMT -5
It was a system problem that had it down. It was about an hour and I was able to reboot the boxes and get it back on. Hopefully things will run smooth for a while but I don't have a lot of faith in ANY of the cable and internet providers. They all offer a great introductory offer and at the end of a year you can bend over and hold your ankles because here it comes. And they'll get a running start when they do so be ready. Lol |
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