Greensboring.com - Outside The Media. Beyond The News. Greensboro, NC.

*EDIT: Skip to page 3 to read about Time Warner's attempts to meter broadband*

OK seriously. These people are all evil.


First of all, I have had Directv for about 4 years. Out of those 4 years, I had ZERO problems. None, nadda, zilch. Nothing requiring a repair person and nothing that required any type of service. Good equipment, great signal, great programming.

Ok... well naturally I need internet access.. so I go with Time Warner (Wiener from here on out) as there is no other real solution for quick downloads and uploads. Out of that time I have had to replace their stupid cable modems no less than 14 times. I swear. On top of that, service simply drops at times for no apparent reason. It Just simply stops. Thank god I don't have them for television because I'd be pissed if I was Tivo'ing something and missed it because of these yokels.

Now on to the story/rant. Time Wiener employs incompetent private contractors to do their work. Now when you employ contractors it somewhat adds a buffer between the company and responsibility for the work being done. How? Well if they screw something up its not Time Wiener's fault. Apparently it's the contractor's. And good luck on getting them to do anything about it. There is simply no reason for them to give a damn, as Time Wiener has a virtual monopoly when it comes to High Speed internet.

So Time Wiener sends out Dufus and Cleatis to hook up cable in an apt near mine. It's important to note that I live in a renovated older building. Apparently there are a lot of coax cables under the floors. Long story short, when Dufus and Cleatis couldn't figure out which cables went to that apt, they became frustrated and began to cut coax cables at random.. I will say this again for impact.. they became frustrated and cut coax cables at random. So what did they do? Cut my cable modem, cut my satellite dish coax cables, and to add insult to injury, they pointed my dish (on the roof) down. Incidentally they also disconnected cable in another apt and never bothered to reconnect it.

We contacted Time Wiener... which was a HUGE ordeal because you don't know Dante's 9th circle of hell until trying to explain how their workers did this when NOT working on YOUR service to one of their operators. Prepare for repetition because you will be forced to tell the same story over and over and over and then S L O W L Y and then over again!

Ok, so Time Wiener sends Dufus and Cleatis out again. They reconnect my stuff by re-splicing the cable, and "kinda" move the dish "sort of" back up. In that "I'm a bloody retard and think if its pointing towards the sky it must work" kind of way. They tell my maintenance guy that "well we think we fixed it, if its still not right he can call Directv. They will come out and fix for free".

Yeah, not so much there buster. That was officially his way of absolving himself and his inbred cousin/brother from any responsibility.

Naturally the dish is pointing nowhere near the right place in the sky and TV has no signal. I call Directv and they wanna charge me 80 effing dollars to come out and fix. I say "hold on, I'm not paying for that" and call Time Wiener. One can imagine their reaction. Well we cant pay, perhaps you should contact the contractor, well they cant pay as they 'work' for Time Wiener. And there you have it. almost a month now and no resolution.

I'm not alone I found out. A friend told me of her neighbor with a similar issue and his battle with the Wiener. She said the condo next to him had cable work done. But to get to it they had to crawl over his ceiling. When they did, they slipped (or something) and cracked his plaster. Now he has a big crack and bump in his ceiling. He has been battling with these funk-tards for 8 months now trying to get them to pay for their incompetence.

Rant over.. for now. But has anyone else dealt with Time Wiener's shady dealings and poor business practices?

Have you gotten the satellite working?

It's pretty simple to get it back aligned if you can hear your TV from the roof...

If you can get to the roof.

I've been pretty lucky with Time Warner, but I don't generally call them for anything. That and I have a huge roll of Coax cable, splicing tools, and Coax ends. Right now I've got 4 Coax lines going to each room, and a "intranet" for internal broadcast of movies off the DVD player. It put's such a load on time warners signal booster, I think I'm pulling down the signal quality for the whole street.

I haven't had many issues. But there's is something that is a little complicated, it can get hard to deal with.

I did have a problem with signal strength and I had the TW truck come out like 5 times. Finally, a different guy came out and installed this massively thick cable from their main junction box to my house. No problems since except me thinking I'm spotting a small black snake from time to time. So a lot depends on the guy they send out to fix it and if he's worth a damn.

My gripe is price. And TW negotiates with the city on the max they can charge. Thank you City of GSO.

I heard there's new cable serive coming. That's a good thing. Competetion will drive prices down and/or quality up.

Matt wrote:
I heard there's new cable serive coming. That's a good thing. Competetion will drive prices down and/or quality up.

I heard something about that too. Forgot the name (Comcast?) but they are huge up north. Competition is a GOOD thing!

I hate the fact you have to rearrange your life around the "technician's" schedule. Then if they don't have the right parts or have to come back, then you have to get off work yet AGAIN to accommodate. Grrrrr.

Back when I worked for GTE, which is now Verizon... I remember a company meeting where basically the consensus at that time, was the eventual winner of the telecommunications market will be the company that builds it's fiber-optic network the first. That's why Verizon is doing FIOS out west at a loss of thousands of dollars per customer, just to build the infrastructure. It makes sense since right now most of us have telephone lines and cable-vision lines running to our homes, but neither are capable of carrying high-bandwidth data stream that will be expected with the next level of high-definition digital television, and Internet.

Personally I'm sick of the 1960's technology locally, and I would highly welcome a high-bandwidth fiber-optic connection that would carry my telephone calls, Internet, and television.

That's a smart investment. When it comes time for the other companies to offering it, they'll have build their own or rent the lines from Verizon.

Of course Verizon must hope that a newer, easier to implement technology doesn't pop up! That's doubtful, though.

Speed of light is hard to conquer. But if we ever could wireless broadcast stuff with high compression ratios then it might be possible.

Just a random thought?

Why would you choose the eye of Ra for the TWC logo?

Liv wrote:Just a random thought?

Why would you choose the eye of Ra for the TWC logo?

Signs and Symbols of the New World Order

Logo of Time Warner/ AOL! Notice how it resembles the Udjat and is akin to the all seeing eye! Time Warner has a major monopoly on communications in the world. They control what you see and hear. They suppress the truth. Want to see a High Priestess who is wearing the symbol leading a ritual? Watch this film Mystery Babylon as they cast spells at Bohemian Grove in Calif.

You should have know it was something nefarious.

The eye is there because the colon was too hard to draw.

Nfidel wrote:You should have know it was something nefarious.

But, since "everyone" knows it's RA's eye, isn't that a bit presumtious, a bit cocky?

I mean it would be like me saying "Greensboring:: We're smarter than you"

I agree that Time Warner does'nt give a damn about their customers. They realize that they have a product that no one can compete with - high speed internet, and they definitely take advantage of the system. I rarely go an entire week without some kind of technical difficulty. Sometimes the sound goes out, sometimes its the HD channels, and sometimes its the data. I have lived at my new residence for 5 months now and I have had to call in and have the cable box reset at least 5 times. My experience was a little different from the first guy's horror story. I completed the construction of my house in September of '07 and contacted Time Warner for install. My house is in the back of a development on a lot that sits about 900 feet off the road. Time Warner services the neighborhood but because they were going to have to actually do some work and trench a line out to my house they wanted to charge me $1500. Of course that went over like a lead balloon with me - thats like going to a resturaunt when you're already paying for the meal but also paying rent for the table you sit at during the meal. After a few rough conversations, they simply told me that they could not and would not service my residence. This process took right at 8 weeks and I literally talked to 10 different people. Then one day, out of the blue, some guys showed up with a track hoe and started trenching the line to my house. Obviously no one at Time Warner could explain it but they told me there was going to be no charge. They got the line trenched in and another crew came in and ran it to my house. The guy that first came to my house was from JWC Communications, or something like that, and was a knucklehead. He had never seen a structured wire panel (smart box). This is when I should have sent him home. He proceeded to spend 7 hours trying to figure out how to hook everything up - 7 HOURS. He didn't even have all the tools he needed. He had to borrow most of mine. I even offered to go buy him a line tester so he wouldn't have to randomly cut and re-attach cables to figure it out. After tracking mud all over the carpet he proceeded to tell me that my audio guys made a mistake when pre-wiring my house and that I was going to have to set the cable box on my washing machine next to the structured panel and leave the door open when watching TV so my remote would work. Had I not been there he would have drilled a hole through the face of the structured panel door so that the door could close and the cable could remain connected to the cable box. I'm going to say that again, he wanted to drill a hole through the cover of the panel so the door could close and the cable could remain connected. I told this guy " are you kidding me? Don't touch anything else in my house and get out!" After 3 or 4 trips I had to finally get my audio guys back out and pay them to hook everything up. Everything was good until they came back to put the line to my house underground. I came home one day and noticed the line was buried and surprisingly everything looked good until I went to pull my truck into the garage. The bottom panel of my garage door was caved in. I immediately called Time Warner, went through the automation crap, talked to 4 different people, and they came out the next day to look at it. The guy took pictures and apologized and told me that they would be in contact with me. After 2 1/2 months I was contacted and told that their vans could not have done the damage because the dent in the door was too low. I was so aggravated but there was nothing I could do because I couldn't prove anything. I came home one day for lunch and while I was there, some mexicans in a pickup truck with a trailor loaded with a trencher pulled down my drive. They had forgotten that they already trenched the line. They turned around backing the trailor towards my garage door. I noticed they had steel rods hanging off the back of the trailor and had I not raised the garage door, they would have backed into it. Thats when it hit me, these were the dip$%#&$ that hit my door. I started trying to call Time Warner again but was unsuccessful, mainly because Time Warner was saying they weren't responsible because the guys who did it were subcontractors. I got so tired of telling the story over and over and over to someone different each time. The damage to the door wasn't but $390, but it was the principle. I must have left 6 unreturned voicemails to this person. I was able to track down this person by going to several locations telling them that I was late to a meeting with her and needed directions. I found out which office she was in, the main office close to the airport. I tricked her into meeting me by telling the receptionist that I was the construction manager of a Triad Production Builder and needed to discuss a new 50 lot subdivision that I wanted them to service. I had to threaten to give each one of my new customers, from this day foward, a $100 visa gift card to use any cable provider other than Time Warner. This is when she agreed to pay for my repair. Overhead door was the company that repaired my door and because Time Warner had an account with them (how convienent) they would pay thm direct. Well its been 4 months and Overhed door has yet to be paid. I have left numerous voicemails to this same person at Time Warner. I guess I'm going to have to make another surprise visit. Its just ridiculous that you have to go through this kind of crap to get people to accept responsibility for their actions, and do the right thing. I can't wait for another cable company to come along and hopefully bankrupt Time Warner.

Sanjuro wrote:Rant over.. for now. But has anyone else dealt with Time Wiener's shady dealings and poor business practices?

The fact that TW doesn't offer any lube when sending the bill out is a bit off-setting...

My main problem now is the DVR box not being capable of DVR'ing the HD channels without pixellation (sp?; word?). I can watch the HD stations fine, most of the time, but every time I DVR them, I can't watch the show. So now I have to DVR the shows on standard station.

I've heard this same complaint from many others. I've replaced my HD DVR box about 4 times now, and it still doesn't work right.

The day we get a new provider in GSO, I'm there...

rumface wrote:

Sanjuro wrote:Rant over.. for now. But has anyone else dealt with Time Wiener's shady dealings and poor business practices?

The fact that TW doesn't offer any lube when sending the bill out is a bit off-setting...

My main problem now is the DVR box not being capable of DVR'ing the HD channels without pixellation (sp?; word?). I can watch the HD stations fine, most of the time, but every time I DVR them, I can't watch the show. So now I have to DVR the shows on standard station.

I've heard this same complaint from many others. I've replaced my HD DVR box about 4 times now, and it still doesn't work right.

The day we get a new provider in GSO, I'm there...

Well, since this report, I decided to give Satan (aka TimeWarner) a go with their HD service. And guess what... I have the exact same problem as you. That, and their DVR is a piece of crap on a stick as far as functionality and interface. I think its time to just bite the bullet and get Directv again when I can muster up the dough.

Side note... Why can't anyone build a DVR like Tivo?? The worst decision ever was Directv getting rid of Tivo for their own in-house service.

Brandon wrote:I agree that Time Warner does'nt give a damn about their customers. They realize that they have a product that no one can compete with - high speed internet, and they definitely take advantage of the system. I rarely go an entire week without some kind of technical difficulty. Sometimes the sound goes out, sometimes its the HD channels, and sometimes its the data. I have lived at my new residence for 5 months now and I have had to call in and........... Well its been 4 months and Overhed door has yet to be paid. I have left numerous voicemails to this same person at Time Warner. I guess I'm going to have to make another surprise visit. Its just ridiculous that you have to go through this kind of crap to get people to accept responsibility for their actions, and do the right thing. I can't wait for another cable company to come along and hopefully bankrupt Time Warner.

But seriously, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Their inability to multi-task and take care of situations like this is staggering.

Dish use to have a nice HD DVR... back in the day when I use to work for them....

I was told that it's supposed to be an eye & an ear representing media including cable, high-speed data, & phone services.

There ya go.

Right Eye of Horus (Ra)


TWC Logo


Eye of Barbie


Eye of Paris Hilton

Apparently the divide is about to widen. I can only imagine the implications of such a restriction. Wifi hotspots will be overwhelmed, information restricted to only those who can afford it.

Comcast ( NSDQ: CMCSA), the country's largest broadband provider, is rolling out restrictions on its service usage, and subscribers whose use of the internet exceeds 250 GB of data a month will first get a warning call, and then on the second instance, their service will be suspended for a year...its current usage policy was amended online today, and this policy will start October 1, the company announced today.

The more interesting part is that Comcast will NOT be provding any tools to monitor bandwidth usage.

?

This isn't new - all ISP accounts have some volume restrictions- although their draconian response and lack of monitoring tools is. My account is set at 20GB/month, but my provider just sends a warning email and threatens to charge extra - I knw the pres and he tells me he's really only interested in stopping the people downloading a 2 gig movie every day and seeding torrents.

Road Runner (Time Warner) is who most of us have around here, and I've never heard of a restriction. It's a bit absurd they'd even attempt it since there is so much competition out there right now.

A Person wrote:?

This isn't new - all ISP accounts have some volume restrictions- although their draconian response and lack of monitoring tools is. My account is set at 20GB/month, but my provider just sends a warning email and threatens to charge extra - I knw the pres and he tells me he's really only interested in stopping the people downloading a 2 gig movie every day and seeding torrents.

Maybe up in Canada but I've never seen a bandwith restriction anywhere at anytime with all the services I've used here in the USA. 20GB may seem like a lot but it's really not (especially for quite a few of us).

I have purchased business internet access for several offices in the US and they do have a cap or at least a price banding based on speed and useage. If home internet doesn't, then I guess they must feel that the net useage is limited by the speed. Many ISPs are already throttling torrent traffic, I think it's only a matter of time....

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/b ... ccess.html

Time Warner Cable May Abandon Unlimited Internet Access
Monday, June 02, 2008 4:26 PM PDT
On Thursday, Time Warner Cable will start trials of cell-phone-like Internet access plans for its customers in Beaumont, Texas. Under the plans, Time Warner will charge an overage fee to any customers who download or upload more than a pre-set amount, according to an AP story out today.

Per the story, the trial will charge $1 per gigabyte over the limit, which ranges from $30 a month for 5GB and a 768 kbps connection, to $55 for 40GB and a 15mbps connection. The limits apply to both downloads and uploads.

I've seen these kind of limits suggested previously as a potential alternative to the traffic throttling performed by some ISPs to limit peer-to-peer file sharing on their networks. The companies claim a small percentage of users eat up the majority of the network bandwidth, and suggest that applying a high-limit cap that wouldn't impact the majority of users would allow them to rein in the supposedly out-of-control downloaders.

I just think at $40 some odd dollars a month and other technologies coming online like FIOS and Cell Internet, that if they start pulling out stuff like this, the cable industry will lose it's foothold on the competition. Maybe that's a good thing? I'm already to the point of considering Wireless internet since I'd love to have it on the road and stuff... but I'll be darned if I'm paying anymore for internet through cable... which coincidentally has a very poor uptime in my neighborhood.