Charter Cable: The Saga Continues

 

Part 2

As I left off with the Charter Cable Saga, they cut me off from their services the day I got home from the hospital Dec. 6th. I'm sure it was just one of those things but it still rankled. I was going to be in home isolation for a week with no Internet or cable.

She spent two hours removing, pulling lines, literally cleaning up years of AT&T, Charter, the original DirecTV cabling from our home and every bit of equipment should could find. It looked like the back room of some small server farm when she was done. I am sure we pulled far too much but we were tired of all this. Later that day we went up to the AT&T store and ordered whatever they had. It was cheaper but would take two weeks to get installed. We later learned after more huffing and puffing that we were getting Uverse finally where the peons lived. It was not a smooth installation. This was Sunday, starting at 6 am she started calling and said, "You promised Friday and you are going to be install today if I have to go up and grab a tech herself!"

My wonderful wife took up the case and I handed her all the documents we had regarding this payment they say we missed...Charter bills, notes on when and who we talked to, reference numbers that said we were paid up and had no balances, the charge card payments, literally everything.

To make a miserable long story short, 2 ½ hours later I heard my wife say,"You are the person that can make this right? Can get this finally cleared?" "Yes but I won't," he replied. Well, he might as well waved a red flag at a bull because she said, "You have already cut us off. I will pay the December bill though you owe us 25 days of service. Remove us as a customer. You can get your equipment tomorrow. No, we will NOT take it to your office. Your trucks go up and down our street each and every day. It will be ready Monday (this was Sunday) and since my husband can't go anywhere any time is fine. If you don't pick it up Monday, Tuesday it will be on the curb for trash day. "Tomorrow between 9-5? Yes, someone will be here. Bring your receipt book too!"

I discovered that our wonderful 2007 LCD Panasonic TV on its own would get TV stations. Not all without an antennae but most of the ones I watched...PBS, CBS, NBC and quite a few others. If I had an antennae who knows what we would have seen. I was happy with the TV but not so with no wi-fi. Well, we had Internet on our cell phones but you can't manage much or at least I couldn't. I could read mail, check out my store on Etsy but gave up trying to do much with it. This is the only time I wished I had bought an iPhone 6+. The problem with that was that I could barely hold it my hands are so small. Besides, I had an iPad. Who every dreamed you would be cut off so thoroughly?

Later my wife went up to the Charter office in Alhambra, CA papers in hand. We were afraid it would affect our credit rating so wanted our name cleared. Besides, they were holding the phone number I had had for over 40 years hostage. Thinking about ALL the damn solicitors that call us, maybe another number might be better! Anyway she returned later with a paper that said "Zero" balance. The next day we received a letter from Charter that said the same thing. That had to be the quickest response from a company in history! Here is the bill dated Dec. 19, 2014:

Two days later we received a billing from Charter saying they were going to cut us off January 6, 2015 if we didn't pay our bill. Then a day after that we got the regular monthly bill with the same amount we had been contesting for months. Remember now, we are NOT using any of their equipment and will never again. Here is that bill:

It goes on and on!
With the two documents that say we owe no balance and the balance is "zero" and the continuing billing from Charter, friends are saying that we need to file a lawsuit for harrassment. As my health improves I may. No one I know likes Charter and while all have had their turns dealing with them, no one has ever heard of what we have been and are going through.

I told the Charter guy getting our gear that he better start looking for another profession. With CBS, HBO, ESPN and others jumping to the Internet soon, we will finally have what we watch untethered and pay for what we want not 150 channels we would never watch. They can merge all they want but in 5 years cable may well not exist. Monopoly deals that cities had for 50 years will dry up and they will really have a credit crunch!

Am I happy with AT&T? Pretty much. We found they over commit. The DirecTV portion was here on time and all the TV's are up and running. The Charter boxes never worked and the minute the tech was gone they were gone too. The wi-fi at least works steadily. I haven't had to reboot yet! It isn't as fast but I am not hacking Sony or Home Depot so its good enough for my needs.

Time will tell. However, I try to keep up with tech and at 69 at least know what's happening even if I can't do it anymore. Many apps are beyond my understanding and I am always complaining about upgrades. It worked fine before. Now? There are going to be big changes in the next few years that will make what we see and do as different as day and night. I just hope and pray these tech companies understand Boomers and their now varying degrees of competence.

Meanwhile, if you have a cable provider choice, Charter is not the one!

Please visit my craft store at KrugsStudio.etsy.com and my fine art store at AlanKrugFineArt.etsy.com. Thank you for stopping by and reading!