Oct

Charter still sucks

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as --Not Pharmacy--, Engrish, Just a question, Me being a dick, Stupid People, Update

Some of you may have read my posts about Charter Cable completely sucking — and the follow up. I still think they suck. Now I’ve had another encounter that is absolutely redonkulous.

They have an online chat where you can ask simple questions and get quick answers. I’m sure that is manned by children paid pennies in India, but I used it nonetheless. Here’s the conversation(s).

Thank you for choosing Charter Chat Live! A Customer Care representative from General Sales Inquiries will be with you shortly. You have been connected to CVH Annyvette .
CVH Annyvette : Hi! My name is Annyvette. Thank you for contacting Charter Communications. How may I assist you?
TAestP: Is there a way to view all movies available On-Demand?
TAestP: I’ve found channel listing and a few upcoming movies on your website, but not the entire list.
CVH Annyvette : I’m sorry, but it would appear as though you have been mistakenly routed to our sales group. May I transfer you to our cable support group for further assistance?
[Here's where I waited 5 minutes because it assumed my question was about buying something. That's freaking stupid.]

Please wait while we find an agent from the CHAT - DUMA - Video Support department to assist you.
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
An agent will be with you in a moment. Thank you for your patience.
The next available Agent will be with you in a moment.
You have been connected to TTD Doreen .
TTD Doreen : My name is Doreen. Thank you for contacting Charter Communications. How may I assist you?
TAestP: Is there a way to view all movies available On-Demand? I’ve found channel listing and a few upcoming movies on your website, but not the entire list.
TAestP: The menus to scroll through all the movies is slow, clunky, and not convenient
TTD Doreen : You can view the On Demand menu on channel 999.
TAestP: I’m sorry — I meant on the internet. Because channel 999 is very slow — you can only see 5-6 movies at a time — I’d like to be able to view the ENTIRE list or even search through it for a specific movie using keywords, categories, or movie titles.
TTD Doreen : Like I said, you can view the entire list by pressing 999 on the remote and following the menus.
TAestP: Like I said, I want to view it on the internet — not my television. I’d also like to speak to someone that is not a complete retard.
TTD Doreen : I am sorry. We do not have it available on the website.

Wow — what a complete retard! Plenty of time elapsed between each statement, so it wasn’t that she just responded too fast — she was just an idiot. That was also rather rude as well — don’t you think?

I can accept that they don’t have the list online — it’s stupid since our society is driven by information at our fingertips — but I can accept it. But, seriously, have you tried using their on-demand menus? Talk about a piece of worthless shit.

Or Print it...

Pharmacy Psychic says October 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Eh, they sound better than my dealings with NetZero. Never buy Internet access through NetZero. I bought it to get me by for a little bit this summer when I didn’t have wireless access. Canceling service was one of the most difficult customer service encounters I have had. No one there spoke clear English. The first time I called they tried to up sell me, but I clearly said “I want to cancel service” more than once. A month later, they took more money out of my account. This time they pretended the line went dead every time I said “I want to cancel service.” Actually, I have to watch and make sure they don’t try to charge me again.

I do think the “I’d also like to speak to someone that is not a complete retard” comment was uncalled for though. If you had been one of my pharmacy customers I would have hung up on you for that.

“How much would #30 Alprazolam 2mg ER cost me?”
“We don’t have any of that in stock.”
“Okay, that’s fine. I just want to know how much that would cost me cash price.”
“But, we don’t have any.”
“Not an issue. I just want to know what your cash price is for 30 Alprazolam 2mg ER.”
“……”
“Can I talk to someone that is not a complete retard?”

If the preceding conversation had occurred, which is essentially the same thing but applicable to pharmacy, I would be completely justified in saying it. I stand by my outburst — rude or not. It’s not like the online translator they use would accurately translate the word ‘retard’ anyway. They’d probably just think I wanted someone that typed faster — the context wouldn’t translate.

pharmintern says October 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 am

Thankfully I haven’t had a problem with Comcast yet that didn’t require a few words, mostly to get a service tech out as it was usually something with the wires or the whole street was having problems. I have however payed like $60 for a subscription to get a north american tech support line from the company I bought my computer from. After spending 2 hours trying to get any meaningful help and being able to understand what the person on the other line was saying, I got really fed up. It gets really annoying to listen to automated messages that lead no where then get bounced between India, Malaysia, and some unknow place where no one speaks english clearly and without such a heavy accent I can barely make out 1 word in 4.

Sidney says October 23rd, 2008 at 9:50 am

Charter was - not surprisingly - ranked lowest (or maybe they tied with Cox??) in Consumer’s Reports for cable providers. Comcast (which is what I have, and call ComCrap) is also in the bottom three. At my parents house in the boonies they had the same issue with the guide/OnDemand channels being ridiculously slow, but it was also combined with slow internet. You should run a speed test http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and see what speeds you’re getting on your computer. If you’re below 4Mbps d/l they need to send a tech out since 4 is the lowest speed everyone pays for (at least in my area). At one point we had slower than dial up with our cable internet - they had to replace some of their cable lines, splitters, add a booster, etc. and suddenly VOILA! Our internet jumped from agonizingly slow to super speedy.
In my condo I am signed me up for “basic cable” (it’s cheaper than just plain internet for some reason) and then switched their plans - so suddenly I went from having 45 channels a month for $13, I went to having 12 channels a month for $13, with NO notice, AND their CSR tried to tell me I never had Spike TV - when not only had I had Spike, it was basically one of three channels I watched and they had sent a tech out on no less than three occasions to fix the fact that channel was totally fuzzy.
I can’t wait for Verizon FIOS to hit my area, I’m going to dump Comcast and have a frikkin party since I’ll no longer have to deal with their assclowns on the phone anymore. All my dealing with Verizon (wireless) have been totally pleasant.

Ali says October 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am

I have to agree with you about the listing online. It is such a pain to go through each channel to see there listings. It takes like 5 clicks to get just the listing then another 5 to see all the movies then start over for each movie channel. ARGH. It would be wonderful if they put it online.

scott says October 24th, 2008 at 7:04 am

Are you in a place that will allow satellite? I now own my own house, and dumped cable for DirecTV and will never look back. Sure when it rains the picture gets disrupted, but the customer service has been soooo much better. They speaky engrish, too.

I can only get reliable internet from them. It would cost me more for internet if I disconnected my cable from them. I have considered it — maybe I will when my next good contract term runs out.

KDUBZ says October 26th, 2008 at 9:25 am

Comcast sucks too! Cable companies essentially have regional monopolies, which means that they will forever suck while continuosly increaseing their fees. The nice thing with Comcast is that if you call every 6 months and threaten to switch to dish they usually give you some cut rate deals!

Tim says October 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

You can view this online at http://www.charter.net/tv/index.php?page=vod

This must be brand new — or their helpdesk people are inept and didn’t know.
Either way, it’s exactly what I wanted. Thanks for sharing!