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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/27/2007 : 22:01:56 [Permalink]
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| There is an evil presence in my home. I did not invite it in. It got here by working its way west, like a plague of locusts eating up everything in its path, becoming fat and satiated and now unable to move or be moved. It came with a malevolence that was initially undetectable within the shiny colored pages that announced its arrival. |
Oh, no! Sylvia Browne is squatting in your house?
Okay, I read the rest of it. Good for you on your Job-like patience and persistence. Great writing! The charges and profits in that business are enormous, yet the service is often terrible. My feeling is that cable companies should be subject to large, graduated fines for such terrible service, and that lying to customers should be randomly checked for by detectives working for regulatory agencies.
Sounds much like my own dealings with AT&T, CareMark pharmacy, and most recently, the Social Security Administration. (At least the latter doesn't run their first-level customer support out of the Black Hole of Calcutta. though they operate a place in Richmond, CA that can swallow up expensive copies of birth certificates without a trace once mailed to their singularity. One my SSI finally starts coming in, I'm going to be so happy that I'll never turn 62 again!)
I hope the replaced equipment holds up for you, and that you won't ever have to call the lying bastards again.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2007 : 22:19:46 [Permalink]
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Mooner:
I hope the replaced equipment holds up for you, and that you won't ever have to call the lying bastards again. |
Heh. I had to call them tonight because my modem is still not right...
But Thanks! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2007 : 22:53:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Mooner:
I hope the replaced equipment holds up for you, and that you won't ever have to call the lying bastards again. |
Heh. I had to call them tonight because my modem is still not right...
But Thanks!
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Well, you probably couldn't even tell if your modem was a little bad, with all the previous data scrambling you had. So count it as slow progress, won all unwilling from enemies.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/28/2007 : 03:58:06 [Permalink]
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So sad, so sad. And so young, too. Our Kil has fallen prey to Them and will never again have a truly peaceful moment.
Y'see, Time Warner is not actually in the cable business, no. That's just a subsiderary of their real business; that of selling black market, homeopathic ulcer balm.
It's really very clever. They sign you up for cable & ect., drive you from irritation to outrage, to the very brink of frothing insanity, then sooth you out for a while. And just when you think you are finally in the clear, they drop electronic shit all over you again. After about the forth time this happens, and your stools are good and bloody, they turn you on to a back alley medico from Paraguay who will, for many dollars, give you something to put out the conflagration in your upper digestive tract. This nostrum works like a charm as it is composed largely of tincture of laudinum and you will get hooked on it like any nodding street junkie. Then They fix your cable properly because they know that they have you, body & soul, forever and you will sit in front of your TV in anguish that it will start to flicker again, all the while sipping from a less-than-sanitary, brown bottle.
Alas, alas poor Kil. I knew him well...
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2007 : 05:29:26 [Permalink]
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You know, there is something about "The Cable Company" that does seem to have some link to some archetypal monster. I've had TW and I've never had those problems, and I've had Comcast, and I've never had those problems. But still, I had some deep glee in ridding myself of big cable. I took the equipment down to the cable office, and the young lady behind the counter told my wife and I that she was proud of us, so it may be universal. Even, maybe especially, the employees feel trapped by it.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2007 : 15:13:21 [Permalink]
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You know, I've been thinking for a long time about having my phone set up so I can record my conversations with Evil Entities such as this.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/28/2007 : 15:37:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
You know, I've been thinking for a long time about having my phone set up so I can record my conversations with Evil Entities such as this.
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My son-in-law's been threatening to do exactly that but hasn't as yet. What he currently does when involved in a bitch call is to lie and just tell them that it's being recorded. It seems to work, at least as far as I know.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2007 : 03:24:16 [Permalink]
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Ya know, I used Time Warner cable for about 10 years, never had a service problem or a customer service problem. A couple years back they sold their stuff (locally to me) to Bright House Networks. Still have good service, and customer service. Since they first offered cable modems in my area I don't think I have ever gone more than an hour without cable service and internet access, and that one time when I called them up they gave me a specific cause of the problem, inidicated that their tech people were working on it, and they gave me a time estimate of when service would be fully restored. They had things back up and running sooner.
During the busy hurricane seasons of the last few years they even installed portable generators at the cable hubs to make sure their service network would not be interupted by power failure on the utility end, so if my house had power I had internet and cable tv up and running.
Maybe this area is just a fluke, because I have never thought about changing cable service. Or maybe their customer service standards dropped off after my local area was sold.
I am extremely cranky when stuff I'm paying for isn't working when it should be. Were I in Kil's place I'd have told them to refund my money, cancel service, and come get their crap (It'll be in a box on the curb) so some other company can provide me what I want.
(spelling edit) |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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| Edited by - Dude on 11/13/2007 03:25:23 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2007 : 15:32:22 [Permalink]
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Sooo... I post this glowing praise of my current ISP/Cable provider a couple days ago, and today I have the longest service outage that I can recall. 4 hours without internet access!
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2007 : 19:01:00 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
Sooo... I post this glowing praise of my current ISP/Cable provider a couple days ago, and today I have the longest service outage that I can recall. 4 hours without internet access!
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It's the Beast. It was just waiting for you to post something positive about Time Warner... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Penyprity
Skeptic Friend
64 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 23:18:44 [Permalink]
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Wow. I could feel the frustration all over that. Funny, but I have Time Warner and (knock on wood) do not have those problems either. I also work in Customer Service at, what would be considered a monopoly. I am above a supervisor in available resources and since the work my company does is highly technical and often dangerous, I get some calls like this one...except not after so much time has passed, and not without proper records. Our calls are all recorded, except supervisor lines (unless they choose to record them). Our front line customer service is monitored very tightly and although we have some reps we would like to take out and hang...we have a lot of good reps who really do what they are supposed to do.
So here are some tips for dealing with companies who just don't do it right.
1. Always get the name and ID number, if they have one, of the person you spoke to.
2. Write down the date and time you called and what you were promised. Don't rely on memory. It might fail you when you are angry.
3. Never get offensive. Don't swear, call names or even raise your voice. (although I was once called a bureaucratic bitch, and I am proud of that title.)
4. Once the front lines of customer service lets you down...escalate the call..and keep escalating every time you have to call back. Supervisors have supervisors and it pisses them off to have to deal with you. You become the squeaky wheel and they would rather fix your problem then have to talk to you again...trust me on this. But stay polite. You can be firm in your dealings...but never get rude. You lose the battle if you do.
5. Recording the call is a good idea.
I can tell you that from my end, I will pull calls to see if what the customer is telling me is correct. Customers have told me that they are recording me as well. Personally, Im fine with that...recorded calls protect the Company and the Customer. I will read all the notes on an account and anyone having contact should have put up something..so if a customer tells me they spoke to someone and there are no notes..with the name and time of call I can pull the recording. Helps the customer most of the time. I stay with a customer until the problem is resolved. If its a large outage, I give them my number so they can check in with me for regular updates. Granted, this is a different need then cable..but customer service is customer service. Especially when you can choose not to use that company. |
Make your vote count. Become a supreme court justice......Peny |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2008 : 00:44:13 [Permalink]
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1. Had Comcast in Colorado for years, no problems.
2. Moved to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho (Panhandle suburb of Spokane, WA)
3. Comcast Idaho sold to Time Warner the same month we arrived here.
4. Started with T-W both TV and Internet.
5. Time Warner refuses to buy all local TV channels out of Spokane.
6. Need network TV stations
7. Too far away for antenna TV to work over the mountains from Spokane
8. Dumped T-W TV, bought Direct TV (satellite dish)
9. Dish TV doesn't have Internet. Great TV reception, though!
10.Had to stay with T-W for Internet
11.Have had 7 service calls on Internet service in one year here.
12.Have had 0 service calls on TV service in one year here.
13.TIME WARNER SUCKS! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2008 : 06:10:40 [Permalink]
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I neither have nor want cable/satellite. 90% of TV programing is garbage anyway, network or otherwise, and I watch little of it.
But if what I've been told is correct about the digital TVs coming along and the analogue toobs becoming defunct, I will probably have to have it or do without.
Y'know what; that's kind of a tough choice.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2008 : 09:31:07 [Permalink]
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Penyprity:
Granted, this is a different need then cable..but customer service is customer service. Especially when you can choose not to use that company. |
This would be a logical assumption, and yet, I had a TW tech tell me how bad customer service is and practically suggest that I switch to DSL. We are through the looking glass with Time Warner.
Time Warner customer service people lie. Apparently the number of calls they take factors in to their performance reviews, which means they need to get people off the phone fast. Google Time Warner customer service and you will hear story after story of people who waited for a promised tech to show up or other unsatisfactory results of promises made by Time Warner customer service liars.
And for my continuing problems with TW, they have issued me a half month credit. This, after what has been going on for over four months of dealing with poor service. They told me that half a month is all I deserve...
I have just opened talks with Verizon about DSL and television service. The Dish is an option too. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Penyprity
Skeptic Friend
64 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2008 : 14:14:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Penyprity:
Granted, this is a different need then cable..but customer service is customer service. Especially when you can choose not to use that company. |
And for my continuing problems with TW, they have issued me a half month credit. This, after what has been going on for over four months of dealing with poor service. They told me that half a month is all I deserve... |
Escalate the call to supervision and beyond. Refer them to your artical and see if they don't want to put a more positive spin on their poor service. Here's the thing about switching to the dish. DSL kinda sucks so you would be stuck with Time Warner for your computer and at one time or another, technical devices tend to go afoul, no matter who's they are. Is it better to dance with the devil you know? But don't let them write you off for 1/2 month...fight on! |
Make your vote count. Become a supreme court justice......Peny |
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Time Warner Cable: Trick or Treat?
