Why NOT To use Charter in St. Louis Missouri, Charter Sucks

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

(Updated 1/23/2008)

Why NOT To use Charter in St. Louis Missouri, Charter Sucks

I've had no luck with Charter and Directv Customer service over the past month.

Here's a letter I sent to Charter this morning via their website.

I'd like to know how Charter is going to make me a happy customer. Here's my story.

During the storms in July I lost my Directv service. They were unable to come out and restore my service in a timely manner, totally missing an appointment. I called charter, was told I could get a DVR, Digital Cable, and HD service installed at my house the following week, all for a good low price based on the fact that I was leaving Directv.

Fast forward three weeks, that's today. So far all I have is a digital cable box, no HD and no DVR, and a $350 bill from charter. When the technician came to install the DVR and Cable box he showed up without either piece of equipment and told me I would have to go to charter's offices myself. I went there, and was told I couldn't get the DVR.

That $350 bill includes charges for the DVR, cable service, and $100 of installation charges. I was told when I signed up my installation would be waived due to me switching from Directv.

I'd love for someone from Charter to call me and schedule an appointment for my DVR to be DELIVERED and INSTALLED. I tried picking it up myself two weeks ago and was told I couldn't as it had to be professionaly installed. Then, last week I was told they were out of stock in STL, though when I ordered they were in stock.

I'm extremely unhappy with the level of service I've received thus far, and if these matters are not corrected, all the promised equipment installed and working by Friday the 18th of August I'll be cancelling ALL my services with Charter and going to SBC and Dish networks.

Unhappily,
Chris Hammond

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Recent Comments

If you're looking to get Digital Cable, Internet or Phone Service from Charter Communications, The

Posted By: Anonymous on Aug 2006

We're having the same issues up in St. Cloud, MN. The real problem is that we had a competing cable provider in town. Charter bought them out and now service just plain sucks.

Posted By: Anonymous on Sep 2006

Yeah . charter is good as long as you dont get the foreign call centers. they fuck up accounts and have no empathy for customers, my suggestion is to call on normal business hrs. and pray you get an english accent. youll be in good hands. and dont bother yelling or being an asshole or theyll treat you like shit.

Posted By: Anonymous on Mar 2007

I had a similar experience with Charter ST. Louis. I had an all day appointment on Friday to have my moxi box swapped out with their new Charter 3416 DVR box. I took the day off from work I called at 12pm to verify I was on their schedule still. I called at 5pm to ask when they stopped home installs they said 7pm. 5 minutes to 7pm I call and say no one called no one showed up. They look and notice dispatch was never notified. Setup appointment for Sunday. I asked the dispatch rep that I had been switched to, to verify that the tech would know to have the new box. They said yes of course. Sunday rolls around my 3-5pm window arrives and I get a call at 430pm from a tech telling me to goto the office and pick one up on Monday cause he cant get into the warehouse on the weekend. I got the box and the new DVR system is horrible compared to the Moxi DVR. It records the same series shows over and over like every time they show regardless of the setting you choose. The graphic icons were made by 3rd graders. The only plus is the startup time vs Moxi 7 minute wait, but the experience interface was way worth the wait now that I wish I had it back I even went back to Charter and asked for my old box back. I only had problems with the moxi-mate. The moxi box was fine.

Posted By: Anonymous on May 2007

I will also share my disgust with charter and try to be nice about it.... Three weeks ago I had a tech out to do a new line drop becuse my internet was dropping off alot. The tech said he would call in for me and put in a work order for a service line drop. You guessed it he didn't call it in. Here's the rediculous part.... When I called to see when they could do it they told me the earliest time was in February 08 !!!!! Today is October 18,07. I told the bangladeshian accented person that that was not acceptable and I would like to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor said the policy was not to bury any cable between the months of November - April!!!. Guess what kind of accent this guy had. I jokingly asked him how I got my service in january 2 years ago when my house was built - they burried it with no problem then. He transfered me to corporate, thank god I'm going back to St. Louis where I can speak to an american where I was promptly put on hold for over 20min. I left a message for a callback. The next chance I got I called back and got another overseas call center. This time I was told they could do the cable drop next week, I was rolling over with laughter when I said "yes please put me down for next week" bless her turbin wrapped little head. If they dont show up, I will have it burried and send them the bill. Bottom line the call centers don't know what they can and can't do and nor do any of the supervisors and yes charter sucks.

Posted By: Anonymous on Oct 2007

YES, YOUR RIGHT! ive had nothing but problems with them and there CRAPPY customer service. Ive been hungup on my customer service multiple times when they couldent figure out what the problem was. Also a service man came into my house to fix one tv while my internet and other tvs were working. He only mad the problem worse when he made all the tvs not work and the internet was down. He then tried to say it was a main line issue and that someone else would have to come out and fix it. I made him undo what he did and what do you know, all my tvs except the one that he was sopposed to fix cameback one along with the internet. He then without leaving any paperwork or saying goodbye, got in his van and drove off. IM SO SICK AND TIRED OF THEM!

Posted By: ------------- g on Feb 2008

I just subscribed to charter since moving here to MN. Got a Moxi box, it is absolutly terrible. You have to click on the remote 3 times before anything would work on the box. HD is also terrible, the quality is really low actually. Do any of these boxes that Charter offers have HDMI outputs? Mine only has component.

Posted By: Anonymous McGhee on Jul 2008

yes CHARTER SUCKS THEY NEED TO HIRE A MARINE GENERAL, HE HE NEEDS TO START FIRING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT, IN 6 MONTHS THEY WOULD GET IT RIGHT

Posted By: TED R MULLER on Aug 2008

I had MOXI and loved it. The words were big and easy to see and the program was easy to find the things I wanted to. One day, it just stopped and my wife called Charter. They said they would replace it. What I got was a different box with a different program. The words are tiny and difficult to read and it is difficult to find the shows I want. The box was all cracked and looked like it came from a garage sale. I called and stated I wanted the MOXI back and they said they would replace it. Again, the Charter store from Mt. Pleasant, MI came out and replaced the crappy box with a new crappy box that was NOT MOXI and still looked like it came from a garage sale (all scratched up). Then, my big screen projection TV started making a humming noise and the picture is going out. I called Charter again and they advised that they were phasing the MOXI out of service. I cannot help but believe that they deliberatly zapped my MOXI box in order to change it out with this other crappy box and in the process they zapped my TV too!!! I wrote them a letter about all of these things and asking for the MOXI back and they NEVER responded!!!!

Posted By: Todd D on Oct 2008

Hello Chris, My name is Eric Ketzer, and I am a Manager with Charter Communications. Wow, I am very sorry to hear about the issues with your installation. We should never tell customers they HAVE to go into the Local Office to pick-up the equipment. We would love to get all of this resolved for you: the bill, the equipment, install fees, we will handle it all. Please e-mail me the Name, Address, and Phone Number on the account to [email protected]. In the subject line, please include your name and my name. Thanks very much for alerting us to these issues. We look forward to getting them resolved for you...Eric

Posted By: Eric Ketzer on Aug 2009

Eric, thanks but you're a little late. This blog post was from 2006. I learned my lessons, never use Charter for cable TV. Your internet service rocked, even a few weeks ago when you had some DNS issues, I got a response from one of your team on twitter, that went a long way. I now live in Colorado and have comcast, we'll see how they work. So far I'm not digging their cable box interface, but I am considering just getting a Windows Media Center machine and ditching their box all together.

Posted By: Chris Hammond on Aug 2009

Wow, count that as an #EpicFail by me for not checking the date...sheeesh! @ComcastBonnie is SUPER helpful on Twitter, @ComcastCares too. Good luck and enjoy Colorado. I was actually born in Denver...Go Broncos!!!

Posted By: Eric Ketzer on Aug 2009

get off your ass and do something but watch TV.

Posted By: John Mc Bob on Aug 2009

Thanks for the great feedback there John, glad you visited my web site.

Posted By: Chris Hammond on Aug 2009

everyone needs 2 drop cable 4 at least a month until charter gets its shit together starts caring about us not the cash and has someone speaking english every call this is america why r we letting this crap continue

Posted By: troy mariani on Aug 2009

charter is the best

Posted By: bernard reynolds on Oct 2009

you people are insane. there is nothing that will make you happy. charter bends over backwards to give you great customer service, super fast internet, the best cable picture and the great phone service. charter is the best and you people will never be happy with anything. www.charter.com www.charter.net CHARTER RULES you people suck

Posted By: charter rules on Oct 2009

Thank you Mr. Bernard Reynolds for you thoughtful comments and the email you sent me this morning calling me a retard and cussing at me. It's always great when a Charter employee, or wanna be, responds in such a classy fashion.

Posted By: Chris Hammond on Oct 2009

I have been with Charter for both TV and internet for a very long time. Like any large company, there have been a few frustrating times but all in all my experience has been good (it helps that I live about 2 miles from a large cust service center). My only gripe is the promotion/pricing thing. Every year when I receive a bill that has doubled, I go in (or call) and am told my promotion expired. I have to threaten to leave to get the discounts back. I'd much rather have a set price and could live with a modest increase every year. I'm tired of the price game. Also there used to be Charter commercials featuring "Steve GM" who always said "here's my email address if you need me." Needless to say I wrote him a lengthy email about a year ago...still waiting for Steve to reply.

Posted By: Chip Roos on Nov 2009

Charter sucks. Moxi is a joke and their customer service is non existent. They assured us a price quote and when we got our first bill it was way higher than what they quoted us. Secondly, they were advertising the internet faster upgrade service for free, well when they upgraded our internet we got charged a high fee. Moxi only lets you record six episodes of a given show, and you cannot watch something else if you are recording another program. The channels switch themselves at any given time, the sound craps out and the picture goes from small widescreen to full screen. The pixelisation is terrible. Not too mention They list shows on the schedule and when you go to watch it, you get a totally different show or the wrong episode. Do I need to go on?

Posted By: Keith Holm on Jan 2011

For any of the posts talking about how great Charter is, just look at the earlier post where the Charter rep offers to help Chris, but does not realize he is posting over 2 years late. Hilarious

Posted By: Robin Cheskin on Jun 2011

I am amazed that this post started years ago and is still being updated with problems Charter has. Moxi is the biggest piece of crap I have ever used. It is actually infuriating. It's a really bad sign for a company when you can google "moxi sucks" and a bunch of hits pop up.

Posted By: Laura James on Dec 2011

If you have HSI MAX downgrade now you are paying more for the 25 megs than someone with HSI plus which is 30 megs. you are paying 5- 10 more a month for less speed

Posted By: lynn Blair on Jan 2012

On Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, I received a bill for the amount of $150.25 (see attachment) from Charter Communication for next month’s basic TV and Internet service. This is an unfair $28.95 increase per month for the same television shows I viewed the past two years! Cost of living in the U.S.A. is approximately 2.2%. This new Charter bill increased my monthly payments 24%. For the past two years, I was contracted to pay $120.30 per month. As you can see below, Charter Communications increased my bill by $28.95: *Charter TV was $69.99/month….Now, it’s $82.99 *Charter Internet was $44.99/month….Now, it’s $54.99 *I’m also charged $4.99/month for an unknown (not stated on the bill) *”Taxes, Fees and Charges” was $6.32…Now, it’s $7.28 When I started the 2-year contract in 2010, my monthly payments were less than $120 per month. Approximately every 2 - 3 months, Charter increased my monthly bill by a few dollars. Each time I called to complain about these increases, Charter would offer a “Bundle Package” that cost more per month, or, I would be offered fewer channels for a few dollars more than the price I was already paying. When I called Charter Communication on Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, in addition to "chatting" online with a Charter rep. to express my concerns about the increase of my monthly bill, I was told that Charter automatically assigned a "new plan" to my account causing an increase in my monthly payments for a whopping $150.30/month. In addition, I was also told by a Charter representative (who could NOT speak English well over the telephone) that my “old plan no longer exists," has been changed/upgraded; that, I have no choice but to accept the "new plan" which is $150.25/month! This automatic change-of-plan was performed without my consent, nor was I contacted about my Charter contract expiring in October 2012! I told the Charter rep. that I do NOT want a more expensive “new plan." On Friday evening, Oct. 19, 2012, the Charter rep. stripped away several channels such as Ch. 120, 146, 195, 196) and reduced my monthly plan to almost $125 per month! I’m now getting less channels and paying more? This is unfair.

Posted By: john c on Nov 2012

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