Paul Allen may sell Charter Communications

Paul Allen said Wednesday he might sell or privatize the No. 4 U.S. cable company, Charter Communication Inc., which he controls. via Political Gateway

[Frustrated with Charter 2]

Mr. Allen needs to sell Charter. Maybe if Charter had different management, maybe that would lead to better customer service.

[Wesley moran]

Charter is byfar one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with. You actaully PAY them so they can mess up your head and wallet. I DO NOT RECOMEND, if you have alternatived choices please look into it.
No one wants to help. as long as they get their cash.. HORIBBLE.
where else can i put this message
?

[Washington State]

Have CHTR triple play and use VOD frequently. For over 5 years I have had great customer service. I smile every time I write the check. They provide a great value with the internet/phone and digital cable. Keep up the great work CHARTER, I LOVE YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICE

[Leo]

I have had great service with Charter also. I even had great luck with getting my Series3 Tivos hooked up last September with cablecards. I still have to switch my phone service to them, I let my brother test it for a while, he says it has been perfect, so I'm going to do that soon.

[njajr]

Washington State wrote:

Have CHTR triple play and use VOD frequently. For over 5 years I have had great customer service. I smile every time I write the check. They provide a great value with the internet/phone and digital cable. Keep up the great work CHARTER, I LOVE YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICE

Thank you for your glowing recommendation Mr. Allen.

[Mr Allen]

Your level of self importance is evident, although unwarranted. If I had even 1/100,000 of his net worth I wouldn't be posting here. I am certain he isn't either. Sorry to disappoint you Paul Allen doesn't live in Kennewick, WA. But CHTR does have a system here and yes the bundle does save me a lot of money over Qwest and Hollywood Video.
Have you negative nellies ever stopped to think, CHTR has 5.5 million customers. You complainers have no shame. The vast majority are obviously happy with their service. Ever wonder why they are and your aren't? You should.

[Louisville HSI Tech]

Frustrated with Charter 2 wrote:

Mr. Allen needs to sell Charter. Maybe if Charter had different management, maybe that would lead to better customer service.

That last company meeting I went to Paul Allen was there and told everyone to lower their customer service to bare minimal and see how long it would take all our customers to leave.

Are you crazy? What does he have to do with customer service? It's the front line people and the front line people alone that have anything to do with customer service. Paul Allen or anyone else in management isn't looking over our shoulders telling us to help the customer or not. It's up the person you're talking to whether or not you have a good experience or not. Everyone should remember that the next time you call in to a call center of any type. Start yelling at us and cussing. You'll get nothing. Especially personal insults, those are the best. Oh yeah, I'll get you your credit. psshh...

[Upset Charter Customer]

I have had Charter for a number of years. Overall the service has been fair. But,there customer service has always been questionable at best.

But, from reading some various publications, Paul Allen may actually have to sell off portions of the company in order to stay in business. It sounds like the company itself is in heavy debt. Not to mention the customer service they have outsourced to countries like the Philippines has become worse than ever.

[Love the Bundle]

Great experience and big savings. Sorry for you people that are having a tough time. I can't say it enough times on these message boards. Charter Rocks.

[Pesimist]

I found it very hard to understand how one person from Kennewick, WA posted so many posts praising Charter’s service so, here are the BBB files for Charter in his/her area. There are three Charter offices located in Kennewick, the results are all similar;
The BBB has requested basic information from this company. The company has declined to provide this information. Without this information, the BBB may not have current information concerning such things as the company's management or its nature of business.
(One of Three Offices): The BBB processed a total of 32 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.Of the total of 32 complaints closed in 36 months, 22 were closed in the last year.
So this same poster, alias: Blame the NFL, Great Services, Typical Me First America, Unreasonable Populace, I love this stuff, Charter is the Best, Sorry Saulkville, Washington State, etc., etc., doesn’t actually live in that illusive, yet to locate area where Charter actually provides adequate services as they misrepresented.

Bottom Line: Another Charter employee posting instead of fixing the multitude of Charter problems.

[alphaboy1]

Charter Communications was a good company 5 years ago. Now that they outsourced all there customer support to 3rd world country's they really suck. I am trying to get a credit for $35.00 for work that was done on the pole on the street and have gone no where's. Third call to India, Mars and Pluto and still nothing was done. I did get some lying fool saying "OK don't worry about it". I give you credit. 3 Time in a month. I even asked 3 times if they were in the USA and they lied. I finally said on the 3rd call "WHAT COUNTRY ARE IN?" and he lied and then admitted India. I am now going to Newtown CT to voice my complaint in there main branch.

[njajr]

If only Charter Communications felt I was of any importance whatsoever... I'm not going to waste a lot of time, but let's just say that I have wasted a couple of vacation days waiting for Charter service calls only to have them cancelled BY CHARTER WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A PHONE CALL. I am on a waiting list for a DVR which - I'm quoting now - "we don't know when we will receive them... I can't tell you where you are on the waiting list... you should be happy, some people have been on the waiting list since MARCH" (this was said to me YESTERDAY!)

Sorry, Mr. "Happy to be a Charter Customer", you are either incredibly lucky or you work for the company and are wasting all of our time by posting instead of doing REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Mr Allen wrote:

Your level of self importance is evident, although unwarranted. If I had even 1/100,000 of his net worth I wouldn't be posting here. I am certain he isn't either. Sorry to disappoint you Paul Allen doesn't live in Kennewick, WA. But CHTR does have a system here and yes the bundle does save me a lot of money over Qwest and Hollywood Video.
Have you negative nellies ever stopped to think, CHTR has 5.5 million customers. You complainers have no shame. The vast majority are obviously happy with their service. Ever wonder why they are and your aren't? You should.

[Dave]

I went into the local Charter office to cancel my cable TV today... they tell me I cannot cancel until 1 week before the billing cycle... what BS is that?

They are hoping I will forget. I timed a movie last night... OVER 50% OF AIR TIME WAS COMMERCIALS.

Mr Allen, you lost me as a client. I am buying an APPLE TV and will download my movies commercial free.

[Frustrated With Charter]

Dave wrote:

I went into the local Charter office to cancel my cable TV today... they tell me I cannot cancel until 1 week before the billing cycle... what BS is that?
They are hoping I will forget. I timed a movie last night... OVER 50% OF AIR TIME WAS COMMERCIALS.
Mr Allen, you lost me as a client. I am buying an APPLE TV and will download my movies commercial free.

They're hoping you'll change your mind and not cancel your service. I cancelled my service and if you're not under a contract they can't tell you when you can or can't cancel your service.

[neverbetter]

I would love to give you more fodder on Charter. There really are some great people within the company, however, the bad apples are ruining it for every customer and working on the employees too. After litigation, I will come back.

[PAUL SHYKORA]

MERRY CHRISTMAS PAUL ALLEN!! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOUS ALL !! GOD BLESS... THE HILBILLY FARMBOY HAS SPOKEN....

[RSMHHRN]

Washington State wrote:

Have CHTR triple play and use VOD frequently. For over 5 years I have had great customer service. I smile every time I write the check. They provide a great value with the internet/phone and digital cable. Keep up the great work CHARTER, I LOVE YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICE

Well... that may be so in your state. My experience in California has been a nightmare! Charter Communication is an Oxymoron - Tech Support; Customer Service; Sales; and your local Provider office site have NO IDEA WHAT-SO-EVER how to effective communicate with each other and each entity consistently screws up the other. The last six weeks have beena nightmare - al because i was solicited to upgrade to charter telephone which would supposedly save me money. Every time I call for help to fix a problem i am promised the moon - only to be left holding a bag of new,worse problems. Incompetance at its most pathetic level. Charter Telephone - DON't DO IT, unless you are a masochistic whipping boy who feels compelled to be punished! What a scam!

[RSMHHRN]

Well... that may be so in your state. My experience in California has been a nightmare! Charter Communication is an Oxymoron - Tech Support; Customer Service; Sales; and your local Provider office site have NO IDEA WHAT-SO-EVER how to effective communicate with each other and each entity consistently screws up the other. The last six weeks have beena nightmare - al because i was solicited to upgrade to charter telephone which would supposedly save me money. Every time I call for help to fix a problem i am promised the moon - only to be left holding a bag of new,worse problems. Incompetance at its most pathetic level. Charter Telephone - DON't DO IT, unless you are a masochistic whipping boy who feels compelled to be punished! What a scam!

[Charter is the worst ever]

Took about 8 calls and 2 hrs to cancel my service to this service that has lied about the cost since the first bill that I received.
Continues to give you services that you do not want so that they can increase the cost of your service.
Still they continue to deny the NFL network.
Very Bad Experience .

[Stashu]

A good move would be to dump it before its totally worthless. A company with poor customer relations/service is a company not worth owning. Anyone with a choice of providers should do their homework; at the end of the day you will choose anything BUT Charter!!

Dealing with Charter has been one of my most painful experiences; you treat your customers like dirt. Before Christmas I contacted Charter and informed them that I wanted to buy a HD box off of eBay, gave them the model number and serial number. I was informed that was o.k. that it would be supported. I bought the box for $250 and since then have spent over 3 hrs on the phone trying to get activated and 2hrs standing in line at the local office (again cuz Charter told me to, because they could activate the box). So after spending $250 plus 5-6hrs of my valuable time on phones and in lines, Charter says sorry we can't activate the box. We're sorry OUR personnel gave you bad information, is there anything else we can do for you? That's my latest issue. You don't even want to get me started on what they charged me for years for 3Mbps when the most I ever measured was 1.7Mbps. I will look to replace Charter for Cable, Internet and phone as well as post my experience over the internet so folks that have a choice of providers make the smart choice which is anything BUT Charter.