Cable customer service vastly improved

[iKramerica]

I've dealt on and off with cable over the years, both for myself and for family

I've had some recent experiences with both Adelphia and TW that have been so positive, I can't believe it is the same industry as I've dealt with in the past.

Adelphia is installing cable modem tomorrow, and set a 2 hour window that was convenient for me. The phone call I got was a soft sell, as I had ordered via the internet. They didn't try to force me out of Dish network, etc. They just gave me the info i wanted, and then set it up for me.

TW will buy my Adelphia area later, so I emailed TW re: the various changes. They were very honest about what to expect and when to expect it, gave straight answers about timeframes, and answered my cable modem switchover questions.

While in my area, I will stick with Dish Network for 1 more year, this is because of the answers TW gave me, that upgrades would take a bit of time, no false promises. So I feel confident that in a years time, I will have good HD packages available to me and might consider switching to TW completely at that time. And with the quick, honest responses (back and forth 4 times in 2 days, always within 2-3 hours of my email a response came back), I'm willing to give cable another try, even after the bad experiences of the past (especially considering the worsening customer service at the sat companies).

Now if only the phone companies could get their act together. I'm already dumping DSL and will likely go to VoIP as well due to ungoing service issues and outages with SBC. I would not even consider a TV package via SBC in the future based on the unfixable line problems I've been experiencing.

 

[josem3]

I've dealt on and off with cable over the years, both for myself and for family

I've had some recent experiences with both Adelphia and TW that have been so positive, I can't believe it is the same industry as I've dealt with in the past.

Adelphia is installing cable modem tomorrow, and set a 2 hour window that was convenient for me. The phone call I got was a soft sell, as I had ordered via the internet. They didn't try to force me out of Dish network, etc. They just gave me the info i wanted, and then set it up for me.

TW will buy my Adelphia area later, so I emailed TW re: the various changes. They were very honest about what to expect and when to expect it, gave straight answers about timeframes, and answered my cable modem switchover questions.

While in my area, I will stick with Dish Network for 1 more year, this is because of the answers TW gave me, that upgrades would take a bit of time, no false promises. So I feel confident that in a years time, I will have good HD packages available to me and might consider switching to TW completely at that time. And with the quick, honest responses (back and forth 4 times in 2 days, always within 2-3 hours of my email a response came back), I'm willing to give cable another try, even after the bad experiences of the past (especially considering the worsening customer service at the sat companies).

Now if only the phone companies could get their act together. I'm already dumping DSL and will likely go to VoIP as well due to ungoing service issues and outages with SBC. I would not even consider a TV package via SBC in the future based on the unfixable line problems I've been experiencing.

Well, I'm glad you like the cable. For me, they are gone. I had bad experience with TW in the past because they were the only people to deal if you want to watch cable or ZERO TV. It was so bad that Brigthouse bougth the TW cable here and made a real good improvement. But I'm still like my Dish.

 

[iKramerica]

I agree with you. I had horrible TW service in Oxford Ohio. In the era of other communities starting digital cable, they still had the 36 channel system in that town because they could. That's when I got Dish. I had had bad cable experiences before that, and since (friends installing cable nightmares), helping my Mom in Texas, Sister in Florida, etc. Brighthouse also bought the TW market Sarasota (it was a court ordered thing, IIRC). But BH isn't much better.

I'm just saying that this year, they are acting like a professional industry, as if someone finally got to them and said: "You can't behave like crooks anymore." Maybe it was the competition, or the whole Adelphia legal mess, I don't know.

At the same time, Dish service is getting worse and worse, with CSRs who no longer know anything, long hold times, and spotty software updates that break features that worked last week, etc. Dish service used to be top notch. While I appreciate Charlie fighting for the little guy (namely, him), he needs to train his staff better as they grow.

 

[josem3]

iKramerica, you really point something true, Dish needs to train his staff better as they grow. On this kind of business, you don't have time to sleep or look around because the competition is gonna eat your cookies.

 

[iKramerica]

I got the cable modem installed with basically no hassles but a few hiccups, good but not perfect.

Installer showed up in the window, in his old truck (not adelphia). It think at this point, A has sold most of their assets. He was smoking and looked like typical MadTV contractor from another land.

But he also knew what he was doing, replaced the cable running from the pole to my house, installed a new box on the side of the house, grounded it to the electrical (old cable was just with an exposed junction and grounded to plumbing, which is no longer allowed). Did a clean job, and also extended the cable from my house to the new box since it was too short. Since he had to move the point of entry, there was no charge for any of it.

He then provided the modem, we turned it on, and got an immediate signal (take that DSL...).

He then turned on the MAC address, but said if he stayed around to trouble shoot, he would have to charge for full install rather than the free self install. Completely understandable. Left me with a receipt, but NO DOCUMENTATION.

I had no phone number or any information on my adelphia password, etc. Not exactly perfect, but not horrible as Adelphia said I should recieve that stuff in the mail at some point.

Modem would not connect to internet, however. I looked at the internal log for the modem, and the problem was that adelphia was sending it the wrong updated firmware.

I called Adelphia (had to replug the DSL modem to find how to do that, since I was left with no documentation...). The tech sounded like a nice, older southern woman, and she KNEW WHAT SHE WAS DOING (take that Dish, SBC...). She could see my modem right away, see the problem, had me give her the mac address again, then reset the whole thing, sent the right firmware, and within 10 minutes of picking up the phone, I was online.

Speeds are not stellar for cable (4400/440) but according to TW, my neighborhood has not been upgraded by Adelphia in a while, so I can't expect faster speeds until well after they take over July 1.

And frankly, my SBC service is worse, with crackly phone lines and DSL speeds dropping or complete drop outs. 4400 is light speed compared to the problems I was having before. I am very happy so far, with zero disconnects.

Next step is to decide on which VoIP to try. But I want to give cable a few more days to prove itself in that regard. I won't go back to DSL, but I may keep the SBC phone line depending on if cable remains 24/7.

A good test of customer service is when things don't go quite as planned, how well and quickly they respond. Adelphia gets an A here. Congrats to them, even if they are not long for this earth...