Time Warner Rant

Firedog

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Ok.. so I typically roll with the punches for the most part but this one has me hot.. and I do not even do business directly with time warner

The only cable service I have into my house is internet.. I go through Earthlink for said service but of course they contract with TWC for the network. Get home on Friday to discover that we have no internet access.. figure the modem or router one needed resetting as happens from time to time.. tried both, neither worked.. Noticed that the modem was getting stuck in reboot waiting for incoming signal.. now this thing is 15 years old so figure it just finally died.. called Earthlink tech, they agreed and contacted TWC to replace.. best they can do is Monday (today) at 2.. ok.. fairly reasonable.

In the meantime we are without service while showed in for the weekend.. not terrible accept no netflix (kids and wife not thrilled about that but plenty of sports on TV.. I am good) Wife has to connect to cancel something at work for today.. and frankly needs to work at home given her direction of travel this morning and conditions.. so Sunday we walk to the fire station across the street.. connect there and get what she has to do done.. one of the guys just happens to have a cable modem in his truck.. (one of the great things about being on a FD) sweet.. use that until Monday afternoon.. plug it in, and same thing.. rut ro.. now I am thinking I have a line problem.

Tech shows up on time (few min early actually) goes about the business of changing out the modem.. same issue.. gets test equipment.. yep, bad line.. have to have a new one run to the house.. (this will be the 3d one already done this once several years ago) he says he will schedule it.. 7 to 10 BUSINESS DAYS Are you freaking kidding me.. two more weeks for you to replace your bad infrastructure! BTW, I have already paid for service for the month.. Kids have homework that has to be done online.. just life in general requires internet connection now.. and you are telling me it is going to take some 2 to 3 weeks to fix? So I asked about a Temp line on top of the ground until they can fix it.. well no can't do that because the connection box is on the other side of the road (neighborhood street) and they are worried the line will get cut by a car running over it.. so now we are left with no option other than to try and get my bill credited for the time I am out.. which is not a guarantee and he could not do that.. more time on the phone with these.....

Rant over.. at least I have connection at work and at the station.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Sorry for your troubles Firedog, really. It is just another thing that galls me about this world. It's great when it works but when it goes down............... there is no spare tire.
 

Harpoon

Guest
TW comes out with new wi fi modem routers about once a year, dont they?

15 years old, is that right?
 

Firedog

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
TW comes out with new wi fi modem routers about once a year, dont they?

15 years old, is that right?

Not sure, and yes that is right got cable internet in 2002. I havery updated my wireless router a couple times since bUT never needed to update the modem..Still don't need to apparently
 

Soilman

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
TWC pissed me off enough about 10 years ago that I will NEVER use their service. They screwed up 3 different thing BEFORE we got hooked up, and that was after MULTIPLE calls from us to prevent the screw ups and being ASSURED the screw ups wouldn't happen. I figured if they were THAT bad before getting my money, I could expect much worse if I were under contract. NO THANKS!
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Maybe should not say this....
One of those things.
They placed the line and box outside the r/w.
Was inside my property. Had the same crap with the 7 to 10 days.
Fine called my CC and stopped payment... Great thing about using a cc.
Then the funny thing someone with a trailer was in my yard and ran the box over.
When they came to fix somehow the box, post and wires were setting on the side of the road....
 

Jlewis74

Old Mossy Horns
If you are renting the modem you can buy yourself one for about $50 from Best Buy and not have to pay the rent anymore.

Do you have a smart phone? Most of the new ones you can tether off of to at least get online for a bit if needed.
 

Newsome Road

Ten Pointer
Centurylink had to come out once and run a temporary line for me once. He said the same thing about running it across the highway. But then he tied the line to a hammer and threw it about 20 ft in the air around a tree limb. Went to the other side of the road and did it again. He said, "as long as you don't have a big dump truck come down the road with the bed up, you'll have Internet until we get back".
 

bubba2009

Twelve Pointer
when they are the only game in town you dont have much of a choice, they have you by the nut sack. and DSL is worse. we have charter and there services stinks.. 7-10 for a new line dang. years ago the tech did all the work now its all contracted out
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
We are blessed to live in a semi secluded spot in a rural area, but with that blessing comes the curse of no cable options..none.
We get DSL from Windstream and currently have the "blazing" speed of .03 kb....yes that's no misprint....03kb...not even fast enough to load emails most days. We pay for 3mb..but the absolute fastest we have ever had was .6mb....and that was prior to them running the new wire from the junction by the main road.
We have complained..numerous times..and it has never been fixed. I have no options except satellite internet, which I hear is super expensive and very unreliable.
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Firedog.... if you want to try AT&T send me your info in PM and I will get someone to call you and see what they can do.....if available to you......I can save you the "ON HOLD" time by having them call you when you request it.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
my internet comes via radio signal from a tower about 3 miles away,,,,,,

it ain't fast,,,,and sometimes the "tower is out",,,,,,but it works for me,,,,,

small company run out of Hamlet,,,,,,,,,,
 

Firedog

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I am not renting it.. it came with the package when I set it up.. no cost to me.. Earthlink is still cheaper than TWC and has no equipment fee.. and at the end of the day the modem is/was not the problem anyway.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
I am not renting it.. it came with the package when I set it up.. no cost to me.. Earthlink is still cheaper than TWC and has no equipment fee.. and at the end of the day the modem is/was not the problem anyway.

May want to look into that..
I have earthlink also and it is from TWC.
they started hitting me with rental and other fees for router and modem.
 

NCST8GUY

Frozen H20 Guy
If it's TWC, they'll probably run an RG-11 under the road to your house.

There is no point of placing it temporarily across the road. First car that hits it will distort the buffer between the center conductor and the outer shield, and you'll be down again.

AT&T using only a couple of twisted pairs can run a flat line that holds up longer but not to numerous cars.

7-10 days for someone to come locate all the utilities, another crew to come out and bore under the street, then plow both to the ped, and to your house, especially given weather impact, isn't all that long of a stretch.

The bigger question imho, is why does it keep going down? Cut? Moisture? Bad Tap? SOmething is happening. They lose money by replacing the line and not charging an install fee for it. I used to do that and 20 years ago a 20 ft road bore and 200 feet of 8 inches deep paid probably $350-400 to us.

On my phone plan, I pay $10 a month for a wifi hotspot that I probbly use every month. It is extremely handy, and I can use several laptops or tablets with it. Doubt it'd be great for netflix though.
 
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