Cable/Internet

[Tin4]

So I lost my internet/cable/phone for almost a solid 48 hours. Care to guess how much they took off my bill?

$4.

With all the fees in taxes and surcharges when they do have to make things right they don't lose but the smallest amount.

It's a scam. Still, my tech came out and reran wires, and did a great job so hopefully it stays on.

If not, WAR!

 

[Zuljin]

You should war anyway. Just start warring until someone offers you something you want.

 

[beernbourbon]

Unacceptable.
But, gonna go all "Well actually" on ya. The bill is pro-rated. Do the math, see if it makes sense.
ours was 117/month for DirectTV (was. Dropped. Whole other rant)

31 days x 24hrs/day = 744 hours. Works out to about $0.15 per hour. (yeah, no, they won't deduct for sleep time...lol) so, that would work out to only $7.55 for the 48 hours lost.

But, still Bollsh!t, you lost service. Seems like a slap in the face to me. I'd be workin' on a free upgrade for a month or something. Smart business, there; "placate" you with upgrade to higher speed internet for a month, then you get used to that speed....oh, damn, I don't like this slow stuff, I'll pay for the higher speed now. They win, but you got sucked in, lol. Or free Showtime or some such. They do stuff like that all the time. The department you want is 'retention'. They do all sorts of things to retain customers.

 

[SnakeRidge]

I would go down to the office with my slapping glove and challenge everyone until I got satisfaction.

 

[whoaru99]

So I lost my internet/cable/phone for almost a solid 48 hours. Care to guess how much they took off my bill?

$4.

Sounds like they rewired the cable in your house, is that right?

Did you ask for specific attonement?

What do you think is proper compensation?

 

[Hello]

For me, if I lose internet for 2 days during the week then that means I lose the ability to work for 2 days unless I camp at Panera Bread or a similar place. It is next to impossible to really do that all day long for me, so I would expect something more for the outage. Unless that outage had to do with interior wiring, then I feel I won't have a leg to stand on.

 

[b-boy]

Do what I do. Steal internet from the neighbors.

 

[Homercidal]

Upgrade to BUSINESS class if you can. Their limitations are fewer and your service is better. There is the expectation that businesses require greater attention to uptime.

 

[whoaru99]

For me, if I lose internet for 2 days during the week then that means I lose the ability to work for 2 days unless I camp at Panera Bread or a similar place. It is next to impossible to really do that all day long for me, so I would expect something more for the outage. Unless that outage had to do with interior wiring, then I feel I won't have a leg to stand on.

I suggest checking your service agreement then to avoid any disappointment if you ever try to seek compensation. Generally, there is no provision for guaranteed uptime on a residential account. As mentioned by Homercidal, if you work from home and must have Internet then you should look at a Commercial/Business class service. With Charter it's not all that much more for a commercial account. As you see, there's not really any true guarantee of uptime either with Commercial account, but they'll work harder to keep you online and get you back online. Your ISP may be different.

For example, from Charter:

Residential Plan -

5. Disruption of Service: All Charter Services are provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. In no event shall Charter be liable for any failure or interruption of Service, including without limitation those failures and interruptions resulting in part or entirely from circumstances beyond Charter's reasonable control. Subject to applicable law, Charter may give credit with respect to Subscriber's recurring monthly subscription fee for qualifying outages of Charter Services.

Commercial/Business Plan -

13. PERFORMANCE. Charter will use commercially reasonable efforts in keeping with normal industry standards to ensure that the Service is available to Customer 24 hours per day, seven days per week. It is possible, however, that there will be interruptions of Service. The Service may be unavailable from time-to-time either for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, technical difficulties, or for other reasons beyond Charter's reasonable control. Temporary service interruptions/outages for such reasons, as well as service interruptions/outages caused by Customer, its agents and employees, or by a Force Majeure Event, shall not constitute a failure by Charter to perform its obligations under this Agreement, and Customer will not hold Charter at fault for loss of Customer revenue or lost employee productivity due to Service outages.

 

[Hello]

I suggest checking your service agreement then to avoid any disappointment if you ever try to seek compensation. Generally, there is no provision for guaranteed uptime on a residential account. As mentioned by Homercidal, if you work from home and must have Internet then you should look at a Commercial/Business class service. With Charter it's not all that much more for a commercial account. As you see, there's not really any true guarantee of uptime either with Commercial account, but they'll work harder to keep you online and get you back online. Your ISP may be different.

For example, from Charter:

Residential Plan -



Commercial/Business Plan -

I'm solid man. No need to get into contracts with me, but thanks. Perhaps help the OP...

 

[Homercidal]

I can tell you from experience that the Charter Business tech support is TOP NOTCH and comes from TN, USA. I have also been told by the salespeople that they do not throttle or limit the business customers.

I have had to call one time after my modem would not connect properly, suddenly. They reprovisioned the modem service was back up in a few minutes. This was the only interruption on two accounts (work and home) in two years.

So far they've been miles better than the AT&T F$%*&#% #$*(&% that I had for a short time. F#$*&'n Pakastani tech support who could barely speak English let alone understand my questions on setting up a 1:1 Static NAT on their router.

 

[unionrdr]

That's just like Avast when they hooked me up with microsoft to get on-line repair. I could barely understand this Indian guy. My computer's down again because I downloaded google galaxy at the insistance of this pop-up that said I needed it for chrome to work with google maps. Don't do it! Dang malware or something got it to where the cursor was going crazy, & I can't click on anything & get it to start? Now it won't even boot up, so on wife's lap top now. Gotta take my tower to computer crisis to see if they can fix it...again. And just when I got ahead financially a bit too?

 

[j1n]

i cut the cord a long time ago. even if i got all the available services, Netflix, hulu+, Amazon Prime video, HBO now, etc. it would still be cheaper than getting regular cable.

I have Netflix, Amazon prime vid, and I use my sisters HBO go account.

 

[JoshuaW]

You didnt fight hard enough, or they just have terrible customer service. The last time my service was out for 48+ hours, I received half off my bill for six months (ATT Uverse). Another time I had an outage and they lied about sending a tech out, and that earned me free service for three months, and a 25% discount for 24 months.

The rate is actually about to go up for the first time in two years (back to normal pricing) and Im going to call and complain that its to expensive and that if they dont lower it, I will switch back to Comcast. Im expecting them to match that 25% off rate indefinitely.

 

[Homercidal]

AT&T is screwing me again. Gal promised a huge rate reduction with a new plan and so I took it. Had to sign up for Uverse to get it, but I figured why not, I'll save more with the new rate plan.

Well, we never got switched over and they can't find where we signed up for a new rate plan and apparently the whole thing was done over the phone so I don't have a copy.

I find it darkly humorous that they think tricking customers like that is going to be good for their business. Maybe they don't know that Charter also provides phone services and at a huge discount?

I'll be calling the guy back to get this resolved, but it seems the gal that sold me on that rate plan was jerking me around, and without the happy finish!

 

[unionrdr]

Yup, gotta get the happy ending! That gal sounds like these Indian guys. The old hard-sell before they hook you up with a tech. Now if I just knew how to save my personal files without being able to boot up, I could save some in-house tech help $$$...

 

[Natdavis777]

Ive found that if you ***** enough (within reason, not just to get free stuff), most places will comply. I tore into ATT when we moved to our current location because I paid for two weeks of service I never received (took many service visits, yet I was still billed). Got a years discount on that. Had them at my old out. Bill jumped to 130$/mo for basic internet and the U200. Told them that is rediculous, and I can easily, and will seek service elsewhere (it really is a rediculous amount to pay). Got it knocked back down.

Honestly, what they charge for service is absurd. Even cell phone costs are past the point of legitimacy. Thankfully, Verizon has cut my bill by 30$ over the course of the last year solely because I have been out of contract with them (or so that is what I perceive).

Overall, cable/internet providers have the means to make it right to the customer for inconviences without breaking their wallet. Comping someones bill for 50-100% for a few days without service definitely isnt going to hurt them. They are not a mom and pop shop, they are Fortune 500 or greater businesses.

 

[slym2none]

...and they have us by the cajones, too...

 

[Natdavis777]

...and they have us by the cajones, too...

They really do... I can go back to a flip phone, I tried. I didnt because it didnt save me that much money from my iPhone. But I cut cable for 6 months maybe. Tried just Netflix/Amazon Prime and local. Between a handful of shows/networks, and Disney Jr for my soon to be 2 yr old, it wasnt worth the savings. I succumbed to the monopoly.

And that is why I will never try crack or meth... Because I have an addictive personality :cross::cross:

 

[unionrdr]

I found some info on-line for my situation with these greedy people. Gonna cancel the house call & try to get my $109.99 back, since they couldn't fix it remotely. Tried over the phone yesterday. Gonna cancel tech today, after finding a windows 7 disc with reinstall, repair, & all that stuff on it for $13.95 on amazon this morning. From now on, save to external drive so if it gets messed up again, reinstall!

 

[Homercidal]

I found some info on-line for my situation with these greedy people. Gonna cancel the house call & try to get my $109.99 back, since they couldn't fix it remotely. Tried over the phone yesterday. Gonna cancel tech today, after finding a windows 7 disc with reinstall, repair, & all that stuff on it for $123.95 on amazon this morning. From now on, save to external drive so if it gets messed up again, reinstall!

Buy a big thumb drive and when you get Windows the way you want, write an IMAGE of your system to the thumbstick. Rewrite it once in a while when you install stuff.

Then if you need to re-install, it's as easy as booting to the thumbdrive and rewriting the image BACK to the hard drive.

Once you get it set up it's really fast and easy to reclaim your system from software problems like spyware, viruses, config changes, etc.

 

[unionrdr]

I bought a 2TB external USB drive a while back. So I'm saving to that. Just have to wait for the windows 7 disc to get here. Finish saving stuff & reinstall. Having trouble with command prompt after inserting gateway disc to boot to safe mode, typing in "notepad", then "next" then "computer" to save everything. Didn't save it all for some reason? Hoping the W7 disc will work better, newer software than gateway disc...?

 

[Rick91981]

I bought a 2TB external USB drive a while back. So I'm saving to that. Just have to wait for the windows 7 disc to get here. Finish saving stuff & reinstall. Having trouble with command prompt after inserting gateway disc to boot to safe mode, typing in "notepad", then "next" then "computer" to save everything. Didn't save it all for some reason? Hoping the W7 disc will work better, newer software than gateway disc...?

Look into UBCD4Win

Follow the guide to make a bootable recovery disk and then you can save your files with a GUI instead of typing all the commands. If you have trouble creating the CD then just use Hirens BootCD which is already built, just need to burn it to a disk. I recommend the UBCD4Win first because the Hiren's might be a little overwhelming with all the features it has.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm not using the CD/DVDRW drive, I'm using an external 2TB hard drive that plugs into a USB port. Seems like the procedure would be a little different? I'd like to hear more about this imaging thing, homercidal?!

 

[doug293cz]

I'm not using the CD/DVDRW drive, I'm using an external 2TB hard drive that plugs into a USB port. Seems like the procedure would be a little different? I'd like to hear more about this imaging thing, homercidal?!

The CD/DVDRW drive is used to boot up the dead computer from a CD/DVD instead of booting from the borked internal hard drive. After you boot up you can copy the files you want to save from the internal hard drive to your USB drive. You can use your wife's computer to download and burn the disk. You may have to change some bios settings in your computer to allow booting from the CD/DVD drive.

You can also look into linux live (bootable) CD/DVD's. They will boot to a desktop that is somewhat windows like, and then you can use the file manager to copy files from your internal hard drive to the USB drive. I like the Kubuntu distribution of linux. You can download a disk image of it here: http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu.

Brew on

 

[unionrdr]

Ah, ok. I'll be using the Windows 7 disc this way when usps finally gets it here. No ups option on the seller for the disc, which sucks. I hate having to wait longer. The old Gateway disc worked without changing any bios, so the W7 disc should be better, seeing as how I have Windows 7 installed already. I'm getting anxious to get it going, but the W7 disc just shipped yesterday.

 

[whoaru99]

I'm solid man. No need to get into contracts with me, but thanks. Perhaps help the OP...

For me, if I lose internet for 2 days during the week then that means I lose the ability to work for 2 days unless I camp at Panera Bread or a similar place. It is next to impossible to really do that all day long for me, so I would expect something more for the outage. Unless that outage had to do with interior wiring, then I feel I won't have a leg to stand on.

You were complaining about being economically challenged by loss of Internet service, and expecting unemployment compensation from your ISP if it goes out. So, I thought you needed more advice on a business plan than the OP.

 

[Homercidal]

I'm not using the CD/DVDRW drive, I'm using an external 2TB hard drive that plugs into a USB port. Seems like the procedure would be a little different? I'd like to hear more about this imaging thing, homercidal?!

There's tons of them online. I haven't used one in a while so I'm not sure what's easy to use.

Basically you load this software and it writes a compressed image of whatever you choose (drive or partition) to a file on a disk somewhere (Probably your USB drive, although I would consider a USB stick if you keep your data files on the USB drive)

When you need to recover you boot to the stick (or a separate CD, depending on what your motherboard BIOS will allow) and start the recovery program. You then tell it which file has the backup you want to restore, and you point it where you want it to restore to. Come back in a short bit and your system is ready to reboot and use.

This is why I also highly recommend keeping the Operating System and Applications separate from you data. You can safely restore the OS with the apps you want, and not lose any data when you recover.

 

[unionrdr]

You were complaining about being economically challenged by loss of Internet service, and expecting unemployment compensation from your ISP if it goes out. So, I thought you needed more advice on a business plan than the OP.

I made a typo in the reply where I quoted the price. It was $13.95. And those house calls cost at least $70/hour! Cancelled that I got my money coming back, so one utility can get paid again. All my book stuff & beer recipes are in the computer. Gotta use that cloud more often...

 

[Tin4]

You should war anyway. Just start warring until someone offers you something you want.

I should get that tattooed across my chest. "Warring". Seems to be my attitude in life. It's a shame I already have a giant "Baseball" tattoo. It's just a bat with a couple of baseballs at the bottom.

Unacceptable.
But, gonna go all "Well actually" on ya. The bill is pro-rated. Do the math, see if it makes sense.
ours was 117/month for DirectTV (was. Dropped. Whole other rant)

31 days x 24hrs/day = 744 hours. Works out to about $0.15 per hour. (yeah, no, they won't deduct for sleep time...lol) so, that would work out to only $7.55 for the 48 hours lost.

But, still Bollsh!t, you lost service. Seems like a slap in the face to me. I'd be workin' on a free upgrade for a month or something. Smart business, there; "placate" you with upgrade to higher speed internet for a month, then you get used to that speed....oh, damn, I don't like this slow stuff, I'll pay for the higher speed now. They win, but you got sucked in, lol. Or free Showtime or some such. They do stuff like that all the time. The department you want is 'retention'. They do all sorts of things to retain customers.

Math? Why so they get more of my time? I was on the $300 Monthly Movie Mogul package but after years of bad service I dropped it. I didn't want to spen that much for the three channels I use anyhow. HBO, History, Adult Swim. If I could just get those three I would be happy.

I would go down to the office with my slapping glove and challenge everyone until I got satisfaction.

It never leaves my pocket. Neither does my white flag. I know when I'm beat.

Sounds like they rewired the cable in your house, is that right?

Did you ask for specific attonement?

What do you think is proper compensation?

I don't know. There's a long history of service issues. I can't get anyone else out here though so it's either be happy with them or move to satellite which I don't want.

Do what I do. Steal internet from the neighbors.

Mine is open. If my neighbors would like to sit in my drive and use it they're more than welcome too. I bought a router that barely reaches our of my house so they would have to.

Upgrade to BUSINESS class if you can. Their limitations are fewer and your service is better. There is the expectation that businesses require greater attention to uptime.

More expensive?

 

[Homercidal]

More expensive?

Well, yes. I do split my internet with a friend who doesn't have decent broadband. We both host personal servers on my account.

But it's not a TON more for much faster service and the 5 static IPs.

But, yeah. More $$.

 

[unionrdr]

Still waiting for W7 disc to get here via snail mail. And is twitter a 60MPH chat room, or is it just me???

 

[hunter_le five]

I should get that tattooed across my chest... It's a shame I already have a giant "Baseball" tattoo. It's just a bat with a couple of baseballs at the bottom.

You have a dick tattoo on your chest?

 

[Tin4]

You have a dick tattoo on your chest?

No! Well now that you mention it...

 

[Peruvian802]

You have a dick tattoo on your chest?

I have a chest tattoo on my dick. Ladies see the treasure when I get excited. [emoji38]

 

[Psylocide]

Still waiting for W7 disc to get here via snail mail. And is twitter a 60MPH chat room, or is it just me???

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

 

[doug293cz]

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

You have a bright future in tech support!

Brew on

 

[unionrdr]

Off & on? As in signing off, then back on?

 

[whoaru99]

I'm not using the CD/DVDRW drive, I'm using an external 2TB hard drive that plugs into a USB port. Seems like the procedure would be a little different? I'd like to hear more about this imaging thing, homercidal?!

There's tons of them online. I haven't used one in a while so I'm not sure what's easy to use.

Basically you load this software and it writes a compressed image of whatever you choose (drive or partition) to a file on a disk somewhere (Probably your USB drive, although I would consider a USB stick if you keep your data files on the USB drive)

When you need to recover you boot to the stick (or a separate CD, depending on what your motherboard BIOS will allow) and start the recovery program. You then tell it which file has the backup you want to restore, and you point it where you want it to restore to. Come back in a short bit and your system is ready to reboot and use.

This is why I also highly recommend keeping the Operating System and Applications separate from you data. You can safely restore the OS with the apps you want, and not lose any data when you recover.

From personal experience, I recommend ShadowProtect Desktop as a good imaging program. It's not free though. I use it at work and at home.

At work I have it set up to make new, complete images of my C and D partitions every month to an external USB3 HDD, then every day at Noon it makes an incremental image. So, I'm never more than about a day out on any potential loss.

Images take up more room than standard file backup, but all your programs, settings, and everything comes back just like it was (less, of course, anything done in the time between images - but that's same with file backups).

I've used the restore program and the images twice and it worked flawlessly both times. That's what counts.

 

[unionrdr]

Backup & restore weren't working on mine. Windows 7 repair, reinstall, etc disc came in a few hours ago, & I got it basically back up again. Still have files to re-associate, programs to find that aren't there or executables missing from external drive save???