After getting off the phone and feeling very frustrated and helpless, I posted the information below and decided to share it with a few in the Social Media Community in hopes that a Time Warner Representative who is empowered and cares about customer service would help me out or someone else who had similar issues could provide tips in dealing with the issue. My last statement to the manager was that I wanted to work it out but she was unwilling to see it from the customers perspective, so I would take it to the Social Media World. She just told me that I signed a contract and have a nice day! I posted to:
Face Book Walls:
- My personal Facebook wall
- Time Warner Business Class Facebook wall
- Time Warner Facebook wall
Twitter:
- Time Warner Corporate Twitter accounts
- A few executives and employees I found following the corporate Twitter accounts
- A few local reporters, political figures, and for good measure the Governor
The post and social communications went out around 10am. As I drove to lunch an hour later, I discovered a voice mail on my phone from Bryan P (@TWCableBryanP). He escalated the issue to local upper management and assigned an engineer to come out and look at the issues. Bryan also emailed me as well.
When I got home a few hours later the engineer was hard at work. He made adjustments out at the street and in the box at my house. He spent 15 minutes talking to me explaining the issue, confirming it was not setup correctly, apologized, SMILED, and wanted to make sure I was happy. He was the nicest Time Warner Tech ever and came out FAST. He also explained since I live at the end of a street, the signal was weak, so he went through the neighborhood and adjusted 5-6 boxes to make sure my signal was strong.
So the technical issue is fixed and the technician was willing to fix it and admit the issue. That is in contrast to he manager on the phone who asked me to prove it....(But my speed ranges from 3 to 12 MHBPS, should be around 10MHBPS)
So, I plan to go down town to return my boxes and get rid of my TV cable, but keep internet, Bryan told me I would be billed the cancellation fees, but they would credit the account, I have his email and hope everyone else I deal with will be just as nice and EMPOWERED as Bryan.
More to come in a few days when I change my service....
For the past year my internet has been slow or disconnects. I called customer service who resets the cable and it works for awhile.
A few times technicians come out as well..... My cable and internet recently was out for 3 days. They came out and discovered a repeater was bad and replaced it. They also said that it appears Time Warner did not have enough connections in their box outside my house and split my cable with someone else. He said this reduced signal strength and could be an issue. My cable is working right now, but when it rains, it gets fuzzy and my internet ranges from 3 - 6 MBPS, never 10MBPS which is what I am paying for....
Because of this frustration and needing to re-evaluate our finances, we decided to contact Time Warner and keep internet but reduce our digital cable/dvr for 2 TVs down to the very basic cable. This would reduce our bill by about $65 a month. Combine that with a few other tweaks to our budget and we will be able to focus on paying off a few bills. which is an accomplishment for a single income family of 5.
I called Time Warner and after almost 2 hours on the phone and being transferred 4 times, they want to charge me $100 fee to break a "contract". Two years ago, I signed up for a special and today after being reminded, realized it was auto renewal. Apparently we got notice in Nov 2011 that it would auto renew. Well if you get a Time Warner bill, you get lots of little papers and the bill is lots of text, so my focus is paying the bill NOT reading all the fine print and notes.....I asked the customer service person to send me a copy of the bills to confirm it was on there. Even if it was I am about 30 days into the renewal and they insist to change my service I need to pay a fee of $90-$150 depending on who I talk to....
When I talked to the manager I summarized the situation and explained how odd it was that no one is empowered to see I am a loyal customer, who forgot that 2 years ago I signed up for price lock that would auto renew in 2 years, it is only a month into the new agreement and I would like to change services without a fee. Her main point was "It is a legal agreement, you should have remembered, your service calls have not been that many, and how do you know they split your cable".... Do they want to keep customers with good service or LOCKING them in like a street thug... There seems to be NO exceptions. The managers tone seemed like she could care less...
On Dec 30, after no service for 3 days, I called Time Warner and as I mentioned above they were unwilling to help me even after explaining it from a customers point of view. But, one of the customer service guys said I could UPGRADE and add digital phone, so internet, phone, and TV would be $89 per month. He said then I could call in and cancel a few weeks later and avoid the fee. It was a special deal he figured out "wink" "wink".
Each time I spoke to someone else, they could not tell me my cancellation fee or the amount changed. First it $150, then $90, then $45. By the time I got to a manager she said it would be $100.
I went online and looked at the deal the customer service guy mentioned and that would lock me in for a year as well, EVEN though he told me I could call in 2 months later an cancel and this was a way to avoid a fee...
I tried being pleasant, that did not work. Maybe a social media campaign against them will? I don't want to fight, can't we all just get along....
At work I hear stories all the time about Time Warner lack of service,
anyone have any ideas or want to share their experiences? Also post them to Time Warner Facebook site...
anyone have any ideas or want to share their experiences? Also post them to Time Warner Facebook site...
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