Time Warner Cable...how are they?

[97tbird]

Finally we're moving to a new place and I can get rid of awful century link internet...90% of the time we only got 3 MB when we're paying for 10 MBPS...worst CS, and awful attitude - complete rip off...

So, one option we will have is TWC...

We are not really interested in Cable/digital TV/DVR etc...we entertain ourselves mainly via Netflix streaming (soon to be amazon prime and or VOD), and movies we stream online, etc...
The 10-12 free OTA HD channels have always been enough for us to catch the news and big events...

It's only rarely that we have said "would be nice if we had CNN or C-span or a decent music channel or 2..."

So we'll probably be ok with just internet and home phone/voice mail....

TWC does have a $89/month (for 12 months, then it's higher) bundle which includes digital TV (HD DVR)+ phone + 10 MBPS internet ...

That's almost the same amount we pay century link just for pseudo 10 MBPS and home phone...(no TV)

But I feel like i'd rather have a better internet speed (perhaps the 15 or 30 MBPS) and home phone and skip the cable service....

So, those who have TWC for internet, how are they?
do they deliver the promised speed?
good CS/ technical support, etc?

Thanks in advance...

 

[ajchien]

Argh!

I'm unimpressed by my TWC.

There s an occasional downtime, maybe 15mins, may 2 hours every month or so. Their prices go up about $4-5 every year. I started at $99, now after 10 years they're at $143/month. And, worst, they don't have The Big Ten Network in my area.

I really need to switch.

 

[97tbird]

Are you referring to their internet service or TV service?
(I am mainly interested in the Internet part)

 

[Nick R]

Good service (All 3 of them), great customer service, and downtime is generally minimal. I had an issue before with speed, but they fixed it by upgrading the local network hub. Prices could be lowe though.

 

[ajchien]

I've got combined Internet/tv

 

[eljefino]

They have many tiers of internet, from "Lite" (768k, $30) to business classes you can get at home. I get one of the cheaper ones, internet only, and my modem is throttled/capped at its max. Network is pretty good here; I used OpenDNS to fix an occasionally name server issue they were having.

They are slimy cretins out for a buck, but your guys sound even worse. I bet you'd like 10mpbs if you could get it consistently.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We have had TW since their inception in Pinellas County many years ago. I can only recall one problem since then!

decent service, decent product. Few issues. Rather expensive IMO.

 

[Hokiefyd]

We have TWC, in nearby Fayetteville. I wish I had other options short of satellite, but I don't. I think it's awfully expensive for what you get, and we've had problems with the cable boxes. If you're not looking for TV service, and just internet, you'll probably be okay. Our cable modem has been fine. I'm overall unimpressed, but who's really impressed with one of their utilities anyway, especially one who essentially has a monopoly in the area.

Funny, I was wanting to switch to something else (like Century Link) because I'm tired of TWC. I guess the grass really isn't greener.......

 

[sciphi]

If you're in a smaller area, TWC internet is all right. I'm one of not that many folks around me with TWC internet, so it's pretty quick. Streaming stuff from Amazon is not an issue. If you're in a larger area, then the theoretical top speed will be much slower due to everybody else wanting to stream movies also.

I am on the fence with their customer service. It's better than some other utilities, but that's not saying much.

 

[Nick R]

We pay for 15/1 service, but anymore usually get 25/2. And in the next few months our area is going to get wideband (50/5) and since we are getting their signature home service (saving us $40 a month for the same service), we will automatically get upgraded at no cost to it. I can't wait. My buddy who works for TWC as a technician says that our area CMTS don't have DOCSIS 3 yet, but they are on the schedule to be upgraded.

 

[97tbird]

Thanks guys...keep the feedback coming. I appreciate it...

We're still learning towards just phone and Internet (probably the 'Turbo w/ boost', level, with speeds up to 15 MBPS) with TWC...

PLEASE don't use Century Link. On DSL reports.com they have something like 93% negative and 7% positive feedback. The worst, I think.

Like someone said even 10 MBPS is probably ok for us, if we ever got close to it. we never got more than 3-4 MB in the evening with CL

 

[RTexasF]

It depends greatly on where you live. In Austin TW was excellent in all respects. When we moved to deep south TX we continued with their services.....a real mistake. The bundle is why we now have a satellite dish. Digital phone worked less than 50% of the time, they gave our phone number to another person so it was like having a party line for a while, cable never went more than a week, constant equipment problems, and a real give a dam n attitude.

They are fired other than Roadrunner because it's the only show in town. It generally works quite well with minimal problems.

 

[Nick R]

What service you need depends on what you do, for example, this is why I have the top level service. And am glad to be getting 10mb/s better download than I'm supposed to be

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: 97tbird
We're still learning towards just phone and Internet (probably the 'Turbo w/ boost', level, with speeds up to 15 MBPS) with TWC...


If you remove the television from the equation, I have a better opinion of them. Including television, I'd switch carriers if it were up to me. The cable boxes are sub-par in my opinion, locked-down so that the RCA inputs don't work and the eSATA port on the back doesn't work, and they run hot ALL the time which I believe contributes to their repeated failure (in addition to running up my electricity bill). Because you can't DVR to any storage media but what's in the box itself, whenever we have to exchange a box for a new one (which happens more often that I'd care for), you lose your library of DVR'd shows. Everytime I go in there to exchange a box, I ask them if they can't copy the shows from one box to another and the answer is always the same: "we're working on that."

Generally, I'm pretty unimpressed with Time Warner, but if they're the only game in town, then I guess that's what you have to go with. I'd like another choice. My brother-in-law in Pittsburg has Verizon as his home phone/cable service and he has FIOS or whatever it's called. Fiber optic delivery to his house, and excellent picture quality. Wish we had it here.

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
We're still learning towards just phone and Internet (probably the 'Turbo w/ boost', level, with speeds up to 15 MBPS) with TWC...


If you remove the television from the equation, I have a better opinion of them. Including television, I'd switch carriers if it were up to me. The cable boxes are sub-par in my opinion, locked-down so that the RCA inputs don't work and the eSATA port on the back doesn't work, and they run hot ALL the time which I believe contributes to their repeated failure (in addition to running up my electricity bill). Because you can't DVR to any storage media but what's in the box itself, whenever we have to exchange a box for a new one (which happens more often that I'd care for), you lose your library of DVR'd shows. Everytime I go in there to exchange a box, I ask them if they can't copy the shows from one box to another and the answer is always the same: "we're working on that."

Generally, I'm pretty unimpressed with Time Warner, but if they're the only game in town, then I guess that's what you have to go with. I'd like another choice. My brother-in-law in Pittsburg has Verizon as his home phone/cable service and he has FIOS or whatever it's called. Fiber optic delivery to his house, and excellent picture quality. Wish we had it here.


I have to agree on cable boxes. I don't understand, we lived in maine for 3 years, and never had to replace our comast cable box. I think I know why. It was a motorola box, and it had a fan on the bottom. These SA, Cisco, and Samsung boxes just have vents on the top. Those drives have to run pretty toasty in there.

 

[Hokiefyd]

TWC (at least here) uses Cisco boxes. Even the CASE is hot to the touch. HOT air rises from the top vents. We have nothing sitting on top of our cable boxes. They get HOT. There's really little excuse for that, especially for what is essentially a dumb terminal.

 

[TooManyWheels]

TW used to be in our city, then they switched regions with Comcast which we now have. When they were here, people generally thought they were at best just OK, at worst pretty poor. Outages, high prices for the speeds, poor customor service. But we didn't know how good we had it because we had yet to experience Comcast.

These switches were several years ago though, so TW may well be better. Even then, according to DSL Reports it seemed to vary according to region. Some great, some poor. Truthfully, even Comcast is much better than it used to be.