I sometimes cannot believe how bad some companies are. I had a perfect example of this happened this weekend when my cable internet was down for the entire weekend.
I was going to actually have several posts written this weekend so that I could have a regular posting schedule this week. The week at work is going to be hectic as I have to finish off my reviews and my company is sponsoring a big trade show. There just will not be much time to blog this week. You add to it the fact that my fiancee was sick all weekend, meaning I never really left the house, and you can see how frustrated I became at the fact that Charter Communications does not have its act together enough to prevent a weekend long outage.
This is actually not the first long outage I’ve experienced with Charter. Over the last year we have had a couple of day long outages. I find that completely unacceptable. I am part of an internet company. I am now responsible for all the technology that gets delivered on that platform. We do not have outages. In the last several years, you can probably count on one hand the number of outages we have had that have lasted longer than 30 minutes. Since I’ve been at the company in the last year, we haven’t had any that lasted longer than that. You can be certain that someone would get fired if an outage lasted more than a day. I could not even imagine an outage that lasted two days as we have backup plans for our backup plans.
Yet somehow, Charter Communications had a city wide outage that lasted two days. What the hell is that? Worse, when I called about it, they gave me vague excuses and no time line when I might expect service back. Just great. Lucky for me, I get an internet connection on my computer by hooking up my phone but I don’t like doing lots of personal stuff on that device since my work pays for it. But seriously, what type of clown operation are these Charter guys running? How ridiculous is it that they have a near monopoly on high speed internet service in the area. If there ever was a reason consumers need competition and choice, this level of service clearly demonstrates it.
I was just talking with some of Gavin’s friends about cable companies and, specifically, Charter. Charter used to only be the only way to get cable in Burbank, but now there’s a new service called AT&T U-verse. You can arrange with AT&T to get your cable, phone and internet all together. My family switched over (after my dad having MANY heated conversations with Charter personnel) and have been very happy since. I believe that it’s cheaper AND offers more channels AND is more reliable. You should see if AT&T is available in your area. Alternatively, I have heard Verizon has this sort of offer, too.
I am moving from Burbank to the valley soon, and I’m going to miss a lot of stuff, but I will not be missing my Charter service. My modem goes out all the time and sometimes it takes a half-hour to an hour for it to work again (when that happens, I just steal my upstairs neighbors internet). And they charge an arm and a leg, then hike up their rates about every six months. I think I’m paying $145 for cable and internet now. Ridiculous. I can’t wait to cancel it at the end of next month. Charter is the worst.
That’s crazy! Two day outage? In this day and age? You should really find another provider.
Every company has its issues, so I don’t want to sound too much like a complainer. But I seriously can’t imagine anything as bad as what happened to me this weekend. A two day outage for a communications company is just ridiculous. If I thought I would be here for much longer, I would definitely make the switch.