To properly tell this story we need to go back just a little bit to around a month ago when Charter decided our package was no longer in effect. Without telling us of course.

We’d had cable TV and high speed internet with Charter for quite some time. Matter of fact, we’ve been with Charter for close to 20 years give or take. The name has changed over the years but cable is cable none the less.

It certainly has progressed over time with all sorts of unique enhancements that have entertained folks in their living rooms all across the country. From Basic stations to HBO and beyond, we have been offered numerous choices for our viewing pleasure.

Enter the High Speed Internet phase of Charter Communications and we’re connected at close to lightening speeds to the World Wide Web. Outstanding! Charter has truly come of age. Friends and family are now closer than ever before. Being able to complete some work projects at home (or even working from home) has made the workplace even more proficient than ever before.

Charter has changed their lineup of connection speeds as the company progressed. The old standby of a few hundred kilobytes to 3 meg for a choice has now changed to 3, 5 or 10 meg connection speeds.

TV packages have also changed. Basic, Extended Basic, Premium channels, Sports channels, etc. are all now offered as Tier Packages. All at a premium price of course.

Now, come back to the present. Charter decides our package (3 meg internet and extended basic) for around $90 per month has ended and our next bill expresses that. For about $130 we now get the same thing as before for $90. WTH?!

Naturally, we call immediately to find out what is going on and end up with some nice lady who I have a hard time understanding due to her accent. Doesn’t quite sound Northern or Southern but more like Middle Eastern. Huh?

Upon being asked what her name is again and where she’s located I’m told her name is “Karen” and she’s in “Kansas”. Uh-huh, right.

Well after not being able to get much information out of “Karen” due to her accent and the fact she can’t do anything without going through this long, drawn out ordeal of how she’s been trained (read: the script in front of her that she refuses to abandon and think for herself), I thank her and hang up.

Frustrating, yes but check this out……after calling back twice more to hopefully get someone who can think outside the box, I got yet two more people named “Rick” and “Paul” from “Virginia” and “Texas” who both spoke with a Middle Eastern accent! Now, what are the odds of that happening? I will add that neither of them were of any help either.

One more call netted me a true, blue fella who spoke with no discernible accent and who also could think for himself without the aid of a script in front of him. His name was “Patrick” and he was able to explain what was going on concerning our bill. More on this stuff in a minute.

After the explanation we decided to terminate the TV portion of the Charter experience and just keep the internet for the time being due to not being eligible for another package for some 90 days or so. Patrick tells me our service drop will have a trap installed to eliminate the TV signal from coming through. He assures me that the internet signal will not be impeded in any way. Cool! I can live with that even though the trap is unnecessary but he says it is company policy.

Two days later (May 16th) the Charter tech visits my home and installs the trap. He leaves without checking anything else. Odd but I have to assume he knows his job, right? Well, apparently not very well. Now my connection is dropping out constantly. I find this out only after several days of assuming that there is a problem in my area (from the recording I keep hearing each time I call to complain).

After getting Support on the phone and them sending a Tech out to check things out the same day (You go Charter!) he pronounces my service drop to be the culprit (Huh? Nothing wrong till the trap got installed there, buddy!) and says he’ll need to inform his boss so they can send out a bucket truck for the job the next day. Did I forget to mention that he arrived at 6:30 pm that day instead of the 3 to 5 pm I was promised? Sorry for that.

More time passes while my connection continues to drop out like crazy. More frustrating calls to Support keep yielding yet more foreign accented folks who don’t want to check account notes or think outside of the box to try to help. A few calls do succeed in getting me someone stateside that only tell me that they need to check my signal when it drops and for me to call back when it does. Of course, as soon as I hang up….the signal drops.

Now we’re pretty much up to the present and the end result of all this madness.

I was at my last straw with Charter and their out-sourced call centers (I was informed of this by a nice lady stateside who worked in Billing even though she was uncomfortable doing so) so seeing as we were moving shortly anyway, I canceled my service with Charter and told the nice lady why. Inept out-sourced call center employees and Tech people who don’t care plus being charged way to much for crummy service were the deal breakers for me.

Now I’m going to give satellite TV a try (my daughter and her family love theirs plus the image quality is amazing!) and DSL for my internet. The sweet part of all this is the price for the package. Much less for all of it including my home phone line than Charter’s so-called deals.

That and the company’s call center? It’s located right here in the good, ‘ol USA!

Now that I can live with!

When Charter gets their act together and brings their call centers back inside the USA with some price reductions in their services, I might reconsider. Maybe. Nah!