Cable companies are terrible anyway, but this one is the worst I've experienced in my life. I moved and really liked the place, except they have a contract with Charter/Spectrum; no choices. I asked lots of questions from the complex management and of course they couldn't tell the truth, because they didn't know the truth or didn't want me making my decision based on this cable company.
As much as I fussed & fought with Xfinity for 7+ years, I'd read reviews about this company a year or two ago and was horrified. I wanted to replace Xfinity because of the consistent rise in cost, poor service, and a school got built across the street that caused our services to go out constantly. Those employees didn't want to work on the weekend, so if we lost it on Friday, it wouldn't be back up until Monday morning.
Back to Charter/Spectrum, OMG! I went to pick up my equipment and thought I was in the wrong place. It looked like a check-cashing office without the bulletproof glass (or did it have that glass?). When I asked questions of the employees, they had no clue about anything. I guess their only purpose was to hand out equipment, which is probably the only thing they were good at. Don't have to pay people much for that.
When it came time to hook up my equipment, it wasn't plug-n-play; none of it. I had to call in for the internet, and the equipment is large with extremely huge AC plugs at the end of the chords. No 2-for-1 routers, but 2 separate boxes (1 modem/1 router); taking up too much space and I use UPS boxes for all my equipment. The AC plugs are so large, they wanted to cover up 2 plugs in my UPS box, so one is in the wall. I have a limited number of plugs in my expensive UPS box, and OH NO they're not covering up ones I need for MY equipment. I don't care they recommend using surge protectors. Unless they provide them, I'm not buying one just for these cheaply-made boxes.
When I moved in, I hooked up the TV in my bedroom and took a couple of days before I did in the living room; Basic service. The Smart TV in my living room kept wanting me to subscribe to all the channels. I made at least 3 calls to customer service who said there was a service-outage in the area. I told them if that was the case, the TV in my bedroom wouldn't be working, so nonsense. Customer service was rude, and tossing around lingo that they didn't know I already understood, i. E., nodes. I told them nodes are not particular to outlets inside my apartment, but to entire areas, so stop blowing smoke up my you-know-what. On the last call, someone finally said that their system thought I only had 1 box, not 2. I asked how that could happen since I picked up 2 boxes at their check-cashing-looking office? He couldn't explain, but switched it online.
I noticed immediately that my soundbar would not sync up with the cable box. It synced up with my smart hub and my blue-ray player, so it was their box causing all the trouble. Another call to tech support, and I was treated rudely again. I was told their only function was to get me the equipment, but they were not equipped to deal with entertainment systems; nonsense again. I was so infuriated, I asked for their corporate phone number or email. That guy said they didn't have one, which I called bull-crap on that. When my services were finally up, I found every corporate executives' email addresses and sent a long letter to them. I would put all that in here, but it would take up too much space.
I got calls from several people to get senior technicians to come to my home and resolve the issue, and that's what happened. They did have people who could deal with it, so why did that tech say they couldn't? Lazy or inexperienced, and this kind of thing is going on with all cable companies and other kinds of businesses. Capitalism is turning into one big monster, where too many front-line people aren't even in the U.S. and if they are, they are untrained to do their jobs properly.
Even though I like this place, I will not stay here and get stuck with Charter-Spectrum, who has a bulk deal with this complex. We have no choice and pay for it out of our rent; their Basic service of TV & Internet; not even phone. For that, we have to deal with the company directly and pay them in a separate bill. I got a DVR, and even that thing is legacy-looking; nothing you can read on the box and recording programs on-the-spot ends up chopping them off before the program ends. You have to get in there after pushing record and extend the program. At least Xfinity technology was smart enough to automatically extend programming for movies & sports.
Three days ago, the box in my bedroom suddenly stopped working, and again, the people answering the phone couldn't handle it or fix it. Another technician sent to my home. The night they were supposed to come, I get a call that the tech in my area was too backed up, and I had to reschedule for the next day. UGH! He finally shows up an hour late, and when all was said and done, he called whatever number he has for senior tech support who tweaked something and made the box come on. Now, why couldn't they have passed me to that one, instead of wasting my valuable time to have someone come out here? Double, triple, quadruple UGH!
Can't talk into this remote, the ones they had to give me to solve the soundbar problem don't light up, and my DVR doesn't bounce a signal to the box in my bedroom, so I don't have to pay for another DVR in there. Archaic, I tell you. They're charging too much for this thing, too, so I won't be upgrading my services anymore. Light years behind Xfinity. To say I'm unhappy with this service is an understatement. All the networks in this area are fighting with the FCC, and Time Warner being purchased by Charter-Spectrum is a big mistake for customers. I've been with at least 5-6 different cable companies since cable began, so I speak from experience when I say this one is the worst of them all.