Spectrum Store — Attraction in Fitchburg

I am really frustrated! Other people dealing with spectrum, or charter, or whatever spectrum charter... You probably experienced problems getting through to someone on the phone or to solve any problem related is extremely difficult!

I strongly advise not getting spectrum mobile. I could go on and on about the problems I experienced with that alone. However I usually always had good luck with the internet being strong and fast and up and running almost all of the time.

Yet if you have their mobile service, or residential service whether internet or phone or TV, and even business related internet phone or TV together in any way... You probably know that when you do get through to someone on the phone cross your fingers if it's the right department!

That's right! If you have residential internet you must speak with the residential internet people only. If you have a business account and have internet at your business but residentially you have internet through them as well, you have to deal with two different people in two different departments under charter's name. AKA spectrum.

I had multiple Spectrum employees push and push and push to hard sell me on spectrum mobile and promised the world and more with how much it was going to save me in money, time, and inconveniences.

Well I am not being dramatic at all when I say nothing they said was true! The mobile department had just opened up and I liked my service I had at the time however, they told me that not only would their system use the same towers but it would also use more towers and therefore more coverage and better signal everywhere they said.

They said! It wasn't 24 hours before I was calling asking why I was having dead spots on my commute where I'd never had before. I also asked why my 2 and 1/2-year-old phone from Walmart was thinner and actually took better pictures and videos then the phone that was provided for free when you signed up for Spectrum mobile just like most other mobile providers.

So just on the mobile side, they really pushed me to bundle it with my internet and it quickly became a constant sore thumb as I knew they lied to sell me. And of course there were no repercussions applied to the employees that lied to me multiple times and made me buy a phone that was worse than my 2 and 1/2-year-old Walmart phone!

Every time I tried calling I would get to some part of Spectrum and they would transfer me because I was always in the wrong department as if you have a business internet account at your office then you must call Spectrum Business internet to take care of that particular account. Now if you have a problem with your residential service you need to call the residential line and talk with one of the representatives on that end. Furthermore, if you have a mobile spectrum plan you will have to talk to the mobile side as none of the divisions actually talk to each other or have access to each other's information which would make talking to one person sufficient for solving any needs on any of your accounts.

You would think they would value customers who have several accounts. Instead they make the phone system so difficult and frustrating that I can see more wealthier people saying whatever I'll pay the extra just so they don't have to deal with correcting it when it should not have been an issue to begin with!

FYI... I called about an internet problem I was having only to realize at the beginning of the automated system that my previous address where I moved from was still active and they were charging me! If I wouldn't have called today for a problem I was experiencing at the time, I would not have known the kept my old account active when I even was told to take the equipment that was there with me to the new location which would render the connection to the modem broken which is easily seen on spectrum's end as they do checks all the time on modems.

So Please be very mindful with any accounts with Spectrum. And truly, do not get their mobile...

Charter never ceases to amaze me at how bad they are. We only get internet from Charter but we wouldn't even do that if there was another real option. Our internet speed has been up and down for years. At our previous apartment we had 4 techs come out, several days of internet outage, customer service blaming our router, and little to no solutions (our router was not the problem). Currently we continue to have almost every other day extremely slow internet speeds. The annoying part about it is when we call customer service our internet speeds miraculously return to normal speeds, but regress shortly after our call ends. It often feels sketchy like Charter slows our connection until we complain then restore it until we hang up only to slow it down again. Today we went directly to the Charter store in Fitchburg because our monthly rate increased with no warnings. The employee told us they stopped the rate of $29.99 but didn't say why that rate was discontinued and that our new rate was $44.99 AND that after a year our rate would climb again to $59.99 (completely unreasonable prices when there is no improvement in services. I'd be much more understanding of a price increase if it meant better quality.) Prior to this sudden increase we had been able to get the $29.99 rate for several years albeit by playing a game of cancelling our service only to renew and be eligible again for it. He proceeded to try and upsell us on their NEW streaming service despite us being there complaining of our crappy internet. We arranged for a tech to come out today between 6 pm and 7 pm. We waited, got a automated confirmation of the tech visit an hour before 6, time rolled on and now 7:22 PM I finally get a call from Charter that our tech was delayed on a previous job. The woman on the phone apologized that she was relaying this information so late and that the tech would be another 15 to 20 minutes. I hope I won't end up waiting another hour before they call again apologizing.

UPDATE: Tech showed up and until further testing may have solved the problem we were experiencing. According to him it was noise causing issues despite our service indicating a steady stream. Upon asking why they can't test for noise when talking to customer service on the phone he informed me that he has actually asked his supervisor this very same thing and still isn't sure why they don't do it but knows it is doable since he is able to identify noise using his work phone without actually physically connecting to our modem. With this concludes that we are now 2 of 6 with techs being successful solving our issues and customer servise is 0 of 1000 solving our issues.

What really frustrates me about Charter is the fact that there really isn't anything better. In Madison you have 2 options, 1 of which varies on your location. You have Charter or AT&T (or TDS instead of AT&T depending on your location). Both AT&T and TDS charge as much or more for their internet services as Charter but for considerably less speed and AT&T even stated their services go up $10/month every year. Everyone you talk to in Madison and probably any charter customer would agree that Charter is horrible but the best or only option available. So despite all the crap my girlfriend and I go through with Charter they sadly are the lesser of 3 evils and they know it so they get away with some shady actions, flawed customer service, and expensive rates. I read an article recently stating how cable companies like Charter and Comcast even avoid competing with each other so they can take advantage of the market. This has the feeling of monopolization but legally they get away with it because AT&T and TDS exist but are completely unrealistic and undesired options. Is there any hope out there or are we forever trapped under the weight of Charter...

Great service, good people. So I disagree. I live near Madison, Wisconsin so I guess the people here may be better at service? I am a network Engineer and work with networks all the time. Charter (and cable companies in general) uses a "shared pipe" system. I do not see how they can guarantee speeds at all times no matter what they claim. You will get best results only when no one else is on the wire with you and the server that you are trying to download from/upload to is close on the network. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I am on the 20 meg plan as well also (used speakeasy for speedtest), and right now at 3 pm in the afternoon in my home office I am getting 18-20 down (3 tries) , 3.1 to 3.2 up from Chicago and 12 to 13 down and 3.1 to 3.2 up from Seattle. Chicago is always the best today, I got a solid 20 down on several tests. I can understand them wanting you to use their speed test as it makes a big difference where the server is that you are testing from (latency and hops will slow you down). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As for service, I have had one cable modem blow during a lightning storm in 2007 and the second one is starting to fail (DNS dies intermittently). Every time I call them they seem fine. Hold time is short and the people are cordial and friendly. The techs came right out when the modem failed (now they want me to bring the modem to their office myself and swap it out, times change with bad times) and replaced it and all the coax and they didn't need to do all that. They did this all during a cold rain storm at night on the weekend. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ They are 10 times better than my experiences with the Time Warner people were when I lived in Milwaukee (at least I have something to compare them to). The techs were slow and I was always on hold forever when I called them. When I finally got through they were fine, just took all my day. Then techs would come out during a four hour window and then never show up. I had to take off work to get stood up- nice touch. When they finally figured out that the modem was bad, I had to bring it in to the Mayfair office even though a tech was right there he had no spares (what kind of crap is that?) the charter techs had a spare with them as they are a common failure point. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++Summary: Time Warner = bad, Charter= good. ATT= in between (dad and mom used them until switched to Time...