Spectrum Store — Attraction in Town of Colonie

Trying to sign up for Internet has been an absolute disaster and a saga that has eaten more hours than I can count now. Spectrum has been flooding here on a daily basis plastic mailers which are waste, not even recyclable spam, and seriously, this comes every day. You'd think think that they would make it even remotely possible to sign up for their services given the money they dump in to that. I've searched and searched for any alternative. No one knows what percentage of neighborhods can get FIOS or DSL but it's an apparently tiny number. Verizon checked for DSL service for me but they seemed to know what the answer was. Frontier and everyone else also says no. One thing says only 5% of Albany can get DSL. There's no way an Internet provider could be this bad if they didn't have a complete monopoly. There's basically no 5G signal where I am and those are all unusable. I'm from Minneapolis. The city, in response to horrible corporate Internet like this, deployed their own municipal broadband. It's cheap, incredibly easy, fast, and omg cheap, easy, and fast. So why don't I just sign up for Spectrum? I literally can not. I've talked to a dozen agents now and at points apparently been blocked. It started well enough where, against better judgement, I agreed to have them ship me a modem instead of spending $100 for a supported one on eBay so that it's mine. I had the option of picking one up from the store but that's in a suburban mall that's a miserable bus trip from here. I opened an account and set up billing. They shipped a modem. Fedex said the tracking number was invalid. I found out later that was Fedex automatically blocking me for no reason but instead of giving me an error just lied and said the tracking number was invalid. Then I got a message that equipment was delivered, but it wasn't here. I was home when I got the notification and immediately checked the porch. Then they had to do an investigation to figure out if I was liable for $300 worth of equipment. Another computer let me view the tracking and clearly showed it delivered to another house but they still had to do an investigation. Instead of risking being liable for two modems and $600, I ordered one on eBay for $100 from the supported list. Then a modem showed up Fedex apparently from Spectrum but their name wasn't on the return label. So I took it to the store even though that was a day off work because I could not get human support on the site and again was worried about being liable for equipment. There are about three or four agents but they completely ignore you if you haven't signed in at the sign in kiosk. The whole store is full of screens and displays advertising stuff so the sign in kiosk completely blends in with tablets for sale and giant screens advertising stuff. They only call names from people who signed in about every 45 minutes so you can wait a long time to see that they're doing that and they'll just power ignore you that whole time. Store said it wasn't on my account so likely Fedex somehow reclaimed and redelivered the first modem which was since removed from my account but had to go there to figure out it wasn't on my account. eBay modem shows up but only after Spectrum closed my account, which I wasn't warned would happen. I got like a week to activate then put in limbo even though I'm talking to them every day trying to sort things out and now cannot activate. Inactive email says I'm welcome to re-add service so I think no problem. Try to active eBay supported modem but I'm getting blank web pages and random apparently unrelated errors including billing errors. Talk to billing support. They're telling me I have to talk to sales and call a phone number. All this time the site is sending me now hundreds of emails to re-auth me and then started calling me and reading me six digits codes too fast to write down, over and over again. Everyone told me to avoid Spectrum like the plague. I don't have time for this. Everything is completely dysfunctional. Albany needs...

Zero stars maybe? Went in to sign up for internet and was able to complete the sign-up process in a jiffy. Before I left, I confirmed the charges that I would have to bear. The associate in-store verified I would be charged $30/month plus a $30 activation fee. The receipt didn’t explicitly mention these details, but didn’t think I needed to double-check something we just discussed in person. One week later, I’m billed $70 ($40 for sign up & $30 for activation). Quickly contacted customer service by phone and on the app to get this resolved, neither were remotely helpful. They took absolutely zero accountability and straight up told me they were unable to acknowledge what was said in store. How on earth is this “customer service” then? Eventually I was left with no choice but to waste time (and energy) going all the way back to the store, just to deal with a mistake they made and now refuse to own. While I’m waiting to speak with the associate that originally helped me, another person (of Indian descent I suppose), comes up to me and demands to know why I’m there - even when I told them I was waiting to speak with the person that signed me up. He asks me to express my concerns anyway. So I begin explaining and he cuts me off halfway, saying I have no choice but to pay what I see on my bill, and unapologetically asks me to cancel the service if I were not interested. I mean I know it’s within my rights to cancel a service that doesn’t work for me, but I was there to hold them accountable to what they said - versus what I got billed for. Definitely not as simple as washing their hands off something they confidently stated a week ago.

Also whoever takes calls on their customer service line, (sounds like the same person every time for some reason), is unnecessarily hostile. You can’t run a customer-facing role with that attitude for sure. It’s beyond pathetic. Both, customer service and store staff gaslight you into thinking you’re talking gibberish. The only thing I highly recommend is staying away from this store and company overall. If you have no other choice, I suggest you have them send you an email detailing all the t&c’s discussed before you leave the store/get off the call. Don’t be surprised if they eventually deny sending you that...

Visiting Spectrum at the Colonie Center Mall for nearly five years, I have seen firsthand how it has changed: from its company name, to mobile displays and new workstations, to its employees. And I agree with many other customers that not every visit was a pleasant one. So it was about time for me to leave a comment. Here are my honorable mentions to those Spectrum employees that have shown me a high level of dedication and genuine honesty that should not go unnoticed!

For example, Justin Smith is always very responsive when I needed to check-in with my name to pay a bill or return something. He never showed frustration but always a positive attitude with me and others waiting in line. Justin definitely puts in the work to make that initial contact with consumers as easy and welcoming as possible. Another example is Christina Graham: she is easily the most genuine and knowledgeable associate I have ever met there. (And believe me I have met plenty. Just because they all wear the same Spectrum blue polo shirt does not mean they all behave and communicate the same.) Christina smiles, makes eye contact, and shakes your hand. She is also diligent and able to itemize my bill with more detail. And she is able to answer my complex questions when I didn't think any other associate could! So I highly recommend her to anyone looking for the best associate interaction in that store.

We all work long, hard hours. And that hard work can sometimes go without much recognition or appreciation. For that reason, Spectrum managers don't let the day-to-day of their jobs get in the way of showing your gratitude. Your outstanding employees like Justin and Christina are your most important assets. At the same time, it is the key to your customer's satisfaction and the overall success of this Spectrum location. Since I believe a little workplace appreciation goes a long way towards boosting...