Spectrum Store — Local services in Bowling Green

I wish I had stayed away from Spectrum!

I just finished the worst customer service experience that I have ever had in my life!

In early June, I signed up for a new account with Spectrum (Time Warner Cable). They accepted my order happily, and scheduled my installation for June 23rd for cable television, high speed internet, and digital phone service.

They sent a man out to the house, and he confirmed that service was available in our area at our specific location (street address). Shortly after that, i received a confirmation email from Spectrum, stating that my installation had been rescheduled to August 8th. I wasn't very happy about this, but decided I could wait.

Last night on August 7th, I got a call from Spectrum where a very nice lady named Frieda told me that the technician would arrive the next day in the early afternoon to do the installation. She even gave me a reference number (3364255) as a further confirmation.

The technician/installer arrived late afternoon and assessed the situation, and informed my wife that he couldn't do a thing (no installation). He said Spectrum had not yet completed the ground work needed to start up any of the services. He left without doing anything. He was very polite, but not at all helpful.

A few minutes later I got another email from Spectrum stating that my installation date had been moved out two more months to October 8th. I called again and spoke to a customer service manager named Curtis (station ID 1135118). Curtis told me that it could be another 2-3 months before I could get service at my home address, and although he was very sorry, there was nothing he could do. He was very professional and said how sorry he was several times.

I explained to Curtis that I had followed the instructions I had received from Spectrum, and according to these instructions I had cancelled my accounts with my current providers (for all three services) effective the day before (August 7th). I asked him what he proposed that I should do for the next two months (or more) without telephone, internet, or television service? He offered no solution, other that I would have to wait until they were ready to go forward, and that he was really sorry.

Well, sorry doesn't get it! I am VERY UPSET with Spectrum, and I know I have a right to be upset! I told Curtis that if I could figure out how to file a complaint with the FCC, I would do so! Spectrum should not be allowed to sell services they cannot provide.

Finally, I called my old friends at Buckeye Cable and spoke to a guy named Mike. I humbly asked him if he could reinstate my account for internet and telephone services that I had cancelled the day before, and to please sign me up for cable tv service, too. He was more than happy to assist me. I want to compliment Buckeye Broadband for the excellent service I have received from them in the past, and I explained to Mike that their high prices were the only thing that had caused me to search for another provider in the first place.

Mike then proceeded to sign me up for a promotional offer with a two year required contract that will actually save me a little money over the next two years. He welcomed me back, and never once asked me to beg, crawl, or eat crow!

David...

First, let me say that the employees of the physical store are great. They are polite, knowledgeable, and able to handle most problems. Any snarky or negative comments in this review have nothing to do with the staff at the actual location or the technicians tasked with dealing with the network.

Second, I should say that I don't want to give a cable company four stars. Something about that just seems wrong. But in all fairness, the service is worth the cost.

I should specify that I'm talking about high speed internet only, not cable television and not landline phone. Overall, the service on the broadband side is really is pretty good. You just need to be careful what you sign up for because bundling phone and television is clearly the way they make their money. I can't see any reason to pay 100 extra dollars for cable television on top of whatever streaming services you might be paying for, I'm sure their business model has felt the crunch and that's why some of the bundles are set up the way they are. Basically you renegotiate your price every year so that you can take advantage of whatever new deal you would be put on a lower price than what your rate is going to go up to. The plus side to this is that it's not hard to talk to a real human, whether the phone or online chat.

A word of caution to those purchasing broadband internet; You do not want their router. There is a monthly fee associated with it and the wifi range is terrible. Worse yet it is completely and totally locked down behind an app. Even if you download the app or login to the website, there's only a few very basic options and it probably won't run your home network. I'm not even talking about port forwarding or anything of any consequence. Literally the option you have is to name your Wi-Fi network and set a password. That's it. Simply specify that you do not want their router and buy a quality aftermarket router that you can properly set up. If you take the lack of monthly fee into consideration, you can pay for a quality router in three months. Even if you have almost no technology at all by a simple wireless router and go on YouTube and watch a tutorial on how to set it up, it's extremely simple and will allow you to have increased connectivity and so many more features.

But all of that said, the network reliability is quite good as is the speed. Service responses are fast and detections are both competent and well aware of their limitations. It's nice that they won't just make something up if they don't know. Paying under $100 a month for over one gig internet is not a terrible deal, and having to renegotiate it on a yearly basis is a small price to pay for decent network...

Really awful business here. They’ll tell all kinds of lies straight to your face. I read up on the services Spectrum had available at my home before I went into the store, fine print and everything. All I wanted was the home Internet, and that’s what I told the dude at the counter. This is where the lies started. He told me that the only way to get what I wanted was to sign up for some bundle with home phone and streaming services and some other services “and then just cancel it after a month. You don’t even need to plug the phone in.” Almost certainly because that’s when he would have gotten his commission. The less patient side of me wanted to tell him right then and there that I knew how full of it he was. But I don’t like to risk unnecessary arguments. I had to play stupid for 5-10 minutes to frustrate him into getting me something approximating what I came in for. Eventually he “was able to dig through the menus” to find what I asked for. Didn’t set up auto pay because I still get the feeling I might see some surprise bonus stuff on my first bill.

It’s really sleazy that you guys either push your employees to use these tactics, or turn a blind eye to them doing it of their own accord.

I went through the website beforehand and have experience in telecom sales and all the nonsense that can come along with it, but other people don’t, and the people running this Spectrum store take full advantage of that. Be aware of that when...